The world was watching South Africa closely when the 1994 elections took place. They were waiting for violence, murder and mayhem to take place. But luckily for South African citizens, this did not happen. Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africans first black president without incident. With Madiba at the helm, the world thought that all will be fine with the future of South Africa, and how wrong they were.
And what has the ANC done for the country since they came into power since 1994?
With the world at its back, the ANC brought the 1995 Rugby World Cup to South Africa, the Cricket World Cup, the 2010 Soccer World Cup, infrastructure development, a new black middle class and upper class. They also succeeded in maintaining a reasonable economic policy under Trevor Manual. Social grants were implemented that supports a couple of million of the countries citizens. They rolled out equal education across the country for all the children to be able to get an education. Equal access to the national health system for all, including ARV’s for AIDS patients.
With the fall of the National party from grace and the subsequent destruction of the party, their then leader, Martinus van Schalkwyk is still a member of parliament to this day.
The country became part of the UN again after being out for many years and became a member of the BRICS nations. Yes, the ANC being the ruling party did some good things that they parade throughout the world. South Africa did not burn to the ground as many predicted before the 1994 elections.
Now let us have a look at some of the good points that the ruling party did for the country.
1: Education. Equal education for all the children of the country. All well with that except that the standard of the primary and secondary education has fallen so far down the drain that tertiary institutions need to re-educate the potential students that passed the grade 12 exam without being able to read or write properly. A quota system brought into some of the education institutions so that potential future doctors, accountants cannot get accepted to some of the universities because of their skin colour although their grades far exceeded that of some of the accepted students.
2: Social Grants. An unsustainable norm that 5 million tax payers fund 15 million grants beneficiaries. There is a grant for being a military veteran, but only if you belonged to the ANC’s MK and not the pre 1994 National military service.
There is a grant for every child that you as a woman bring into the world, yet, there is no control over the way the monies are spent. Woman drop their children off with the grandparents and use the grant monies for everything except the children as granny is receiving an old age pension from the state.
There are grants for this and there are grants for that as long as you are black.
3: Medical access: The national state run medical facilities were once the pride of the country. Today, the hospitals look like back street clinics that are dirty and if one gets treated at these hospitals for one ailment, it is almost guaranteed that you would have picked up at least another ailment from the lack of hygiene and patient care. Patients are being raped, incorrect procedures performed and just the lack of patient care is absolutely disgusting.
The ARVs bring with it its own problems. Yes, the AIDS patients need to stay productive in society as long as possible and I fully support letting patients live life to the fullest does not matter the reason for their illness. What I have a problem with is that the country now has in excess of 5 million AIDS orphans, some contracted AIDS from their parents, and some are clean because of the ARV’s. It is not the children’s fault that they are born to parents that die from AIDS, it is the parents fault for not taking responsibility with their sexual urges and still procreates although they know that they can die at any time because of their illness.
4: Infrastructure: Billions were spent on the upgrading of the infrastructure around Gauteng in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World cup, Now that the debt is due to the companies that did the upgrading; suddenly the government want to impose tolls on the said upgraded roads. There should be a well maintained alternative route for every toll road according to the legislation, but alas, the alternative roads throughout the country are in such a bad state that the roads would need to be ripped up and built from scratch again in some parts. Potholes as big as cars can be experienced on some of the roads if not careful. The infrastructure is collapsing when tenders are granted to Black owned companies that do not have the experience in building or maintaining roads.
Billions are being spent on the power infrastructure of the country, yet delays happen because of industrial action. The economy of the country is being placed in jeopardy because of industrial action at the manufacturing sectors, mining sectors, commercial sectors, military sectors and residential sectors because the poor want everything for free as the ANC government promised to them before the 1994 elections. The so called strikes are getting more violent and soon there will be anarchy in the country.
The ruling party is directly responsible for the majority of the strikes in the country because the deployment of cadres is of greater importance than the deployment of qualified and able people regardless of their skin colour. Treasuries are being abused and stolen by the cadres without regard for their oath to the office that they serve.
The ANC pose a we managed country to the world and therefore the world believes that South Africa is a land of prosperity, yet the unemployment is rising, foreigners flood the country because their countries are being mismanaged, violence is ramped, health systems are failing, illiteracy is on the rise, population disgust with the government is rising, total mismanagement on local, provincial and national levels are being experienced and the food security is in jeopardy because of the land redistribution policies. The country can still be turned around if a worthy “leader” is elected that people respect. A leader that place the country before his or her own agenda and wealth. South Africa needs a government that can run the country like a business and not a personal piggy bank.
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