Political Manifestos and Hope

We could only watch in amazement at the crowd reaction the the ANC manifesto launch in East London this last weekend. They cheered. They shouted. Some even cried with joy. And all they did was promise to do what they have been promising for 15 years - and failed.

Yet there is a grasping at hope within us all that makes us latch onto empty promises, even when we know deep within us that the words we hear are probably untrue - even a blatant lie. How many spouses tell of knowing for years of an affair but holding on to false words that this is indeed not so - until eventually our souls can take it no more and we have no choice but to face up the the reality.

And heaven knows South Africa is such a place of being adulterated by those put in places of trust. Where those entrusted with our welfare and our future have had affairs with corruption, flirted with utter promiscuity and others been blatant of their love for incompetence and greed.

Our desperation for hope burns like a roaring flame within us. Telling us that maybe this time we can believe them. This time they are telling the truth.

And we look away from the evidence. Deny ourselves the truth. We turn a blind eye to what every report tells us. And hope. And maybe so because of the passionate courtship we have had with democracy. It did not come easy. It was fought for. And so we refuse to believe that it has let us down.

And how much more evident than in the romantic disillusionment with the newly established Cope. Compatriots in our previous failures. Masters of the destructive governance that has been a dismal 15 years of democracy. The very people who brought us abortion, pornography, a failed education system and a almost non existent policing and justice arm of government.

And now they leave the ANC, form a new party and suddenly are heroes. To any thinking man this must seem like madness. There is no logic in thinking that people who have failed us will now free us just because they have changed T-Shirts.

But we are not thinking people. We are not applying logic. We are grasping at hope. And sadly we will get hurt again. For this kind of blind hope glosses over the issues. Makes excuses for the wrongdoer. And therefore never raises the issue of accountability.

As for me. I will use my thinking capacity. I will apply logic. It is my right to use the intelligence given to me by God and to not form part of mass hysteria. I will reject those who have been given an opportunity and abused it.

I will vote for something fresh. A new start. A return to old values. I will vote CDA.