My Fellow South Africans
My name is Narendh Ganesh.
I will standing as a candidate for the 2024 Provincial and National elections in South Africa.
My decision to do so did not need much provocation, cajoling or even encouragement.
Just look at our beloved country and you will understand my decision!
From once being the breadbasket of the continent of Africa to fast becoming a basket case - being frequently described as a banana republic.
Why?
The answer may be rhetorical but it has to be emphasised.
It is because we do not have capable, competent and committed people put into positions of power who simply have their own interests at heart and not that of the people.
We are overwhelmed by corruption, mismanagement and thuggery - to the extent that every facility of service to the people is plagued by poor delivery.
I stand as a candidate - not to earn a living - but to serve.
A public representative is a public servant and the word servant must mean what it says. While the word servant may have an unsavoury connotation - in terms of public representivity, there should be no interpretation of the word, but its exact meaning, both in theory and in practice.
For those who know me and for those who have come to know me, I believe you will know that I have stood up for the people, irrespective of race, colour, creed, sex or sexual orientation, religious beliefs or any other differences that might divide us.
My track record speaks for itself.
I have taken on the president, cabinet ministers, political leaders of various parties, premiers and mayors on issues that demanded that the interests of the people be put first - that fairness and justice and equality should and must prevail at all times, without exception.
But I believe I can serve you and country better from an official platform rather than shouting from the sidelines as man alone, and this where I appeal for your assistance, which I might add, will cost you nothing but your belief that you have someone who has your back where and when it matters.
I have stood as a candidate for two local government elections - once for a newly formed party in 2016 and then as an independent candidate in 2021.
I lost on both occasions.
And here is some trivia that might interest you - despite not being successful in those elections, I never - never - stopped the fight against poor or inept governance or calling out those who deprive us all of the right to live and strive for the "better life for all - before or after those elections.
I truly believe that that should count for something. - for where are all the losing candidates of previous elections - they simply disappeared into the sunset - only to rise again at the next election.
The 2024 elections are going to be crucial if not critical for our country.
And you are again going to be called upon to be the architects for the future - because your vote is going to make a difference as to whether your children and theirs and theirs will be fighting your battles instead of their own - battles that you could have won if only you were prepared to move away from the tried and failed - to change the paradigm - to change the guard and install fresh blood who view things differently.
I have always fought the good fights on behalf of all the people of this country- oftentimes at great sacrifice and cost to myself, my family, and at great personal risk - and without the lure of that silver lining at the end of the rainbow.
And it is because of this - if you have the love and well-being of your people and country at heart, then no amount of money should be your motivation or driving force.
And I truly believe that service to your fellow man and country is the highest calling that anyone citizen can aspire to.
I cannot promise you better roads, or better power and water supplies, or more efficient state enterprises, or the elimination of crime and corruption and much, much more - but what I can give you is an unequivocal undertaking that I will be relentless - if not merciless - in fighting those who are most resistant to changing the status quo - only because it benefits them and theirs.
I will fight to prevent our students from having to go overseas to study - at great cost to parents and guardians - only because we have a system that consciously allows and compels this to happen.
Our medical students, for example, who perform meritoriously, but are then side-lined for entry into medical schools simply because of a system that disregards merit but rather champions the ideology of race - and then, as shown during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic - that we hire Cuban doctors at a staggering cost of over R440 million, when we could have easily used our own home-grown talent to serve the people of South Africa .
We are a country of people - not race - and until such time that this credo is lived and practiced, we will never leave the starting blocks of mediocrity and regression.
BBBEE, broad-based black economic empowerment, a tool designed to assist and uplift out black brothers and sisters due to the ills of apartheid has failed miserably.
The majority of our black citizens still linger in poverty and hardship from a system that was specifically designed to improve their lives, yet it is only the elite and chosen ones who have and are prospering - while the rest of the people are made "to eat cake".
Citizens of other races are now being disregarded for positions even if they are qualified or competent enough to assume such positions - only to appease an evidently political agenda. however well-meant such a policy may appear to be in its very conception.
This must be fought tooth-and-nail - so that merit becomes the single most important factor in determining who gets what positions be in the state sector or in private industries.
Job creation by government is, to say the least, pathetic, and I will be in the forefront in driving agendas to change this so that we become a country of the employed and not a country of the increasingly unemployed - strategies in this regard, I will elaborate on in future presentations.
As you will note from what I have touched on, that my decision to stand as a candidate was a relatively easy one and I will eleborate further on the matter in subsequent presentations as to why you should lend me your vote - only so that I can serve you and all other citizens equally, fairly, justly - and indeed our beloved country.
May God bless you.
May God bless your family.
May God bless South Africa.
Narendh Ganesh
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