GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General
29 October 2021
The one thing just about all voters will share when they head to the polls on Monday is disappointment that the country hasn’t made the progress it should have in developing a modern, stable and sustainable democracy on the ruins of past divisions.
Regardless of whether you live in Cape Town, Ethekwini, Tshwane, or any other town or city across the land, no matter what the DA or ANC may tell you, the quality of life for many working class and unemployed people and their families is diabolical.
Municipalities, which should be the lead agencies in extending necessary services to create decent living environments for all citizens, are either totally dysfunctional or perpetuate societal divisions by continuing to provide different qualities of service to different communities. As if things are still colour-coded.
Governments that get things done for only some of the people, radical inequality, together with mismanagement and corruption, have become defining characteristics of the nation.
This is not the country, and these are not the towns and cities, that the majority of South Africans want to live in. A country in which the majority of citizens feel marginalized is not good for business, is not good for relationships, and is not sustainable.
Many South Africans are have grown disillusioned with politics and politicians, and have lost faith in the ability of the old parties to bridge divides and build something new.
But the beauty of democracies is that they come with built-in self-correcting mechanisms. Every five years, for one day, power is taken away from the powerful and placed in the hands of the people. On this day, the people decide to whom to lend their vote for five years until the next election.
The GOOD vision for South Africa is of a country united on four pillars of justice for all: Social, economic, spatial and environmental justice…Towns and cities where people forced apart in the past are encouraged to acknowledge each other and their respective roles in building common purpose… Communities which feel they have a stake in society.
Those are the principles that will drive our elected councilors from Tuesday morning, those in leadership positions and those tasked with providing constructive opposition.
We can fix our towns and cities, and our country. The first step is for the people to exercise their special power wisely on Monday, and thereby contribute to setting a better course for the next five years of our shared journey.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Karabo Tledima, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 061 794 3819
Email: karabot@forgood.org.za