Lose the struggle excuse

I notice that in his much-delayed resignation speech North West premier Supra Mahumapelo linked his departure to the “continued struggle” and quoted the “aluta continua” phrase as if to rally his misguided supporters to continue some sort of struggle 24 years after a peaceful democratic election.

It is time the ANC spoke out against corrupt officials linking their crimes to the struggle, thereby denigrating the anti-apartheid action and suggesting that criminality can be justified despite their party’s majority rule for nearly a quarter of a century.

Corruption such as diverting charity funds to supply a herd of cattle to that other disastrous official, Jacob Zuma (to name just one of the Mahumapelo-linked incidents), can never be justified no matter how heroic or laudable the political struggle.

Is the new generation of “born frees” to be conned into accepting that criminality will be excused indefinitely because of the past?

Wake up SA! Excuses for corruption and indolence are out of date. Let’s see transparent prosecutions of offenders rather than a cushy retirement accompanied by a speech suggesting that the democratic government has somehow been unfair in exposing their crimes.

The past is past and the future will be bleak if corruption and theft are going to be accepted as the norm, let alone justified by a spurious association with the efforts towards democracy.

Gavin Barnett Somerset West