Things fall apart

The time has come to acknowledge with great sadness, that South Africa is not, and will not for a very considerable time, be ready for majority rule. In more than a decade of rule, government has gone from quite good, to non-existent. The ANC has, since its inception, been a movement of no movement. Lack of action characterizes its rule now, as it characterized its struggle for power in the past. The ANC waited for 40 years for the Nationalist Party to collapse in on itself and hand over power. There was no war, just a shameful lack of action from the ANC. This inaction was shown up by the school children of 1976 when they made some type of weak protest against the ruling white Nationalists. It still took some time for the Nationalists to collapse. In fact, the Superpower Russia, predeceased White Rule by quite a few years, which surprised no-one more than the Communist backed ANC.

Back to the present. The ruling party, the ANC can not point to a single state department or organ that has not been rocked by corruption and scandal. The majority of parliamentarians on the ANC side of the house are convicted criminals. What is perhaps the worst aspect of this utterly shambolic state of affairs, is that no-one, from the President down, shows the slightest embarrassment for this black comedy.

If state departments were actually doing something, a little corruption here and there would not be so terrible. The huge problem is that nothing is being done, apart from multi billion ordering of arms and underground trains, which are laden with kickbacks but of very limited benefit to society as a whole. To illustrate the limited benefits of these huge expenditures, we need just to look at the brand spanking new fighter planes we are getting. Very nice, if far too expensive. But we do not have the pilots to fly them, and government has not budgeted for any either.When confronted and asked why government, be it local, provincial or national, is incapable of accomplishing a single thing which doesnt feather the nests of officials, the nation is fobbed off with the politically correct phrase,"We lack the capacity". To get the real meaning for the word "Capacity" substitute "Talent" or "Motivation". This government seems to feel that clownliness is next to Godliness. It appears that our second highest ranking personage in the land, was willing to sell himself for a half a million rand per year. The worst thing about this is not that he sold himself, but that he sold himself so cheaply. The French must be laughing all the way to the bank. Our police chief publically announced that a known crime kingpin is his friend. This same kingpin is now in jail, arrested for murder. The Police chief, and head of Interpol (again how embarrassing) says that although he and kingpin had weekly social meetings, he was unaware of the kingpin’s crime background. Now, if Police Chief doesn’t resign because of a conflict of interest, he really should resign on grounds of stupidity. It appears however that the President won’t ask him to leave, as Police Chief has no ambitions to become president. Inaction typifies the ANC in foreign affairs as well. The much touted “Constructive engagement” with Mad Bob Mugabe, is another word for inaction. Inaction with regard to HIV AIDS has brought the annihilation of the nation. Long and complicated reasons are given for these two most grievous failures of government, but they all boil down to an inaction as if submerged in concrete.

To return to the opening statement,” we are not ready for majority rule”. Not only is government worse than useless, but the electorate is so gullible as to believe the empty promises year after year, of a conglomeration of thieves and scoundrels, voting them in with ever increasing majorities. This is where the true failure lies. The people, armed with the worlds most progressive constitution, are unwilling, unable or too gullible, to vote the scoundrels out of power. The people, who enjoy one of the world’s most violent societies, are themselves becoming more savage and violent by the day. It seems that nothing in South Africa gets better, only degeneration awaits. Keats put it more poetically when he said “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” This is the ANC and this is Africa.We will have to endure a Dark Age of many hundreds of years, until an electorate becomes sophisticated enough to realize that the power resides in them, not their political masters. The end of the Dark Age may result in a reign of terror, like the revolting French, but more likely, knowing South Africans propensity for inaction, colonization of an unknown Uberpower will bring back the rule of law and a civilized society.At pesent, there seems to be no idealism, no ambition, but to become another larcenous lackey in a long line of kleptocratic leaders. A plea to the President: Please, at the very least, have the grace to be embarrassed when your people let you down so comprehensively. You appear incapable of fixing anything, just try to look sorry.