ANC has crossed the line
Despite the increased opposition, both within and outside the ANC, there is no sign that any political party has the critical mass required to outvote the governing party in the next general election. Its narrative as a liberation movement will prove pivo
The myopic view is that our salvation or hell is entirely in the hands of politicians and once we remove the corrupt and the inept ones, our economy will provide for all – rich and poor.
Debates on inequality and the failures of economic and land redress feature less and are often quickly crushed whenever they rear their heads. The legacy of the 1913 Land Act and subsequent legislation is not palatable in South Africa’s popular discourse.
Not even broad-based black economic empowerment has done much to address race-based inequities in the South African economy. Instead as leading novelist Zakes Mda notes in his novel Black Diamond, today “accumulation of personal wealth is dressed up in militarism, as if capitalism is the continuation of the guerilla warfare that was fought during apartheid.”
For the fortunate few, there are benefits in being in with the ANC, says Booysen. “The elite largely associates with the ANC, whether it is peopled by the established rich, active in the Black Economic Empowerment, or by those who still aspire to join it. They are a core motive force for the ANC which leads by example: the good life is the ANC life.”
Meanwhile the people are not sleeping. Their eyes are burning with rage and disappointment. They burn, destroy public and private property – just to make sure they are heard. Some even loot and destroy the property of traders from other parts of Africa and Asia such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Pakistan.
Few dare touch big or small symbols of white capitalism – perhaps because they understand how well the corporate state can unleash its brutal force to protect monopoly capital and established big business in general.
Meanwhile public protector Thuli Madonsela has been alternately feted and pelted with insults as she steadfastly defended her findings on the Nkandla affair, even when the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, publicly challenged critical pieces of her evidence, especially the costs of the president’s security upgrade.
While so many people are gatvol over the shenanigans of Zuma’s ANC, especially because of the wanton looting of state coffers and the politics of patronage, it would be foolhardy to think the ANC is on its deathbed.
Also, despite increased opposition, both within and outside the ANC, there is presently no sign any political party has the critical mass support base required to outvote the governing party in the next general election.
Although shaken and besieged, when the party marks 22 years in charge of the South African state in 2016, it’s narrative as a liberation movement and a party with a generally glorious past will still prove pivotal in evoking the emotional historical ties that bind and also blind.
In the realm of diplomacy and international relations South Africa suffered severe damage to its reputation after helping war criminal and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leave the country in haste, fearing imminent arrest sought by the International Criminal Court.
The fall-out saw South Africa pay lip-service to its domestic and international human rights commitments in the interest of African solidarity, thereby confirming a web of contradictory ambitions in Pretoria’s international relations agenda.
Undoubtedly the al-Bashir case put South Africa in a bind – the impossibility of serving two diametrically opposed “masters”, the ICC and the African Union, at whose invitation al-Bashir had found himself in Joburg.
So incensed was DA leader Mmusi Maimane that he went as far as to call for President Jacob Zuma’s impeachment. Maimane said Zuma “chose to violate the court order,” thereby attacking “the foundations of our constitutional democracy.” Of course JZ laughed it off.