Yes, mature title I know.
Anyway, after the ANC attempt at a Twitter debate yesterday I thought I’d give my position on the ANC. Let me state that the debate was one of the most useless attempts to woo voters in South African political history. All they did was choose the easy questions, it was unsctructured, filled with lies and even more rhetoric. I was not impressed. That said, good on the ANC for going into what is essentially a white boys club and holding their own. Jesse Duarte seems like a clever woman and this brings me to the ultimate point about the ANC:
The ANC have done good in the past 15 years.
There, I said the unthinkable for a white boy from the Joburg northern suburbs, I admitted that the ANC aren’t actually that bad. Despite a range of faults (which I will list off in a moment) I think it’s not all doom and gloom. This is not meant to be an ANC bashing post but more pointing out of what I dislike in the ANC. We live in a democracy and are a relatively wealthy country so I certainly cannot complain from that point of view. We could have easily devolved into a conversly apartheid state but here we are, with elections just four days away. As an example of good, on a grass roots level many people have been given housing and water, something they never had. That’s pretty decent if you ask me. Sure, they have no money or food but baby steps right?
The biggest problem, for me, though is the level of corruption and crime in our country. Lets not kid ourselves to think that corruption does not occur anywhere besides Africa but regardless it is extremely visible here and particularly endemic. In a country of such poverty it is not acceptable that money goes missing or is misapropriated. It is due to the fact that corruption in South Africa is so visible is reason enough to visibly fight it. The ANC seems to want to promote corruption and crime (I refer to white collar specifically here) by letting people like Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik free despite their convictions. In my mind saving your followers from prosecution over the rule of law and democracy is a massive, massive failing of the ANC government. This needs to end now. In the ANC Twitter debate yesterday a choice quote was that “everyone is equal before the law”, something I just cannot believe after the past few years.
The first news I saw this morning that Jacob Zuma was suing the U.K. newspaper The Guardian for an article that was written about Zuma. If Zuma goes around acting like a child, suing anyone that makes him look like a fool then isn’t it something of a self-fulfilling prophecy? The guy needs to “man up” and stop acting like a brat when someone says anything negative about him. You’re a politician, people are going to spin nasty things about you so deal with it. Do something correctly and people will remember you for the good rather than the bad. I’m happy to let go of the past and deal with the fact that Zuma was very likely wrong in the past but lets move on and go forward together. Stop acting like a fool if you don’t want to be seen like one.
Another major issue I have with the ANC is that of Cronyism. Were it not for Thabo Mbeki keeping Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburi at the minister of communication for ten years I’d be typing this on an 8 meg uncapped ADSL line rather than a prohibitively expensive 384K ADSL line with a 3 gig cap. I’ve written about this topic plenty of times before on my blog so I’m only going to touch on this but sufficed to say that the ANC’s pride and “comradeship” has invariably held this country back and that’s unnaceptable.
Jacob Zuma never got past Standard 4 and his youth league counterpart, never finished matric. While to many this clearly doesn’t seem like an issue it does to me. I want educated leaders that can lead me from some intellectual standpoint. I don’t need an Oxford educated leader such as Mbeki was (that didn’t end well) but the education level of a ten year old frankly does not appeal to me. I assume the likes of Jacob Zuma is a response from the cold, educated position of Mbeki but I based on the ten year olds I know I’m not impressed.
I hope they learn from their mistakes and finally admit to them. If the ANC had the balls to admit they’ve made mistakes and attempt to change these mistakes rather than continuing to make the same, simple mistakes then we’d be in an even stronger point than we are now. I think the ultimate politician would be one that admits they’re wrong, makes changes and rules for purposes other than their own. I can dream I suppose.
Either way, with four days left to the election I hope you all go vote and make a change in this country.
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I will certainly vote on the 22nd, but I am not sure whether my vote will make any change. It would be better if those guys were able to deliver on their promises. It’s high time they stop fighting and work on a delivery plan.