DIE REGIME DUI “KOERS” AAN IN DIE “KRISIS”!

Enkele uittreksels uit die Sunday Times van 8 April 2012, bevestig die standpunt van die AVP dat Swart politici nie instaat is om ‘n land te regeer wat deur blankes beskaaf en uit die grond opgebou is nie.  Let daarop dat wat aangehaal word, nie uit Blanke geledere kom nie, maar van ‘n swarte wat die verval en agteruitgang waargeneem en bereid is om dit te kritiseer.

Dit is egter meer as net kritiek. Hy beskou hulle, soos die AVP, as onbevoeg:  "We have a duty to build and develop this nation and to call to book the putative leaders who, due to sheer incapacity to deal with the complexity of 21st-century governance and leadership, cannot lead”.

Die AVP wil dit weer onomwonde stel dat daar géén manier is waarop enige kunsmatige poging van enige instansie daarin sal slaag om die Godgegewe verskynsel van  ʼn rasse verskeidenheid en daarmee saam die vermoë, die andersheid, die verkieslikheid van geskeidenheid, ongedaan sal maak nie.

  Rasverskil, het ons al by herhaling gesê,  is nie bloot  ʼn nuanse van pigmentasie wat net te maak het met die verskil in velkleur nie. Dit is diepgewortelde  kultuurverskille, gevoed deur afkoms, intellek, godsdiens, taal, en geskiedenis, wat neerslag vind in ʼn bepaalde beskawingsnorm.

Om te poog om sulke uiteenlopende verskille onder dieselfde regeringstelsel in harmonie te hou, is reeds deur die geskiedenis as wensdenkery uitgewys wat gedoem is om te misluk.  Dat swartes kan regeer is ʼn feit.  Afrika is vol voorbeelde daarvan.  Dat die fortuinsoekers wat hulle hier met ʼn geknoei aan bewind gekry het die wêreld wou wysmaak dat dit bloot rassisme was wat hulle die geleentheid ontneem het om te bewys dat hulle op dieselfde vlak as die Afrikaner kan presteer, het van meet af aan klaaglik misluk, soos voorspel was!

Die wyse waarop hulle die dilemma waarin Malema hulle gedompel het hanteer, spreek ook boekdele en kan vorentoe nog baie interessanter word! Die gebrek aan verantwoordelikheid is onderliggend aan die ongeërgdheid waarmee hulle dan saam met Zuma en dan saam met Malema op verhoë kan verskyn en dan opportunisties die kant sal kies waar dit deur omstandighede vir hulle die voordeligste sal wees. Die onderskeie verskille in etnisiteit speel hier ook nie ʼn geringe rol nie!

Daar is kennelik ook nie veel sigbare vordering met al die beloftes tydens die begroting nie.  Wat wel vinnig vooruitgaan is die gevalle van korrupsie wat bekend raak.  Dit blyk verder dat die AVP se standpunt dat Malema nie maklik van die verhoog afgevee gaan word nie, die ANC nog baie kopseer gaan besorg! 

ANC in panic mode

The politics of leadership succession have driven the party's Top 6 to try to contain divisions, write Sibusiso Ngalwa and S'thembiso Msomi

ANC leaders this week reacted with venom to stinging criticism from Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza.

In his chairman's statement, contained in the latest Nedbank annual report, the respected business executive berated the country's political leadership, saying its "moral quotient is degenerating" and, as a result, South Africa is "fast losing the checks and balances that are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the past".

He made a strong call for citizens to defend constitutional democracy from a "strange breed of leaders" who are "determined to undermine the rule of law" and override the country's founding document.

"We have a duty to build and develop this nation and to call to book the putative leaders who, due to sheer incapacity to deal with the complexity of 21st-century governance and leadership, cannot lead.

. What I can tell you about him? He is actually on the wrong platform; he must talk about business and Nedbank, in particular, thank you very much," Mantashe said before swiftly moving to the next question.

It was a classic Mantashe response to criticism - playing the man, rather than addressing the issues raised.

Yet nothing could have better demonstrated Khoza's point about the state of the country's political leadership than the press conference that Mantashe was addressing.

In an unprecedented move, the ruling party's national officials - who are commonly known as the Top 6 - convened an extraordinary press conference to dispel perceptions of deep divisions among them.

But very few among the millions of South Africans who followed the briefing live on television and radio would have been convinced.

The Top 6 is made up of President Jacob Zuma; his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe; Mantashe; deputy secretary-general Thandi Modise; national chairman Baleka Mbete; and treasurer-general Mathews Phosa.

This is the most politically influential leadership collective in the country, as Top 6 members are key in deciding important ruling party deployments within government and other public institutions.

So, when an alert was sent out to the media on Monday afternoon announcing that the Top 6 would be having a press briefing the following day, there was widespread speculation as to what it was going to be about.

Top 6 officials do not appear together at a press conference unless they are addressing a matter of extreme national importance.

But, as Mantashe began reading out the Top 6's prepared statement at Luthuli House on Tuesday afternoon, it became clear that the matter of national importance was none other than Julius Malema, the now suspended president of the ANC Youth League.

Malema has been running rings around Zuma and his leadership team, plunging them from one crisis to another with his divisive statements.

With Luthuli House hauling him before its disciplinary structures in a bid to rein him in, Malema had upped the game by exploiting perceived differences among Top 6 members.

Two weeks ago, the youth league invited Motlanthe to a mass rally in Nkowankowa, in Limpopo, as part of the league's celebrations of the ANC's 100th anniversary.

But Malema and other league members soon turned the rally into an informal Motlanthe presidential campaign launch, with T-shirts bearing Motlanthe's face being distributed to the crowd.

Although Motlanthe chastised the crowd for the T-shirts, the rally was widely reported as his endorsement of the league's campaign.

A week later, Malema was sharing the stage with Phosa at a public lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand. The youth league leader used the platform to publicly denounce Zuma as an intolerant "dictator".

The two incidents left many within and outside the ANC wondering if the Top 6 members were still pulling in the same direction as the party prepares for its Mangaung conference.

"We wish to state at the outset that the national officials of the ANC are at one with regard to any matters of discipline within the ANC, as well as action taken, as informed by the ANC constitution. We remain loyal to all decisions we were part of," Mantashe told the press conference.

In a move choreographed to demonstrate unity, Mantashe would give all of his Top 6 colleagues an opportunity to answer questions related to the statement at the briefing.

only the naive would deny that Malema and the underground lobbying for positions that has started ahead of Mangaung were straining relations among the ANC's top brass.

Instead of demonstrating unity, the press briefing seemed more like a desperate attempt by Luthuli House to reclaim the ground it had lost because of Malema.

"Electricity prices up, fuel prices up, e-tolling a burning issue, service delivery protests all over, [yet] the officials are calling a press conference for what they consider to be a serious matter, and they are leaving out all these vexing questions

… despite all the rhetoric about the need to create "decent jobs" and tackle inequality, little energy is being expended on these issues.

Instead, the politics of leadership succession has so engulfed the highest echelons of the country's most dominant political party that the Top 6 are now battling to contain divisions exposed by Malema.

Redaksie