Vote for an inconvenient democracy for all

FOR DEMOCRACY to work, it must be inconvenient for everyone.

- LORENZO DAVIDS

The fact that 1994 was celebrated so intensely and for several years was the early warning sign that we did not understand democracy. ‘Rainbow nation’ was such a cute phrase; it gave us a high we had never experienced before. But it was fake.

It did not challenge us enough. It did not extract enough from us. It did not cost us enough. It made us feel like, “Oh wow, I can do this. This is not too bad. Pack away the baked beans, darling. I’ve invited Vusi and his wife over for dinner, you know, that reconciliation thing, we're doing that tonight.” I wish we were harder on each other. Braais and B-BBEE are not reconciliation nor restitution.

We did not fix the broken things in us and in our society. We kept on ignoring it. We kicked important issues to the kerb for the sake of a myriad of fake stuff like corporate promotions, shareholdings, houses in previously racially exclusive neighbourhoods and World Cups. We spoke to each other like long-lost cousins, and not as recent enemies. Perhaps the recalcitrant Afrikaner and the PAC were the most honest people around 1993, for they both refused to settle for a comfortable democracy.