It feels like Groundhog Day — that movie where you wake up to the same situation as yesterday.
A new government, but the same old issues.
Decaying infrastructure, crime, collapsing governance, and tomorrow it’s the same old story again.
It’s hard not to feel despondent — especially in civil society — where no good deed goes unpunished.
The news that Friends of the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area (FOBWA) is closing down is bad for democracy (The Herald, July 23).
Large numbers of people are volunteering their resources — for free — and they cannot get government to appreciate and formalise their contributions.
So why is this bad news for democracy?
Prosperous democracies are founded on a balance between government, the private sector and voluntary organisations.
When the interactions between universities, industry, government, public and the environment are optimised, you have the basis for thriving regional innovation systems — or academically put — the quintuple helix model. When interactions are fractured, democracy and prosperity falter, and ultimately fail.
On current performance, our city is heading towards collapse.
As government defaults to corrupted actions in autocratic silos, as businesses pursue profit at any cost, and voluntary organisations falter under the yoke of monopolised resources — all institutions start to decay.
The Historical Society of Port Elizabeth is in the same boat as FOBWA — putting in the hard yards for societal benefit, but, ignored by government.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the integrated development plan (IDP) for the city.
The IDP is the foundation of democracy — a co-ordinated, participative and integrated plan — for improving the quality of life of all citizens.
Over the past year, my organisation consistently made representations and proposals to the NMBM for the opening of the Main Public Library, the maritime heritage of Algoa Bay, and a property rates policy which can protect and develop our decaying city heritage.
Across every platform — where we have presented, taken officials on tours, and signed memorandums of understanding — our proposals have been lauded, and not a word of dissent.
What’s missing is action by government, even the basic action of incorporating our proposals into the IDP or simply having a coherent discussion with city management — if such a thing exists.
Under these circumstances, the easy option for the voluntary sector is to give up and walk away. But democracy is not for sissies. It was hard fought for, and it’s not something you give up on.
Powermongers — those who wield power in a tyrannical manner for their own personal objectives — want us to give up on the basic building blocks of democracy.
They want us cocooned into silos of unresponsive government, failing businesses and alienated civil society. It’s a criminal gameplan for the collapse of the SA economy.
And don’t think it’s an SA thing.
The ultimate biography on powermongering was set in New York.
The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s 1974 Pulitzer prize-winning biography of Robert Moses has startling parallels with our city.
Moses was an unelected public official who undertook infrastructure projects on a grand scale.
Initially driven by idealism, he developed a system of political patronage which made him the most powerful and influential person in the history of New York City.
Infrastructure construction became a means to power, through elaborate networks of corrupted political patronage, not a means for serving the needs of communities.
Across our city, wannabe powermongers are sounding the death knell on the city with nonsensical infrastructure investments which yield profits for them, yet fail in the expected deliverables.
We’re allowing this to happen by letting them thrive, with smooth talk and percentage cuts to an elite inner circle.
The costs to hard working citizens are devastating.
We all feel the spiralling debt from funding the escalating costs of private sector social services which fill the void of corrupted inefficient government.
Whether its healthcare, education, safety and security, energy or transport — we’re all having to pay the cost for services which we pay for in taxes, and what government fails to deliver, largely due to the corruption underpinning government inefficiencies.
Sissies walk away, South Africans dig their heels in and make democracy work.
Over the years voluntary organisations have been responsible for some spectacular successes.
We’re at our best when people work together.
Every documented success of this city has been a one of voluntary organisations working hard and forcing a reluctant government to do what we pay them to do.
Our city has a remarkable history of people working together to forge and achieve common goals.
Between 1860 and 1870, Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) was the most prosperous port in Southern Africa, outperforming Cape Town by a considerable margin, despite having no port facilities.
It was people working together who overcame the tensions of SA’s first recorded strike in 1846.
People — be they Boer, Briton, Mfengu — or any of the other nationalities which frequented our shorelines thrived, despite the best efforts of a distant Cape Town government.
While self-serving bureaucrats retarded the growth of shipping facilities and basic human rights in Port Elizabeth, it was civil society that lobbied tirelessly to ensure that we took our rightful place.
We established societies for wildflowers, businesses, trees, theatre, photography, automobiles, conservation, politics, and an endless list of others.
And therein lies our salvation from the vagaries of corrupted governance.
We simply must make ourselves heard, stand together with integrity and let civil society set the pace for clean governance.
In years gone by, citizens asserted themselves yet now we remain silent, lulled into lethargy by indifference and sheer survival.
We must reawaken and assert ourselves, persist with securing our constitutional rights, and break the backbone of the small but powerful vestiges of corrupted governance.
Anything less is surrender to self destruction.
Graham Taylor chairs the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth
HeraldLIVE
Democracy is not something you give up on
Image: LISA HNATOWICZ /GALLO IMAGES
It feels like Groundhog Day — that movie where you wake up to the same situation as yesterday.
A new government, but the same old issues.
Decaying infrastructure, crime, collapsing governance, and tomorrow it’s the same old story again.
It’s hard not to feel despondent — especially in civil society — where no good deed goes unpunished.
The news that Friends of the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area (FOBWA) is closing down is bad for democracy (The Herald, July 23).
Large numbers of people are volunteering their resources — for free — and they cannot get government to appreciate and formalise their contributions.
So why is this bad news for democracy?
Prosperous democracies are founded on a balance between government, the private sector and voluntary organisations.
When the interactions between universities, industry, government, public and the environment are optimised, you have the basis for thriving regional innovation systems — or academically put — the quintuple helix model. When interactions are fractured, democracy and prosperity falter, and ultimately fail.
On current performance, our city is heading towards collapse.
As government defaults to corrupted actions in autocratic silos, as businesses pursue profit at any cost, and voluntary organisations falter under the yoke of monopolised resources — all institutions start to decay.
The Historical Society of Port Elizabeth is in the same boat as FOBWA — putting in the hard yards for societal benefit, but, ignored by government.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the integrated development plan (IDP) for the city.
The IDP is the foundation of democracy — a co-ordinated, participative and integrated plan — for improving the quality of life of all citizens.
Over the past year, my organisation consistently made representations and proposals to the NMBM for the opening of the Main Public Library, the maritime heritage of Algoa Bay, and a property rates policy which can protect and develop our decaying city heritage.
Across every platform — where we have presented, taken officials on tours, and signed memorandums of understanding — our proposals have been lauded, and not a word of dissent.
What’s missing is action by government, even the basic action of incorporating our proposals into the IDP or simply having a coherent discussion with city management — if such a thing exists.
Under these circumstances, the easy option for the voluntary sector is to give up and walk away. But democracy is not for sissies. It was hard fought for, and it’s not something you give up on.
Powermongers — those who wield power in a tyrannical manner for their own personal objectives — want us to give up on the basic building blocks of democracy.
They want us cocooned into silos of unresponsive government, failing businesses and alienated civil society. It’s a criminal gameplan for the collapse of the SA economy.
And don’t think it’s an SA thing.
The ultimate biography on powermongering was set in New York.
The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s 1974 Pulitzer prize-winning biography of Robert Moses has startling parallels with our city.
Moses was an unelected public official who undertook infrastructure projects on a grand scale.
Initially driven by idealism, he developed a system of political patronage which made him the most powerful and influential person in the history of New York City.
Infrastructure construction became a means to power, through elaborate networks of corrupted political patronage, not a means for serving the needs of communities.
Across our city, wannabe powermongers are sounding the death knell on the city with nonsensical infrastructure investments which yield profits for them, yet fail in the expected deliverables.
We’re allowing this to happen by letting them thrive, with smooth talk and percentage cuts to an elite inner circle.
The costs to hard working citizens are devastating.
We all feel the spiralling debt from funding the escalating costs of private sector social services which fill the void of corrupted inefficient government.
Whether its healthcare, education, safety and security, energy or transport — we’re all having to pay the cost for services which we pay for in taxes, and what government fails to deliver, largely due to the corruption underpinning government inefficiencies.
Sissies walk away, South Africans dig their heels in and make democracy work.
Over the years voluntary organisations have been responsible for some spectacular successes.
We’re at our best when people work together.
Every documented success of this city has been a one of voluntary organisations working hard and forcing a reluctant government to do what we pay them to do.
Our city has a remarkable history of people working together to forge and achieve common goals.
Between 1860 and 1870, Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) was the most prosperous port in Southern Africa, outperforming Cape Town by a considerable margin, despite having no port facilities.
It was people working together who overcame the tensions of SA’s first recorded strike in 1846.
People — be they Boer, Briton, Mfengu — or any of the other nationalities which frequented our shorelines thrived, despite the best efforts of a distant Cape Town government.
While self-serving bureaucrats retarded the growth of shipping facilities and basic human rights in Port Elizabeth, it was civil society that lobbied tirelessly to ensure that we took our rightful place.
We established societies for wildflowers, businesses, trees, theatre, photography, automobiles, conservation, politics, and an endless list of others.
And therein lies our salvation from the vagaries of corrupted governance.
We simply must make ourselves heard, stand together with integrity and let civil society set the pace for clean governance.
In years gone by, citizens asserted themselves yet now we remain silent, lulled into lethargy by indifference and sheer survival.
We must reawaken and assert ourselves, persist with securing our constitutional rights, and break the backbone of the small but powerful vestiges of corrupted governance.
Anything less is surrender to self destruction.
Graham Taylor chairs the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth
HeraldLIVE
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