ANC ruined our education system

WE WERE sold out in 1994. For 25 years we’ve been ruled by an ANC that could and did shun all other parties as long as it kept its majority and worked within the confines of our Constitution.

The ANC has an abusive relationship with the masses who keep it in political power, and in return get financially held down, mercilessly robbed of their economic freedom – their disposable income.

The ANC did a good con job on citizens in the last national election – imagine the number of votes one can buy with a R1.1 billion election fund!

Soon there will be another unobstructed ANC feeding frenzy with Aarto and NHI, and if you’re not high on their party list you’re up the proverbial creek without a paddle!

Opposition to what the ANC is doing is growing, but depends on the education of the masses. The ANC is probably the only liberation movement that, when becoming a party, provided the best education for its own but destroyed the chance of an education for the masses.

In 2001, 1.2 million enrolled in Grade 1 and in 2012 only 44% of them wrote their National Senior Certificate (September 11, 2013 Africa in Fact journal, Lucy Holborn).

Do you think it’s by accident that South Africa’s education system dropped under ANC rule to now rank low in the global rankings? How can that be, with all the money being spent on education?

One only has to think about that for a moment to understand that the ANC used its liberation support for

self-enrichment. Even socialists would have ensured the best education for their own masses. The ANC made our education system one of the worst.

We have 40% official youth unemployment and know the damage the ANC has done to the private sector over the years. Yet with arrogance, hypocrisy, and a very thick skin, President Cyril Ramaphosa pleads annually with business to hire more people.

He knows full well that those private sector businesses can’t survive being like Eskom, with its 66% over-staffing – unless businesses, too, become dependent on the enabling tenders from government or municipalities.

Encouragingly we hear some ANC leaders pleading to reverse the party’s attack on the private sector and reduce the government over-staffing everywhere – all falling on deaf ears.

The whole country is crying out for economic freedom! The EFF stands for Economic Freedom Fighters. Is the EFF also fighting for reduced income taxes? Lower municipal rates? Lower VAT? Reducing the size of municipalities and government? Reversing the anti-business/pro-labour laws and legislation? Or cutting business redtape and over-regulations?

All those things caused our huge unemployment in the first place! All I can say for sure is no, the EFF isn’t really fighting for our economic freedom and sadly neither is the ANC.

GERRY NELSON | Durban North