Is this realignment of SA groups?
SOME time ago I wrote in a letter printed in The Herald, “The ANC is a party which prides itself on a collective management style.
“In doing so it lowers its standards to the lowest common denominator.
“Consequently, its electorate demands the appointment of unqualified, unskilled councillors and municipal appointees who do not have the ability to perform.
“The appointments of councillors and officials are lucrative job opportunities for families and cronies as well.
“Levels of education, organisational skills and ethics are not a priority.
“Hence the abysmal lack of management skills in ANC councils throughout the country” (“Nothing about money wasted previously”, June 22).
And how true has this diagnosis proved to be as corroborated in the Sunday papers. The statements from some of the ANC leaders boggle the mind and would not even challenge the intelligence of a primary school child!
Nomvula Mokonyane makes the statement on South Africa’s new junk status that “it’s actually better Western investors will pull back and we have an opportunity to bring them back on our terms”, Danisa Baloyi again says, “Who really cares? Many South Africans don’t have billions on the stock exchange” and so on.
One cannot believe that this is the rationale of adult people in leadership positions!
That this is the intellectual level of our president and his sycophants makes it no wonder our country finds itself grovelling among the dregs of the world!
Do I hear the inept and spineless ANC top six shout “Amandla” in rapturous applause?
There is a new word being bandied about which succinctly delineates the ANC regime: ineptocracy, defined as “a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers!” How true of today’s ANC! Having said the foregoing, South Africa continues to reap the aftermath of 300 years of white dominance.
The most heinous consequence of the apartheid years was to have denuded most of our population of an identity.
Liberation in 1994 promised so much, and freedom from the apartheid yoke meant a nation could find its own identity and self-worth once again.
However, this was not to be as dreams of a better life for all were nothing more than pie in the sky.
Then disaster struck the country with the advent of the Jacob Zuma presidency.
Almost singled-handedly he destroyed all vestiges of a once booming economy.
So our people, still sans identity, sans a common culture still living in disgusting slums are disillusioned and revert to assuming a victim role – no self-worth, no self-identity and with enormous inferiority complexes.
Consequently lashing out in retaliation, the hackneyed race card is once again the focus of their anger.
Now see how Zuma exploits this potentially explosive scenario by calling on municipal leaders to change the face of South Africa.
Townships are to be integrated into residential areas near factories and so on. Ingeniously he plays on the simmering hatred of the masses sweeping up their anger at what is still seen as white dominance.
Effectively he diverts their attention away from the real issues of today and his own corrupt leadership.
Is the glass half full or half empty?
In a backhanded way Zuma has done South Africa a favour.
Perhaps our political scenario is maturing as his dismal performance provides a common focal point for people’s ire.
The recent groundswell of marches was by folk from all sectors of our population irrespective of race, creed or gender. For the first time in our young democracy, the crowds came together as one from all sectors of the political spectrum, all appalled by Zuma’s irrational actions.
Is this the birth of a broad political realignment between those “that have” and those “that do not have”?
However, things are going to get a lot worse as the effects of the junk status scenario unfold.
Some R600-billion of foreign investments will leave the country, interest costs on the R2-trillion foreign debt this country labours under will increase dramatically and so forth.
That it will be the poor, the very people Zuma relies on to stay in power, who will be most affected will be above the rational ability of the masses and for that matter for most of our cabinet members.
But even more sinister is a third realignment classification: “those that will never have”!
Unless our junk status education system is dramatically improved, this ever-increasing sector will drag us into an even deeper junk status quagmire.
In this state of gloom is there anything good to be said? I am an incurable romantic and I still do believe in the inherent integrity of our people despite the inept leaders we have.
That this letter can be published in a country where there is freedom of expression, that we have a brave and independent judiciary, and that there are an increasing number of men and women from all sectors speaking out against corruption and maladministration gives me hope for the future.
But in the short term we are regrettably going to suffer, no doubt about it!
Talbot Cox, Schoenmakerskop, Port Elizabeth