GHALEB CACHALIA: Our faux serenity reflects the aplomb of the political classes
This against a background of theft dressed up as the selective reapportionment of resources
I recently attended an event hosted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation featuring Fikile Mbalula and moderated by Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh. I was struck not by the glaring absence of any erudition by Mbalula, nor by the questions posed by Mpofu-Walsh, but by the race-agnostic middle-classness of it all — people concerned by the effect of policy and politics on their own circumstances with scant thought for common or general interest.
Perhaps one of the 20th century’s greatest economic thinkers, Joseph Schumpeter, defined democracy as a means by which political elites competing for power could gain the support of voters for versions of the common good they have manufactured to sell — like soap — back to the voters, so they can exercise power. That seems apt. In the absence of success, both politician and voter must accept the outcome or compromise, as the government of national unity bears tortuous witness. ..
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