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Developments in other parts of the world have forced a reckoning with the fragility of the human rights architecture globally and how it can unravel in a single vote, writes Redi Tlhabi.
There are so many, sweet fruits of democracy that are an essential part of my daily diet. My mind cannot conceive of them being snatched away from me. I am also aware of my privilege as a professional woman in an unequal society.
Education and being born in a relatively enabling environment, despite the albatross of apartheid hanging around my parents' and grandparents' neck, secured my place and upward mobility in a cruel and unforgiving world.
I am acutely aware, and ashamed that a woman from the Eastern Cape’s Alfred Nzo municipality, the poorest district in South Africa, has not had the same opportunities as I have had, to be seen and to mark her rightful place in the world.
So as inadequate as it may seem, my stepping out of my house on 29th May to cast my vote, and every moment between this election and the next, is my humble attempt to keep striving towards that world where a child from Alfred Nzo has the same opportunities as my children.
If my vote cannot achieve that, then it can at least ensure that those who have turned their back on the child from Alfred Nzo, are held accountable.
Developments in other parts of the world have forced a reckoning with the fragility of the human rights architecture globally and how it can unravel in a single vote.
I was born in Soweto, in the late 70s, witnessed the turbulent and violent 80s but also, was privileged to hear the last gasp of apartheid in 1994. I am 45 now and in all my 25 years as a very loud journalist, I have never been censored, threatened with arrest or banned.
Oops, I lie – the SABC once banned a documentary I produced with my colleague Ben Cashdan, with whom, 19 years later, I have partnered to produce and present a podcast, Reality Check. But even that was an act of self-censoring and pandering to the whims of tender-skinned politicians at Luthuli House, rather than an exercise of state power and dictatorship.
There have been attempts to bully, malign and isolate journalists who speak truth to power, but overall, attempts to bring the might of the state on our work, have not succeeded in South Africa. We can use the mighty pen, to write what we like! And the microphone to say what we like, on camera nogal!
On the personal side, I can love whomever I choose to love without the state coming into my bedroom. Same sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since the Civil Union Act came into force on 30th November 2006. Across the Atlantic, the United States, my home for now, only caught up almost 10 years later, when the Supreme Court struck down all state bans on gay marriage. Better late than never!
It is extraordinary, now, in 2024, to watch male dominated courts and legislatures, in countries that were democracies long before South Africa, do their utmost to decimate the creed of democracy. In a consequential vote this week, Ghana’s parliament unanimously passed a draconian, anti-gay bill that prescribes a three-year jail term to anyone who identifies as LGBTQI+.
They included a five-year prison term for anyone "promoting" LGBTQ+ activities. What are "LGBTQ+ activities" anyway? Ghana joins Uganda in this voyage to the dark ages. Uganda long decided that ethnic strife in the north, the high burden of disease and the high inflation driven by an increase in food prices, are minor inconveniences, compared to those gays!
Did I tell you that my husband and I have done three in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures in South Africa, freely, expensively, without sparing a thought for what the courts and Parliament have to say? The Supreme Court of Alabama has just made it harder for couples struggling to conceive, to achieve their dream of being parents. The court says all embryos are children.
This essentially means couples who struggle to have children and the clinics that help them through IVF may be in breach of the law by discarding unused embryos - an unavoidable part of IVF. There are always unused embryos in an IVF cycle because multiples are produced in a single cycle to maximise a struggling couple’s chances. Not all of them can be transferred because some are not viable and those that are, can’t all be transferred because – well, nobody wants 10 babies! Except Piet Rampedi and Iqbal Survé.
In our last episode of Reality Check, Oxfam executive Director Lebo Ramafoko jolted us into the realisation that the biggest party in South Africa is made up of those who choose NOT to vote. Parliaments and courts will make decisions for and about us, whether we choose to participate or not.
In the third episode on Thursday, we talk to South Africa's top parties and the new kids on the block to see what they have to offer in the elections.
Catch reality check at 18.30pm here.
