The ANC’s perception of democracy is terrifying

It is my belief that democracy is failing in South Africa, and the reason for this is two-fold: first, the incumbent government’s perception of democracy is out of kilter with the traditional meaning, and secondly, the voting public is largely politically immature.

Before I get stuck into this little rant, let me be clear that when I talk about the ANC, I am referring to the fat-cats who are at the top of the organization. That is to say, those who through an elaborate patronage system, gets a ticket to stand in the queue at the feeding trough; or to put it bluntly, the ANC politicians on national, regional and local government levels.

Over the course of 20 years of ANC rule (let’s be frank – they govern on increasingly rare occasions), I have come to realize that they have a fundamentally flawed understanding of what democracy means. Those who are ANC supporters, sympathizers and collaborators may not necessarily have the same flawed understanding – indeed many have rather romanticized notions of what democracy is – are nonetheless complicit in the failure of the system by virtue of their association with this organization.

The traditional meaning of democracy is according to one source, government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. There is off course that famous line from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech which most people recognize more readily “… government of the people, by the people, for the people…”

The ANC, more so by their behaviour since Jacob Zuma became the leader and President of the country, have however demonstrated a radical departure from these principles. It would seem as if their understanding of democracy is much simpler: the majority rules, or to put it sarcastically, those who get the most votes by whatever means, gets to decide what’s best for everyone.

And this folks, is how the ANC functions. Their fanatical intolerance of anything proposed by anyone outside the ANC, no matter how just or moral is shocking to behold. For them it’s the ANC way, or the highway. In pursuit of retaining total dominance and control, the ANC are willing to do just about anything – stack the judiciary, security forces, civil service and police in their favour, and railroad draconian legislation into force.

Just this week a minority party dared to ask the President a question in Parliament, which he refused to answer (which incidentally is becoming the norm; either that or replies that are obfuscated) , and they were censured by the ruling ANC. Admittedly this minority party behaved rather shabbily after the President refused to answer, but the question was valid and pertinent to the lives and well-being of the population as a whole.

The ANC’s Deputy-Secretary-General, Jessie Duarte even had the temerity to state that a party that had only garnered six percent of the vote, had no right to question a party that had managed to get sixty percent at the polls. How is this democracy? And what the fuck is a Deputy-Secretary-General anyway? It just sounds so dictatorial; belonging in a long discredited Communist era.

And let’s be fair. The ANC can hardly be considered Communist. They are just so enamoured of the bling and high lifestyle. The long-suffering public have simply lost count of the incidences of corruption involving the ANC, and have sadly become immune to new revelations which are an almost daily occurrence.

If the ANC believes they know what democracy is all about, they’re either delusional or wilfully ignorant. I hope it’s the former, because the latter suggests an agenda that has frightening consequences for this country.

Government School For Cronies

The ANC’s ability to stumble to new lows of depravity never ceases to amaze me. We watch and listen helplessly as on a daily basis they either blatantly deny their acts of corruption, nepotism and gross incompetence, excuse them by drawing out the race card or blaming their failings on apartheid.

This week Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that they will be establishing their “own government school in order to improve skills, ethics and professionalism in the public sector.” As reported in this online website:

This school will educate, train, professionalise and develop a highly capable, skilled, socially and committed public service cadreship with a sense of national duty and a common culture and ethos.

Note her own use of the term “cadreship.” If this is not an open admission that the ruling government deploys their own ANC cronies to cram public service positions, I don’t know what is. It is also a further admission that the cadres they have already deployed into key public administrative posts, have failed and require the skills which they have identified, and which they have previously denied not having.

While we have established and reputable institutes that produce trained (theoretically at least) people of all race groups, not to mention already skilled and experienced people from the business sector, the ANC will not recruit them, simply because they are intent on acquiring “yes men” who will toe the Party line first. To the ANC, service delivery has always been of secondary importance. The Party comes first.

And so now the taxpayer will have to foot the bill for this unnecessary extravagance in support of ongoing cronyism.

One can only hope that the pass mark for these cadres will not be 30%, as is the current norm in our ANC designed education system.

Today in Politics: Roasting #05

Corruption? Don’t worry, we’re on top of it

I don’t know if President Jacob Zuma smokes. But if he does, he really must be smoking some awfully good shit recently.

First he mouths off about how our un-broken constitution needs to be fixed on an annual basis [apparently because every other country in the world does it?], and now he wants us to believe that every other country in the world is monumentally stupid because they haven’t yet discovered, and exposed the corruption that goes on there.

Catch a load of this steaming pile of horse shit as quoted in Times Live, an online newspaper:

What we should remember is that South Africa is the only country that has a programme to fight corruption. It’s not being fought anywhere else.

And that’s why you can’t read about corruption in other countries. It’s a reality. South Africa has a programme to fight corruption and it is fighting it.

He must think everyone in this country are either 6-year olds’ [just listen to the childish manner in which he speaks], or total idiots for being unaware that the majority of the corruption in South Africa is being perpetrated by his own government, who are all ANC members and their cronies. The twit actually expects us to believe that his government is actively exposing corruption. He goes on:

You must be saying ‘well done government’. We’re one of the countries in the world that has a dedicated programme of fighting corruption.

No, you infantile bozo, we are saying “well done, for getting away with it for so long.” We also know that your dedicated programme is about fighting FOR corruption, not AGAINST.