The Association for Nepotism and Corruption

The ANC is an organisation that was founded with noble objectives.  The Communist backing of the ANC brought about a shift in the policies to achieve those objectives, and produced in most Whites in South Africa a well-founded fear that any accession to power by the ANC and those it claimed to represent would inevitably result in South Africa falling into the pit of poverty and oppression that, for many years, was the fate of African nations that gained their freedom from ‘colonialism’.  If the objectives had been separated from the Communist threat, they would certainly have enjoyed a very much greater support from the Whites throughout the country, a situation that, paradoxically, led to a prolongation and intensification of the system of Apartheid that worked so strongly to the disadvantage of all South Africans, Black and White.  The increasing influence of the South African Communist Party and its close ally, COSATU, in the political life of South Africa shows, once again, that the desire for power is so strong in most politicians that they are prepared to sell their souls, and the souls of the citizens, to gain and hold onto that power.

This factor has become chillingly enhanced by the sliding into the previously noble organisation of the African National Congress of the ‘New ANC’ – the Association for Nepotism and Corruption.  Looking back, one should have expected that ‘payback time’ would come.  As one prominent ANC leader said in 1994, “I didn’t go into exile so that I could be poor!”  Indeed, the Whites expected that there would be some element of payback, but few expected that those who would have to pay the cost of this payback would be the poor, the unconnected, the average Black citizen.  Many Whites believed that there would be no possibility of a decent life under a Black Government, and showed their belief by moving to another country.  There, they would have to restart their lives, and they did so with the customary gusto that is expected of White South Africans.  As an Australian said in the 1980’s, it was easy to see who of the arriving passengers were South Africans – their feet were a blur of movement!  It is sad that the talents, skills and energy of these many tens of thousands of people were lost to a country that sorely need them, but their decision to seek a future in a country other than their homeland has been largely vindicated by the events since that time of hope.

The thriving economy that was South Africa has been brought to its knees by the actions of the few hundreds of political leaders who have seen that the credibility of the ANC gave them a licence to exploit the system.  Hardly a day goes by without a demonstration by the voters who put the ANC into power, demanding that they be given the rights that they were promised at the dawn of democracy.  Any thinking person knew, in the months leading up to the Black majority Government, that the promises that were being made, and the scenarios that were being believed by the Black voters, were not in any way realistic.  Many Whites simply believed them to be the hyperbole that makes politicians one of the despised classes of humans.  However, few understood that the Black voters, deprived of the experience of democracy throughout their existence, would not see these promises for the vote-grabbing lies that they were.  Unfortunately, that is still the case.  And, as the country slides deeper into the morass of incompetence that is the result of the Nepotism that so strongly characterises the New ANC, the demands grow, the poverty increases and the hope of a brighter day dims.  As this process gains pace, those at the top of the New ANC are becoming aware that the pie is getting smaller, and the time to grab a slice of that pie is becoming shorter.  They compensate by spending ever-larger sums of public money so that their share, the percentage that they skim off the top of the contracts that are handed out, is becoming larger by the year.  Whereas the most noticeable piece of Corruption during the time of Thabo Mbeki was the Arms Deal (a very amateurish piece of fiddling with the public coffers so that selected members of the New ANC could steal an estimated $120 million), it is now commonplace to see expenditures of R29 billion on freeway construction so that the members of the New ANC could steal an estimated R54 billion – the total amount of the Arms Deal! – over the next 20 years, R300 billion on refurbishing the transport sector that the New ANC sold out to China as scrap metal (for a paltry commission on the sale), R200 million to re-establish a nuclear capability (one that South Africa had in excellence prior to the ANC), and many more.  A question that is now usual when Government announces a major item of expenditure is “Who is getting the cut?”  The proposed ‘Second Transition’ is being recognised for what it really is – an admission that the ‘First Transition’ did not achieve what the electorate wanted when they voted to put the old ANC into power, and a shifting of the grounds for comparison of what has been achieved with what was expected.

Is it not time for the People of South Africa to see what the New ANC is doing?  Is it not yet the time for a groundswell of public opinion to make itself heard so that even Jacob Zuma and his cronies in the New ANC come to understand that the wealth of the country is not theirs to appropriate to themselves?  Is it not time for the People to say to the Association for Nepotism and Corruption that they want honest and competent Government?