Does Ramaphosa honestly think we still need a revolution?

It is a truism that if a government keeps its citizens busy trying to access, or even get assistance from the state for their basic needs, they will forget about the freedom they once yearned for, briefly got and then quickly lost.

It is also apparent that one of the dangers with living in a parallel universe is that one can simply ignore the people and their needs, turn a blind eye to the chaos and destruction that has engulfed SA and inadvertently make a complete fool of oneself.

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Recently, the president called on the youth league of the ANC to become more militant to ensure the survival and continuation of the revolution. Whose revolution? And was this a call to arms?

Ironically, the ruling party has been in power for almost three decades and the president and his merry ministers are still stuck in the past calling for both militancy and revolution.

One must be careful what one calls for as it may have many consequences. And revolutions have a tendency to get ugly.

But was the call for militancy and revolution aimed at igniting a civil war where “anything goes” as long as it goes? Was this call for revolution the reason buses and trucks are being torched and infrastructure destroyed? Or was this a call for more crime, death and destruction?

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After all, illegal acts are normal for many of those who supposedly lead us. They work hard at disarming legal gun owners, illegally intercepting telephone calls of those they consider to be against their agenda and allowing their so-called bodyguards to beat the crap out of anyone who doesn’t cause an accident getting out of their way.

Does the president honestly think that we still need a revolution? If so, why? And who must pay for the damage across the country, not to mention scaring off possible and current foreign and domestic investors.

Have South Africans not suffered enough at the hands of our current crop of dysfunctional leaders, who seem to have adopted the motto of “steal as much as you can, when you can”.

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Is that why a revolution is called for – to detract from their DNA-infused corruption and their multiple failures? Then again, the president recently claimed that 90% of all South Africans have electricity.

I am not sure where that figure was conjured from, but it is certainly a fallacy to make such incredible claims. Given that those who actually pay for their electricity have, at best, infrequent electricity from Eskom, and are hugely outnumbered by those who refuse to pay for it, or steal it, one must wonder what planet his advisors are wired to.

Does he not check what they lie to him about – or does he simply believe them as he doesn’t know better? Or will the closet doors be opened if he doesn’t accept and propagate their lies?

The same is relevant to the wild claims he made that more than 80% of South Africans have running water. Many people either must buy water as they have none, or walk for many kilometres to get water, because they are concerned they may get cholera from the supplied water.

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But if the 90% and the 80% are current and even remotely true, why are people engaging in daily protests against poor to nonexistent service delivery? Are they protesting because they have too much electricity and water?

Or has a revolution to replace the current government already begun, as it is doubtful that he called for his regime to be removed and there are many within his party who will gladly respond to that call. Or was he calling for a counterrevolution against those who intend to oust him?

But there are those that argue that the president’s call was for much more sinister reasons. They believe his Leninlike clenched-fisted call was for the total destruction of our already destroyed country and its economy.

Others feel he is calling for mass crimes and violence against those who dare oppose him – as if the chaos that exists isn’t enough for the government.

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While the people of South Africa are rapidly losing all faith in the current regime, many within and beyond our borders have come to realise just how irrelevant South Africa has become.

They are hoping and calling for a real revolution, without violence and destruction, to replace a regime that has long passed its sell-by date.

-Mashaba is a political analyst