We Don’t Need More Politicians — We Need More Protectors

South Africans are not only exhausted by poverty, unemployment, and failing services; they are also exhausted by the performance of politics itself. The ritual has become predictable. Politicians arrive in convoys of branded SUVs, surrounded by bodyguards. They tour communities with cameras rolling, shake a few hands, make speeches about “service delivery,” and then disappear — not to be seen again until the next election.

This cycle has left people deeply disillusioned. Increasingly, dignity feels transactional, offered in exchange for votes rather than respected as a basic right. Communities are not calling for more politicians who perform. They are asking for leaders who protect.

Stewardship, Not Performance

In African traditions, leadership was never a performance. A chief’s worth was measured by whether his people slept safely at night. A healer was respected for her care, not her status. Leadership was stewardship: a responsibility to protect lives and livelihoods, not to polish one’s image.

In post-apartheid South Africa, this ethic was once central to the political imagination. The language of Ubuntu promised care and interdependence. The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was framed not only as a housing plan but as a restoration of dignity. Even Nelson Mandela, in his first address to Parliament in 1994, insisted that freedom would be judged not by rhetoric but by “the lives of ordinary South Africans.”

Three decades later, this ethic has been replaced by performance politics. Visibility matters more than presence; rhetoric is prioritised over accountability.

What Protection Should Mean

Protection should not be reduced to policing or security measures. It is about consistent presence in people’s lives and institutions. A councillor who visits a clinic regularly is protecting the right to health. A mayor who sits with informal traders is protecting livelihoods. A minister who intervenes early to prevent failures in water systems or power grids is protecting communities from disaster.

Too often, leaders arrive only after the damage is done — when a service delivery protest has already turned violent, or when a preventable death has made the news. A politics of protection would mean showing up before collapse, building trust through consistency rather than slogans.

The Cost of Performance Politics

The consequences of political theatre are visible everywhere.

• Marikana, 2012: 34 striking mineworkers were killed by police. It remains one of the most brutal failures of protection in democratic South Africa. Rather than safeguarding lives, the state treated workers as a threat to be subdued.
• #FeesMustFall, 2015–2017: Students demanding affordable higher education were met with riot police and stun grenades. Many of those students are still carrying debt today. Instead of protection, they were given confrontation.
• Service delivery protests: In 2023, the police minister revealed that over 3,000 community protests took place in a single year — most driven by the same grievances that have persisted for decades: water, housing, electricity, jobs. These protests are not only about shortages; they are about the absence of protective, reliable governance.
• Healthcare failures: In 2024, a two-year-old girl died in Limpopo after being turned away from a clinic because her file was missing. That is not bureaucracy — it is abandonment.

Each of these moments illustrates the same failure: leaders who see their role as temporary performance rather than long-term guardianship.

Protection as Prevention

South Africa’s crises are often presented as inevitable. Load shedding is framed as a technical challenge; water shortages as natural disasters; unemployment as a stubborn legacy. But many of these failures could be mitigated through consistent, preventative governance.

For instance, the Auditor-General’s reports have repeatedly highlighted how municipalities lose billions through irregular expenditure, poor planning, and unspent budgets. In 2023 alone, municipalities had R28 billion in irregular spending, while communities waited for basic services. Protection, in this context, would mean intervening early to ensure funds are used for their intended purpose — not reacting once protests erupt.

Rethinking Leadership

Calling for protectors instead of politicians is not a rejection of politics. It is a redefinition. Communities need leaders who treat power not as a platform for performance but as a burden to be carried on behalf of others. They need leaders who safeguard the basics: health, housing, safety, opportunity.

What South Africans are waiting for is not another campaign poster or a round of promises. They are waiting for leaders who will still be there when the cameras are gone. Leaders who understand that protection, not performance, is the truest test of political responsibility.