Polls: don’t say you weren’t warned

BY TUESDAY, the counting will be nearly over and we will have a very good idea about who should be running our municipalities for the next five years – or maybe not. The run-up to these elections has been one of the shortest in the history of a democratic South Africa because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s a mercy. We have been spared too many empty promises by politicians emerging from the shadows to insincerely press the flesh. But it’s also saved lives, because in a country such as ours with the levels of unemployment and inequality that we have, a council seat is a guarantee of some sort of better life for the next five years, which is why our political system is both so deadly and so damaged.

Other than a short voting campaign, there isn’t much else to celebrate, as evidenced by the disillusion of so many first-time voters who couldn’t even be bothered to register. No one knows until Monday how many registered voters will even turn up. It’s a desperately sad state of affairs given that it’s only been 27 years that the entire country has been legally allowed to vote after centuries of discrimination and exclusion.

It’s important to vote, not just because it is the right and duty of every South African citizen, but also because in three of the eight metros at least, there will be no outright winner and coalitions will have to be formed very quickly to enable effective government in Johannesburg, Tshwane and probably Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan councils.

It is no exaggeration that every vote counts on Monday – whoever you are voting for – because that’s how tiny the margins are going to be.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.