The devil in detail

As we come closer to the general elections on May 7, the country has witnessed more political gimmicks than ever before.

These include the hijacking of service delivery protests by EFF, the march by a DA rented mob to the Head Quarters of the ANC, Cope’s Terror Lekota claiming that the president should have given details with regard to the Nkandla security upgrade despite the fact that we all received a government investigation report and are still waiting for the Public Protector’s report on the matter. The question is why all these gimmicks?

The answer to the above question lies in the ANC being the formation that will win the next elections overwhelmingly. This a bitter pill to swallow to many opposition parties, hence they try by all means to use all tricks in the book to bring the ANC down. The obsession with bringing the ANC down has also led to another political ‘moemish’ of the decade when the DA and Agang SA got into a marriage of convenience that could not last for a week.

The fact is, unlike the so-called Democratic Alliance which is an individual grouping, the ANC is not an individual organisation, but a leading formation of our revolutionary national liberation, mass democratic movement and true alliance. This comprises of a working class party made up by the most advanced and resolute the SACP; the progressive trade union movement as led by COSATU; the progressive civic formation SANCO; ANC leagues and formations of the Progressive Youth Alliance – ANCYL, YCLSA, SASCO and COSAS; and an array of many other community and sectoral formations.

This is a formidable force, forming a threshold on whose strength the DA-Agang’s marriage collapsed into nothingness regardless of massive funding.

On her own admission Agang SA leader agreed that the marriage was prompted if not funded by one doggy businessman by the name of Nathan Kirsh, who is apparently a citizen in many countries, including Swaziland, South Africa, Britain, to mention just a few. What is Nathan’s interests and those of the rest of the other funders (according to DA leader Helen Zille’s admission the rest of other funders called for the merger) in pushing for or funding the failed merger? What are they hoping to gain by helping DA-Agang to bring the ANC down? The answer is very simple. The DA and Agang are not political parties, but pseudo-trusts with Zille and Ramphele as Trustees representing the interests of monopoly capital.

Recently Zille and her DA, together with other opposition parties have been making a lot of noise about corruption and yet the Auditor General has recently found out that the Western Cape provincial government where the DA is in charge, has used approximately R10.3 billion on consultants within the period of three years. If this is not corruption of the highest level, then corruption does not exist. Zille must be investigated to check if some of the money did not go to DA election campaigns including branding Metro buses in Gauteng. There has to be investigation into the relationship between the DA and the consultants who were showered with the tenders. This must extend into a web of financial transactions of those transactions including other DA service providers.

But the ‘Blue Devil’ is not alone here, on the other side of the fence there is the ‘Red Devil’. This one relies on populist politics to woo the poor masses to follow his course. This devil is facing serious financial woes. He once bought a house of approximately R4m, demolished it and built a R16m house. He owes SARS R16m, he milked the Limpopo government dry, he bought a farm (which was later auctioned) and yet he goes around telling masses that he is poor. Show me one poor person who wears a Rolex watch. That is none other than the “Commander In Chief”of the EFF. The EFF is weak organisationally. It thus relies mainly on entryism to show up in protests that are organised in communities or elsewhere with an intention to turn these against the ANC. This will fail, as is the case with other tricks that failed in ANC disciplinary process after which this “Commander in Chief” who has never received or served in any military was correctly expelled.

In 2010 while he was the president of the ANC YL, the “Commander in Chief” once claimed that he is too young to go to parliament. In his own words he said: “I must grow in the ANC for me to accept political responsibilities, I refuse seating in this chair people coming to pursue me to go to Parliament because Parliament is for old people to go to make laws, I don’t even know these laws, what law am I going to make, who am I to make laws? (sic)”

So, why is there a change of heart now? There is only one answer, the “Commander in Chief” can no longer afford the lavish lifestyle. He needs money and parliament can offer him a stable income. His lust to go to parliament has got nothing to do with the poor masses. His EFF will never nationalise or expropriate land without compensation even if they come to power (which can only happen in their dreams). The only reason they resort to slogans like “nationalisation” and “expropriation of land without compensation” is because these slogans appeal to the working class and the poor.

What is to be done? Only one solution remains helpful to the masses. That it is taking charge of their own future by associating themselves with the party that cares about them and not the party that will pay them R200 to risk their lives in some so called ‘real job march’. The people must also not be fooled by mere pseudo-Marxist sloganeering; it’s not in their interest. These are “revolutionaries” during the day and “Skhothanes” at night.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel; there is an organisation that has a clear plan for the future of this country. That organisation is the ANC that has committed to work with all the people to Move South Africa Forward. Be part of this journey, it is worth travelling.