Choice and Consequences

Tomorrow we South Africans elect Jacob Zuma as our president. Then we must all live with the consequences of this collective act of idiocy. We are electing to the highest office a man who is accused of

• Killing
• Torture
• Rape
• Fraud
• Corruption

And hoping for the best.  We are electing a man with a primary school education, 5 wives, and a modest ability to dance to run the affairs of state of the most powerful country on this continent.

But who is “we”?  “We” is the 11,650,748 people who, with full knowledge and forethought, chose for the 4^th time in succession the ANC brand that Jacob Zuma represents.  They cannot claim that this was a once off aberration. They cannot claim they did not know what they were getting into.  Fifteen years is long enough for anyone to reach a conclusion. 

Like the Americans who voted for Bush, the Zimbabweans who voted for Mugabe, the Germans who voted for Hitler, and the Afrikaners who voted for Malan and Verwoerd and Vorster and Botha, you get what you choose. And history counts the cost.  Perhaps 5 years from now it will be as hard to find a South African who voted ANC as it is to find one who voted Nat, or a German who voted for Hitler.  

Perhaps the man will be a great success. Perhaps he will break the mould. Perhaps pigs will fly. After all, swine flu.  But would you bet money on a horse that has Zuma for a jockey? Would you put money into a company run by a man with his record? Would you leave your daughter alone in his room?  Eleven million would, and it is they who must answer for the consequences. And they will.