REGISTERING NOT ENDORSEMENT OF TINKHUNDLA

The conclusion that the record number of people who registered for the general elections represented an endorsement of the Tinkhundla political system, as espoused by government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, is fallacious and an apparent desperate attempt to project the system as the people’s choice.

Just like he has forgotten the tenets, morals, ethics and values requisite to rise to the high calling of priesthood, Nxumalo must have been afflicted by a bout of amnesia and conveniently forgot that some political parties, opposed to the obtaining political hegemony in favour of multiparty democracy, had decided against boycotting and consequently encouraged their members to register and participate in the elections.

Support

Thus if registering for the elections is equated to tacit support of the Tinkhundla political system then Nxumalo and his ilk must think and believe that sitting in church makes one a Christian. Nxumalo has successfully erected a high wall between himself and what is factual and the truth just so he remains in the melee of the feeding trough. This often makes it is impossible to decipher between what is or is not official position of his employer, the government, and his personal opinions. Or he has carte blanche, courtesy of his employer, to do, say and act as he pleases.  

As I see it, the numbers of registered voters has no correlation to affirmation and support of the Tinkhundla political system. There is absolutely no basis for such a conclusion either in fact or science to support and justify this assertion. Although it cannot be quantified, it is a fact that proponents of multiparty democracy vehemently opposed to the political hegemony have registered and will participate in the elections. This fact was never hidden but was publicly announced by some of the political parties that resolved to participate even though they cannot do so in the name of their parties in the face of their continued banning. That does not equate to endorsing the political status quo but rather using same as a means to an end in the absence of a viable alternative.

As it were, yours truly is among those who are opposed to the Tinkhundla political system’s monopoly of the political space yet I registered. How can I support a system that has criminalised the exercise and enjoyment of my inalienable rights and freedoms bestowed by the living God? How can I subscribe to the notion that a privileged minority have the right to deprive me of my fundamental human rights and liberties?

Identify

How can I identify with a system that allowed extrajudicial massacre of tens of pro-multiparty democracy activists by the State security apparatus during and post the June 2021 pro-multiparty democracy protests? How can I support a system that has systematically and progressively manufactured poverty on a grand scale in order to leash and make people subservient vassals living off the crumbs from the high table of privilege? How can I support a system that is economically exploitative and glorifies mass looting of State resources including minerals? How can I underwrite a system that has glorified and institutionalised corruption while rewarding the corrupt? How can I support a system that promotes and encourages social injustice and a class structured society? I certainly cannot subscribe to a system that prescribes manufactured consensus and conformity as a means through which social norms can be constructed around an elite agenda.

This system is for people who merely exist and have abdicated their lives. Yes, there is a difference between mere existence and living (perhaps a subject for another time?).  As a registered voter, I will stand for election should I be nominated notwithstanding the fact that I have zero appetite for buying votes or turning into a pseudo philanthropist overnight. But participate I will in order to get any like-minded candidate to represent my interests in Parliament. Registering for and participating in the elections is, therefore, not an endorsement of the system as claimed by Nxumalo – a fact he and the rest of the apologists of the political status quo are pretty much aware of yet continue to be in denial. It is in such circumstances when confronted by facts that they suffer from cognitive dissonance.

There is the other element to consider in this milieu; registering is one part of the election process, with the other part being the actual participation in the elections; that is the actual voting either as a candidate or to cast a ballot for someone else. Therefore, registering does not automatically mean that one will participate in the actual voting or balloting. In many jurisdictions across the globe those who actually vote, cast ballots, are invariably a small fraction of the body of the voters roll. Hence the tendency of many governments being constituted by a minority.

Rumours

Exacerbating matters in our case, Eswatini, are the disturbing rumours that always swirl around during elections time that government would withhold services, such as scholarships for their children, official document, etc., to those who do not register. As a result some people, often the majority, register not to participate in the actual voting but to evade being blacklisted from accessing government services. A pile of denials by government will never alter this belief by the people. In fact considering how petty government, indeed the leadership, can be most, if not all, of the time, coupled to a long standing trust deficit between the people and their leaders, there is absolutely nothing you can bet your last cent on that government or the leadership cannot do to get even with anyone or anything it considers an enemy and an obstacle to achieving its stated objectives, which are not always honourable. In parting, it is undoubted that these elections are not like any previous polls for the State but represent a form of referendum for the system. Hence even the dead may be resurrected to cast their votes.

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