ANC's 15 years of lies - Boesak

[Rudolph]

ANC's 15 years of lies - Boesak (http://www.news24.com/News24/Elections/News/0,,2-2478-2479_2503495,00.html)
18/04/2009 21:10


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7774/05527allanboesak.jpg

Cape Town - The ANC has been lying to South Africans ever since 1994, Cope's premier candidate for the Western Cape Allan Boesak said on Saturday.

Addressing about two thousand supporters at a rain-spattered party rally in Khayelitsha, he said Cope would deal with the ANC the same way "that we did to PW Botha".

The ANC had been telling people for 15 years that it was ordained by God to be in power forever, but those days were over.

"Fifteen years of being lied to is too long," he said.

"Next Wednesday we will say that 15 years of suffering, after the suffering of apartheid, is 15 years too long."

He said he had told ANC president Jacob Zuma how little had changed in that period, and how the ANC had "betrayed the dreams of our people".

Zuma had not taken part in the United Democratic Front marches of the 1970s and 80s, when people confronted the police, their dogs and their teargas and turned South Africa "upside down".

No threat; 'little warning'

"And I said to him, with the Congress of the People, that's what we will do. We will take this country and we will turn it upside down so that power be given back to the people."

Boesak said he was not threatening anybody, just giving a "little warning".

"We'll do the same to them that we did to [apartheid-era state president] PW Botha, and see where he is now."

Speaking to journalists afterwards, he also drew parallels between the ANC and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

He said Mugabe had begun his descent into despotism by dismembering the judiciary, making light of the Constitution and manipulating the institutions of democracy.

Those were all the danger signs already visible in South Africa.

"It would be utterly foolish for us to think that that would not be a reality in South Africa if you leave the ANC [in power].

"And the arrogance that is displayed by the ANC in the way that it abuses its power and the way it disregards the needs of the people is exactly the kind of arrogance that we saw in Mr Mugabe."

Earlier, Cope deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa told the rally that the period of the ANC's deployment of party loyalists regardless of ability would end on election day.

The reason houses stood unfinished was that the contracts were given to "friends" with no capacity to deliver.

"That we have to bring to an end," he said.


- SAPA

---

Allan Boesak is crazy. He waited a few days before joining COPE, until God could personally inform him of the correct decision. He also went to jail for stealing money from government projects for poor people, tisk, tisk. Now he's against the ANC suddenly. Ah, well. He's a politician.

Come 22 April our next election will take place. This will be a very important one. We cannot beat the ANC yet, but this might just turn out to be their poorest performance since 1994, we all really hope so...

[Henry's Fork]

The ANC has been lying to South Africans and the world ever since 1994

Fixed and QFT!

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

Interestng Rudolph, thanks.

Isn't the dominant party in Cape Town something other than the ANC?

[Rudolph]

Interestng Rudolph, thanks.

Isn't the dominant party in Cape Town something other than the ANC?

Well, the mayor, Helen Zille, is from the Democratic Alliance (DA). But I think the ANC won the Western Cape, just by an inch. But the DA controls all the "white" and coloured areas. And it's quite possible that the whole Western Cape will come under the DA's proven leadership after this election. Problem is, the blacks who live here are not native to the area, so they are not that well established, living in squatter camps, etc. So, they see little change, but they won't vote for the DA either! It's a mentality that's only gonna change over the next generation or so.

[Skukuza]

We will see what happens on the 22nd.
Zuma, the zot keeps singing his machinegun song, who is he metaphoricaly using it against?... hmmm.
The oldschool ANC men and Women are relics of the past and when you have super asshole winnie mandella lined up to be in your cabinet, well then you just know the place is going to ****.
Zuma should just do the honorable thing and step out, after being implicated in rape and corruption charges how can anyone realy trust the man, oh hang on they seem to trust winnie.
I will be voting for the Freedom Front, no need to hide that, even though they will probably not even get a seat.
:-*$:bash::fork: the anc!!!

[DanteXavier]

I say give it time, and the ANC will screw itself. All unjust regimes come to a sudden and decisive end. The Apartheid regime did before this and the ANC will follow. SA won't have to worry about becoming Zimbabwe.

[Rudolph]

We have the natural resources, population size, and location to be a superpower... That's what I want for this country by 2050.

...wakes up!

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ANC could fall down (http://www.news24.com/News24/Elections/News/0,,2-2478-2479_2503711,00.html)
19/04/2009 08:24

Lizel Steenkamp and Jacob Rooi

Johannesburg - The mighty ANC could lose its two-thirds majority on Wednesday when more than 23 million South Africans will be voting in what is seen by many as the most important election since 1994.

Political experts believe that the DA leader, Helen Zille (http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=3528), will become the Western Cape premier, in a coalition government with other parties.

Judith February (http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=4858) from Idasa even thinks it could be possible for the DA to win a majority in the province.

Political analyst Audrey Matshiqi and journalist Max du Preez (http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/Pages/profilefull.aspx?IndID=5077) both reckon the ANC could be facing their weakest result since 1994. They think the ruling party currently has about 62-64% support.

Another commentator, Alistair Sparks, believe it to be even weaker, at between 56% and 60%.

It is not clear to what extent the new party Cope, has the support of the South African people. Some believe it to be between 5 and 10% of the vote.

The influential Time magazine carried an article saying that for the first time, the ANC was not guaranteed a good result, as its popularity, members and moral authority was declining.

[Dinges]

I say give it time, and the ANC will screw itself. All unjust regimes come to a sudden and decisive end. The Apartheid regime did before this and the ANC will follow. SA won't have to worry about becoming Zimbabwe.


Yep. The ANC will engineer their own downfall. But in the meantime through their corruption and mismanagement many a poor citizens are going to fall through the cracks. And do not think SAfricans are going to change their point of view regarding politics overnight.

It took fifteen years to get to this point.

[Rudolph]

Yep. The ANC will engineer their own downfall. But in the meantime through their corruption and mismanagement many a poor citizens are going to fall through the cracks. And do not think SAfricans are going to change their point of view regarding politics overnight.

It took fifteen years to get to this point.

Can realistically take another 15 years...

[Lazer]

come on cope is nothing more than half the trash from the anc. replacing the anc with cope achieves nothing its the same corruption, mismanagement and bull just with a different name. i'm voting DA simpley because Hellen is the only person with balls enough to get up and say "if you dont want zuma to be president vote DA" the other position parties are all led by people cowed by the anc.

[stevej]

I looked this guy up on wikipedia. According to wikipedia he was pardoned by the president only a four years after being released from jail. Is this common in South Africa for pardons to be granted so quickly?

Or was the guy probably innocent of the crime? In which case can't you appeal a conviction in South Africa?

[Dinges]

I looked this guy up on wikipedia. According to wikipedia he was pardoned by the president only a four years after being released from jail. Is this common in South Africa for pardons to be granted so quickly?

Or was the guy probably innocent of the crime? In which case can't you appeal a conviction in South Africa?

He was as guilty as sin. The pardoning joke all depends on your struggle credentials.

[Rudolph]

Brilliant article!

stevej, guilty, he was(is!)...
---

Another post-colonial country
(http://www.news24.com/News24/Columnists/Prince_Mashele/0,,2-1630-2472_2503003,00.html)17/04/2009 15:30 - (SA)

Prince Mashele

In the maddening vortex of electioneering, it is perhaps the right time to welcome all of you to another normal post-colonial country, South Africa! But what makes us deserve this prestigious title of a special kind of normality?

In a normal post-colony, it is particularly the most naïve who have faith in politics. Without publicly declaring, informed citizens deflate their previously inflated confidence in politics as a mirror of society's collective ideals. It is generally those who are close to ruling parties who think that nothing is wrong with their country's politics.

Such people are usually baffled why there are people in society who see politics as a theatre of kleptocrats, even though the evidence of embezzlement of public funds is widely known. Ask Kenyans, Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Cameroonians and many others, they will laugh at you when you parade hollow exceptionalism.

But those who are not willing to deceive themselves can easily tell that the excitement and hope generated by the early days of independence in a normal post-colony is no more. Typically, ruling parties in such countries try their best to rekindle heroic memories of liberation struggles as a source of political legitimacy and continued support.

Where the state is yet to become fully brutish, intellectuals who dare critique ruling parties are immediately labelled and given names even their fathers and mother do not know. Or they would constantly be warned by genuine and mischievous sympathisers to tone down their audacity in order to avert danger or material marginalisation.

Normal, earthly beings

When entering a normal post-colony, you are likely to be shocked that, unlike a few years ago, politicians are no longer viewed as angels or messiahs. They are seen as normal, earthly beings who can easily be corrupted and who should not be judged on the basis of standards that are above those that apply to ordinary citizens. Instead of alleviating poverty, it becomes clearer that politicians are actually capable of deepening poverty.

If you insist on integrity as a cardinal principle of leadership, you would be dismissed as someone who is trying to introduce foreign values. In such normal post-colonial countries, politicians have no shame in parading all sorts of hypocrisies. They would stand before big rallies and tell supporters why it is important never to Europeanise Africa.

Yet the politician himself is wearing an Italian suit; or he has just returned from an unforgettable holiday in Paris; or he has a special collection in his house of the finest Scotch whisky. As the politician continues to prattle on about why Africans should remain authentically African, a huge convoy of threatening German cars awaits to take him to his next rally where he will deliver the same revolutionary message.

Indeed, nothing that characterises a post-colony is untypical of ancient societies elsewhere. In his magisterial book, Power, acclaimed philosopher Bertrand Russell takes our memories to early centuries, long before the normal post-colony even became a colony:


Greek history is peculiar in the fact that ... the influence of tradition was extraordinarily weak ... there was almost no political morality ... No Spartan could resist a bribe. Throughout Greece, it was useless to object to a politician on the ground that he took bribes from the King of Persia, because his opponents also did so if they became sufficiently powerful to be worth buying.
Dangerous tendencies

Yes, post-colonial countries in many ways mirror the backwardness of ancient societies. Who among us can dispute that bribery and corruption have become the sinews of South Africa's body politic today? Even as party manifestoes promise to fight corruption, few in our society attach sincerity to those who make the commitments.

Such dangerous tendencies as tribalism and ethnicity become useful explanatory tools in understanding the politics of normal post-colonial societies. From time to time, a so-called high-profile member of political party A would resign and join party B citing tribalism among the principal reasons behind his resignation. In his magnum opus, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon actually did warn us:


We no longer see the rise of a bourgeois dictatorship, but a tribal dictatorship. The Ministers, the members of the cabinet, the ambassadors and local commissioners are chosen from the same ethnological group as the leader, sometimes directly from his family.
To confirm that you are indeed in a normal post-colony, you only need to look at the omnipotence and omnipresence of ruling parties in relation to society. A successful businessman is not one who works hard, but the one who gets deals through connections and blessings from the ruling party. University appointments are also not delinked from party headquarters. Intellectuals would be seen making an effort to please those who have power, even if it means completely destroying their reputation and integrity.


At a community level, a post-colonial state is more visible through the police when there is unrest. When there are potholes on the road, you would suspect that you are living in a government-less society; nobody fixes anything!

When you go to a government office for service, you will stand for long hours in snaky queues while an official is noisily sipping coffee or irritatingly sharing a joke with a buddy over the phone. If you dare suggest ethics and professionalism, you will, again, be dismissed as the corrupter of African authenticity.

Absence of inspirational leadership

In a normal post-colony, hardworking and dedicated civil servants are frustrated because they have come to accept that there is little they can do to change the politically polluted culture that prevails.

In the absence of inspirational leadership from politicians, these public servants only go to work because they need those salaries to maintain their families. The guys who really have a good time are party cadres. As Frantz Fanon again reminds us:


[T]he fact of being a party militant means that you take the short cut to gain private ends, to hold a post in the government, step up the ladder, get promotion and make a career for yourself.
In a normal post-colony, elections are nothing more than a means to legitimise patronage and corruption. Beneficiaries of patronage are the most energetic in political campaigns and the most generous in contributing money for the success of their preferred political parties.

They ask themselves "If my party does not win, how am I going to pay for my German car, my Scotch whisky and my for European-style town house or mansion?"

Few politicians genuinely think of society. Anyone who thinks this does not apply to South Africa should go and read party manifestos and come back to inform us which party manifesto addresses the following question: what will South Africa look like in twenty, thirty, fifty or hundred years? Most of our politicians chiefly interested in the next five years; to get rich as soon as they can, and sink society deeper and deeper into destitution!

Time for a welcome

In a normal post-colony, to be poor is to be cursed! In a normal post-colony, the public dwindles and the private thrives. In a normal post-colony, merit is throttled and imbecility greatly rewarded. In a normal post-colony, revolutionary songs are more popular that sound ideas. In a normal post-colony, no politician will say "Let's declare war against ignorance and illiteracy."

In a normal post-colony, to have state power is to have an instrument through which you can deal with real and imagined political enemies. In a normal post-colony, critical areas of the economy such as agriculture and manufacturing only receive rhetorical support.

So, as you sharpen your pencil to go and make a cross on April 22, it is perhaps the right time to welcome all of you to a normal post-colonial country, South Africa!

-Mashele is Head of Crime, Justice and Politics Programme at the Institute for Security Studies. He writes in his personal capacity.

[muck]

It's sad to see which giant chances have been blown after the South African people peacefully overturned the Apartheid system...

[Rudolph]

...and then the world favorite, Mandela, showed up in support of the ANC at their last pre-election rally today. :roll:

[Skukuza]

It will always be a dream thinking the country would turn out happy.
Just take a look at the theft from hospitals, no food, or blankets in them, bring your own if you need to be admitted and its a government hospital, then dont count on your chances of a speedy recovery.
The world cup football has taken precidence now over any thought of fixing what has been broken since majority rule and the anc are bending over backwards to host an event that the country does not need or can afford.

[Rudolph]

Mandela will get my undying and ever-lasting respect the day he leaves the ANC. It should not be a negative reflection on him, but a true show of character, that even after all he went through, he admits that things went wrong, horribly wrong. There isn't anyone else like him in the party, and he could take a lot of support away from the ANC by doing this... but he's decided to stay with them to the end it seems.

[Dinges]

It will always be a dream thinking the country would turn out happy.
Just take a look at the theft from hospitals, no food, or blankets in them, bring your own if you need to be admitted and its a government hospital, then dont count on your chances of a speedy recovery.
The world cup football has taken precidence now over any thought of fixing what has been broken since majority rule and the anc are bending over backwards to host an event that the country does not need or can afford.

My local government hospital got stolen last year.p-)

[baboon6]

My local government hospital got stolen last year.p-)

What? The whole thing? Where do you live?

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

Well, the mayor, Helen Zille, is from the Democratic Alliance (DA). But I think the ANC won the Western Cape, just by an inch. But the DA controls all the "white" and coloured areas. And it's quite possible that the whole Western Cape will come under the DA's proven leadership after this election. Problem is, the blacks who live here are not native to the area, so they are not that well established, living in squatter camps, etc. So, they see little change, but they won't vote for the DA either! It's a mentality that's only gonna change over the next generation or so.

Very informative, thank you sir.

[Dinges]

What? The whole thing? Where do you live?

It was to be demolished anyway to make space for a new one. But there was a lot of rumours and hushed voices doing the rounds about facts and figures on how the funds to demolish it was spent.

[Skukuza]

Mandela will get my undying and ever-lasting respect the day he leaves the ANC. It should not be a negative reflection on him, but a true show of character, that even after all he went through, he admits that things went wrong, horribly wrong. There isn't anyone else like him in the party, and he could take a lot of support away from the ANC by doing this... but he's decided to stay with them to the end it seems.
Very interesting thought.
It would be a thing to see if he left the anc and went to the DA for eg, how many anc supporters would shift their alegience.
However that being said, Mandella has become the ultimate patriarch for the party, a party that is so big that the country is no longer democratic.

[baboon6]

Very interesting thought.
It would be a thing to see if he left the anc and went to the DA for eg, how many anc supporters would shift their alegience.
However that being said, Mandella has become the ultimate patriarch for the party, a party that is so big that the country is no longer democratic.

Even if he wanted to leave, which I very much doubt, do you think Zuma and Malema would let him?

[Skukuza]

I dont think he would be forced to stay on but he would never leave, he is the modern symbol of the anc, it would be like trying to change your rugby club alegience. I'm a Gauteng Lions fan but dearly wish I was a Bulls fan, they just win more.

[baboon6]

I dont think he would be forced to stay on but he would never leave, he is the modern symbol of the anc, it would be like trying to change your rugby club alegience. I'm a Gauteng Lions fan but dearly wish I was a Bulls fan, they just win more.

You poor bastard!

I've supported the Bulls ever since I started watching rugby (why you ask, would an Engelsman living in Joburg support the Bulls- well I grew up in Rustenburg where I believe it is still illegal not to support the Bulls, and went to high school in Pretoria).

To get back on topic, well, people change political parties all the time, at least in some countries. I do agree with you though, Mandela leaving the ANC wouldn't happen, it would almost be admitting his life's work has been a failure- and noone really wants to do that.

[Skukuza]

I agree.
Lets see what happens on Wednesday, the out come is already decided but more to the point will they make changes to the constitution? and how will it effect the country if they do?

[Rudolph]

I just did my bit to fight the scourge of the ANC... now I pray.

[baboon6]

Just voted...3 and a half hours in the queue! Worth it though...

[baboon6]

I agree.
Lets see what happens on Wednesday, the out come is already decided but more to the point will they make changes to the constitution? and how will it effect the country if they do?

If the primacy of the Constitutional Court is done away with (and Zuma has talked about this) and the ANC can pass any law it wants, we might be in for a rough ride.

What is probably going to happen is the worst kind of populism. Take the example of the new bus system which is/was about to be implemented for Joburg, which would be a major improvement for public transport, and the taxi drivers' strike against it...now Zuma is saying it should be "re-examined". Bugger what makes sense, just give everyone what they want.

[Dinges]

Voted at eleven this morning. Absolute torture. The couple behind me talked nonstop for an hour and a half about their favourite cheeses.

[Lazer]

What is probably going to happen is the worst kind of populism. Take the example of the new bus system which is/was about to be implemented for Joburg, which would be a major improvement for public transport, and the taxi drivers' strike against it...now Zuma is saying it should be "re-examined". Bugger what makes sense, just give everyone what they want.

i dont think they will really scrap it, they've put so much money into it its a sink cost. wat i think zuma said was only because it was a few days before elections. besides most of the major taxi owners have been in negotiations with government where they were given a share in the new viya reya. but certain groups were ignored for reasons i have not yet had clarified. according to the fm the rapid bus transit system should be up in its first phase by the end of may(i'm not sure if they still on schedule), with continous additions being made in a phasing system. its supposed to work as an experiment for most other major cities in sa including capetown and durban to be completed just before or soon after the world cup.

the guy who set up the system in cambodia where it has been extremely successful and where the obstacles involved were almost identical to the ones in sa was hired to initiate it in gauteng. and from what i've heard him say, there doesnt seem to be any indication that the outcome will be any different to the outcome in cambodia.