EDITOR – To an extent the ANC has declared itself infallible and not allowing its members to question it they have set up a static tyranny.
The ANC through its structures attempt to control every aspect if its existence.
By adhering to its own rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden the ANC has suppressed within its membership the freedom to think and to act, hence the call for a secret ballot. By doing so it has frozen the outlook of millions of its supporters into a mindset of subservience.
Cadre deployment, blind loyalty, sycophancy, nepotism, patronage and group thinking has severely dented the revolutionary cause and the interests of the poor which the ANC has the primary mandate to serve. This is the year dedicated to iconic and revered past President of the ANC, Mr Oliver Tambo. If only the ANC were to listen to what Mr Tambo said in his address on 2 May, 1984 at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania: “Let’s tell the truth to ourselves, even if the truth coincides with what the enemy is saying. Let us tell the truth.”
Many martyrs of the freedom struggle died before they could even taste the salaries and benefits of the democratic statehood either as presidents, ministers, premiers or even mayors. Their cause was not about personal, narrow and selfish interests but about political and economic emancipation of the downtrodden and the destitute masses. Therefore, any form of corruption and deviation from the revolution in society reverses and betrays that for which they stood and died.
Notably it would be unfair to deny that after 1994, the ANC-led government has made great strides in ensuring that the people get sustainable service delivery. A lot has been done and there’s lots more that can be done. However, corruption impedes development. SA got political freedom that was supposed to culminate in economic emancipation.
However, freedom cannot be complete as long as the working class and the poor are marginalised and excluded from tasting the fruits of their freedom.
Corruption appears like a cancer that has metastasised and there appears to be no hope of remission. Many private institutions, state institutions and community based organisations are being hijacked by those who think that the struggle was about them and then there are those opportunists, who just arrived to exploit. In no way am I implying that ambitiousness should be frowned upon, but this should be done without compromising the revolutionary cause and the interests of the poor.
Can the ANC after 23 years still see the light at the end of the tunnel or do they see the light of an on-coming train out of control. The ANC’s National Policy Conference may present a new trajectory of hope for the hopeless and the helpless and for this beloved country.
Sicario
Durban
