Does democracy deliver?
| 20:00 UK time, Wednesday, 10 October 2007
This is Ros in South Africa. We're off air now, but you can listen again here. After a few problems, our blog appears to be working again, so please post your comments below.
DOES DEMOCRACY DELIVER?
I’m sure many of you have seen Colonel Gaddafi’s . He’s none too convinced by Western-style democracy nor the West’s enthusiasm for exporting it. It’s a sham, treats people like ‘donkeys’ and doesn’t give people real influence over their country. Do you agree? What’s your experience in your country?
...Here in South Africa of course we have one of the world’s most treasured democracies. Thirteen years old, it replaced the apartheid system and was reward for decades of struggle. Leading that struggle was the African National Congress, which has dominated the political scene here since 1994.
SA’s two presidents, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, are ANC men and there’s no chance of Mr Mbeki’s successor coming from any other political party. In fact two of the ANC’s rivals in 90s, the Pan African Congress and the New National Party are no more. The Democractic Alliance is now the main opposition.
Whether democracy is requiring the ANC to meet the demands of South Africans is a keenly debated issue. Some point towards a healthy economy, increased investment in South Africa, rising literacy rates, the 2010 World Cup, freedom of expression and a better trained police force.
Others say why do some South Africans still have no running water, why the power cut problem, why don’t our leaders communicate with us better, why is wealth not more fairly distributed… and most of all the critics say the ANC doesn’t need to listen because it knows it is going to win.
We’re hoping an ANC representative will join us today but either way we’re going to be live from Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, the richest area in Africa. If you’d like to join our audience for this discussion send us your comment and your phone number as soon as you can.
If you'd like to see pictures of the shows here in South Africa, click on the Flickr link to the right.
Have you seen where Chris in Namibia lives? Beat that!
THE BLOG AND THE WILL TO LIVE
You'll know as you're reading this that we’ve still got the former, but I’ve lost the latter because of its continued misbehaviour. The fight goes on to get someone to properly fix it. On Wednesday evening we were having some joy so please try the blog first and then if it still doesn't work, then please email us on worldhaveyoursay@bbc.co.uk and we'll make sure your comment is posted. Thanks.
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