The US is fortunate that Donald Trump has only just over a week to go in office. Imagine if voters in that country had given him another four-year term. By the time his second term had ended we wouldn't be talking about "banana republics" being lawless and dictatorial regimes run by despots, we would be warning against turning one's country to "another burger republic".
If there is any important lesson about democracy that we needed to be reminded of by the violent riots at Capitol Hill this week, it is that we should always be careful whom we choose as a leader.
You can have "the oldest democracy in the world", as is the case with the US, or one of the "most progressive constitutions in the world", as is the case with SA, but still have your country's future put in jeopardy because of the bad leadership you vote for.
The rioters who stormed the Capitol in a bid to stop the US Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election as the next US president would not have done so were it not for the incitement by Trump.
At a rally he staged just ahead of the mob attack on the Capitol, Trump riled up his supporters, calling on them to "stop the steal" of the elections and telling them that they will not be able to "take this country back" by being "weak".
By the time the chaos ended, five people had died, property had been vandalised and US democracy was in tatters. It is hard to believe that all of this happened at the instigation of the head of state, a president of a country that believes itself to be "the leader of the free world".
But the signs were always there. From the moment he took office, Trump, through his statements and deeds, made it clear that he was never suitable for that office.
However, he did not install himself; he was democratically elected.
The "mistake" US citizens made four years ago when they chose Trump as the 45th US president was one that has been made by voters in many other democracies over the years. In most instances citizens are lucky in that their systems and politics allow them to correct such "mistakes" by voting politicians out of power at the next available opportunity. Many others are not that fortunate.
Young as we are in this democracy game, as South Africans we have had our share of such "mistakes" at local, provincial and national levels. The most gigantic of these caused the state to be captured by a powerful family, leading to the collapse of key institutions and the destabilisation of governance.
As we begin a new year, a significant one in that the Zondo commission will finally conclude its investigations of state capture, we have an opportunity to press the reset button on the leadership front.
For us ordinary citizens it starts with the upcoming local government elections. We have an opportunity to elect suitable candidates to run our municipalities - an important sphere of government that is often neglected, with dire consequences for communities who fall under them.
We are living through an uncertain and difficult period. It requires strong leadership at all levels to help the country pull through.
As citizens we will have no-one to blame if this year we return to office the very councillors who have run down the likes of Amathole district municipality to such an extent that its employees are no longer guaranteed their salaries. Voters who go for weeks without running water and electricity need to use the ballot box to demand a better and competent leadership.
Political parties can also help by adopting more robust procedures of selecting candidates. Too many political parties pay scant attention to the quality of candidates in the belief that most people vote for parties regardless of who those parties field as candidates. The result is often a council of poor quality, the kind that ends up with public representatives such as that eThekwini councillor who made a mampara of himself this week by spreading false information about a link between Covid-19 and 5G, as well as outrageous claims that, on his own party's watch, white citizens have been clandestinely getting vaccinated at the exclusion of others.
We are living through an uncertain and difficult period. It requires strong leadership at all levels to help the country pull through.
But if we are not careful about the calibre of those we install in office, we will end up with the incompetent type that thrives on disinformation and outright lies, politicians whose survival is always dependent on dividing citizens into "them and us".
As Trump's last days are once again proving to us, this is a very dangerous kind of leadership, the kind that can collapse the whole democracy project and plunge us into anarchy.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.