So the ANC turns 103 today. The question I ask myself is do we have reason to celebrate or continue feeling despondent? Truth is the ANC, Africas oldest liberation movement, has reached a lot of milestones in moving South Africa forward. It has built houses for the poor (lets disregard quality for now), provided more basic needs like water and electricity to a majority of people and have provided free education to most of our disadvantaged communities (again lets disregard the quality thereof for purposes of celebrating the movement). I celebrate this ANC who despite a lot of expectations from detractors that it will, against all odds, still remains the electorates favorite at the Polls. Speaking about its successes its also only fair to speak of its short comings and these are some of the reasons Im not quiet sure if I should join in the festivities. Yes Khaya Dlangas rhetoric is somewhat correct: Its easy for the apartheid government to have been efficient because it served only 10% of the population at the expense of the 90% (paraphrased). The ANC has enjoyed this rhetoric all their governing years, blaming the apartheid government for their shortcomings, explaining that they inherited a flawed system. We forgave them and still expected they will do better but 20 years on they still using the same rhetoric. I have found the government of the liberation movement to be the most allergic organization to accountability. Its as though unaccountability is inherent in the movement and blaming the apartheid government for all its shortcomings. The blunders with the recent cases in our courts, the plunging of our parastatals (SAA, SABC, Eskom all under curatorship), Nkandla, the undermining of chapter 9 institutions (Public Protector, NPA meddling, SARS meddling, the Hawks etc). The almost 40 billion rand wastage of public funds each year and and and. I do not have to mention the obvious specifics of the above as we all know the depressing facts thereof. The ANC to me seems to be more concerned in the maintenance of poverty rather than the eradication of it. It knows that the former will keep the electorate voting for it because they will make minimalistic promises only to deliver even below the minimalist promises it has made so that the poor in this country continue to depend on them. It does not seem to concern itself with the total eradication of poverty, creating a welfare state that continues to depend on the government for its survival. If it cant come with an education system that seeks to improve the economy and livelihood of this country, why does it then not invest in taking the children of this country to some of the best schools and universities in the world to go learn skills that have worked in growing the economy of other countries and either adopting or forming new know-hows of how to grow ours. The ANC cannot continue to use the apartheid government as a yardstick to shield its failures. We cant use an old apparatus to test a completely new and different one. The ANC government must test and measure against other working democratic economies to see its progression. A perfume must be a perfume and cannot be tested against a bad smell but against the scent of other perfumes. Happy Birthday ANC, they say like wine, things should get better and mature with age and time but Im not sure that if your 103 years was wine, it would meet the standards of maturity and progression.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 08:01:24 +0000
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