Riordan, ANC need a bit of introspection

RORY Riordan’s letter of November 9 (“DA statement on NMBM not factual”) refers.

Riordan has, I know, spent much of his life working for a fair, democratic government for South Africa. I remember him well from all the meetings at the East Cape Training Centre and at other venues in the townships trying to break down the scourge of the National Party.

I admired him for standing up for what he believed in and for being brave enough to suffer all sorts of harassment from the then security police. Fortunately for all of us, we eventually became a democratic society (in that all can now vote).

He held a senior position in our local ANC municipality, being responsible for finance until the ANC majority was voted out in the August municipal elections.

Why he now tries to defend the pathetic administration of his beloved ANC is hard to understand.

Does he not know why the ANC was kicked out here in Nelson Mandela Bay as well as in Johannesburg and Tshwane?

Every day we are assailed with more and more scandalous news about the kleptocracy that is systemic under the ANC’s watch. The head of the ANC, our beloved Jacob Zuma, is leading from the front when you view all the financial shenanigans continuing to the present.

We may now have voting rights for all but, largely due to massive corruption and wasteful expenditure by the ruling party, we do not have freedom for all (which I imagine is what Riordan wanted).

What Riordan and any other decent men and women in the ANC should have done is provide decent healthcare, qualified teachers, upgraded school facilities, honest administration, a reliable police force, a hard-working traffic police to enforce road safety, decent transport systems so that young children don’t have to cram 20-odd at a time on the back of a bakkie to get to school, and . . . the list is almost endless.

Perhaps a bit of personal and party introspection by Riordan and the ANC is what is needed, as a starting point, so that we can all hope for a decent South Africa. In the meantime, one can only hope that Riordan keeps his thoughts to himself while he works to rectify the many evils within the ANC.

Non-believer, Port Elizabeth