Getrude Disoloane Ward Councillor Councillor Candidate for Ward 25 and Sekhukhune Regional Campaign Manager of Women’s Forum Picture Credit Timeless News
By Gertrude Disoloane
South Africans are being told, directly and indirectly, that access to public employment and services depends on loyalty to the party in power. Beyond being an abuse of power, this reflects a long-running confusion of state, government and political party. The ruling party uses that confusion as an instrument to neutralise opponents, exploit communities and brainwash society.
Three things that are not the same
The state is made up of its nationals, its territory and its government. It is permanent.
The government is not the state. It is an agent of the state, entrusted with running the state’s activities: delivering services, maintaining law and order, and driving job creation and development. Governments come and go, while the state remains. Apartheid has demised, and the ANC is equally facing an imminent demise.
A political party is neither the state nor the government. It is an organisation that voters have temporarily empowered to run the government. Ruling parties across the world deploy many of their members into executive positions such as president and cabinet, premiers and their executive councils, and mayors and their mayoral committees. But the party that deploys them can be voted out at any election, or even disappear from the electoral space altogether.
Government changes hands, and that is the point
South Africa already shows this in practice. We now have a coalition government at national level (the GNU), as well as in some provinces and municipalities. Some provincial and local governments in parts of the country are run by opposition parties. That is how democracy is meant to work: power is on loan from the electorate, never owned.
It follows that all eligible and fit South Africans are entitled to Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) jobs. These are public resources funded by the people’s taxes. They are not rewards for party membership, and no one should have to show a party card, attend a rally or promise a vote to access them.
What happens when the lines are blurred
When a party treats the state as its private property, several things follow:
Jobs become favours. Public opportunities are handed out as patronage instead of being allocated on merit and need.
Services become leverage. Communities are made to feel that water, roads, social support and employment depend on staying in the ruling party’s good books.
Opponents are punished. Those who think differently, or support another party, are sidelined.
Fear replaces accountability. Citizens are discouraged from demanding better because they believe they may lose what little they have.
This is not leadership. It is control dressed up as governance.
ActionSA’s commitment
As ActionSA, we will curb the misuse of the state for political expediency once we take power. Our people will reclaim their position as the source and main beneficiaries of power, through decent services and jobs with no strings attached.
The state belongs to every South African, whoever they vote for. Government is a service to be delivered, not a favour to be granted.
Legitimacy is gained through good leadership, not self-serving scare tactics.
Vote ActionSA to regain your freedom of choice and enjoy state services with no strings attached.
Getrude Disoloane is a Ward Councillor Councillor Candidate for Ward 25 and Sekhukhune Regional Campaign Manager of Women’s Forum. She writes in her personal capacity.
