Politicians have come out of their closets and can be seen all over the country spinning their yarn and making webs to ensnare the unwary and gullible. The biggest of them all are two former presidents, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, and the incumbent president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zuma, once an ANC stalwart and a Struggle veteran, has ditched the ANC and formed his own party, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP). It stunned the ANC and there has been much controversy and legal challenges over Zuma’s surprise move. Having failed in its court bid to remove him from the MKP, the ANC summoned him to Luthuli House for a disciplinary hearing.
But fearing a backlash from Zuma’s loyal supporters, it got cold feet and postponed the hearing until after the elections. The ANC couldn’t get rid of Zuma who is campaigning for his party and telling the public that if the MKP won, there would be no load shedding. Who wouldn’t want to hear that?
Then we have Mbeki who, concerned about the prospects of his ailing party in the coming elections, has hit the election trail in order to drum up support for the ANC. Yet he has been highly critical of the ANC. He was one of the more respected leaders of the country but he has changed his colours like a chameleon.
In a typical ANC fashion, he has put loyalty to his party above all else, showing that honesty, principles, moral integrity and righteousness won’t win elections. They are just a lot of claptrap. You have to be a good spin doctor to convince the electorate. Who knows if Mbeki is being paid to campaign for the ANC?
And then to top it all is Ramaphosa who, after 30 years of ANC misrule, blames apartheid for the country’s ills. Not all the inefficient, mismanaged, corrupt and dysfunctional state-owned entities, which have cost the fiscus more than R325 billion in bailouts since 2020, but that dirty old Verwoerd’s apartheid.
“Yes, my dear people, we mustn’t forget how apartheid ruined this beautiful country. We are still struggling to rectify the wrongs of this heinous crime against humanity. Our critics say that we are taking too long and dwelling too much on the past but they forget how evil apartheid was. As hard as we try, it cannot be wiped clean overnight, not even in 30 years. But we are getting there.
“Thirty years ago, you were third-class citizens, herded like cattle in compounds and segregated areas far from the white man and tasked to do only menial jobs. You couldn’t even walk on the Golden Mile.
“Look at our people now. See how they sit in the board rooms of the corporate world. Look how they live in palatial mansions in Sandton, uMhlanga and Rondebosch. And look what luxury cars they now drive! Could you do this 30 years ago? Never!
“Our enemies focus only on what we haven’t achieved; they don’t tell you what great strides we have made in levelling the playing fields. We have banished the evil monster so that you can live, work and walk freely wherever you want to.
“We have unshackled the bonds of apartheid and given you freedom. That in itself, dear people, is a great achievement. We are family. We gave birth to democracy. Will you spurn your own mother? Don’t waste your vote on the pretenders.“
T Markandan Kloof