What was the purpose of the ANC national policy conference? Was it just a routine gathering of former comrades and friends or was it to find solutions for the country and the ANC?
The main problem of our times for ANC members and South Africans is unquestionably state capture, a process whereby the executive under President Jacob Zuma gets its instructions from the Gupta family, and then these directives cascade down into ministries, parastatals and legislatures.
This is the major threat to the existence of ANC and the sovereignty of the country.
Under our current electoral laws members of parliament are deployees of their respective political parties and ANC MPs are in parliament under the leadership of President Zuma.
Following the thread of who instructs would suggest that ANC MPs are essentially controlled by the Guptas through the Zuma family.
Trust in the ANC has been waning from the era of President Thabo Mbeki over the arms deal scandal.
The 2012 massacre of miners at Marikana, when, as photojournalist Greg Marinovich concluded from his survey immediately afterwards, “heavily armed police hunted down and killed miners in cold blood” marked a further and significant erosion of trust.
Then came the landing in 2013 at Waterkloof Airforce base of the Guptas’ wedding family entourage – which we have recently learnt was paid for with our taxes.
There has also been the Nkandla compound saga. Parliament’s deliberate attempt to sweep aside this abuse of tax money finally resulted in the issue being taken to the Constitutional Court.
There the Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, ruled that the president had breached his oath of office and failed to uphold the constitution of the republic.
Another enormous straw added to the already overloaded camel’s back have been the deluge of information contained in hundreds of thousands of e-mails made public over the last weeks. Guptaleaks has provided a surfeit of evidence which categorically illustrates that we are not merely challenged by ordinary corruption but something far more sinister – Mafia-style state capture.
In the process competent civil servants have systematically being replaced by Mafiosa dons with the sole purpose of looting to the hilt national assets.
It is unfathomable that this issue so crucial to the people of South Africa was not even discussed at the ANC policy conference.
Talk about the elephant in the room!
Instead the stalwarts and veterans who had called on Zuma to resign were subjected to tongue-lashing by the president, after which the Rivonia Trialist and Robben Island survivor Andrew Mlangeni walked out.
This was followed by a much ado about the fake issue of so-called “white monopoly capital” – the Zuma camp’s big ideological cover-up effort to hide their collusion with the Guptas in facilitating state capture.
No mention was made of the fact that the Oppenheimer empire is long gone as a main player in the economy, or that the biggest monopoly is actually that of the government itself via state corporations such as Eskom, Transnet, Prasa, the SABC, South African Airways and so forth.
How will the ANC ever regain the trust of the South African people?
The real problem, which was not mentioned at the conference, is the disempowerment of the voters who are cut off from exercising supervision over MPs, the civil service and the parastatals.
If the ANC is serious about regaining the trust of the citizens of this country it needs to take a bold step towards empowering the people themselves. The electoral system needs to provide for people to make their own choices by directly electing members of parliament, instead of a party list.
The electorate can then choose the people they know and trust rather than blindly having to tick party list – signing off on unknown people or, worse still, known kleptomaniacs, yet not having the power to vet the corrupt and remove them.
For the people to regain trust in parliament and in democracy, not to mention the ANC, voters must be given the power to directly elect their members of parliament.
The people know what is good for them, what types of leaders they need. It is wrong to assume that voters do not know right from wrong.
The current electoral laws were meant as a temporary measure to see the country through the transition from apartheid into a non-racial democratic South Africa. The proportional representation law guarantees maximum representivity of all political parties, but there is zero individual accountability of MPs.
This is what has brought us to the current political and economic crisis in South Africa.
The principal problem, which was not addressed at the ANC policy conference, is political.
It is this political problem – of a flawed electoral system – that will block any attempt to achieve proper and viable socioeconomic transformation of the country, type that will lead the masses out of poverty.
Can bloating structures solve the ANC leadership problems?
At the very root of the current leadership’s problems are the parliamentary electoral laws.
This issue will not be solved by bloating structures and doubling up on secretary generals or vice-presidents, or whatever other stunts are being dreamt up to keep the voters in chains.
In the same way, the current bloated cabinet is worsening our problems rather than ensuring good governance.
Doubling up on top officials is not a solution to the slate crisis in the ANC. This bloating will just create more jobs for pals and will worsen the ANC’s and South Africa’s problems.
The majority recommendations made by Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s electoral task team – for 75% of MPs to be elected through large multi-member constituencies (MCCs) and 25% via the current PR or list system – should have been implemented more than 10 years ago. It was an opportunity tragically lost.
What we need now is a mass democratic movement to campaign for electoral reform, as a radical step to address our problems of slates, corruption and state capture.
There is no other way to save the country and the ANC.
- Omry Makgoale is a rank and file member of ANC. These are his personal views
OPINION: Nasrec a waste of time
The main problem of our times for ANC members and South Africans is unquestionably state capture, a process whereby the executive under President Jacob Zuma gets its instructions from the Gupta family, and then these directives cascade down into ministries, parastatals and legislatures.
This is the major threat to the existence of ANC and the sovereignty of the country.
Under our current electoral laws members of parliament are deployees of their respective political parties and ANC MPs are in parliament under the leadership of President Zuma.
Following the thread of who instructs would suggest that ANC MPs are essentially controlled by the Guptas through the Zuma family.
Trust in the ANC has been waning from the era of President Thabo Mbeki over the arms deal scandal.
The 2012 massacre of miners at Marikana, when, as photojournalist Greg Marinovich concluded from his survey immediately afterwards, “heavily armed police hunted down and killed miners in cold blood” marked a further and significant erosion of trust.
Then came the landing in 2013 at Waterkloof Airforce base of the Guptas’ wedding family entourage – which we have recently learnt was paid for with our taxes.
There has also been the Nkandla compound saga. Parliament’s deliberate attempt to sweep aside this abuse of tax money finally resulted in the issue being taken to the Constitutional Court.
There the Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, ruled that the president had breached his oath of office and failed to uphold the constitution of the republic.
Another enormous straw added to the already overloaded camel’s back have been the deluge of information contained in hundreds of thousands of e-mails made public over the last weeks. Guptaleaks has provided a surfeit of evidence which categorically illustrates that we are not merely challenged by ordinary corruption but something far more sinister – Mafia-style state capture.
In the process competent civil servants have systematically being replaced by Mafiosa dons with the sole purpose of looting to the hilt national assets.
It is unfathomable that this issue so crucial to the people of South Africa was not even discussed at the ANC policy conference.
Talk about the elephant in the room!
Instead the stalwarts and veterans who had called on Zuma to resign were subjected to tongue-lashing by the president, after which the Rivonia Trialist and Robben Island survivor Andrew Mlangeni walked out.
This was followed by a much ado about the fake issue of so-called “white monopoly capital” – the Zuma camp’s big ideological cover-up effort to hide their collusion with the Guptas in facilitating state capture.
No mention was made of the fact that the Oppenheimer empire is long gone as a main player in the economy, or that the biggest monopoly is actually that of the government itself via state corporations such as Eskom, Transnet, Prasa, the SABC, South African Airways and so forth.
How will the ANC ever regain the trust of the South African people?
The real problem, which was not mentioned at the conference, is the disempowerment of the voters who are cut off from exercising supervision over MPs, the civil service and the parastatals.
If the ANC is serious about regaining the trust of the citizens of this country it needs to take a bold step towards empowering the people themselves. The electoral system needs to provide for people to make their own choices by directly electing members of parliament, instead of a party list.
The electorate can then choose the people they know and trust rather than blindly having to tick party list – signing off on unknown people or, worse still, known kleptomaniacs, yet not having the power to vet the corrupt and remove them.
For the people to regain trust in parliament and in democracy, not to mention the ANC, voters must be given the power to directly elect their members of parliament.
The people know what is good for them, what types of leaders they need. It is wrong to assume that voters do not know right from wrong.
The current electoral laws were meant as a temporary measure to see the country through the transition from apartheid into a non-racial democratic South Africa. The proportional representation law guarantees maximum representivity of all political parties, but there is zero individual accountability of MPs.
This is what has brought us to the current political and economic crisis in South Africa.
The principal problem, which was not addressed at the ANC policy conference, is political.
It is this political problem – of a flawed electoral system – that will block any attempt to achieve proper and viable socioeconomic transformation of the country, type that will lead the masses out of poverty.
Can bloating structures solve the ANC leadership problems?
At the very root of the current leadership’s problems are the parliamentary electoral laws.
This issue will not be solved by bloating structures and doubling up on secretary generals or vice-presidents, or whatever other stunts are being dreamt up to keep the voters in chains.
In the same way, the current bloated cabinet is worsening our problems rather than ensuring good governance.
Doubling up on top officials is not a solution to the slate crisis in the ANC. This bloating will just create more jobs for pals and will worsen the ANC’s and South Africa’s problems.
The majority recommendations made by Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert’s electoral task team – for 75% of MPs to be elected through large multi-member constituencies (MCCs) and 25% via the current PR or list system – should have been implemented more than 10 years ago. It was an opportunity tragically lost.
What we need now is a mass democratic movement to campaign for electoral reform, as a radical step to address our problems of slates, corruption and state capture.
There is no other way to save the country and the ANC.
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