Revolutionary Relay.......Revolution Betray.


I cannot help but feel some nostalgia when reading the January 8 Speech. The message contained therein, smacks of the ANC of old, The ANC that has returned to its roots and once again is able to sweep me up in the euphoria of an equalitarian struggle.

Much of the speech is very positive and places the ANC firmly back within the Framework of the NDR. Gone are the days of GEAR, at least in the rhetoric.
Such strident words as "We must make the decisive shift to meaningful economic transformation and set in motion a very deliberate programme that will ensure that the benefits of our political liberation are shared amongst all our people"
and
"This will include the deepening of empowerment of black South Africans in general. We have to live the promise of the Freedom Charter, which states amongst others, that all our people will share in the wealth of the country.

Political emancipation without economic transformation is meaningless. That is why we have to commit ourselves to economic freedom in our lifetime, and the ANC must continue to be in the forefront of that transformation"


The truth of the matter is that business, and the agents of Capital, remain firmly imbedded in the DNA of the post apartheid ANC.
Once again the ANC made special arrangements to host business and to ensure their continued support and largesse with a special function Pre-Polokwane.
Who knows what happened Post Polokwane.

What we do know is that at the same time as JZ was talking about selfless struggle the ANC was unveiling a R40M regional headquarters in Polokwane.

JZ bragged at the opening ceremony: ""They never asked, like we do in government, is there a budget for this? If they did that this building would never have been built."

And therein lays the nub of the dilemma I am left with after all the excitement of the words has died down.

The ANC, if not publicly in its speeches but silently in the Corridors of power, believe that the Path to Power, is the path to business.

ANC Leaders have enriched themselves either "Legally" via directorships in legitimate Blue Chip companies, "Semi legally" through Tenderpreneurial activities, or downright Illegally through corrupt acts.

Now that the people have identified this feeding at the trough, the Leadership deems it appropriate to divert some of this anger by reverting to "Struggle talk".

No amount of talk will ever detract from the actions of those who have been entrusted with the people’s wealth.

How for example do we allow a R500M Lease agreement to be signed with Shabangu after his company made a complete hash of a previous job to build a police station and is the subject of a police investigation of missing money from the Land Bank?
And now the cash strapped Road Accident Fund has also signed a R5m Lease with the same individual?

It beggars belief.

The complete distance between the Leadership and the struggling masses is best illustrated by the little phrase inserted in the Jan 8 speech: "Largely through the efforts of the ANC, our society has become more prosperous"

The speech goes on to acknowledge that “this prosperity has tended to replicate and intensify apartheid fault lines with notable exceptions"

Those exceptions? You guessed it.

And in a cruel double speak the speech acknowledges: "The people most affected by deepening and widening poverty and inequality have been black South Africans and most notably black rural women and young people"

So the ANC does acknowledge that there is a deepening and widening poverty and inequality. So how can they so glibly make the statement that South Africa has become more prosperous?

These are the contradictions that make me so sceptical about what the ANC profess and what they do.

There are so many hopes that rest on the shoulders of our leaders. The uneducated, the jobless and homeless masses who have no access to power other than the ANC, will continue to vote in the Hope of a better future.

The ANC remains the only hope for a better future, but alas, I fear that the better future only includes its Leadership and about 3 or 4 million lucky middle class citizens.

My hope for 2011, is that the Revolutionary Relay will not become the Revolution Betray.

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