Dickens had it down;
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."(And this is where I make my apologies, because 1) I'm too lazy to go find my copy of A Tale of Two Cities and 2)I've got too many things running to Google, therefore please accept my apologies if the quote's a bit ad libbed)
I was thinking this quote sums up our current political clime quite succinctly. Our teenage years are proving to be quite challenging, but I still have hope that sense will prevail after this weekend. Lekota is no fool, and he probably has big business behind him all the way. In fact he might've been a candidate for the presidential race in Polokwane last year, but that Stellenbosch winery incident might not've worked in his favour. It is because of him that government put in place that declare all business interests clause into place, however that rule obviously does not extend to the Zuma and Malema camp, because they just use politics to get ahead of the law.
What many people don't seem to realise is that the last time there was this much internal strife and politics within the ANC, the PAC was birthed. The PAC was a credible political organisation for many years before the ANC became the "brand" of liberation rhetoric.Granted though, the PAC did have a more militant angle, however it was with utter shockhorrorawe that I was reminded of their history, when Pheko went up to congratulate our new president on his nomination and asked for the release of former APLA cadres still rotting away in SA jails. Next post, I think I'll treat whoever reads this to a summative history of the formation of the PAC and few interesting political tidbits like the Sobukwe Clause.
I find this utterly appalling, regardless of their political divisions and ideologies, MK and APLA were quite the same bunch of revolutionaries and fought for exactly the same things. Why are they still in jail? The TRC denied APLA amnesty on the grounds that the PAC would not release their real names and was submitting code names. The TRC was also running at a very delicate time in the restructuring of our judicial bases and so the PAC had a reason to withold names because how would they know how much their actions and intelligence might have been compromised. And now the ANC conveniently declares that the PAC forgot to fill in the presidential pardon forms. What I find strange is how any party would do that and not get their members out? Pheko made it quite clear that he hopes Motlanthe would take action on the matter and get them out.
But shame, the PAC's internal squabbles have all but annihilated them, and then the final straw was when we had one of our ridiculous floor crossing debacles and Patricia de Lille walked away with their seat, and formed her own party. Essentially giving a party who no one had ever voted for, a party with no real policy ideology (besides being opposed to the ANC), and a party wholly spun around the personality of that firebrand De Lille. In fact the PAC degenerated to such a state that when given their 2 or 3 minutes of tv canvassing time, they announced that we should "not vote for them this election, they'll be ready for the next one". That is political meh-ness of note. However, we should not forget that parties who had a strong following in the liberation years still exist the PAC is still alive, as is AZAPO, UDM and SOPA. Many of these parties still have their old guard intellectual members, whereas the ANC has moved from the intellectuals to the MK lot and the sort who find Malema non-offensive.
Should Lekota form his own party, and hypothetically take away 20% of the current ANC fan base, they'd still be left with a 40% (of the current 60% majority they hold). The largest opposition party is that bag of whingers (the DA) and they have what? 12% of a stake? In countries like the US and the UK the power balance shifts between 2 parties at about roughly 48-52% of a swing vote with the minor parties raking in a few points here and there. I do not think the policy practices of a two party state are healthy or very democratic, but in South Africa, we're new to this voting business and we should turn out at the polls en masse and have a right to vote for any party we choose. My problem is, with a 60% majority and the next biggest party holding 12% to form the opposition- what kind of democracy do we have?
Another lol, yet worrisome thing is that at the voting after the nominations were given, 40 out of 400 ballot sheets were spoilt. HOW?! There were two names on the list, how can you not tick or cross between the lines properly? And you're in parliament, in charge of all of us and you have no efficiency in even ticking or crossing according to instructions?
Interesting times we live in, and someday when they make the movie of the Fall of Thabo and the Rise of Zuma, I am almost certain this is going to be on the OST.
Coldplay- Viva la Vida. Think about this one.
Enjoy!
rah*
PS For the bandwidth challenged , see if you find this song as applicable to our situation as I do :)
Labels: bandwidth rape, dissent, events, history, lit stuff, music, musings, Nkosi Sikele, politique-critique, radical red lefties, youtube
posted by rah* at 4:42 pm
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