WHY VOTERS ARE THE MAIN REASON SOUTH AFRICA IS IN THE STATE IT’S IN, AND HOW HISTORY CAN’T BE ERASED BY DESTROYING MONUMENTS OR CHANGING THE NAMES OF STREETS AND TOWNS

Response to The South African grapes of wrath by Branko Brkic

Branko Brkic, in his analysis of the South African grapes of wrath, missed out on one very important ingredient – the SA voter.

For many years numerous media investigations and reports on blatant corruption and massive theft in all tiers of government under ANC control have had no impact on voting patterns. Amazing, but following well-trodden paths in Africa.

In a true democracy, with the first signs of corruption an ANC-type government would have been unceremoniously dumped by the voter. SA would not be in such a parlous state today if the majority of voters had done the right thing 15 years ago.

It didn’t happen. The blame game today is amazing. Hey, voter, you’re the main reason there are no jobs, collapsed infrastructure, poor service delivery, destroyed SOEs that drain the fiscus and a huge public debt that is spiralling out of control. Blame the government, but you keep on voting for them!

The ANC can’t fix SA. It has no talent. All who voted for Zuma for president must be considered inept. Just recycle the incompetents/thieves from one bloated government department to the next. The ANC is loaded with Zuma clones wanting to replace Cyril. Howard Skeens

Ramaphosa’s monumental error

Cyril Ramaphosa missed an opportunity to unite the country in a spirit of non-racialism when he declared on Heritage Day that “monuments glorifying South Africa’s divisive past must be removed and relocated”.

He must realise that history cannot be erased by spitefully destroying monuments or changing the names of streets and towns reflecting the values of a past era. Nor can he and the party he leads continue to blame the coronavirus pandemic and the white population for the disastrous economic collapse we are currently experiencing.

The ANC persists in repeating the lie that it alone defeated apartheid, but the reality is that white voters agreed in 1992 to support

former President FW de Klerk’s proposal to share power with the black majority. The referendum that followed Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 gave the “Yeses” 69% and the “Noes” only 31%.

When the ANC won the 1994 general election, President Mandela formed a government of national unity and pledged to unite the country under a policy of non-racialism. But after he departed, Mbeki, Zuma and the rest of the black hierarchy betrayed the trust whites had in the ANC and abandoned Madiba’s dream of racial equality.

One wonders how our descendants will view the corruption, looting by the black elite, the annexation of land without compensation and deplorable policies that led to millions losing their jobs. It is possible that future generations may decide that statues and monuments the ANC erected are divisive and must be removed. But nothing they say or do can change the situation because, whether constructive or destructive, today’s events become tomorrow’s history. Dick Jones