Voting is a very serious decision for 22 year old Ayanda Mnyandu. In fact it is so important that he says he’s not willing to give it up just to appease politicians or his peers. “I’d love to vote but none of the parties who are contesting the elections today, appeal to me”, he says.
The B. Com Economics graduate from Pretoria University works as an online English teacher with Education First, an online language training and Educational Program in South Africa. When he’s not teaching he runs a shuttle service for Curiosity Backpackers, a hostel for local and international travelers in Johannesburg’s Maboneng District.
“I decided to take a gap year to gain more life experience, travel, exchange stories and knowledge with others.” He said, “I decided to save my money and try new stuff.”
Ayanda has never voted and does not intend to vote in the next election on May 07th. “I never paid attention to what was happening in South Africa. I was oblivious to what was going on in the country until the xenophobic attacks of 2008.
Ayanda lived in Troyeville, east of Johannesburg, at the time, a multicultural community with migrants largely from the SADC region and the rest of Africa.
“I was never exposed to the harsh daily reality of many South African’s lives. With the xenophobic attacks I asked myself: what would inspire people to do something like that? What would make another person hurt or kill another person? That was one of the events that changed my life, I started paying attention: to the economy, how the wealth is distributed.
I realised for the first time that South Africa is not as cozy as I thought it was. It was difficult for me to understand how someone can put so much energy into striking. But I realised that these were real and genuine struggles, people were struggling for survival.”
While growing up Ayanda never had problems with people from different races or cultural backgrounds. “I always thought that the race issue was water under the bridge until I went to University in Pretoria, where I met people my age who were racists. Then I discovered that well, race may not be under the bridge after-all.”
The experience of racism compelled him to ask himself tough questions. “I started to try and figure out my position in the black white narrative, where do I fit in, am I black or am I white? Can I live in both worlds?”
The initial enquiry led to broader questions. “Am I naïve about how I see South Africa? Have I been living in this bubble? Is there more to it than I was willing to find out? “
The deep process of introspection ignited in him an interest in politics, but not enough to make him vote, yet. “I am looking for guys that are willing to get their hands dirty. That are willing to attack the problems that we have, like unemployment, poverty and education. I understand that there’s a lot that has been put into it, but the returns are not there for the amount of money that has been put into battling these issues. It’s not there and it’s not happening fast enough. I just want guys that will implement, really go at it hard and do it genuinely.
: “Yes, they are positioned as the opposition party but I sometimes feel they spend too much time attacking the ruling party instead of driving their own ideas and agenda.”
Ayanda has spent a lot time studying what the different parties have to offer. Here are his views on the newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the ANC and the DA:
ON THE EFF
I respect their position, promising to give back land without compensation. My only issue is in the context of South Africa today, does that make sense? What will be the after effects of that policy? What is the driving force behind it? Do you really want to return the land to black people? And when you do redistribute it, what is going to be done with it? Because it’s not the first land distribution program, it has been done before and a large part of the land that has been distributed… nothing has come of it. I looked at it and I just don’t know if South Africa can afford to take such and extreme position on an issue that will affect everyone. The EFF is still new and I think they are making a lot of noise but they don’t appeal to me and what I need or where I am in life and what I want from South Africa, they just don’t appeal to me at all.
ON NKANDLA AND PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA
“I think its (Nkandla) is just sheer madness.” Ayanda’s family is originally from Nkandla and Nquthu in the KwaZulu Natal Province; though he grew up in the city of Johannesburg, he visits the province annually.
“I can hear from my family and how they speak of Nkandla. It’s still rural living. People still have to go out and chop firewood. They still need to use wood burning stoves, they still don’t have electricity. So to build a house with that much money in a place like Nkandla, I just think it’s very silly. Sure you’re the president, maybe there is money reserved for you, for that sort of thing but not that much money. And then his approach to it is… (he pauses) he [Zuma] almost takes this oblivious attitude ‘I didn’t know what was happening’”.
“My thing is you can’t be the king of the castle and not know what is going on around you. I think I would have liked to see more responsibility from him to say look, it wasn’t the nicest thing or it wasn’t the smartest thing to spend so much money on me and my family when there’s a lot of people around Nkandla starving. I think that money could have been better used in and around that area of Nkandla. That was too much money with no responsibility from the government. I would have liked to see more responsibility from the guys handling that whole Nkandla issue and the finances involved.
“As for the president himself, I think he’s still a party guy. His ideas are what he was taught growing up in the ANC from the time he joined the party. I still can’t pinpoint that this is a Jacob Zuma’s idea or this is a Jacob Zuma’s policy. As a man I can respect where he comes from to where he is today. It takes a lot to go from Nkandla, homeboy, no education to be the president of the country. Politics is a very tough game in South Africa so to go from where he was to where he is now, I can admire that journey, for that he does deserve respect because now every child in Nkandla will know that that you can be president. It’s his personal story, that’s the man. But as the president, I don’t think he’s the best.
“I don’t have any personal attachment to the ANC. I respect and appreciate the role of the ANC in the struggle 100 percent. That I will never take away from them, they deserve all the praise they can get in their struggle to liberate South Africa, but they were fighting for freedom. Freedom isn’t just or only about mobility Freedom it’s also mental. It’s as if they are saying just because I have freed you are indebted to me for life… allow me now to chain you.
“We need space to develop our own ideas.
“Now I have lot of freedom to explore my ideas, I never felt inhibited or felt that anyone was trying to shut me down either from my family or politically. I never felt that my ideas or beliefs were being constricted in any way. The only thing I know is that people have different opinions so they won’t always agree with you. But that’s fine.
“I still won’t vote. Not yet, because for me the big issue is education, delivering services. The ANC has the capacity, but I think they are still stuck in the Apartheid era.
“They are still rolling on that “we liberated you” narrative. They are still playing that card. I think I would have like to see them targeting more young people, especially the Born Frees. Because the Born Frees are educated, we are not stupid, we are aware of what is happening around us. Maybe if I was from a rural area, a promise for housing, water and electricity would be enough. But personally as a Born Free I am exposed to a lot of things, I know what’s happening; I’m not stupid about the decisions that are being made. And for now I don’t feel the ANC has done enough to target me. The only party that’s been doing that is…”
THE DA…
But I don’t have any confidence in the party. Some of the things I think about are that South Africa is part of the global community. How much weight does the DA hold in the international arena? If you give them the government how will they fare in the global environment. What are their international links? What can they do for us as a country? They always harp on about Cape Town. At the same time we all know the high level of poverty and inequality in Cape Town. So sometime I think they tell us about Cape Town, but they don’t tell us everything. Yes, they are positioned as the opposition party but I sometimes feel they spend too much time attacking the ruling party instead of driving their own ideas and agenda. Most of the stuff I’ve heard from the DA is just ‘The ANC has said this and we are going to do it this way.’
“I would have liked to see the DA says, this is our idea, generated from our thinking and how we see stuff, what do you guys think? That’s my position with DA, I don’t have confidence in their international ability and I just feel that they just bounce off the ANC they haven’t yet got their own policies and their own agenda that they want to follow.
“Because a large portion of our population is young people, under the age of 35, I think that the party that comes now needs to be looking at that age group, what are their problems; what are the solutions; what problems will they be facing in the future and how can we work towards that?. I don’t want to discount the older generation but when you have the majority of the population as youngsters you want to try to grab them and get them involved in what you’re doing. Give them your policies, let them play around with them, argue with them, just engage with the born free generation.
“I still have a lot of hope. I haven’t given up, not in the slightest, simply because I have seen people doing it themselves. At the end of the day for me I meet people who say ‘I’m going to do it myself even though it’s difficult’ outside of government and the ruling party. That is what gives me hope. Theirs is a sense of moving away from relying on government to do things for you”.
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– By Jedi Ramalapa
