Apson Sepadi Makaung
Pretoria - The outcome of the 1994 general election was viewed by some as a democratic breakthrough.
However, after 26 years, the working class’s continuous suffering makes it clear that it is not democracy and freedom for all.
But the epoch of bourgeoisie democracy wherein draconian practices such as killings of women and corruption by politically connected elements run the show.
South Africans are empirically observing the demise of people’s hopes deriving from this.
Some people who are given responsibility to lead (government) have seen an opportunity to steal during this pandemic, have acted against the words of wisdom by Ernesto Cardenal who said “think of those who have died you represent them. They have made you their delegate, those who have died.”
When the ANC took over the government, South Africans were facing racism, sexism, tribalism, poverty, unemployment etc. Some of us thought that we were approaching a new dawn.
But now, we are being proved wrong, with challenges facing the country exacerbated by the scourge of corruption among the political elite and their cronies.
These reflect the era of “tenderisation”; if not, the new dawn of looters.
No manna from heaven will come to the people’s rescue. There is no single liberator of the people, but the struggling people across the world have the responsibility to emancipate themselves from poverty, unemployment and corruption by the ruling class.
This Covid-19 pandemic has stolen the lives of our beloved families. And it will never be forgotten.
Though it is a dangerous virus that will continue to be a concern for the people, it has also exposed the danger of tenderisation advocates.
The personal protective equipment tender scandal will continue to serve as a classic example in this regard. By the way, some of the rich in the country cannot account fully as to how they accumulated their wealth.
This still makes some of us believe that suggested lifestyle audits, especially for those occupying senior positions in government, are still relevant.
The question is why the so-called high political figures are mostly implicated in corruption?
And, is this not dialectically dismissing a notion that says rich people can be the ones leading the nation because they have money. And therefore, they cannot steal.
To me, a thug is a thug regardless of their bank balance; even if you make the person president, the person will just steal because it is their natural individual social behaviour. Similarly, a good person will remain good regardless of socio-economic conditions.
Some of the current ANC political leadership in government seem to have forgotten the revolutionary words uttered by the first black president, Nelson Mandela, who implored: “If ANC does to you what the National Party did to you, you must do to ANC what you did to National Party.”
Others will say that it is not organisations but individuals who are corrupt as if an organisation is not the organised body (collective) of individuals brought together.
There is no reason to disregard or belittle the current national outcry and question its roots, it has been proven and is an open universal truth that South Africa’s inequality and corruption has reached a peak.
It is not the working class, however, but the conduct of the present incumbents in office who are inviting mass insurrection.
Makaung is the secretary of the South African Travellers’ Safety Association and the interim provincial chairperson of the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party in Gauteng. He writes in his personal capacity.
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Pretoria News