Maile’s hero-worship of Che is misplaced

The article “Here’s an MEC to be watched” (The Star, June 6) refers.

Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation Lebogang Maile sounds like the right type of politician for SA, someone we need desperately to reverse the rot and filth that characterises the current ANC leaders and their parasitic “alliance partners”.

He sounds intelligent, down to earth and a real cool head under pressure.

He says what needs to be said and does not fluff up stories to sound more than they are.

Then I read his favourite quote is from the “hero” Che Guevara.

My enthusiasm for this man is dampened. I expected so much more from him.

Does he not know what a monster Che was?

The number of innocent civilians he had murdered under his brief and disastrous stint as head of police and finance in post-war Cuba?

Obviously not.

So I thought I would share a few more quotes from his hero, some of which he would be devastated to hear and if he is half the man he seems to be, he will rid himself of the illusion that Guevara was a hero.

“A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.”

“If the nuclear missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York.”

“I don’t need proof to execute a man, I only need proof that it is necessary to execute him.” (14 000 civilians were executed by firing squad by the beginning of the 1970s).

“The happiest days of a youth’s life is when he watches his bullets reaching an enemy.”

“You press people are injecting venom into your articles to damage the revolution. You’re either with us or against us. We’re not going to allow all the press foolishness Batista allowed. I can have you executed this very night. How about that!”

“We execute from revolutionary conviction.”

“For the masses to follow the vanguard, they must be subjected to influences and pressures of a certain intensity.”

“Don’t shoot! I’m Che! I am worth more to you alive than dead.”

“We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing!”

“In Cuba freedom is non-existent. The regime demands submission and obedience, the regime prosecutes hippies, homosexuals, free-thinkers and poets. They employ constant surveillance, control and repression!” – Canek Sanchez Guevara, Che’s own grandson.

So I wonder which other cute Guevara quotes he would like to chose from.

These are just a few and one can see what type of murdering thug this Guevara was. Maile, I hope you have the guts to look into this and rectify it.

Mark Wilson

Riviera Gardens, Sandton