South Africa Votes

About 23 million eligible South Africans will go to the polls tomorrow (April 22, 2009), the fourth all race election since 1994. The mood is charged with enthusiasm as it was in 1994 general election that ushered in former President Nelson Mandela as the first black President of the Republic of South Africa. The current race pits three front runners; Jacob Zuma a grassroots leader with national appeal and from the African National Congress (ANC)-Mandela’s party, new party leader former Bishop Mvume Dandala, relatively unknown in politics although he had a few brushes with anti-apartheid activism from the Congress of the People (Cope), and Helen Zille, a former journalist and now leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The general election includes voting for members of the legislative assembly comprising at least 9,000 candidates of which about 3,500 are female. Pundits are giving ANC thumbs up and Jacob Zuma is likely to become the next President of the Republic of South Africa. The DA leader in a recent interview alluded to the fact that her role in the election is to stop the ANC from gaining two-thirds of the votes (i.e. of elected parliamentarians). Two-thirds votes give any ruling party sweeping powers to run through legislations unopposed and can easily change the constitution to their desire. One pundit noted that this was the first time South Africa is going to be led by someone not from the educated black elite since the historic elections of 1994.

These elections are not only being closely watched in South Africa, but also in the rest of Africa and the world. After all, South Africa is one of the few remaining democracies in Africa, richest country in Africa, the only African country on the G20, and could provide leadership, especially in the African Renaissance project. The spirit of an emerging and promising nationhood was articulated by former President Nelson Mandela at his inauguration in 1994 when he took a leaf out of Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. Mandela thundered;

Our greatest fear at the birth of this wonderful nation is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from fear, our presence automatically liberates others.