Counter-revolutionaries like Supra are pointing fingers

In these days where terminology has replaced ideology as the key competence in political discourse, words are thrown around as if they were stones in a village battle, with a limited sense by those using them of their true meaning and significance.

One such word that has become popular within contemporary political lexicon is “counterrevolutionary”, which is a heavy indictment of a word so over-used, particularly by counterrevolutionaries themselves, that it has lost its true scientific meaning.

It is going to be important that if we are going claim back the political space for the forces of virtue in the ANC specifically, and in society general, we re-educate ourselves, those we lead and those that will come after us on the meaning and significance of some of this terminology and, more importantly, its significance to our guiding ideologies.

In the wake of his resignation as premier of North West, Supra Mahumapelo made malicious reference to “counterrevolutionaries” and his intention to unleash the full might of the ANC on them in his retirement period.

He did not hide the fact that he was referring to members of the Revolutionary Council for having led the battle with other progressive forces to oust him.

Both by his choice of the word “counter-revolutionary” and specifically by his use of it, he once again reminded us of his political ignorance and his unfortunate callousness. His ignorance in the sense that he clearly does not understand what the word “counter-revolutionary” means and his callousness because he points fingers at others as “counterrevolutionary” akin to a wolf caught among the sheep daring to accuse the sheep of being the wolves.

He needs to be taught that the term counter-revolutionary originally referred to reactionary thinkers such as Joseph de Maistre and Louis de Bonald, who were opposed to the progressive forces that were driving the French Revolution in 1789.

Moving from the streets of Paris in 1789 to the streets of Mahikeng in 2018 we have a case of a failed premier in the form of Mahumapelo who, after repeated and pleas and marches by the people to resolve issues in the delivery of critical services, responded in the usual arrogant manner.

The current revolution in the country is a revolution that the ANC has aptly referred to as the National Democratic Revolution, and therefore any determination of who the revolutionaries are and who the counter-revolutionaries are has to be balanced on the scale of the objectives of the NDR.

His tenure as chairman of the ANC and premier has confirmed the suspicions that he is fully engaged in or promoting counterrevolutionary tendencies and reversing the gains of the National Democratic Revolution.

His demeanour, values and ethics do not resonate with the values of our iconic movement.

They may try to talk like us, sing like us and even wear our T-shirts, but our people must refuse to be fooled by these counterrevolutionary agents of gloom and doom who have infiltrated our movement.