IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 20 YEARS SINCE OR TAMBO PASSED AWAY: GREED, CORRUPTION, MISUNDERSTANDING OF OUR DEMOCRATIC VALUES SEEM TO BE THE SOCIAL ILLS THAT WE FACE AS A NATION

In Commemoration of the 20 years since OR Tambo passed away: Greed, Corruption, misunderstanding of our democratic values seem to be the social ills that we face as a nation

As we commemorate the 20 years since Oom OR left this world today, one can take stalk on the developments of the fruits of the freedom that was envisage by leaders such as him. Where are we as a nation? Did we manage to achieve what was envisage by people such as Tambo, Hani, Biko, Kotane, Sisulu, Sobukwe and all the leaders who have died fighting for this freedom that is aimed at the development of the African mind? Have we managed to achieve the aims, goals, objectives of the Freedom Charter? Have we managed to create a better life for all? Will those who come after us really judge this generation on the fruits of our liberation struggle that we have achieved since 20 years Oom R passed away? These are some of the few questions that need our leaders to come forward and report to us about.

As we move towards the next elections in 2014, anyone born after 1994 (the born free) will be casting the vote for the first time and will want to know as to why he /she should cast his /her vote for a particular political party and parties will be judged on their performance. Since I have been involved in some of the campaigns for the leading political party in the past electoral events I am wondering as to what those volunteers will say to the public when they go for election campaigns as from next month. Yes there has been some progress in the developments in our country, the hosting of the World Cup in 2010, creating a social welfare that is aimed at the development of our communities, political stability within our country, educational opportunities for those who have been suppressed by the old regime, electrification of houses, and many more achievements that one can think of. For that, yes one may accept that there were positive achievements created in the past 20 years, but is this enough?

The challenges and social ills that we face as a nation outweighs more than the achievements gained by this government that I have raised as questions above, but this makes one to think if this freedom does benefit everyone or does it still benefit those who were in power before 1994. If you would put these on a scale like that is shown on the justice department, one may see that the negative weighs more than the positive in that, as humans we tend to judge people on the negative things that people do than the positive things, it a fact.  Even though I can see that government tries very hard to please everyone, it’s a fact that this will not be possible as we see more negative things being done by those elected to serve the interest of those who have elected them. Yesterday I tried to look at things in a sanguine view when I watched the news and at least I was confident to see the positive developments on the Soweto open tournament hosted in Soweto.

One could feel that at least something positive is coming after some negative news that I have monitored in the past few weeks or so, but as the news continued, only negative news came after that, starting by the Minister of Education and the SADTU debacle, the transport strike by SATAWU, CAR and the Minister of Defence parliamentary report, rape of young children and so on. I have then tried to figure if the current ANC leadership can manage to support the Minister of Education against the people who have voted into that position, I remembered Oom Harry’s tale of a man who needs to grow the beard and lead a church organisation and positions in the ANC as I have explained in the http://zolisamemani.blogspot.com/2013/04/where-are-we-going-to-as-nation.html. It is clear that our government has shifted from a people driven type of an institution to more of individual promotion type of institution, for only one person, our children had to lose a day because of one Minister who does not want to relinquish her position or does not want to give up her seat despite that failures that she has shown of incompetency. The current ANC administration shows that it is committing political suicide as its constituency will be pessimistic of voting the kind of leaders who have shown selfish tendencies and political purging against each other. Greed, corruption, misunderstanding of our democratic values that people such as Oom R died for seem to be the order of business day. Is this the kind of freedom that people should celebrate while there are signs of cracks in this ship that Captain Cook is sailing to messy. When you read the article on “Bayern show no Messi” on http://www.sportlive.co.za/soccer/championsleague/article8850925.ece everyone wants to know why did the couch kept on keeping Messi even though he has shown that he was not fit for the game, Barcelona shot itself on the foot, and was out gamed by Bayern while supports were singing that “we’re a team, not individuals and we play as a team” does the ANC led government also promotes individuals instead of team members?

These are some of the questions that one seeks answers for as we move towards the 2014 NPE as it will be 21 years since Hani and Tambo have died. The poor African mind seem to be the victim in all this experiences that we face as a nation, it seem the SADTU will not back up, maybe Zuma should just move her to another portfolio as it seems that she is prioritised instead of people, and allow her to move with her seat to the next political deployment. Greed and Corruption seem to be on the top of the apex for this administration, when looking at the Minister of Communications for example, the people only expect to be moved from the analog system to a digital system that will allow them the exposure to view other TV channels that will be created by this system once it becomes practical. But hey, what we only see is politics playing its part, and that should get the tender being at the centre of the debate. Both these Ministers and others should have gone through some induction of how people interests should be served first –customer relations course in their political education modules. It is only a few Ministers who can pass the test of “through the eye of the needle test” should it be implemented as it seem people tend to focus more on themselves than working for the people, “I cannot hear you!!!!!!!Can’t hear what you say, just get off that high horse and come to us so as we can hear what you are trying to say”.  What will an ordinary volunteer (some unemployed young person with no skills or formal education who will be promised to get a job once the party gets elected) say on his /her door to door campaign when asked questions about the current affairs of this administration by people who know a lot about the liberation of this country. Elected Political Leaders should not take things for granted and think that the 2014 elections will be a walk over the park, this will be a test of time as our leaders have failed us and have not considered the task at hand and then blame media for their own political onslaught that is out there like a dirty linen on the line. People will be judged for what they have done, no Brorskap business will work to the same people who have seen members of the labour movement marching down the street against the government that is becoming unpopular as the NP was during the last years of apartheid.

If it was done to apartheid, what will stop people from questioning what is happening to our nation? When looking at the Labour Relations Legislation as well, one will accept that we are a still backward nation as we are still living in the past days of bargaining, it’s 2013 for Pete’s sake, we should be moving with technology and applying ways that would benefit us as a nation, should we have this kind of bargaining system? I do not think so. While I served to assist the domestic workers on their labour relations issues, we could no longer apply the old ways of dealing with issues, we then had to apply a new template of establishing some working relations between the domestic workers and their employers and there were constant workshops that managed to benefit both the employees and the employers at the same time.  In 2013, I do not expect if I go back checking those systems, I will find the same challenges that we faced during the period I served that office, things need to have improved and a better system should be implemented. At this day and age, if we want to participate in the BRICS, we will have to withdraw or suspend our membership and focus on domestic issues that should improve the system. I am also not happy with COSATU at this stage as it was mandated to have managed to have established one union for all workers by now, all workers should be speaking with one voice and we should have bargaining tools that would be addressed in terms of the inflation rate, and the employers should not be questioning what is expected of them.  COSATU should think ways and policies that should be more worker-friendly and address labour issues, while also taking things like global economic crush into cognisance. The strike on SATAWU will be justified if one looks at the parities that are there between people who are called investors whose mission is only to take as much from the resources and pay as less as they can for those referred to as the proletariat (working class).

We should be balancing the investor confidence while also ensuring that we do not promote slave type of workers but workers who will have a stake of their labour, employees should be encouraged to buy shares in companies that they work for so as they can feel as part of the establishment. COSATU made a mistake to think for workers in buying shares at companies that the leadership thought was good investment for COSATU and not workers, look at AMCU from the mining sector who have felt that NUM was no longer representing their needs and can you blame them. If our labour or the working class will be a working class and a player at the same time, something will not work. The leadership of the labour movement cannot have financial interests in the same sector that they represent workers on, you can never be a referee and a player at the same time, chose one. While bargaining for the interest of workers, others representing government but being leaders of COSATU, it defeats the very same purpose of bargaining. If Sdumo Dlamin could emulate leaders such as John Gomomo in this struggle of the working class and stop focusing on finding things that would justify the call by the so called investors whom they sit and dine with after meetings, they should start representing the interest of workers as John Gomomo did when he refused to work for the Mandela administration to focus on building the COSATU we now see today. What will be their argument if they were offered an opportunity to sit in BRICS platforms? What agenda will be served, but coming back to the topic at hand, at this day and age, COSATU need to focus on looking at the interests of the working class and establish a system or template that should be of benefit to both the employers and the working class and avoid what we see happening today, as it is happening in the transport sector.

The workers has a right to strike for salaries that should be competitive enough for them to support their children, “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. The gap between the employer and the worker seem to be something that should be negotiated by all so as we can have stability in these sectors, it cannot be justified to have people who earn R100 000 per month while those who work for them only earn less than R10 000, it does not make sense. There are no benefits for the children of these workers, is there a bursary scheme for their children? It cannot be justified as well if you have workers who just go on strike when they feel like going to strike without considering the economic conditions that the global village if facing of the meltdown that was experienced in the past few years, the negotiations should balance both conditions.

The government seem to be setting up commissions of enquiries that are not useful or of benefit to those in need but are structures created to benefit those that are also earning huge salaries, look at Marikana case for example, who is benefiting there? If all these monies were given to ordinary poor people who are victims of this Marikana and government could have just accepted responsibility and just paid the families that have lost their loved ones. What will the Commission on fitness test benefit? Families of those that were killed during this exercise should be compensated and let people move on with their lives. It is an exercised aimed at delaying what is due to Cesar, give him what is due to him and stop wasting taxpayers money on things that do not need a rocket scientist but only men and women who can recommend to those in power to just pay what is due, but hey, it is greed for example that led to Commissioner Phiyega to accept a responsibility in which she knew that she was not competent of. Politics is a dirty game, and if you do not want to be dirty, do not play in this game and just accept the way life is for you, she should have rejected the offer from SAPS. Will those who have their loved ones in Marikana vote for Ramaphosa should he stand for elections? Was Phiyega not aware that before she came to that office, we had Fivaz, Selebi and Cele with the last two not have succeeded their political appointments due to the hot seat? When looking at these developments one notices that if Phiyega was not greed, she should have been settled in her position and would not had the stress she is now facing that involves political deployment and setup, she must dance to the music because it’s her money on the slot machine. It is now clear that this position should be offered to someone who know the ins and outs of police work and not just give it some academic who you think will comply and be able to establish a template that will work for that department.

Though I have mentioned above in the past blogs that I want something positive, to write about, I find it hard to get as we wake up moving towards freedom day. Will it mean anything to an ordinary poor African soul who only wants services while our children are not educated and are not in class? Will we blame our kids if they get pregnant while still young when they are supposed to be in class and are missing classes because of the social ills that we face on a daily basis? Will the Public Protector be able to do her job without any interference from government structures? Should there be a timeframe from those elected and have not submitted any positive reports on my table? If elected by the people, does that mean we should be applying Ganges Khan rule for those who do not comply with their responsibilities? Does this freedom day mean anything if our leaders continue to fail their constituencies and are not able to emulate leaders such as Tambo, Gomomo, Hani and all those who are turning in their graves because of what is happening in our beloved country? If it means that I must accept Ipotsoyi that I left some years ago in the bundus and accept it in town, then I need to attend a class that will induct me on this. If it was not allowed there to be done by those who come from the north of our boarders because they seem to enjoy more rights than us as citizens, then this is the South Africa we now live in not the one envisaged by those leaders mentioned above. If in Main Street you will have three taverns in the same block within 2 meters from each other, where are our bylaws? We really need to talk and educate each other as communities in helping on the social ills that we face with people raping young children, women and boys that are recruited in the same sex cultures that we were not prepared for when we were celebrating that “at last we are free”. We are not yet free if opportunities that are there only benefit only a portion class that seem not to care for the very same people who have voted them into office. People only want job opportunities and assist you in shaping the democracy that was envisage by leaders such as Tambo, Gomomo, Bharayi, Hani, Gumede, and those who have died for this freedom we should be enjoying in 2013, 20 years later since most of them left us at limbo. We pray for some divine intervention and help our national leaders to revive the spirit of Ubuntu and stop this greed and corruption and put people first instead of their selfish personal aggrandisement that we see daily. We would like to see a South Africa where our officials could start taking responsibilities and start cleaning our communities and inspire us on creating opportunities that must take young people from street and put them into formal educational establishment where they can learn with being prejudiced or judged because of backgrounds they come from. We would like to see our children in tennis courts, boxing clubs, soccer fields, netball fields, recreational facilities that are of benefit to them and the nation. 

This can only happen when our leaders start serving and becoming servants and not dictators as it is happening and do we have such leaders? Yes there are those who have kept on showing confidence in working for the people, do not lose focus, ‘keep on walking’ and serving the people your efforts will be recognised by people. I would recommend you to look at “What is Politics” blog, https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4805892690654925415#editor/target=post;postID=2899068315335826889;onPublishedMenu=overview;onClosedMenu=overview;postNum=5;src=postname

We must be able to laugh at ourselves and learn to forget the mistakes done by those who do not see any wrong thing in their misdeeds just as we did at apartheid. We need to focus on building communities that will be free of rape, crime, corruption, racialism and start learning from each other. We hope people will understand that as human we are fallible and that no one is perfect, but we must not stop aiming at perfecting doing good instead of bad. Educate me to understand as to why some of the challenges that we face as humans seem to be manmade instead of being natural, maybe it’s the donkey, horse, water buffalo meat that was just served in parliament without our legislatures knowing that they were eating such meat, educate me to understand what are the effects of this meat. Publish the researches made by French companies on the GMO foods (especially meal-meal and porridge) that is dumped to Africa and has negative side effects (as tested on rats) as the number of diseases that are increasing in our country. What is really happening?