A packed crowd of ANC supporters turned out to hear President Cyril Ramaphosa deliver the ANC Manifesto ahead of the 2024 elections at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Picture: ANC
by Taj Hargey
In less than a month, will the majority of South Africa’s disgruntled population finally bite the bullet and boldly transition from “Viva ANC, viva” to “Voetsek ANC, voetsek”?
What tangible progress has the arrogant ANC – a formerly respected liberation movement – actually achieved in reducing historic inequities once it assumed power from the despised and tyrannical Afrikaner nationalists in 1994?
Notwithstanding some tentative steps over the past three decades and its recent indictment of Zionist Israel’s gruesome Gaza genocide at the International Court of Justice, it is undeniable that the malevolent ANC has failed miserably in meeting any good governance metric. Indeed, the repugnant ANC has bequeathed South Africa’s long-suffering people a growing litany of entirely preventable disasters.
Aside from blatant political corruption, egregious state looting, hideous cadre deployment, rampant police ineptitude, moronic financial mismanagement and wilful economic collapse, the ANC has also presided over ineffectual law and order, uncontrolled illegal immigration, brazen social polarisation, overt racial discrimination as well as unconstitutional ethnic preferencing.
In addition, the venal ANC is primarily responsible for the shameful decline in general educational and health standards. Irresponsible ANC functionaries have sidelined God and religion in schools and have foisted trendy woke propaganda upon pupils and parents alike. On top of this, the discredited ANC has cavalierly gifted ordinary South Africans not only terrifying criminality, galloping gender-based violence and outrageous reverse racism, but also floundering state-owned enterprises, deplorable fiscal reverses, recurrent currency depreciations and unprecedented mass unemployment.
Clearly, these and other shortcomings are aggravated by an abject ANC’s glaring negligence and administrative incompetence. This ANC-driven stagnancy is illustrated by incessant power cuts, frequent water disruptions, ineffective service delivery, deteriorating transportation, worsening housing shortages and a headlong descent into full scale banana republic status. Moreover, the ANC has calculatedly damaged and diminished South Africa’s key infrastructural assets and resources. All the while plainly unsuitable ANC cabinet members have squandered or misappropriated public funds for personal gain. Sadly, the cancerous ANC leadership is wholly unperturbed as it drags South Africa back to the bush! Yes, the awful ANC is indifferent and nonchalant that under its 30-year watch even tiny resource-scarce Singapore’s economy is now much bigger with far better growth prospects than that of huge mineral-rich South Africa. This is beyond scandalous!
Indeed, the ANC’s vile kleptocracy has undoubtedly messed up practically everything in South Africa. Virtually all its top brass as well as lower ranking ANC minions – together with their criminal accomplices – have illicitly lined their pockets, becoming super wealthy at the expense and detriment of the poor and the downtrodden. The ANC’s horrendous mis-governance is highlighted by its ideological obsession with its untenable three M policy:
◆ No Meritocracy
◆ No Management
◆ No Maintenance
With such bizarre governing fixations, is it not surprising that the wretched ANC has only regressed this great land, stymied discernible economic development and cruelly widened the poverty gap through its nepotistic BEE (Black Elitist Enrichment) strategy. Remember that the ANC’s self-perpetuating clique does not extend genuine black economic empowerment to the disadvantaged and destitute! But only to themselves! In fact, the ANC’s plutocratic hierarchy (led by a billionaire blunderer like Rama Sofa) and opportunist tenderpreneurs live off the fat of the land while the impoverished majority sinks into ever deeper deprivation. The rapacious ANC can rightfully take full credit in reducing South Africa to the most unequal place on earth (according to the World Bank). It is utterly disgusting that the boastful ANC’s oft-touted so-called ‘triumphs’ have only created greater inequalities in today’s South Africa, that are for the most part, far graver, much worse than those under repulsive apartheid. This is not just pathetic but simply inexcusable!
So, the burning question for patriotic voters on election day is:
Do the bungling ANC parasites deserve another five years to ruin the country further? Can a leopard change its spots? Or is it time for fed up citizens to support a dynamic talented team of trustworthy technocrats and accountable politicians? Clearly, such a pragmatic re-alignment and transparent coalition will certainly be better, more beneficial than anything the rotten ANC offers. And, most pertinently, this fresh leadership will learn from and actively counteract the ANC’s toxic legacy by properly steering this potentially prosperous country to a safe, just, equal and truly non-racist future for everyone.
So, on May 29, 2024 will betrayed and battered South Africans eventually sever their emotional umbilical cords with Mandela’s party and bravely move on from “Viva ANC, viva” to “Voetsek ANC, voetsek”?
This is the stark choice and ultimate reality facing South African citizens in the upcoming elections.
* Taj Hargey, PhD, is the founder of the Open Mosque in Cape Town, is Imam at the Oxford Islamic Congregation and provost of the Oxford Institute for British Islam. He shares his time between Cape Town and Oxford.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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