Enough with snakes, dead, alive or fast asleep — here comes the Jack Russell and her name is Evita Bezuidenhout from Evita’s People’s Party
I am an African. I love saying that because I am. And, watching Barack Obama accept the overwhelming support of the majority of US voters on November 4, I also feel like an African-American. Because we also can!
I do not belong to a political party. We have had too many parties in the past 14 years. We must now stop having parties; we must start working. And working together.
Evita’s People’s Party is not about politics. It’s about people. It’s about what people do to make politics work. It is about elections. It is about the vote. Before 1994, our democracy was too good to share, so there were only four million people in South Africa. When apartheid ended in 1994, suddenly there were 27-million more people — people who had reason to say: “Take the farms, eliminate the whites.” But no one said those words. Nelson Mandela came out of 27 years in jail and smiled and said: “Tannie Evita, give me another koeksuster.”
Lately we have been spending a fascinating time replacing a president, premiers, parties and politicians. Our fourth general election is due in months. There is turmoil in the financial markets as well as behind the political fire curtains. Never before have so many people been so scared by the words of so few. It is time to stand up and say: enough talk of war and killing and replacements.
It is time to look beyond the political roundabout and see who really matters.
The people matter. Their opinion matters. Their vote matters. Without them, we have no democracy. Evita’s People’s Party will focus on the vote, on voter registration, which gives you the key to the future. The vote is secret. The vote is sacred. If you don’t cast your vote for the future, you lose the right to complain about that future.
I say to every father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, gogo and tata: Vote. It’s not only about you. It’s also about your children and your grandchildren. They need you to care, so that they can make their dreams come true in a country that is free and fair. Our Constitution gives us freedom of choice: so choose. It gives us freedom of speech: so ask questions. It gives us freedom of expression: so laugh, when it all threatens to fall apart. Get the facts, then be empowered by your opinion — and vote.
Evita’s People’s Party will invite each party that intends to contest the upcoming election to publish its manifesto on our website (www.epp.org.za) so that the nation can study all the menus. Each party manifesto will present its best recipes for a future. Shop around and find the dish to your taste.
We have a Constitution that is arguably the greatest in the world. Evita’s People’s Party will focus the attention of the people on what the Constitution offers us all. Evita’s People’s Party will be the Jack Russell terrier at the gates of our democracy to bark loudly when our Constitution is threatened.
Let the people lead and the politicians will follow.
Evita Bezuidenhout is leader of Evita’s People’s Party and Gogo to the nation