Qaanitah Hunter writes that South Africans are blindly optimistic that politics will solve the country's woes. She argues that not all great South Africans should be made politicians.
Humans love to romanticise leadership.
When someone is famously successful at one thing, we swoon over the prospects of "what if they were president".
This week, South Africans found themselves in the middle of a hopeless tragedy. Cape Town was on fire, and the blaze wreaked havoc on everything in its way.
The University of Cape Town was not spared as the institution had to quickly evacuate 4 000 students from its residences.
In came the Gift of the Givers Foundation, who promptly took over directing aid to those affected by the fire. They provided pots of food to offer students a hot meal long before the government could react to the tragedy.
Praise for Gift of the Givers
It wasn't long before the chattering class began commending the prompt response from that organisation.
Gift of the Givers was rightfully praised for picking up where the government had failed.
When the local government in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape failed, Gift of the Givers provided water - an essential commodity - to residents.
When the government was overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisation stepped in to provide greater access to Covid-19 testing and diagnostics.
Given the government's enormous failures, successes like this are and should be celebrated.
But when people took it a step further on social media, suggesting that Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, who founded the organisation, should run for president, I realised what's wrong with South Africa: We look to politics for all our solutions.
For a country to thrive, we need much more than good politicians.
I understand, having seen the type of bad politicians we have, that we are desperate for anyone with an iota of decency to lead us.
READ | It was 'apocalyptic like a scene from a movie' - UCT students traumatised after fire evacuation
But it will not solve our problems.
Just because someone is successful in their field does not mean they would be efficient in politics.
Think about Dr Mamphele Ramphele, for example, she was a stellar academic, whose stint in politics failed miserably.
Jeff Bezos is undoubtedly a successful businessman in the US, but that does not mean he should be president.
This type of wishful thinking is what is fundamentally wrong with South African politics.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected, there was what was called "Ramaphoria", which blinded so many people from the realities of politics.
The elation that there was the proverbial 'anything but Zuma' in the presidency made us fail to realise how deep our problems as a country are, and how one man would never be able to fix it.
My worry with this type of thinking is that it is playing out again in ANC politics around the step aside policy.
Some people believe that once ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule 'steps aside', there will be some miraculous reformation within the party.
Given the upheaval in the party, I understand the desperate hopefulness.
Blind optimism
But we cannot let our blind optimism get the better of us.
The reality of the ANC's step aside resolution is that it is a sloppy publicity stunt aimed at telling voters, "see, we did something about corruption", without really doing anything about corruption.
By investing our hopes and dreams in politics to solve the problems of this country, we give politicians unfettered power to abuse, to the detriment of voters.
There is no quick fix, even if that means putting a well-intentioned humanitarian in the Union Buildings.
To quote the national director of public prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, during her interview for the job: "Even the Pope" couldn't solve South Africa's problems.
We need to reform politics, but we also need humanitarians looking out for the most vulnerable, academics promoting debate, and business people growing the economy.
I hate to be this person, but it's going to take a great deal to fix this country.
I have started looking beyond politics as the vehicle that could do it.
- Qaanitah Hunter is News24's political editor.
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