MZANTSI' S TWO SIDES OF THE BANANA COIN REPUBLIC

MZANTSI' S TWO SIDES OF THE BANANA COIN REPUBLIC

Most of the work that I have contributed on my facebook page could no longer be accessed due to the fact that my account has been blocked by facebook two weeks ago. As for those who have been following my comments I wrote a piece on why the public has to protect the office of the Public Protector from the Security Cluster Ministers. I am now puzzled to learn yesterday that the ANC now wants the Public Protector to speed up the process of releasing the Nkandlagate report and wonder if they will also pull the same energy on the pending reports such as Guptagate, Spy-tapes and Arms deal saga. The nation has been waiting patiently for these reports to be released for more than a year now, and hope that as we move towards 2014 NPE the ANC will now speed up the process as they now realize that these delays are doing more damage to their Election Campaign and reputation. Below you will notice that the smell of coffee has awaken some within the ANC leadership but this will not help since it’s too late and the damage is already out there for everyone to see except those in the party. The story of Azania is about a big bash party for everyone to enjoy. Only a few selected are attending and are inside the house that is hosting that party, there is plenty of food to enjoy including those out in the cold but those inside do not
want to share the fruits, pizaa, braai and the benefits of the liberation gained in 1994 and the gate
keepers will not open the gates. The last two contributions on that facebook page related to a game of chess in which a move called “En Passante” was made when the security cluster ministers wanted to block the Public Protector from releasing this report, where was ANC’s Secretary General at the time? It is when the nation realized that the King was becoming porn in the game he was no longer in control of, based on why now the President of the country was becoming a victim.

Those who came before us predicted that people must guard against this practice that we see in the ANC today and some did foresee this happening thus “through the eye of the needle” concept was initiated. We have those deployed at gates that have to ensure that not all should enter. If you will remember a few months ago, I wrote about a story of a father who was left with
two children while the wife attended a funeral at her homestead and
the father decided to have a braai. While the Secretary General of SACP will be conducting life style audit, he can start by conducting this on his related beneficiary of the gravy train attending this party. This is the braai that children
were locked outside and not allowed to enter their own home because
the father was busy entertaining friends and were drinking and having
a party. A sad story indeed that was expressed in that episode, a few months ago but still relevant to our daily basis and that those in leadership turn to turn a blind eye if its suits them, “the people are watching” and the truth will always come out for everyone to see. It is only a pity in that when parents become involved in these misdeeds, children will always be affected; in this case, they were locked outside while the party was going on. It is the current ZANC leadership that does not see anything wrong on the Nkandlagate, Guptagate, Marikana, Spytapes saga and has done everything in its power to protect those who transgress the rule of law and have been acting against the old ANC tradition and morals. We all know that when the truth comes out, it hurts but at times it set us free and people will always complain of hidden agendas. The more these cases are delayed and stalled from the community, the more people will want to know the truth and would want to know what is in those spy-tapes and the like.

The reality of the matter is that South Africa with all its resources
should be able to ensure that there is enough job opportunities, food
for everyone, safety, access to health, education, shelter for
families, stable family values and a better life for all as predicted
by our forebears. In contrast, we have people chosen by us to lead us
to this better life for all but now face challenges that are manmade
as portrayed below. We have a failing moral fiber that seem to promote
a bling bling lifestyle promoted for only a selected few that seem not
to see anything wrong.

It is friends, families of the elite that seem to enjoy the lifestyle
of bling American gangsters and hip hop. It is only the cabal VIP
member system that seem to be promoted as the best lifestyle and
policies promised seem to create a promise for the poor that 'we have
reached the promised land'. With the Constitution such as ours, we
should be holding those politicians who have failed us accountable. We
have to re look the moral values that seem to be failing the nation
thus we now experience child molestations, killing, crime, rape and
abuse of the weaker innocent poor African souls. Poor African soul was
never prepared for Satanic and social ills that we now face and see
being practiced by our youth. The example set by those elected to lead seem to be promoting the new culture that we see in the current ANC today in that it is good to enrich yourself using tax money. In the two sides of the coin of Mzantsi, we have those leaders such as OR Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govern Mbeki, Aton Lebede, Chief Albert Lithuli who were selfless and did everything in their power to ensure that South Africa becomes free from slavery, on the other side of the coin, we have the current ANC leadership that is selfish and does everything to enrich themselves in securing monitory gains and live a bling life. If Walter Sisulu was head, Ramaphosa would be tails in that same coin. If Luthuli would support Nyerere in his call that Politicians should not be linked into business, Nzimande would support that life style audits needs to be performed to those challenging the status quo except conducting that audit to his family lifestyle. These are the realities that South Africans have to start learning about the other side of the ANC or ZANC.

Are we really accepting that it is good for the goose and good for the
gender? Is this the society that was envisaged by leaders such as
Anton Lambede, Walter Sisulu, Oom Ray, Oom Gov, Oom OR, Gomomo, Hani,
Biko, Sobukwe, and all those who have sacrificed in that, we are moved out of
slavery and oppression? Do we have to accept that the cabals within
the elite have to misuse our Constitution and promote the Skhothane
culture only to blame the youth when they practice it? As we move
towards the 2014 NPE, the nation has to ask if this is the marks and
paper trails that we have to live for our future generation that seem
to be vulnerable every day. Those who are challenging this practice, are purged and sabotaged by those in control, as a nation we are in a mess, it is time we wake up and smell the coffee and ask if NDP will be practical five years later or that, at that time we will be coming with a new plan that will work at the time like GEAR, ASGISA or NDP. I do not believe that we should be planning after 20years in power; we just have to accept that we have been voting ANC with the hope that the plans will one day become practical.

You will only be able to understand this analysis if you read one of the blogs written sometimes two years ago titled “What is Politics” in that it might seem as a joke but when you think of it, you will realize that in reality, “Parliament is fast asleep, business is on top of the working class, the people are watching and the future is full of “uthuvi”. In Australia for example, the citizens have a problem of obesity, their problem is not knowing what they must do with their money, in Mzantsi two sides of the coin, there are those who do not know what they must do with the money (only a few of them –just listed on last week’s Sunday Times newspaper of 01 Dec 2013). The majority of people who should be benefiting out of the selfless struggles of the above mentioned leaders are poor, living beyond the poverty line. In some households, it is so difficult to put a loaf of bread on the table and children go to school without anything to eat because they are not entitled of the fruits of this liberation. It is the same people who have been putting their trust to those claiming entitlement of these fruits and are inside the house hosting the party, I would suspect that there is wedding bells ringing this coming festive in that household. Residents of the area will not be allowed to access the tuckshop that has been selling them during the year.

The picture that I see portrays that before 1999, SA was the Republic of South Africa, as we move towards 2014 NPE, SA is becoming a banana republic and member of BRICSA, and it is becoming Banana Republic of South Africa (BRSA). The role of BRSA in BRICSA is still a mystery in that we must find out as we participate in BRISA. It will be active citizenship that will have to find out if we are not going to be turning poor people into becoming slaves by those Super powers driving the objectives of BRICSA. It will be active citizens that will have to find out if this partnership will not be creating a platform of domination by these countries and using South Africa in accessing Africa’s vulnerable markets. It is time for ordinary people to start learning what these partnerships entail and become active on the process or else we will find ourselves becoming part of the plan that we are still planning about as it is with the case of our policies and government programmes that we vote political parties on. It is time that citizens learn that we now have political parties led by those individuals who were part of gangsters and watch out and be vigilant as to the motives and agendas of all these political parties that will be campaigning for votes as we move towards 2014 NPE. It is time that those with some knowledge in the political dynamics of South Africa engage those who were not fortunate to access this knowledge about the consequences of our electoral processes and this democratic constitutionalism that must be protected.

Are we really a banana republic when some would want to believe or are we really a banana republic? Who must account for wrong actions of the
father who has locked out children outside in the cold rainy weather?
If we are a Constitutional democratic nation, political parties will
have to account to their constituencies and not only report on
achievements but on challenges that the nation face. As the electorate
it will also be your responsibility that you became active citizens
and look at whether we still need the kind of Electoral system that
seem to fail the nation on ensuring that politicians account to the
electorate and not the other way round.

There are two sides of each story; it is true that as a nation we have
achieved a lot in the past 19 years despite some of the challenges
raised above. We have a democratic system that allows all to raise
their opinions as I am currently doing through this piece of words I
am sharing with you. South Africans are able to access opportunities
that were only there for white people only during the years of
oppression.

Are we telling enough stories that we can learn from? One of the
mandates of Moral Regeneration was of ensuring that we achieve social
cohesion as a nation, I still believe we can do more on this. At least
our children are able to go to school despite the poor backgrounds
they come from. I still believe that if policies could be transformed
and ensure that government invest more on youth development as it was
done by Apartheid government.

Some of the positive stories of Azania are overshadowed by lack of
competent leaders who claim to have entitlement. For some of previous
policies to not have worked fully was of lack of skill capacity and
cadre deployment strategies that led to lack of services being
delivered to the beneficiaries of Mzantsi. When taking RDP for
example, it did not fail but was replaced before it could have matured
as I have indicated in '2 + 2 = 4' article. We seem to lack constancy
in implementing good strategies aimed at poor members of the society.

Leadership department seem to fail the nation in that most of those
leaders who were from exile did not understand what was happening
inside, and came up with strategies that were foreign to the cultures
and practices. We now face some of these challenges because some of
the leaders were atheist and did not believe in religion. If you have
read Leviathan you will understand this, and this does not mean that
it is wrong not to be religious. I am currently busy writing an
article that tries to look at 'Religion, Politics and Economics' and
some of the details in this regard will be further explored. Were
these leaders prepared for this, one of the articles I wrote earlier
this year tries to respond to this?

With all these achievements, why then will the 2014 NPE will be
crucial and might be the turning point of the history of South African
politics? With all structures created in addressing community issues
and challenges, why then do we still have protest actions that turn
violent and that libraries still get burned? During my youth days, we
ensured that libraries were not touched and that we used them as
hiding places of learning, how then did we lost that culture.

Using the ‘Millennium Development Goals Report of 2013’ it would be good also to look at the characteristics of the political, economic and social impact of the realities on Mzantsi. In this report it is mentioned that slum dwellers is declining, but informal settlement seem to increase in cities such as Joburg, and Cape Town. A lot of people now have access to antiretroviral treatment than in 1999. Poor children now have a right to access of primary education than before, gender based inequalities in decision making power is increasing as report in that Sunday Times article of last week Sunday. The government has managed to fight against poverty and food security by projects at policy level and this seem to gain a lot of momentum although it is still planning on which policy will work (as proposed NDP that is rejected by some affiliates of COSATU and critics like myself). It is a fact that more people are aware of the effects of HIV and AIDS than before, though a number of people getting testes is still low. It is also a fact that there is improvement to access water, sanitation, electricity, social grants and BEE deals by those who were previously disadvantaged by the Apartheid government. Some of the challenges faced by this government will include the mortality rate for children are a concern as argued by the Health Minister last week in most public hospitals. He has argued that this might be addressed by the new programme, NHI. The involvement of SA in BRICS might have negative impact on the forests being safety net for the poor; they seem to disappear due to deforestation and gas emission as we have learnt in the Easter Cape Shell exploration.  With all these prons and cons that I have raised above, it would be upon active citizens in taking South Africa out of the trouble that we now find ourselves in, and this will only be through the ballot paper in next year’s elections when all concern citizens will be making a choice of who will lead us beyond 2014, for the next five years. It will be 20 years after ANC took over from the Apartheid government, do we think that we still need the kind of leadership that is still looking at an appropriate plan suitable for all South African, or will we need a new crop of leaders who must also be given a chance to lead this nation to what was promised in the Holy Book?

When growing up, community challenges were our challenges, why must
this change today? The leading political party will at some stage come
into its senses and come back to the people. The leadership will have
to accept responsibility for the wrongful actions made. I will mention
Tatane, Marikana, Nkandlagate, Spy tapes, Guptagate as some of the
issues that you will find communities talking about for example. The
current leadership seems not to see any wrong on these and that life
must just continue as normal, thus I seem to have a problem with the
kind of leadership that we seem to be entrusting with our dole.

My question on Nkandlagate for example seeks to know if the current
leadership seem to justify a moral system that will come back to haunt
the ANC in later years. Was it a right move for the ANC to endorse the
building of Nkandla while there are poor people still staying in human
settlements that are not conducive for humans around the area of
Nkandla building and the rest of South Africa? The question that I am currently busy with looks at ‘Religion, Politics and the Economy’ that will be published later this month. As a nation we need to ask if we still need the type of lifestyle that used Religion in all aspects of our political ways of doing business. What positive and negative impact has this had in countries that used Christianity, Islam, Hindusm, Budism or Judaism compared to those that have used technology, science and modernization in doing business. I will then try to look at how has the ANC introduced the SA Constitution of 1996 that has become liberal and has challenged some of the traditional ways of doing business affected us in the past 20 years.

If the ANC approved this, then it is no longer the ANC of leaders who
would have opted to build houses for people and stayed in informal
settlement in dealing with the social challenges of the masses. In the
Marikana case for example, the ANC would have taken responsibility and
compensated the victims. The challenge is that, the case will be
testing the Nyerere ideology of not allowing politicians into
business. Julias Nyerere believed that politicians should not become
part of business and political leadership as they could be bias as we
have learnt from this case.

At least for a change one becomes happy to see that in soccer, Spain
was punished even though the use dirty tactics to declare that match a
practice game. It has been good to see the majority of people going
back to school in improving their lifestyles. It is good to see the
City of Joburg claiming back its bylaws on their cleanup campaign. It
is also positive to see people supporting the public protector when
she was being bullied by the Security cluster Ministers. It is also
good to see people registering to vote for the first time in numbers
and also seeing political parties playing by the Electoral Act in
promoting our Constitutional Democracy. 2014 NPE will be a
commemoration of 20 years into democracy hoping that more positive
stories will weigh more than the challenges experienced in the past.
Mantsi's two sides of the same coin is the story that all of us have
to share in celebrating 20 years into our democracy. Will it worth
celebrating as I have not seen any reason to celebrate any of the
holidays this year. This is one of the chapters that I have completed
in the book I am currently busy writing about "The History of South Africa and ANC 20 years later". Active citizenship is now becoming an inspiration to most of those who have seen that 2014 will be a turning point to the history of South Africa. One is inspired by the number of young people who are now registering and are becoming active citizens in all societal aspects that involves their lives as seen in most social networks. One gets inspired when seeing a number of people enrolling and improving the level of understanding on issues and might accept that education needs to be key in those we elect into power. As political animals, we are becoming conscious of what is wrong and what is right and hope that we have all learnt from the mistakes that we have made in the past. It takes all of us to accept responsibility of the challenges that we face as a nation, the question is how are we going to fix this? Will these challenges unite all of us in realizing “What is Politics” and why our youth are now regarded as Izikhothane and are full of “uthuvi”? The return of “Uhlohlesakhe” has led us to become vigilante of the role that all must play, from our politicians, business, workers, and all members of society, the question is, and will the story of “Uhlohlesakhe the return” help the nation in finding common grounds and forging partnership in ensuring that a better life for all is achieved? As we move towards the festive season, will we bring back the spirit of “Ubuntu” and share what we have with those who are less fortunate? Will political parties learn from this and forge unity for the sake of helping in solving the challenges that we face as a human race and accept responsibility of our actions starting with what is at our disposal. In the next article, we will be looking at the role of active citizenship towards 2014 NPE.