By Kgabo Morifi
One of the most revolutionary things to do it is to call things for what they are, this means in the words of Amilcar Cabral, we have an obligation to never hide anything “from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories”.
One was really baffled by what I believe is sheer populism displayed by the revolutionary movement, the African National Congress (ANC) in the marches it led to various law enforcement agencies across all the regions of the Gauteng Province.
There has been media reports on various challenges facing the people of Gauteng and South Africa which relates to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and illegal mining which in the main are alleged to be done by foreign nationals. In the midst of all these challenges, the ANC in Gauteng led marches to various police stations across the province.
It is important to indicate that policing is a mandate of the national government which is governed by the ANC. The question is: If the ANC is marching to government departments, who are they really marching for? The answer to this question is very simple, the ANC is marching against itself.
The follow-up question may be, who should then respond to these marches? This question is very important, however to answer it we have to problematize our own government because there seems to be a discord in how we respond to issues.
The first issue of concern is that Cabinet Ministers have assumed the role of being celebrities, they like appearing in the media, and most of the times in their vacuity. Our leaders turn to conflate the role of cabinet to that of being fire extinguishers and rapid response. For example, Minister Bheki Cele has not really presented the country with a strategy of how we are going to address crime prevention in our country. All we see is his ministerial hat that protect the head that is supposed to be engaged in a serious intellectual discourse on how to deal with the challenges we are facing, sadly we may be asking a lot from this very loud Minister.
Some couple of days back, I had a discussion with the CEO of the Thabo Mbeki foundation, Advocate Max Boqwana about a number of challenges facing the democratic state. Amongst the things we reflected on was the question of whether South Africa is really a failed state? We did agree that we have not reach to that level, however we may arrive there if something is not done. The other matter of concern we discussed was the manner in which our government is deeply concerned about making media headlines instead of providing thought leadership aimed at ensuring that the democratic project succeeds.
Another undisputed fact is that the sixth administration came with what was characterised as Ramaphoria, a euphoria brought by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he emerged as the ANC, however this has been short-lived as South Africa, more than ever before, has been wrecked with the sky rocketing inequality, unemployment and poverty. This much is to the extent that the former President, Thabo Mbeki has warned that we may face our own Arab Springs should we not address the challenges facing our country. Is there a reason to not believe Mbeki? The answer is no, to ignore President Mbeki would be tantamount to marching to own Titanic moment. As a result, we cannot afford to ignore what President Mbeki has said.
To avoid imminent color revolutions, we have to start being honest with ourselves. President Ramaphosa should start giving tangible feedback on the promises he has made to the people of this country. In his popular family meetings, he has promised South Africans heaven and earth. When are we going to be informed of the outcomes of all the investments and monies he has committed? The fact is that the masses of our people on the ground are not happy with promises we make now and then, they need results. Is President Ramaphosa ready to deliver? This question is important because the ANC does not seem to have a candidate for its presidency outside President Ramaphosa. We need to make a clarion call to President Ramaphosa to wake up from his slumber, the ANC is in a crisis.
To salvage it, this glorious movement cannot afford populism to define its edifice. They have to act in the people’s interest. These marches led by the ANC to the government it leads, will not help us with anything. Government should just do its work.
Kgabo Morifi (is the Provincial Secretary of the Young Communist League of South Africa in Gauteng and Lectures at the Tshwane University of Technology)
