DEMAND BETTER FROM THOSE WE GIVE POWER

Sir,

There are three things we need to repair the state of the nation. First, we must commit to re-engage our political processes. Eswatini voters should use the voting processes to actively hire and fire the public representatives we deserve and the people we most trust. We must ask more from those hoping to secure our valuable vote and demand social contracts based on transparency, work and actionable accountability. We must ask of every party or person seeking out votes what they have done for and with us before they had State power, what their plans are with State power, and their commitments if they fail to deliver their plans.

Localise

Second, we must reclaim and localise our politics. The political is not only personal, it is also about the exercise of power in everyday ways. The centering of individual leaders has stripped communities of people of an appreciation of our roles in enacting change. We have sacrificed our agency at the altar of democratic centralism, outsourcing our assessments of who is competent to serve in government or political office to the people with the loudest voices or the biggest bank balances. It is possible for everyone, for every community, to know at least one public representative personally.

Power

But it cannot continue to be the case that we give power to people who live so far removed from us that we have no influence over how they exercise that power. Third, we must stop demonising the people we do know who dare consider contesting political power. While the mistrust of politicians is well-founded in a country where politics and public office have been used by bad people to do bad things, it does not follow that every person who seeks to be elected is by extension a bad person too. When community activists, long-time changemakers in NGOs or young people in business leadership who we know and whose efforts we celebrate raise their hands to contest for State power, our knee-jerk reactions of mistrust and disdain means that the people with track records of community service, accountability and commitment to our communities are discouraged from making efforts to be our public representatives.

Demand

While it has become easy for us to believe that ‘power corrupts’, we must also be reminded of the words of Frederick Douglass who said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” We must demand better from those to whom we give power, and only give power to those willing to accept and be accountable to those demands. Eswatini need not accept a political culture that offers up political leaders and public representatives who are out of touch with the nation’s realities. We deserve public representatives and leaders who are not only skilled in the political theatre, but are embedded in community action.

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