Our view: This hit the wind out of many South Africans
Just a week ago we awoke to a cabinet reshuffle by president Jacob Zuma which took place at midnight.
This hit the wind out of many South Africans, some infuriated by his choice. Whichever way you look at it, as president he has the prerogative to change his cabinet, but it should be done in a befitting manner.
Yes, we have heard that ANC leaders who spoke out against some of the choices would face the music.
This concerns me because the ANC ushered in the ruling of democracy in 1994 and has been the head of government ever since. Now what is disturbing is the fact that there seems to be no freedom of speech, although in a democratic country this should not be the case. If the said leaders do not answer for their utterances, are we truly safe?
There is also applications for impeachment of the president by the DA and EFF in parliament. As a majority party, the ANC is at an advantage to defend that impeachment through voting. However, the catch is that during the voting process, they are expected to vote and there is no abstinence.
We have heard through the grapevine that should any one of the members of parliament vote in support of the opposition, they will be recalled and replaced. To a certain extent I would agree to that notion, but then when are they allowed to voice their displeasure in the organisation?
If the ruling party has the nerve to suppress their own members, what about the rest of the people? They need to loosen up and create a platform to question issues as they have a heavy responsibility to run the country. Objective criticism is what we need from members of society and if the ANC leads by example, so will the rest of us.
You see, the lack of freedom of expression when it suits them, led to the expulsion of their members who ended up founding the Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA) in 2011. BRA has been giving them a tough time during local government elections with seven seats in their municipality. Last year they clinched 14 seats.
DD Mabuza, the provincial chairperson, admitted that BRA had been a thorn in his flesh, hence the ANC experienced an eight per cent decline in votes. Those were the scars of lack of democracy and the freedom of speech; it dealt them a big blow.
