HOW CAN THE ANC ASK OTHERS TO BEHAVE WHEN IT ISN’T?

JACKSON Mthembu and the ANC don’t seem to get it that their provocative behaviour and undermining of the constitution are reaping the whirlwind.

Irrespective of its size in Parliament, it is unacceptable for anyone in the ANC to threaten violence. Party members have not been role models of exemplary political conduct and, therefore, lack the moral authority to call others to order.

If Mthembu and others in the ANC are angry with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), many others are equally angry with the ANC for the lack of transparency and avoidance of authentic accountability. It’s all well for the ANC to want to take action against the EFF. The more pertinent issue is to ORDINARY South Africans and observers around the world will have watched in wide-eyed astonishment as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) disrupted Parliament on Thursday, demanding to know when President Jacob Zuma would repay money owed to the nation after the obscene squander-fest on his private home in Nkandla.

Zuma is a master in the art of evasion and the familiar clarion call, “I know nothing about the matter. I was not involved in any of the decisions made by my ministers,” is echoed by his acolytes. examine the cause rather than treat the symptoms.

I accept parliamentary conventions are there and everyone, the ANC most of all, should act constitutionally to safeguard our democracy.

When the ANC acts with propriety, as Nelson Mandela showed us, all other political role players will do the same. When the ANC deviates from the constitution, it must blame itself if other role players stray.

MOSIUOA LEKOTA Parliament, Cape Town