Load-shedding is back. Thanks to the Guptas, the ANC and the countless minions who aided and abetted state capture.
It looks like we have to walk through the valley of darkness, desperation and despair again. Dr Azar Jammine of Econometrix had this to say: “We can’t escape from state capture and the Zuma era – we are only now starting to realise what the longer-term implications are, and they are not favourable.”
The crisis at Eskom is so tragic because it affects every South African, yet it was not created and fanned by all of us. At the centre of it are the same dynamics which are responsible for state capture, perhaps the ultimate expression of corruption.
These dynamics rest on a single assumption, that the party, in this case the ANC is greater than anything else, including the country it purports to serve. Jacob Zuma, a man of little finesse said as much, exposing the central tenants of his ANC.
“I argued one time with someone who said the country comes first and I said as much as I understand that I think my organisation, the ANC, comes first." Zuma said this in his capacity as party president in 2015. In essence he was speaking for the ANC, inadvertently exposing the disturbing logic which lies at the centre of state capture. The problem with this attitude is that it establishes and promotes a masters and minions system.
This is the same old outdated system which ironically served both the colonialists and apartheid architects.
That a political party, which often allocates to itself the glory of being South Africa’s liberators, chose to take over that same system and embark on wealth extraction on the scale of state capture is unbelievable.
I am sure the ANC would love to pin everything on Zuma and his wayward comrades. As we speak, it would like to hoodwink us into thinking, the crisis at Eskom, is not its own. It would love for us to believe that being the world’s most unequal society is not its fault.
It would love for us to buy into the lie that it is not responsible for gifting us Malema and his toxic politics. It would relish success in directing the anger of the populace at the Guptas, who in using the same masters and minions system, managed to capture both the ANC and the state. However, the ANC would be committing the same sin of thinking that it, and only it comes first.
The ANC is blind to its own toxicity. It still insists on occupying the position of “leader of society”. Yet it is consumed by internal battles largely caused by an audacious fightback against those who fight the corruption which has nearly destroyed this country. I suppose when you see that you can rob a whole country, you would like to continue doing so. No wonder the EFF wants a piece of the action so badly!
It is so disheartening to learn that we might not be able to fix Eskom. We might need to accept economic collapse, unnecessary hardship and wasted potential all because the ANC decided to perpetuate the masters and minions system.
Investor confidence will suffer, severely robbing us of much needed investment. Business, one of the main creators and distributors of wealth will be hit hard by the meltdown at Eskom. An already terrible unemployment atmosphere is set to get worse.
What is even more tragic is how the ANC and its alliance partners may not be aware that they are actually using the old masters and minions system. They keep calling it “cadre deployment”. I am not sure whether they are trying to make it sound “revolutionary” to hoodwink the masses or they are genuinely unaware.
The idea of independent thought is simply foreign within the alliance, which is just as passionate about “cadre deployment”. This is in complete ignorance of the power of independent creative thought which is so crucial in this day and age.
What we need instead is a visionaries and administrators system, where the vision is broad and shared by every South African, and every citizen is allowed and encouraged to carry out that vision. I am sure that vision would include a thriving economy where each of us can play a meaningful part and …eh uninterrupted electricity. I’m sure no masters would still find minions here!..