The power to corrupt

WITH reference to your article antidemocratic thinking? (December 8).

The tripartite alliance is already an oxymoron, democratically speaking. Far better it would have been for South Africa if the trade unions, the Communist Party and whatever remains (the ANC?) had shied away from presenting a united front.

To me as a casual observer, all that it – the alliance – has managed to achieve was the substrate enabling a president to create protective cadres, further enabling him to have virtual dictatorial powers.

The present call of the ANC presidential hopefuls for “Unity” is exactly the wrong medicine for South Africa’s syndrome of “loot-corruption”.

A three way split of the ANC is to be welcomed because it will break the stranglehold of the presidency; it will lack the support of a mindless Parliament conditioned to vote en bloc, despite clear signs of the existence of some conscientious people, as evidenced by the tentative testing of the waters by some laudable parliamentarians, during the secret ballot of the latest vote of “no confidence” in our president.

Presidential hopefuls are not doing the nation a favour by advocating party unity as it begs the question whether it is not simply to ensure the power to corrupt is kept intact? Ben Smit Melkbosstrand