Your president is not a King

I almost wrote this blog post instead of the one on IOS.  It seems more fitting considering what is going on in South Africa at the moment.

This is not a South African thing, the whole world seems to have this thing about treating their presidents as monarchs(kings).  The president is not the ruler of your country, if your country does have a ruler it would be the democratic constitution and the spirit of the people. The president is nothing more really(ok, there are some military and diplomatic stuff) than the boss of public services and is bound by the same laws and constitution as the rest of us.

The Americans have an entire coronation every time they swear in a new president that reminds me of those overly done british royal events, and the rest of the world is following their fine example.  We treat our ministers like the Lord and Ladies of old and extend them the same privileges, like dipping into public funds for their private residences or treating their entire family to a holiday.  Someone was arrested once in South Africa for giving the president the middle finger, in America they made free speech zones, something that is against their very constitution because the president didn’t want people criticise him.

It’s like we want to be led by someone, like we need the security of someone telling us what todo instead of taking responsibility for our decisions.  The Nkandla scandal is not just a South African thing or a Zuma thing, it’s a bi-product of the collective stupidity of the human race.