(en) Southern Africa, Newsletter of the Tokologo anarchist collective Issue #1 - The System of Voting By LEKHETHO MTETWA

It is clear that the rights of working class and poor people on the ground are not 
recognised by those in power, and will never be. After the 1994 elections, ordinary people 
thought that they will feel and enjoy real democracy. But to their surprise, things didn?t 
work the way they thought. People are being demoralised, threatened and killed when they 
stand up. It is now difficult for people to exercise their democratic
rights. ---- It?s clear that voting won?t bring any more change in people?s lives. The 
whole system is run by a small ruling class. Voting does not change the system. By voting 
we are just fooling ourselves about our rights. People voted in 1994 because they thought 
their votes will bring complete changes in their lives. No one thought of suffering after 
voting in the first elections. Promises were made by so-called leaders in order to be 
voted into power. Their promises were a big lie.

What might be the reason for them to do so? They
want to be voted in order to introduce policies that
benefit only them ? they joined the ruling class. We
have also seen that after the politicians get voted in,
things remain difficult. Capitalism, the GEAR policy
and privatisation all took place. We must recognise
that these only suit the top government officials in
departments, and the big businesses.

When the first ANC president took over in 1994,
privatisation started to spread faster, and
millions of people started to lose their jobs;
companies closed. The currency dropped,
making goods like petrol more expensive
. The blood of innocent people was shed.
A new class ?apartheid? showed up. Life
became more difficult, harder. People were
retrenched; debts rose and hunger took
over. Capitalism made things worse.

Today companies, factories and the
government all make profit out of the poor. Yes, it is
better to have the 1996 Constitution than apartheid,
but it is still not a real democracy for the working class
and poor. People are still waiting for what they were
promised. Will they ever get what was promised to
them?

Looking at things, I don?t think so. It?s 20 years of
capitalist ?democracy? and people are still facing
many difficulties. There is no change in poverty and
suffering since the new ANC government was elected.
Will change come? No, we are being fooled and used.
As long we still believe in the government/ state,
nothing will change as they are all after profit-making
and about controlling people?s lives through their laws
and their police.

Voting is a system that kills innocent souls. It is part of
the system that oppresses the poor, makes them poorer
and makes the rich richer. Although people have voted
many times, we have lost lots of comrades due to the
brutality of the government and its forces. Whenever
people try to exercise their rights (as the Constitution
promises), such as rights to jobs, meetings and decent
conditions, they are threatened by police brutality.
Many comrades have died or been jailed in protests
against evictions, retrenchments and hunger. They
wanted to know what happened to the promises made
to them by those in power, those they voted for.

Today many people live in fear as the government
brutalises their rights. Is it what we voted for? This is
the question that rings in people?s mind when we see
what happened with the Marikana massacre.

We need to bear in mind that our brothers and sisters
fought the previous apartheid government due to its
brutality towards our people. And even today we are
still fighting the government, and in the same way they
fought the previous one.

Government is there to oppress the poor. Beware
- danger is at hand. It is what we will experience as
long we keep on putting our trust on the system of
voting for the government. Recently it is worse, as
we see the new SAPS Tactical Reaction Team (called
Amabherede) shooting at protesters who are not
harmful, but peaceful. A peaceful march often turns
out to be a Blood River. And this, after the ?shoot to
kill? policy was championed by Bheki Cele, the corrupt
former National Police Commissioner.

Such systems only benefit the minority instead of the
majority. It is only the ruling class minority deciding
over the working class majority which is totally
undemocratic. But why do they act like tyhis? This is a
big question. In simple terms, it is their desire to rule
over the rest of humankind for their own benefit.

What we know is that real majority rule does not exist.
It is clear that the Constitution is used to blind us into
believing that we have real democracy.

But what is meant by democracy? Democracy is when
people are living an equal life style, with equal access to
power and education, and when they share according
to their ability and need. What we see today is not
democracy, but a system that is demon-crazy!

The system needs to be changed, to be replaced with a
new anarchist democracy that leads to equality in living
and deciding. People need to organise themselves in
order to take over the factories and land and demolish
the authoritarian government / state structure.
Spreading and understanding a revolutionary and
anarchist propaganda will help to conquer and defeat
the enemy and its system that rules us with an iron
rod.

It is us, the working class and poor, who are giving
them power to rule us with an iron rod. We are living
under a dangerous system ? and voting to keep the
minority in power won?t help us.

Let?s unite and organise ourselves to fight and
defeat the Government?s Official Departments
(a false ?GOD?!) and its system of domination.
United we stand, divided we fall! Amandla!