It Comes Down To One Vote- Yours-

A Daily Maverick Article

As the US ballot count continues in the most important election in a generation, we’ve been reflecting on how the past four years of the Trump administration has affected not only journalism around the world but also the very concepts of truth and fact. Our colleagues in America will spend the next few weeks unpacking this election; unravelling it from its built-in complexities in order to make sense of it for their readers and viewers. They’ll do this as they shoulder attacks from the President of their own country; where their integrity and their independence has for over four years been called into question for no other reason than political propaganda straight from the Tweeting fingers of a man whose agenda is the continuing increase of personal power and profit above all else.

Naturally, our thoughts migrate to our own home, South Africa, and what she has endured over this last decade. We can relate to the American electorate because we remember what it feels like to have a President whose criminality outweighed his credentials. We’re sending our colleagues across the pond a virtual fistbump today for all they’ve endured and for what may still come their way.

This year, in particular, has been harrowing for all of us. The Covid-19 pandemic has dominated our news despite the best efforts of gender-based violence, police brutality, the rise of populism, the fall of our economy, the continued corruption (how is there more?), the looting of PPE funds and the Zondo Commission (someone give that man a Bells) to jostle for headline position. AD 2020 has tested us all and it has asked too much of humanity. We’ve lost a lot of it. Collectively, as the human race, we are exhausted. We’re desperate for it all to end. The pandemic, the propaganda, the politics. We’re desperate for a better future and for something to look forward to.

As the American citizens casts their vote for the collective good, we’re reminded of the power of one. One vote, one choice, one small action that encompases the voter’s preferences, morals, even dreams. When one becomes many, the power of the people can truly be seen: it can change the course of history.

In the Daily Maverick microcosm, through our Maverick Insider membership we’ve seen, and felt, the impact of how one person, one act of ubuntu, one small action can change our future. As a news publisher, we survived this pandemic when many have folded because of our members giving whatever they can to keep us going. They value what we do and want us to continue doing it.

They see the real impact our work has on South Africa. The most obvious is the #GuptaLeaks project with our friends from amaBhungane and News24, and the way it placed the true extent of State Capture beyond plausible deniability. There's so much more:

• We’ve exposed the dealings at Eskom and Prasa which has resulted in many resignations.
• We’ve exposed dodgy contracts at Kusile which also saw two former executives arrested for their part in the corruption and several building contractors named and shamed.
• We’ve exposed the VBS looting which has resulted in arrests of eight key players, with many more coming soon.
• We’ve exposed the true nature of the EFF leaders’ corruption through their dealings with VBS bank - when the wheels of justice spin in their direction, our work will powerfully prove their criminality.
• We’ve exposed the unlawful Free State asbestos audit project which has led to arrests.
• We’ve exposed the despicable PPE looting, resulting in President Ramaphosa instituting a Special Investigative Unit to uncover how this could have happened.

Our work, and the work of other real investigative journalists in South Africa, has contributed to the former President's departure, Ministers resigning, the Gupta brothers being internationally sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act and numerous firings and arrests.

There is still so much to do; more to expose, more arrests to come, more change needed.

We’re asking for your help because we need more of our readers to contribute and help us keep uncovering the rot. Be the one to join this special band of superheroes and help us to continue changing the course of our history. The power of the people comes down to one vote.