Again I am stomping and stamping around. If it would help I would throw a couple of plates at the wall, if only it .......
The eNCA interview with Jacob Zuma, where Mr. Zuma explained to us folks, all the demos,protests and upheavals that SA is presently experiencing, are all signs that SA has a vibrant democracy, just shows how cynical and undemocratical this man really is.
That SAfricans have the right to strike and use this right, is hardly a sign of a vibrant or happy democracy. There is a democratic equation which roughly goes like this:_Good governance=the people' right to strike if they are not in agreement with the government=the state uses the most minimum of force to contain the strikes, only to ensure that property and people are not hurt.
The equation that we are seeing in SA today goes more in this direction:-Bad governance= violent strikes=police brutality is called in where poor governance failed.
We can start with unarmed Andries Tatani, demonstrating for a better life for his community,and mowed down by the SAP.Next comes Marikana. Where was the minister of mines before all this happened, where was NUMSA, the ANC's alliance partner? How could it happen that 44 miners were killed and 76 people injured? Alas, we come back to our SA equation, bad governance, violent strikes, police brutality. Sasolburg is yet another example of rotten autocratic governance,where government tried to push through it's wishes, without consulting the local people.Violent strikes, 4 people killed.The farm workers strike is no different.
The basic wage was set by the minister of labour, agreed upon by Cosatu. When the shit hit the fan, where was the the minister? Whiling away at some conference "overseas" Rule of the day, the minister must never be disturbed when she is at a five star international conference.........Here we go again ...bad governance, strikes..............etc.
Mr. Zuma cynically cherry-picked the right to strike to defend his government, carefully side-stepping the interrelated issues of governance and the state's duty to use the most minimum violence against its own people. Mr. Zuma cleverly noted that other countries also have violent strikes and demos, but artfully dodged the fact that in other countries, just one dead striker will cause political heads to roll and governments to topple. As far as I know, in all these instances, not one political head rolled!In these days of bad news, bad news, bad news, it is difficult to be cheerful as regards the future of SA.
Three cheers however for the FNB, who dared to hold up a mirror of children's eyes to the ANC. I am reminded of the vain and stupid emperor who was persuaded to go without clothes and was brought to fall by an innocent child who in all innocence, told the truth. My impression is that the ANC people do not understand history and do not read books. They would do well to cultivate these time consuming habits.
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