The other day I met this ardent ANC member at the local municipal offices and he seriously proposed that I consider joining the ANC. He sugar coated his proposal – calling it my coming back home.
My question to him was quick, sarcastic and unambiguous. Which faction must I side with after joining the ANC? His answer was: I must just be neutral. Then I realized that “my dear friend” doesn’t know me that well. I have not stood on any fence in my adult life on anything and I wasn’t about to do that by joining the ANC.
FACTIONALISM: The ANC has imploded as a result of power struggles to access state coffers and then dish out patronage. The honeymoon after Polokwane lasted for a few months and then the marriage of convenience imploded. Today in some Provinces we have parallel structures of the ANC and all claiming legitimacy and true representative of the people. But “people” in this instance is pretentious and used opportunistically by the factions to mask their malice.
The text books saga in Limpopo is somewhat to be blamed on factionalism. To an extent, I believe Education is being sabotaged to render Zuma’s government useless. To an extent – the millions looted by some in Limpopo is today utilized to fan factionalism, anarchy and tribalism in the ANC.
The Marikana debacle has exposed - a dysfunctional ANC is contagious to the government. The ANC blames everybody except itself for its ineptitude, unfulfilled promises and factionalism. The so-called shack farms in Rustenburg mushroomed under ANC radar. I’m not going to absolve the mining houses, but ANC bled Rustenburg municipality has to shoulder most of the blame for allowing the town to degenerate into a shanty town and a hub for anarchists. The Municipality and the Provincial government are just faction ridden, overwhelmed, incompetent and incapable to make plans, effect them and be influential in the ongoing mining saga.
Polokwane heralded an invasion of the ANC by political delinquents, misfits with unsurpassable greed, opulence and opportunism. But these were encouraged and showered with accolades, but it soon dawned on some opportunistic praise-singers - their idol(s) were but just political scavengers and foreign agents.
The call to destabilize Botswana by ANCYL was nothing but a Mugabe bidding. And what would the youth of RSA have attained by being a proxy of a foreign government?
LAWLESSNESS: Since 1994 to date, more than R600bn has been squandered by the ANC misled government. RSA looses R30bn to corruption per annum to corruption but this is never reported in the annual crime statistics dished by the SAPS. But all of a sudden the security apparatus would like all to believe lawlessness in this country was only conceived 4 weeks ago in Marikana and it’s theirs to crack the whip.
Corruption is entrenched in the echelons of power in Cape Town. The rot starts from the head - the President condones public representatives to also bid for tenders in government. Public Representatives are privy to outgoing tenders - insider trading is a crime in any law abiding country.
I agree with government when it labels the illegal strikes at the platinum mines as economic sabotage. But are these misguided miners the only culprits? What about the copper cable thieves? Just yesterday, the whole of Roodepoort had no power because a thief tried to steal cables from one of the sub-stations. But how many of the thieves and dealers have been successfully prosecuted to date?
The millions siphoned from the public purse is also economic sabotage and deployed ANC cadres are active or passive perpetrators. The business practices of Chancellor House an ANC company is also tantamount to institutionalized corruption. And the ANC is a beneficiary from these ill-gotten gains whenever it holds a fund-raising gig.
Some might argue that the ANC has done a lot since 1994 – I agree with reservations because it is cosmetic. The houses built after 1994 are sub-standard, crumbling today, in some cases without ablution facilities or were never finished. The Dept. of Human Settlement is to spend billions repairing or finishing shadowy work done by ANC deployed cadres. Some communities were left only with taps but not a single drip of water. Economic crimes are committed daily but show me one person who was successfully prosecuted?
I can go on and on about factionalism, tribalism and institutionalized corruption in the ANC. But at least I have many reasons why I won’t join the ANC. But it doesn’t mean I’m available to any other political formation.
I’m gatvol with party politics!
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
