It’s not the past; it’s the future that counts
Under the heading, “Consumers don’t give a flying canary about legacy,” author Douglas Kruger excerpted the bones of his new book, “Relentlessly Relevant” in Business Day recently. He quoted a conversation from which he learnt that South African consumers no longer care about ‘legacy.' They only care about and respond to one thing and that is: 'How are you innovating into my reality today?’
The argument is that people are no longer interested in hearing what one did fifty years ago – or last year, for that matter – and they do not want to hear how great the company trying to sell a product might be or have been. People want the focus on themselves; not on the seller.
Is there any real difference between consumers and voters? South Africa is a young country; more than half our people are under twenty years of age. The young, to borrow Mr Kruger’s colourful terminology, don’t care a flying canary about the legacy of the political parties hoping to gain their support.
As these young people become voters, their first consideration will be: what does your political party offer me? The drift away from the African National Congress (ANC) towards the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is clear evidence of this reality.
It is now a generation since freedom and the while there is some residue of gratitude towards the ANC, perceived to have fought harder for freedom than most others, the concern today is the realities of life facing school and university leavers. There are not enough jobs. Life is hard and expensive. The future looks quite bleak to someone who has received an inferior education from the state and has few skills that might interest an employer, now or ever.
At every turn, young people encounter terrible inefficiencies – things just don’t work as they should and the penny has dropped: the ANC might have been great during their parents’ and grandparents’ time but it is lousy at running the country, the province and the cities.
Additionally, the ANC is consumed by internal factions, intra-party warfare and a focus – not on the voter – but on protecting the name and reputation of President Jacob Zuma. Every organ of state is used for that purpose and few of those organs project that it is the concerns and the reality of the young that is the primary concern. When the ANC is on show, it celebrates with banquets and champagne and rent-a-crowd the glories of the past, rather than the promise of the future. But then it has already been in power far too long for a democracy: a whole generation knows no other government.
Since President Zuma and I are exactly the same age, he will forgive me for saying the current leadership of the ANC verges on the geriatric and the prospects for change when he leaves the scene are not very hopeful. The younger ministers are in the main somewhat uninspiring – the hottest prospects being Mr Fikile Mbalula, generally regarded with amusement by most and Mr Malusi Gigaba, who mucked up his previous portfolio of Public Enterprises and is doing the same at Home Affairs. These are not the people who can turn the ship around and persuade our youth that the government really cares about them and will follow policies that benefit them.
Because the South African Communist Party (SACP) occupies forty per cent of the seats in the cabinet, one needs to examine their situation. No one could seriously state today that it (the only one in the democratic world that never fights elections) focuses on the voter. It has an outdated ideology to which it clings, despite all evidence that communism does not work. It does not empower people. It does not promote human rights. And it most certainly does not promote economies that grow and provide jobs for the unemployed masses. It enjoys office by supporting President Zuma.
The EFF, on the other hand, does focus on young voters. But its nonsensical call for nationalisation means that it actually believes that a state which cannot keep the lights on; or deliver the mail; or manage its IT properly; or fix the potholes; or run clean and decent hospitals; or manage the SABC, can somehow run the mines and the banks better than the private sector. Young people are not fools and the absence of serious policies must become evident to them as the novelty of the EFF begins fading.
All of this provides the Democratic Alliance (DA) with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the affection of young voters. Mmusi Maimane’s election as leader is one of the most hopeful political developments for years. He is young, charismatic, and well-spoken and promotes intelligent policies that if applied, would materially benefit young South Africans, greatly improving their life chances. His leadership team looks like South Africa today.
People like me remember forty or fifty years of effort to build a liberal democratic alternative to the National Party and then the ANC and we honour Colin Eglin and Helen Suzman, Harry Schwarz and Zach de Beer, Tony Leon and Helen Zille, among many, many others. But today’s youth want to know: “What can the DA do for me?”
It is up to the DA to provide the answers to that question. Freedom of the individual, honouring the constitution, observing the Rule of Law, and free market economics with a conscience form the basis. Maimane and his people now have to carry the message to the whole of South Africa, but especially to our young people, that it is those very principles that have freed, uplifted and empowered hundreds of millions around the world. And that they could do the same for us if applied in our country.
Douglas Gibson is a former Opposition Chief Whip and former ambassador to Thailand, Laos PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia
This article first appeared in The Star.
