I have no time for fear-based politics. I had more than enough of that growing up under Apartheid.

My childhood was filled with politically driven fear. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad going to do community patrols in the early eighties when “unrests” were rising in South Africa. Trips on the N2 from Somerset West to Cape Town were always preceded by a reminder from the adults that we had to duck in case stones were thrown from the bridges at the cars below. 

At secondary school we did regular “paraadheid” (readiness) drills, in the case of a terrorist attack. If a certain bell or siren rang, we would all kick our chairs backwards and hide under our desks (I’m still not sure what good that would have done.) All public buildings had posters with plastic models of hand grenades, limpet mines and other explosive devices on the walls. I’m pretty sure that none of these posters prevented any attacks, but the message was clear: there were evil people out there, who wanted to kill “us”. 

By the time I became a student at Stellenbosch University, numerous states of emergencies had been declared. The townships were burning and activists were incarcerated, tortured, and killed. As the unrest grew, PW Botha’s government doubled up on their fear narrative. It was black people - indoctrinated by communism - who wanted to kill whites, we were told. There was a massive “swartgevaar” (black danger) and “rooigevaar” (red danger) ready to destroy the country and plunge us into the abyss, justifying any form of fightback from the state. 

These indoctrinations permeated every aspect of our lives. On an economic front, we were told “they” wanted to come to power so that all parts of the economy could be nationalised. We were also assured that “they” would stop all religious activities and that “we” would be persecuted for any form of religious practice. Little did they know – or were they willing to admit - that ANC meetings in those days always started with a prayer.

Of course, a decade later, the lies of the Apartheid government were exposed when Mandela came to power and instead of an evil communist dictator, he was more like the grandfather we all wanted. As someone said at the time, we then realised that the Apartheid government were mushroom farmers. “They kept us in the dark and fed us … well, manure”. 

Fear-based politics is the easiest way to control and manipulate people, particularly if the fear mongering is based on half-truths - which it almost always is.

If people are scared, they are far more likely to vote for someone who suggests that they can mitigate the fearful outcome – even if they don’t tell you how. 

Listening to John Steenhuisen and the Democratic Alliance’s utterances in recent times, you can be forgiven for thinking that we are back in the time of PW Botha and the Apartheid government. 

Their narrative seems to be based on one thing only: generating fear for an ANC/EFF coalition post the 2024 general election. For example, in a recent interview on BBC’s Hardtalk John Steenhuisen was challenged by Stephen Sackur: 

“Mr. Steenhuisen, you seem to be telling the South African people that if they vote for either the ANC or the EFF in the next general election, they will - to use your own words – ‘create a doomsday scenario that will make the collapse of Zimbabwe look like a dress rehearsal and leave all South Africans destitute’. That is fearmongering”. 

“No,” Steenhuisen replied. “It’s the honest truth”. He then tried to explain that he was referring to the economic policies of particularly, the EFF. 

Sackur responded: “You talk about plunging the country into ethnic and racial conflict the likes of which it has never witnessed before. Don’t you need to be a little bit careful about your language? Are you really suggesting that South Africa is right now on the edge of the most frightening abyss?” 

To which Steenhuisen replied: “Absolutely, I would say that is truthful to voters”. 

And just like that… we were back at the rooi (EFF) gevaar, combined with the general swart (ANC) gevaar and for good measure also “sommer” we-will-become-Zimbabwe (or actually worse) gevaar. 

The sad thing is that it works. Very few people have the time or access to really find out what is going on. For example, few people know that the majority of ANC leadership is not in favour of a coalition with the EFF. Or that the circumstances that led to the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy were vastly different from where we find ourselves in South Africa today. 

Yet, half-truths and lies are the most effective way to prevent people from challenging political leaders and parties.

For example, I think we should all ask of the opposition parties why they haven’t been able to capitalise on the weakening and self-destruction of the ANC? Why is it that the DA in particular has had to resort to fearmongering when, given the ANC’s disastrous track record over the last few years, they should have been able to rake in the votes? I would also think that instead of focusing on fearful scenarios or on the governing party’s mistakes they should tell us how they intend to be different and how they would be able to solve the country’s problems. 

Of course, the DA is not unique in their use of fear politics. The ANC has on more than one occasion used the threat of social grants disappearing if they are no longer in power. This is despicable given that people are so reliant on these meagre amounts of money to survive.

I trust that people will not allow any party or politician to manipulate their vote by making them scared or playing on already existing anxieties. South Africa is a phenomenal country and we deserve politicians who will rebuild it.  The last thing we need is fear mongerers who tell us and the foreign media (how stupid can you be?) that unless you vote for them we will tumble into an abyss of unrest and collapse.