Election Day is finally here.
On Wednesday we decide on who is going to represent us; speak on our behalf; and look out for us in our sixth democratic Parliament.
Most political commentators, surveys and polls will tell you that it is a foregone conclusion: that the ANC is poised to collect the most Xs again this year and remain the majority party in Parliament for another five years.
My journalistic training tells me that this is probably the case and that there will be few surprises once all the ballots have been counted.
But I can’t help wondering, what if?
What if the unexpected outcome that has surprised commentators and political experts after elections elsewhere in the world, also happens here on Wednesday?
Yes, they haven’t been very pleasant surprises, if we consider the likes of America’s Donald Trump, Pakistan’s Imran Khan, the political chaos in Venezuela and the fact that the Ukraine’s electorate was so disillusioned and frustrated that they gave the presidency to a comedian.
In fact, the irony was inescapable, because Ukrainians reckon that the new president Volodymyr Zelensky, whose only political experience is having acted in the role of the president in a satirical TV show would do a better job than their current president.
So they handed him a humiliating defeat, by giving Zelensky a landslide 73% election victory.
The fact that something like that is even possible, is both laughably frightening and encouraging.
This has put democracy on display in all its clear and indisputable possibilities.
As we feel complacent in our hopelessness, having to choose the best of a bad bunch, these news events are not only examples to us voters about what is possible, but should also caution politicians against what we can do if we are pushed far enough.
And I want to believe that 25 years of broken promises, insulting corruption, brazen theft from our coffers and basic stupidity is far enough.
But I also worry about leaders being a reflection of their followers; in our case, our politicians are a reflection of the majority of us as citizens.
This is something I refuse to accept.
I have met far too many of my fellow South Africans who are smart and empathetic and brave and engaging and mindful and hopeful.
People who give selflessly of themselves every day and expect nothing in return.
And that really brings me to my thoughts about Wednesday, and future elections.
There is a saying about how certain spaces will be filled by the worst of us, when the best of us take a back seat.
I have explored this thought before, when I wrote about how good people tend to quietly go about their business; flying under the radar and refusing to take credit for their good deeds.
These are humanists who always put others ahead of themselves and because they are such good people, they will never put themselves forward to be recognised as good people.
But while they shy away from the limelight, others who are egotistical narcissists with horrible ulterior motives will step forward and manipulate us for their own benefit.
I’m afraid that’s exactly what has been happening in the world.
Men with delusions of grandeur, who are able to hijack and fire up social discontent and spin it into popular rhetoric, take over and capture our imaginations.
And before we know it, they have destroyed everything we hold dear and aspire to.
But that’s because we don’t encourage the good people to step into leadership roles; and to hold them to account while they are there.
Or we don’t step into those roles ourselves, because good people have a natural aversion to self-promotion; selfishly bragging to the world about how wonderful they are.
It is such a delicate balancing act, but those
types of leaders are definitely out there.
And it’s our job to identify them, encourage them and nominate them.
So, yes, Wednesday may result in a foregone conclusion.
But let’s make the conclusions of our future election less foregone, by considering what we do with our sacred vote very carefully.