South Africa doesn’t have democracy – yet!
Simply saying that everyone has the vote doesn’t do it for me. Until at least two parties have been in power, i don’t think a country can have any claims to democracy. How many African countries have universal suffrage, and have peacefully changed the ruling party. I don’t know, but precious few I suspect.
South Africa presently has no opposition party that has any chance of meaningful power. Perhaps in time, the best option would be a split in the ruling African National Congress, but then the fear of violence and bloodshed will surely increase.
The ANC is now well and truly ensconced, with widespread corruption and syphoning of funds through all levels of power. Its clear that to rake in the bucks, you have to be a member of the ANC. And the problem of course is that it takes a powerful opposition to keep the ruling party on the straight and narrow. So while you are riding the gravy train what chances are there that you will join the opposition or split away.
Not until the abuse of power becomes absolutely clear to an educated majority of the voters.
Education is the key here, it may take a generation of educated South Africans before it becomes clear that the ANC should not be in power forever. While i am sure there are plenty of high minded moral ANC members – if i was a corrupt official I wouldn’t be that interested in improving the standards of education any time soon, nor would i be interested in expanding a diverse media through a free press, or supplying new media channels (say the Internet) to all points of this large country.
