Democracy vs. African democracy

They say: "democracy is the government of the people, for the people, by the people." Is it though? Theoretically, a democratic state promotes majority rule imposed to the minority rule. Really?

Democracy is a political system of ruling a country. Some say democracy is the most progressive and successful system of all governing systems that ever existed in history, but I doubt it works for the African continent. Due to democracy’s progressiveness (in the west), many countries around the globe have adopted democracy as the preferred system of governance.

In continents such as Europe, Australia, North and South America and Asia, democracy has succeeded in the majority of their countries, but in African states this system has collapsed and it continues detoriorating, even in the few countries that appeared to be implementing the system accordingly.  In this continent, we have what I call "African democracy". The success of democracy in other continents is because of their state governments ensuring that the interests of the nation (a sovereign state and its people) are in the forefront to those of individuals (ruling elite).

However, in most African states, democracy has failed due to certain minorities and individuals finding it hard to accept the majority rule notion that democracy praises. The major cause of democracy failure in many African countries are certain individuals putting their personal interests before those of their country’s citizens.

One other aspect that has imposed a major threat to democratic consolidation in Africa is the presence of many different ethnic groups with their different interests and beliefs. Due to this variety of ethnic groups, people in these ethnics tend to misunderstand democracy as they perceive it as a system that allows a certain ethnic group to dominate and have more power than others in making decisions that indicate the direction of the country. And in this case, the misunderstanding has led to conflicts and resulted to civil wars and thus democratic consolidation collapse.

The unhealed wounds that were caused by colonialism and apartheid in African countries are another challenge that threatens democratic consolidation in the African continent. The previously oppressed during the colonial and apartheid era which is blacks, believe that now is their turn to do what they want in what they believe to be the soil of their forefathers and certain heads of State refuse to leave presidential office  by ignoring the outcomes of the democratic elections, and thus democratic consolidation fail.

 Initiatives such as those invented to give better opportunities to the “previously disadvantaged” at the expense of qualifying and competent candidates is one of the African nationalisation policies that threatens democratic consolidation and also threatens the economic growth and development of African States. South Africa’s affirmative action and Black Economic Empowerment’s failure are a clear indication of "African democracy's" downfall..

The African democracy has in numerous times also resulted to different race groups working to fulfil their race group’s interests in a nation State and thus democratic consolidation collapse. This has also resulted to the arrogance tendency by African heads of State in international organisations such as the United Nations. As a result of this, we have and continue to observe African leaders protecting each other for stupidity in the UN councils such as the Security Council which is the most vital component to consolidate democracy in the world.

The variety of religious groups is another huge challenge facing democratic consolidation.

Africanism, too much variety of ethnic and tribal groups and religious groups are the major stumbling blocks to democratic consolidation and in my opinion, as long as these aspects exist or not addressed properly, democratic consolidation will never be accomplished. Samora Marchel once wrote “For a nation to live, tribe must die”.       

Voter apathy- a course for concern

The year 1994 marked a new dispensation for South African politics as citizens from all racial groups independently voted for a political party of their choice, for the first time in SA’s political history. A few months before the historic elections, various political organizations campaigned for votes by promising the electorate of delivering basic services for all.

After 17 years of political freedom in the very southern tip of the African continent, many voters, particularly young ones appear to be losing interest in voting for a number of different reasons. Amongst other reasons they claim that they have not seen any development or service delivery in their communities. Service delivery protests have been rife in the past few years with citizens expressing their anger and frustration over what they call the lack of service delivery by the government voted to power by them.

Grievances of certain communities have not been attended to by government and the electorate of such areas has opted to boycott voting in the May 18 local government elections. Voter apathy is predominantly amongst the youth, who are the most affected by unemployment, lack of development and poor service delivery in their communities. It came as no surprise to me when I observed that when others were standing in long queues at voting stations, some young people decided to organize sport tournaments at the expense of casting their votes.

The electorate appears to have had enough of what they term the blame game and empty promises by South African political parties. The youth is done watching the elite of politicians living luxury and lavish lifestyles while the young ones are running up and down the streets as a result of poverty and lack of decent jobs. It is high time that political parties change their ways as far as service delivery is concerned or the continuous voter apathy might mark  the birth of political unrest and civil war in SA, as a result of competition for survival and state resources.

Addiction is inevitable

Everyone is addicted to something, be it morally good or bad. Them societal description of the term “addiction” turn to be bias as it defines addiction as the devotion to morally wrong activities such as regular drinking of  alcohol and drug consumption.

Addiction is naturally like a two-ways street and goes hand in hand with habit, simply put no habit, no addiction. The more one performs a particular activity, the more that activity become a habit and thus developing into an addiction.

Participation in social media has invaded the lives of young people in the 21^st century to a point that they simply can’t avoid it. One thing about addiction is that it becomes hard to get completely get rid of it once addicted in something, even when the addict feels that their addiction is complicating or dramatizing their lives.

Certain addictions may at times make the addict seem stupid or foolish to spectators and one such addiction is that of using social networking sites such as Mxit, twitter and Facebook. Nowadays it is common to see people laughing alone to their mobile phones in public and you question their mental stability, only to find out they have been laughing at a funny status update by a friend on Facebook or a tweet on twitter.

Many alcohol addicts start consuming alcohol to experiment or to enjoy themselves for a moment and before they know it, they cannot go a single weekend without “one or two beers” and thus addiction takes over their lives. When I first started watching and listening to news on radio and television at the age of 8, I was just a young curious boy who wanted to be informed about the world around him, but today if a day passes without me having listened or watched some news, I go crazy just like an alcohol addict who goes to bed for one day without having had “two beers”.

At the end of the day, we are all addicts in our own nature, but what matters is the progressiveness or lack thereof of an individual’s addiction. This is better explained by a famous Xhosa idiom which states “Umntu yiNkosi ukuzazi” which translates to “Everyone is the Master of his/her own character and personality.

Attention US: The front man might be dead, but his followers live!!!

On Monday, the 2nd of May 2011, the United States of America reported the death of the Osama Bin Laden, the founder of the popular terrorist organisation named Al Qaeda. USA president Barack Obama officially announced to US civilians and the rest of the world that Bin Laden had been found and killed by US special troops in a compound outside the town of Abbottabad in Pakistan.

Bin Laden is said to have masterminded famous September-11-2001 crashing of the World Trade Centre which claimed closed to 3000 lives. Osama’s Al Qaeda is also reported to have caused a huge havoc and mayhem in other countries around the world such as the bombing in Kenya which killed approximately 300 people a few years back.

Americans civilians celebrated and danced outside the White House as a confident Obama made the announcement which he called one of the greatest achievements in USA’s history. The UK as usual did not waste time echoing Obama’s sentiments and many other heads of state followed suit congratulating the world’s economic powerhouse for what they phrased ‘a job well done’.

As the US and the rest of the world rejoice the death of Bin Laden, the question that comes to my mind is has human become so heartless to a point of celebrating the loss of a human soul? My varsity mates almost chopped my head telling me Bin Laden deserved to die as he has “killed” many innocent souls in his spell on planet earth. Martin Luther King Jnr was quoted saying “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” I strongly share Luther King Jnr’s sentiments and I believe that the US should be charged of murder and for invasion of a sovereign state (Pakistan).

United States appear to have turned a blind eye to the fact that Bin Laden was just a leader in a terrorist organisation comprising of huge membership, which will definitely not let the killing of Bin Laden be water under the bridge. A Pakistani popular terrorist group Taliban has already pointed out that they are going to retaliate against the US government for killing Bin Laden and illegally raiding their country.

The whereabouts of the Taliban remain unknown, which is something the most powerful nation in the world and its affiliates should be worried of given the threatening track record of Taliban as far as terrorism is concerned. USA has touched the snake in the tail as it is now facing a possibility of being attacked by 2 of the most dangerous terrorist organisations in the globe (Al Qaeda and Taliban). It is interesting to observe that the Al Qaeda head might be killed, but the rest of Al Qaeda members are unknown, in fact nobody knows what plan or strategy they might be currently up to.   

'You've overstayed your welcome gentlemen, you must leave NOW'

Power corrupts. The more one stays in position of power, the more they become comfortable and more stubborn s/he becomes.

Africa successfully fought against African colonialism, a ruling system whereby African states' affairs were fully run and governed by Western countries. When this unjust system was defeated, all eligible people to voting  were allowed to independently elect/vote for political parties and people that they regard to be fit to run and coordinate the affairs of their sovereign states (democracy).

However, some African heads of state who were voted into power by masses, after the long unjust spell of colonialism found comfort zones in their positions of power and decided to stay longer, unconsciously giving birth to a system known as authoritarianism. This system gives the ruling elite power and authority to make decisions about the way state affairs should be controlled, without the contribution or proper consultation  of grassroots masses.

Tunisians took a bold stance and became the first to say enough is enough as all civilians spoke in one voice, calling for president Abidine Ben Ali who had been in power for 23 years to step down. Ben Ali was forced to call it quits and flee his mother land due to the disgruntled citizens who took to the streets calling for Ali's head.

Egyptian civilians were inspired by what transpired in Tunisia in the successful ousting of the authoritarian Ben Ali. The inspired Egyptians mobilized in large numbers with a common interest to put an end to the 30 years authoritarian rule of president Hosni Mubarak and his regime. After a hard fought battle, people of Egypt tasted victory as Mubarak left office and the military was unonymously appointed by civilians to temporarily take over the control of their state's affairs.

Lybians also joined the party as they took to the streets, calling for the head of the 40 years long serving president Muamur Gadaffi. The longest serving African head of state ignored civilians' grievances and decided to retaliate by ordering his loyal troops to shoot the innocent pro democracy protesters. The authoritarian Gadaffi is adamant that he will not step down while innocent citizens continue to be killed by the merciless Gadaffi soldiers. The stubborn old man is still enjoying his spell at the presidential office and the Lybian mayhem remains to be seen.

Swaziland civilians have recently added their name to the list of pro democracy protests, calling for an end of the authoritarian rule by King Mswati the third.

Africans are slowly but surely beginning to subscribe to the notion of 'power to the people'. If what we recently experienced in the then African authoritarian run states is anything to go by, the saying which states 'united we stand, separated we fall' prevails to the masses of poverty stricken African civilians.

The big "unshakable" elephant threatened by its own offsprings!!!!!!

The 4th local government elections are over a month away and different political parties presented their manifestos, trying to convince masses to vote for their candidates. All political organisations that are going to compete at the polls on the 18th May have submitted their candidates list to the Independent Electoral Commission.

However, it has emerged that some wards are not happhy about names submitted by their parties to the IEC. The most affected is the African National Congress, that in the past few weeks has been faced by many protests by disgruntled members in various wards around the country. The devastated members are complaining that the names that appear on the IEC candidates list are not the ones they forwarded to the ANC head quaters. It is the ANC policy for its members in each ward to choose a person that they want to vote for as their councillor in the elections showdown on May 18.

The angry ANC members claim that Luthuli house has manipulated the candidates list and imposed candidates that the membership do not want to be their councilors. The unsatisfied members have now decided to forward their names to the IEC as independent candidates and prepared to compete against their very own political party at the polls. ANC top leaders from Luthuli house, in the past few days have been campaigning in the complaining wards.

The ANC members who have decided to stand in for the upcoming local government elections as independent candidates are definately a force to be reckon with to their party. Majority of them are the very same names that masses forwarded to the ANC HQs and the national office decided to drop them without consulting with the membership that submitted those names. Just after the ANC's victory in the 2009 national elections, president Jacob Zuma said " the ANC is a big elephant that can never be shaken by anyone".

If the protests we have recently seen around the country are anything to go by, I fully doubt that Mr Jacob Zuma can confidently repeat his 2009 "unshakable big elephant" statement.  May 18 is around the corner and the unshakable big elephant's offsprings seem determined to shake their parent who is definately feeling the heat.

The pitfalls faced by first year students at varsity.

Every year, South African universities are packed by thousands of first year students from all corners of life. The majority of these first years are usually young ones coming straight from matric and they are all enthusiastic with a common goal of expanding their knowledge and developping their skills in various career fields offered at university.

Some matric learners do not apply on time for varsity admission and they end up desperately doing the late self application after receiving their matric results. The desperation for higher education lead to first year's choosing any available course, which in turn backfires as majority choke in their very first year. Many, after choking change  courses and some drop out before completing their first diploma/degree.

Another challenge many varsity rockies find difficult to overcome is the fast pace of life at these institutions. Some start doing things and engaging in immoral activities, just to fit in the crowd and to keep up with the fast pace. Some live independently for the very first time in their lives which gives them space to misuse their freedom as there is no mom or dad to 'call them into order' when they go off the plot.

At university, there are night clubs nearby,  bashes and parties are thrown all over almost every weekend and these new kids on the block become regular attendants in the name of "enjoying freedom or independence". As they enjoy freedom, many forget their priority of coming to varsity which in turn marks their fall from grace.

The majority of dropouts and failing first year students at university is often blamed at what is termed "university's lack of  proper assistance to first year students", but it appears students usually dig their own graves and shoot themselves in the foot.

The paradox of nowadayz perceptions!!!

Technology has changed and continues to change many things in our lives and human beings themselves have changed the way they percieve the world and the natural human behaviour.

In the oldern days UBUNTU was every African's daily bread and it was highly appreciated and valued, but today you become kind (one of the core values of UBUNTU) to everyone-your kindness is thrown back at your face. Generalization has become common in the current generation to the point that "one man's sin is everyman's sin".

The tip of an iceberg:

A man kindly greets a lady in a taxi and the lady responds with a "no-nonsense" negative attitude, because it is believed that if a man becomes kind to a woman and a woman respond nicely-the man's next move is asking for a date or cellphone numbers. An innocent energetic young man sees an old lady struggling with heavy plastics full of groceries outside a shopping mall in town and he offers assistance, then the old lady shouts "go away, you criminal, bloody oppotunist". The following day the very same young man comes across another struggling granny and he doesn't bother offering assistance, then all of a sudden the whole town is talking about the "democratic, immoral and ill-discipline youth".

You are privileged and you decide to give some clothes or food to someone less privileged that you (UBUNTU), your kindness is thrown back at your face as you get this response "who said I need your help, your bloody show off". Everyday, people complain about the so called "extinction of community heros", yet when one tries to become one-s/he is the bad guy. UBUNTU and community heros still exist and they are in our own back yards, it is just that the shades in everyone's eyes are too much dim that we are unable to notice and appreciate such HEROZ.

Take off your dim shades everyone, so you may not shoot the mediator instead of shooting the perpetrator.

Church Leaders no different to Politicianz!!!

It is amazing to realize how church leaders like to distance themselves from politics and politicians, but interestingly it appears that pastors are politicians as well. The only thing that separates the two is that pastors have the bible which acts as their trusted policy book, while politicians have to create their own policies to persuade masses to follow their ideologies. Now the big question is, are church leaders really following what's written in the bible as it is? The answer is No, they individually interpret the "holy bible" in a manner that suits their selfish, manipulative personal agendas of self accumulation.

Why are there over 34000 different churches in the world, all preaching the same ideology and all being guided by the "word of God"(bible)? Selfishness, greed and self accumulation by church heads is the cause for the over concentration  of congregations, all spreading the "word of God" differently. In all stories, commandments and parables in the bible, the "word of God" appears to be always siding with the poor with Jesus himself being portrayed a poor carpenter who always suffers with the less privileged. Now here is an interesting observation, the majority of church leaders drive lavish cars and live luxury lifestyles with the money donated by the church membership to the church, while on the other side the masses of congregants continue to starve in hunger.

Politicians who do the above mentioned are labelled as corrupt and ripping off the poor, but what are such pastors named? Maybe the spiritual wise christians could enlighten the public on this one. There are thanks giving sessions in the church whereby everyone, the rich and the poor have to donate money to the church while some of them struggle to get a single loaf of bread to eat. Do the poor masses really have to do this? A pastor answers, "God will provide more for those who give". By the way, I wont understand because i don't have spiritual wisdom instead I have world wisdom. Not practicing what you preach is called hypocrisy as my primary school English teacher taught me when I was 6 years of age doing my grade 1.

All what pastors do is getting rich at the expense of the poor church membership and promises, promises and more promises. I call them politicians in the closet!!!!!! Pastors multiplied by Politicians, what is the common factor here? I'll leave that for everyone to construct their own conclusions.

Bloem Celtic cools down the on song Orlando Pirates

The match was expected to be a thriller as both teams held similar records going to the much anticipated clash in Seisa Ramabodu stadium in the city of roses. Since the begining of the current season, Orlando Pirates hadn't lost in their all 11 away games and so was Bloemfontein Celtic in all their home games. Both teams hadn't lost in their last 5 games prior to the Bloemfontein showdown. Expectations were high, a lot was at stake and all eyes were in Mangaung as the clash was said to be the match of the weekend by all soccer lovers around the country.

D-Day arrived and Amabhakabhaka started the game on a high, attacking Celtic left, right and centre. Siwelele did the simple thing and slowed down the pace of the match, which worked in their favour as they took full control in the centre of park. The motive behind Celtic's cool approach to the game was to catch the slow Pirates' defence on a counter attack, which they did but were only let down by the poor finishing from their striking force. Troughout the match, Celtic were the better side on the field and they looked more dangerous in front of the Bucs' goal posts.

In the second half, the Bucs coach Rudolf Krol made two substitutions when he introduced the skillful ex Celtic creative middlefielder Mark "Professor" Mayambela and the Zambian express Isaac Chansa. Both subs brought some flavour in the Pirates attack and the Bucs started to penetrate the solid Bloem Celtic defence. In the 81st minute, Celtic defence showed some leaks and Katlego Mashego found the back of the net to put the Bucaneers on a 1 nill lead. Six minutes later, Orlando Pirates' defence was caught in sixes and sevenths by their former striker Siphelele Mthembu who scored the equaliser for the much supported Bloem side and the match ended one all. With only 6 games to go, Orlando Pirates are on top of the Absa Premier Soccer League log table with 50 points and one point clear from the second placed Ajax Cape town. Pirates and Ajax are scheduled to meet in what is expected to be a thriller of a game on the 16th of March down in Cape Town.