ALLOW THE PRESIDENT TO REACH HIS POTENTIAL
Response to What next for Ramaphosa?
On 3 December I attended the funeral of the ANC leader Thami Dyakalashe, an anti-apartheid activist, in East London. He had not worked since 1994. It was not supposed to be like that because he was a committed, disciplined and dedicated member of the ANC, and a true patriot.
Dyakalashe once said to me that we had started on a wrong footing in 1994. He was against the right-wingers who wanted to undo what the ANC and NP wanted to achieve.
I remember a discussion we had about Mmusi Maimane, who was capable of driving the nation-building and reconciliation project – a young, visionary leader whose mission was to see South Africa prosper in conditions of peace, security and social and economic stability.
But unfortunately Maimane couldn’t get that opportunity to explore and develop his goals as a patriot outside the political party line.
The challenge is that we really need a national dialogue between parties because we still mobilise ourselves along tribal, ethnic, cultural and racial lines.
The ANC once had strong non-racial, non-sexist and democratic principles and enjoyed popular support in the international community.
The part of the South African population that is largely poor and still suffering is the black community in general, and African in particular, but now we need a unifier. Cyril Ramaphosa has the ability to do it if he can take principled positions, shrug off intimidation and threats, and make sure he works with white liberals who respect the ability of every human being.
The future is still bright for this country. We can’t waste our energy on conspiracy theorists like Arthur Fraser, who wants to plunge this country into chaos because of the State Capture report and its recommendations.
Thozamile Lunguza
Responses to SA flight academy saga
A political storm in a tea cup. There is no reason a South African company cannot train Chinese pilots. Both countries are part of BRICS, after all. This training has been going on for many years with the explicit knowledge of the UK and US.
Chris Skinner
Not our ZA problem.