Radical change

WHILE I agree with Gasant Abarder (Cape Times, April 13) that Zapiro’s gang-rape cartoon might be in questionable taste, I think Abarder is in effect shooting the messenger.

What Zuma and the Guptas are doing does amount to gang-raping the country; they’re doing it with impunity and have now breached the gatvol-factor for large numbers of people.

In criticising Zapiro, we must not drown out his message: that Zuma & co are the champions of corruption and crony-capitalism.

It is an indictment of our so-called democracy that the will of the people is being impeded and that it is not up to us, but up to the ANC whether Zuma will be sacked or not.

And if Zuma goes? What then, will the ANC replace him with Cyril McDonald’s Marikana Ramaphosa? I say, cry the beloved country.

Ramaphosa (and Pravin Gordhan & co) represent a different type of exploiter.

They are the friends of big international capital. (As it happens, the Cape Times, in the same edition as Abarder’s article, features an op-ed in which – what amounts to Gordhan’s complicity in illegal capital flight from this country – is highlighted.)

It must be remembered that for the past two decades, the working class of this country (the protest capital of the world) have been taking to the streets to protest against poor living standards, poor service delivery, poor health care and poor educational facilities, lack of housing, heavy-handed policing against unarmed protesters, and ineffectual law enforcement against drug dealers and gangsterism.

Whether Zuma remains in power or is replaced by Ramaphosa will hardly change this dismal scenario.

What we need is radical transformation of both the political and economic spheres. In short, transition to a socialist order.