The ANC’s failure to lead has made it easy for voters in the next elections. The masses will reward its lack of leadership with punishment at the polls. The party’s failure to rein in and fire its corrupt elites is a choice the party has made: a choice of its morally bankrupt and clueless leadership over the people it once served.
It seems to be centuries ago that the party of Oliver Tambo, Lilian Ngoyi and Albert Luthuli was the undisputed leader and guiding light of the progressive, freedom-starved masses.
Yet Albertina Sisulu and Joe Slovo, for example, walked this earth until relatively recently. Today the ANC is not even a shadow of its former self. The visionary leadership of Tambo has been replaced by the criminal hand of the nation’s rulers in Saxonwold.
The fortunes of the masses are being transformed in the direction of Zimbabwe and Venezuela
When the leadership collective met in Pretoria last weekend the bravery formerly associated with the party of Solomon Mahlangu, who gave up his life in the service of the people, was absent. Nowhere to be seen was the valour of the Zulu warriors who confronted and defeated the sophisticated royal armies with not much more than spears and knobkerries.
Yet those assembled were the comrades and descendants of proud freedom fighters, from uBhambatha kaMancinza to Chris Hani. King Hintsa’s headless skeleton must be turning in its grave.
Instead, those assembled there have such an exaggerated sense of their own value that they neither hear nor see the poverty-stricken wailing of their own constituencies. They are blinded and deafened by the sirens of their speeding blue-light vehicles. The music blaring from their shiny German automobiles soothes their troubled souls. It tells them all is well in the land.
Yet SA has the highest unemployment rate in the world, after that other republic to the north of us, led by the revolutionary Robert Mugabe.
The masses are again thirsty for freedom. This time they yearn for freedom from the bondage of corruption; for freedom from tyranny and poverty. And the poverty is of both the stomach and of leadership. The masses are thirsting for freedom from their erstwhile liberators. Thus they are seeking new leadership.
It is hoped that such leadership will bring the masses freedom from economic bondage. These are the masses who sit daily in despair while their country is being carted off in bags to Dubai and they are being asked to hold on to the dream of radical economic transformation.
Meanwhile, the economic fortunes of the leadership are being transformed for the better — at dizzying speeds. The fortunes of the masses are being transformed in the direction of Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Marching, singing and dancing at the front of this battalion are such men and women as Jacob Zuma, Malusi Gigaba and Nomvula Mokonyane. These worthies, and other comrades who have failed to provide leadership, will be left holding on to a dead party that represents the new oppressors.
A party of bandits
Fortunately, the next election is only 24 months away. Now that the party of freedom and progress has become the party of bandits, the masses shall find leadership among themselves — leadership to take them to the promised land of economic freedom.
Those among the current rulers who remained silent, or whispered their disapproval, shall be subjected to the harsh judgment and revolution of the masses. Choosing Zuma and his inner circle over the nation is the betrayal of the centuries-old ideals for which their very party came into existence. As our ancestors punished such witchcraft with death, the masses shall punish this witchcraft of the leaders with their political demise.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.