Helen Zille and perpetuation of White domination VIEWPOINT BY JACKSON MTHEMBU Despite her self-promotion maneuvers and claims of being a liberal do-gooder and an anti-corruption crusader, on the contrary Helen Zille has always been concerned with safeguarding white interests and has never shied away from showering praises on even the most corrupt of white apartheid government officials during our past era. The most telling was her panegyric on Dr. Nico Diedrichs, a fanatical member of the Broederbond who served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1958 -1967, Minister of Mines from 1961 - 1964, Minister of Finance from 1967 - 1974, and finally in the largely ceremonial position of State President from 1974 - 1978. A Broederbonder since he was young, his position as State President was secured through Broederbond support. Incredibly, at the time of Diederichs death, Helen Zille spoke about him in admiring terms and claimed His economic brilliance brought him recognition from all over the world. She heaped praises on him around the same time that stories were surfacing about Diederichs involvement in property speculation, bribery and other corrupt activities. Diederichs estate was eventually declared bankrupt, as he owed money to everyone from meat suppliers to diamond companies. As one commentator puts it, this was a reflection of Diederichs profligacy and healthy appetite for credit and his connections to various influential-lobbying groups. Despite Zilles attempts to reinvent herself amidst wildly exaggerated claims of courage and trailblazing journalism, the record reveals that Zille was very much part of the apartheid sycophants who only saw brilliance in the architects of that system which was condemned by the entire world as a crime against humanity. Not surprisingly, Zille who harboured such subservient, flattering sentiments towards corrupt apartheid functionaries is now reinventing herself as an anti-corruption crusader whose targets are black people associated with the democratic government. On the one hand she denounces successful black businesspeople and does not think it is acceptable that hard-working black businessmen should, like their white counterparts, aspire to become billionaires. She advocates for an inherently racist capitalism in which scorn and ridicule are heaped upon black billionaires while maintaining a stony silence about her white supporters who are very rich due to apartheid social engineering. With her racially tinted lenses Zille can never conceive of any black person who surpasses the economic brilliance she saw in apartheid leader Diederichs. In fact, the DA uses the rhetoric about black billionaires as a smokescreen for its longstanding opposition to any laws or measures it sees as promoting a racial transformation or threatening white privilege. Another facet of Zille and DA anti-black strategy has been the highly personal and defamatory attacks on black civil servants while their white counterparts who blatantly serve DA interests are portrayed as saints. We saw a similar pattern emerging in the wholesale attacks on Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and former National Director of Public Prosecution (NDPP) Menzi Simelane. Also, a few months ago, the DA-aligned individuals and entities launched scathing attacks in then acting NDPP Jiba for having the pluck to suggest that Glynis Breytenbach, a white prosecutor, should be subjected to disciplinary action. They maligned Jiba and Breytenbach fired the first salvo by claiming in her Labour Court application that Jiba suspended her in an attempt to protect former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli. That tactic partially succeeded in portraying Breytenbach as a victim and shifting the focus away from her despicable conduct, corruption and conflict of interest in the Kumba/ICT matter. It has now been revealed that Breytenbach is a proud member of the DA and is on its prominent list of deployees to the national assembly. She was in all probability a dedicated DA deployee whose diligent service her organisation in the National Prosecution Authority has won her the accolades of promotion of being deployed to parliament. Zille has already lauded her for her legal brilliance and claimed her making DA deployment list to parliament was evidence of DAs commitment to the rule of law. What rule of law? Even more shocking, Breytenbach received funding from Nat Kirsch, the same tycoon who funded the botched DA-AGANG marriage while she was actively serving as a prosecutor. In fact evidence is piling up that Breytenbach may have committed acts of corruption while serving as a senior prosecutor. One can only hope that the NPA, the Hawks and SARS will assiduously and vigorously pursue this matter. Zilles choice of leaders of both De Lille and Ramphele as junior partners in the enterprise to defend white interests should not come as a surprise to anyone. White leaders of the DA cherish and nurture blacks they can dominate in all fronts, buy at fire sale prices or at least those self-hating blacks that regard approval from whites as their ticket to success. De Lille, a former firebrand leader of the Pan Africanist Congress forsaken the pan Africanist principles she once advocated and policies of the electoral party she created and joined the DA and now she is a pathetic and self-serving security guard for Coloureds votes in the Western Cape. In Zilles world, Dr Mamphela Ramphele was also destined to become another rent-a-black face. Zille counted on the fact that Ramphele has been a loyal servant of those whites who propagate lethal anti-black attacks. Ramphele provided affidavits in the matter involving Judge President Hlophe, Richard Mdluli and others but has assiduously avoided criticizing whites that are implicated in egregious acts of corruption and price collusions robbing the poor of their stable diet and inflating prices in the building of the stadiums and rolling out of infrastructure. Based on her views of blacks as corrupt and money-hungry, Zille assumed that greasing Rampheles palms and enticing her through Kirschs money would do the trick. The project fizzled out because it was based on egos and Zilles racial stereotypes about blacks and was never based on principles! Evidently, Zille and the DA have no commitment to eradicating racism and fighting corruption, which are the cornerstone of the DA foundation - white corruption and racism. >> Jackson Mthembu is an ANC NEC member and ANC National Spokesperson
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 17:34:48 +0000
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