ANALYSIS
ANC’s reaction to Eskom revelations exposes a party in denial of reality and in a deep ethical crisis
The party is under intense strain and could easily fall in the elections next year to an unprecedented minority level. This is what makes its response to the claims of corruption at Eskom so startling — there appears to be no understanding of how vulnerable the party is and just how much the lives of ordinary South Africans have worsened of late.
While it has not yet been revealed which politically connected individuals are benefiting from corruption at Eskom, it is obvious that much more information will burst into the public domain soon. This is likely to eventually include the names of the senior individuals reportedly involved.
The ANC’s response, so far, may have echoes of the beginning of the State Capture era, when the circling of the wagons was the name of its game. Instead of cracking down on corruption, the party is attacking those who are fighting to save Eskom and the SA economy.
This comes at a critical time for the party, as it is due to face voters just next year when load shedding is still likely to be an overwhelming central issue.
The reaction of the ANC to former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter’s claims in his eTV interview has been to put pressure on De Ruyter. It said that if he doesn’t name the names and go to the police, it will go to court to force him to do so.
The ANC has also said that it will not tolerate corruption and that it won’t protect people who are corrupt.
It has been joined in this by Cosatu and the SACP, who have said that De Ruyter has a duty to go to the police.
Then, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told Newzroom Afrika on Monday that he had discussed corruption at Eskom with De Ruyter, and that De Ruyter had “alluded” to certain people being involved.
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As Gordhan put it, “If he has the evidence, he must go to the law enforcement agencies… don’t expect me on the basis of some understanding or possible suspicion to now say who it is… I don’t want to be charged with defamation, I don’t have the evidence.”
For those with long memories, there may be some echoes of the ANC during the early stages of State Capture here.
Then, almost no matter what evidence could be brought regarding then president Jacob Zuma, it was deemed as an attack on the ANC and not about corruption.
Even when the Guptas landed a plane at the Waterkloof Air Force Base, the party used its deployees in the government to ensure that no action was taken. Instead, and scandalously, the main official involved, Bruce Koloane, was “punished” with an ambassadorship to the Netherlands.
Also, at the time, the ANC’s leadership had ensured that the National Prosecuting Authority was hollowed out. It was Zuma who appointed Menzi Simelane as National Director of Public Prosecutions after it was found that there was “prima facie” evidence that he had lied under oath.
It should be remembered that this was during a time, in 2012, when people such as then SACP leader Blade Nzimande were calling for a law specifically to protect Zuma from being insulted.
Several years later, at the height of State Capture, then Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko appointed Berning Ntlemeza as head of the Hawks after a judge had found Ntlemeza was a “man without integrity”.
Protecting the comrades from prosecution
All this illustrates the control the ANC has had in the past over our law enforcement officials and its eagerness to use this to protect the comrades who might have been in danger of criminal prosecution.
In the process, that very same law enforcement was so systematically weakened that today it is unable to stem the rising tide of lawlessness in South Africa.
It has been well demonstrated that the Hawks and the police are simply unable to investigate crimes of corruption. Fewer than 20% of murders in SA are solved and most crimes are left unpunished. Just two years ago, the head of the Hawks, Godfrey Lebeya, said the crime-fighting unit was operating at below 50% of its capacity.
It is beyond any doubt that the major reason our law enforcement agencies are in this state of disrepair is because of the people running the ANC government over the last 15 or so years. It was they who not only allowed but also enabled and encouraged this to happen.
For those with even longer memories, there are echoes of the ANC’s behaviour during the Arms Deal in the 1990s.
Then, as more information started to emerge, one member of the ANC who opposed the deal, Andrew Feinstein, was isolated, attacked and eventually hounded out of the country. Anyone else who opposed the deal was harshly dealt with.
It appears the ANC may have learnt very little from that time.
‘Join the dots’
Now, Gordhan is demanding that De Ruyter go to the police with evidence, saying that he cannot do so on the basis of “suspicion”.
But this is the very same Gordhan who told the nation, time and time again, to “join the dots” in 2017, when he was under pressure during the State Capture era.
During that time, Gordhan played a huge role in exposing Zuma and the Guptas and their central involvement in State Capture.
He was right in those days and has been proven so ever since. So how is this man, who in 2017 urged the people of South Africa to “join the dots”, now asking someone else to take evidence to the police, that he himself knows are corrupt and incompetent?
Even more, he surely has a duty to better understand what is happening, before repeating the ANC’s well-rehearsed lines.
There are other things he could say. He could say that he is trying to find out more, that he believes these are serious claims and there must be action, and that he is calling on the police to properly investigate.
But he has not said these things. He just walked away from what is South Africa’s grimmest problem in decades.
At the same time, the ANC’s own stance, basically attacking De Ruyter, may end badly.
It is interesting to contrast the comments of ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula with the view of the union federation Saftu, which also wants De Ruyter to name names. Saftu is clear that it does not want to “pit ourselves against” him, they just want the information.
This is not the stance of the ANC. As a result, the party may now lack political room to manoeuvre. If it turns out that it is two senior leaders involved, then it will find it difficult to walk back these comments.
While this is the ANC’s response for the moment, it is important to note just how different this moment is from previous tough spots.
2024 election
Then, even with all the corruption scandals, there was no doubt that the ANC would win the next election.
No more.
Now, the party is under intense strain and could easily fall next year to an unprecedented minority level.
This is what makes its response to the corruption claims so startling — there appears to be no understanding of how vulnerable the party is and just how much the lives of ordinary South Africans have worsened of late.
Additionally, the ANC can no longer even claim to be led by someone of unquestionable integrity. The Phala Phala scandal has opened up President Cyril Ramaphosa to intense scrutiny. Once again, the party will be led into an election by someone with serious claims against them.
It is likely that corruption will be a defining issue in the 2024 elections. To do well in these polls, the party may have to reconsider its stance and convince voters that it is serious about fighting corruption.
But, given the long history of the party on this issue, this will be difficult to do. And certainly, judging by its reaction to the latest Eskom mess, it is not prepared to change. DM
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I am so deeply disappointed in PG. We stood by him and praised him, and marched on his behalf. He was targeted and left hanging out to dry. Now he is doing the same thing to ADR. Is there not a single decent person left in the ANC?
Carol, I’m afraid the ANC has hit about as rock bottom as any of us can imagine, in my view. It’s not just about state capture and denialism of it, or the fact that the ANC hierarchy will always put the party before ordinary South Africans, to the point of destroying millions of lives to maintain power, it’s that in order to do so, they’ve clearly roped in the criminal underworld to do their bidding. It’s why we don’t see any key gang bosses behind bars, we don’t see the syndicates of the taxi industry being dismantled: every criminal enterprise that is making a lot of money or has guns for hire is useful to the ANC, or factions within it. To destroy the ANC’s patronage networks, you need to destroy most of the criminal syndicates in South Africa as well.
Indeed, the ANC is almost certainly in league with the criminal syndicates in virtually all of the sectors in the country. It has now reached a frightening scale, that threatens to destroy the state entirely.
Succinctly put – once they have engaged the hyaenas – there is no going back.. What surprises me is how benign the rest of the World’s opinion seems to be of it. I guess “unsurprised” sums it up. A resigned “it was always going to happen” which I don’t think reflects the feelings of most South Africans who generally burst with optimism. And this disinterest and lack of outrage strangely lets this all happen. In plain sight, on our watch. When a reaction comes – and it will come – I fear no one will care very much outside our borders. So we may as well get on with it.
I share your disappointment Carol, but it comes with the absolute realisation that everyone in the ANC is rotten because they are all complicit. Let’s hope that the electorate punishes them properly in the next elections.
Indeed, his conduct in this matter is incredibly disappointing. And saying he could not do anything based on “suspicions”, I am sorry, is completely unacceptable. He has allowed state capture to continue unabated in Eskom under his tenure. It is facilitating the continuation and deepening of the corruption and looting that dramatically undermined Eskom during the “state capture period”. Mr Gordhan has gravely failed in his duty to the country. He abjectly failed to provide support to Mr De Ruyter in efforts to combat corruption, and allowed him to be made a scapegoat, and be hounded out of his position. This is exactly what the corrupt criminal syndicates and those in the ANC who are at the head of them want. They manufactured this crisis, and the declaration of a state of disaster will enable them to complete the plundering while Eskom collapses completely. The only thing that can perhaps stop this is the criminal syndicates and ANC involvement being made so extensively public, and further intensive and outstanding investigative reporting as was started to be made public yesterday.
This is exactly a reply of the state capture era, and even Parliament is seemingly gearing up to support the ANC, with the calls for further “investigations” into the allegations by Mr De Ruyter, with the intention of exonerating all Ministers and placing the blame for Eskom failures squarely with Mr De Ruyter. It is absolutely sickening and apalling!
If we objectively look at how the ANC is behaving, I believe we have to contemplate a scenario where the ANC does not leave government willingly after the next elections, even if it loses them. I hope that Business and Civil Society organisations are discussing strategies about how to embark on immediate civil disobedience program (withholding taxes etc.) if the the ANC refuses to vacate government. Likewise, if the ANC enters coalitions with other parties such as the EFF and PA.
Certainly, the prospects for the future are very frightening, and even with coalitions that quite possibly might form in the event of the ANC losing majority power, the likely outcomes are likely to be extremely undesirable- especially an alliance with the EFF.
This is not just a possibility but a likelihood. It has happened often in African and other 3rd world countries. The elite of the party and the receivers of their patronage have no other way of enjoying the kind of living that politics in power affords them. Holding onto power for them is a survival issue. Without power it will also be difficult to finance campaigns to get back into power. Russian support will no doubt be offered and used to hold onto it or if that fails, to get back into power but it won’t be granted for free. Already the mis-information about who is responsible for the misery of the bulk of our population is flowing fast and furiously. When people are starving they have little to lose. Things may still get a lot uglier.
The ANC isn’t worried about the 2024 elections. They already know they are going to win them, with a little help from Russia, their new best pal. It is the people of South Africa who need to wake up.
I fear you are right. They will hold an election, and when it becomes clear that their support has fallen below a certain critical level, a number of options, all bad for us, are available to them.
(1) Form a coalition with the EFF and the other rats and mice in the RET faction like the ATM – which will be worse than the current status quo. It’s pretty clear to me that the EFF is another corrupt party who were aiming to capture Limpopo and run it as the Pedi tribe’s personal fiefdom. That led to a fallout with Zuma’s lot, who greedily wanted the whole country.
(2) Declare it null and void with claims of widespread electoral fraud (the Trump option)
(3) Engineer (sic) a general grid failure and declare a state of emergency, suspend the constitution, and rule by fiat. They may call on their Russian and Chinese friends for support in this.
Or perhaps suspend the elections under SOD ???
The best way to stymie the ANC/EFF is to vote for the party that they hate most, the DA. Please People, do not vote for one of those small parties, that will only help the ANC.
The DA’s idea of a federal state will help to limit the EFF to Limpopo.
So many times we’ve read/heard that there are good guys in the ANC and government. WRONG. There are no good people in the ANC.
If there were, the good guys would have left and forced a reelection.
If you’re a member of the ANC, you are complicit and bad.
If you vote for the ANC, you’re complicit and bad.
ANC is finished and kla
Absolutely agree. People were vilified for trying to change the apartheid government from within, and it’s the same with the ANC. They have become a criminal enterprise and are totally unscrupulous: you cannot be an ANC member and have integrity.
I think PG is on it. The entire ANC is irredeemable. Corruption has hollowed it out to rent seekers. Even those not involved are by now complicit through condoning by denial instead of opposition.
Why does de Ruyter have to lay charges against anyone? He has lanced the abscess that is Eskom. Now, surely it is up to the Hawks to launch an investigation ?
I was wondering that myself
Sadly the Hawks and NPA are hollowed out, toothless institutions thanks to interference by the ANC. PG has passed his sell-by date and has been sucked into the vortex
Given the current state of the Hawks and saps, not to mention the lack of gumption of the NPA, who would he lay the charges with? There are high ranking police implicated in these cartels. I can’t imagine the stress ADR was under, that feeling of helplessness. Knowing what is going on and knowing that it will be swept under the carpet by the higher ups. I believe he felt that by saying it in an interview, he made a point of getting it into the open so it would be a lot harder to hide.
Stephen, I’m glad you went back as far as the Arms Deal scandal, because denialism and shooting the messenger (too literally in the case of key whistleblowers) has been entrenched in the ANC for years. For me, denialism and kicking the can down the road is the single most lasting – and damaging – legacy of the Mbeki years: he denied the Arms Deal allegations, he denied HIV/AIDS to the cost of perhaps a million souls, he denied there was a crisis in Zimbabwe to the detriment of the entire region and he blindly refused to admit that anyone he appointed was corrupt.
The Zuma mob, and now Ramaphosa’s, have taken it to another level with the race card being flourished at every opportunity to discredit critics who happen to be white or the ‘clever blacks’ that Zuma attacked if they had the temerity to interfere with the grand corruption of state capture.
Where I disagree with you though, is that the ANC does not have an ethics crisis: there is no ethical leadership left in the ANC. Just cast an eye over anything the ANC is in control over, from the Presidency, with Phala Phala and PPE scandals, to Eskom and every provincial and local authority they run – and ruin – there is simply no moral compass at all. Just brazen theft, intertwined with criminal syndicates and patronage, all fuelled by rampant, unrelenting greed and gluttony. Time for change and time to consign the ANC to history.
I could not agree more. Mbeki was a very poor president. Why are South Africans tolerant of a completely rotten government whose failure at all levels and in all areas is pervasive and devastating and cumulative? Can they not see what is right in front of their eyes? If this train is not brought to a halt this country is a runaway train to utter chaos. It will hit a wall and it will hit it hard. And the South African people will be the the ones injured in the crash.
Agreed 100%
I agree 100% but the people causing all the havoc have lined there pockets with so much untraceable money that they won’t be affected for the rest of their lives. They won’t feel the consequences of their actions. If they get arrested and sent to jail , they know its a few months and then they out on medical parole.
Gordhan seems to have experienced a complete metamorphosis. His face even looks different. What is going on?
He is Gavin Watson….
Yes, I wonder.
There is NO justification for the ANC’s further existence. It missed the opportunity to become a governing party and is now led by incompetence, loud-mouthed thugs and outright criminals.
Yes, indeed.
The ANC must be destroyed and must disappear like a rabid dog, there is nothing that can be done to “save” it. It is the sole reason why SA is in such a terrible state and there is only hope, albeit a glimmer, if the ANC loses power completely. Enough of the ANC’s decades long criminality, self – interest and complete disregard for the people of this country.
The ANC has clearly demonstrated numerous times that they are not prepared to split between goodies and baddies. They are one is one of their motto’s. Maybe they are scared to break ranks within the party,scared of revenge attacks? It now looks they are rather prepared to go down as one too.
Ha ha, that’s if we make it to elections. I have my doubts, this is a party of corruption and violence. A toxic combination combined with a seething anger being stoked by the flames of government indifference. Be prepared. Hope for the best because thats all that we have left.
The problem with them losing the election is that ala Jhbg and Ekurhuleni they will join up with their Fascist mates to claim a majority
Strange how the commander in thief has been very quiet.
You would have expected him to be ranting about Racism and incompetence on the part of DR and with his attack on Cyril over Phala Phala you would imagine him looking for targets amongst the crooks in Cabinet, Not normally Pravins mate either,
Sounds of silence, must be a reason ?
For Gordhan to share what he knows would sign his own death warrant.
The ANC is a cabal of gangsters with no interest in the public good only of feathering their own nests
I agree. ANC cadres have already established a reputation for ‘taking out’ any threat to their seat on the gravy train.
ANC rotten to the core, Andre de Ruyter I’m proud of your courage, you’re the South African we need more of.
Every single state owned entity is in the ‘toilet’ and the anc (small letters due to the insignificance of their abilities and attempts) are like a troop of ostriches… heads in the sand… or up their own bottoms, or up their cadres’ bottoms. Allowing (allegedly) cadres to wilfully participate in activities that undermine SA’s sovereign risk (as clear as a pustulating boil on an otherwise unblemished bottom). If any organisation/movement/grouping outside of SA did what these guys are doing (Eskom as an example) it would be defined as a ‘coup’ attempt and termed ‘TERRORISM’. In fact, all these perpetrators are technically committing TREASON, as they are destabilising a country. What is the punishment for TREASON…. That’s what we as South African want! We want the perpetrators to be tried and punished for TREASON!!!
Look at yourself anc, smell the rot, smell the rancid stench of your money grabbing, country stealing despotism… THE END IS ALMOST NIGH!!
The ANC created this monster- and this monster is eating them. AdR had talks with the Generals in SAPS and they did NOTHING. Does anyone believe if he reports it to a Constable or Sergeant ANYTHING will happen.
The arrogant narcissistic clowns (anc). What a disgraceful lot you are. Envy and selfish ambition leads to disorder and every evil practice. Every evil deed will be brought to light. I will continue to pray for our beautiful country.
The ANC is just an illusion, in the end it was just a race to the feeding trough !!
So tragic .
Nothing new with “The Party”
Read history and George Orwell – he knew communism and fought on their side in the Spanish Civil War. Lots of insight and street cred .
I agree with the comment that ” The Party ” are unlikely to vacate if they lose . Too many have patronage ( the myth that ” The Party ” created grants , racial slurs etc etc )
What next ?
The ANC needs to change it’s spots. Of course it will not.
The Media needs to change it’s spots. But will it? They have attacked the sensible opposition to the advantage of the non-sensicle ANC!
Before the last elections there was a lot of blind comment about the “good ANC”. How many people left the opposition ranks and voted ANC? There was the mindless spate of personal attacks on Helen Zille. Remember her innocuous tweet that was deliberately misconstrued by the media? Remember the media feeding frenzy over that innocent teacher in the North West? Remember all those ignorant media remarks whenever a black person left the DA? When one person left it was called a “flood” or something similar!
My message to the media is “straighten your ethics out” if you want an ethical government in power.
100% correct, Glyn. The media are often just as complicit as the thugs with inaccurate and sensationalist junk.
I think we have to let this play itself out. From what I have read I am convinced that the ADR interview & the DM revelations which followed are far from being a coincidence. I am equally convinced that what we are seeing now is far more than ‘just another corruption scandal expose’; it’s an exercise to blow wide open the direct links between the ANC & Organized Crime. I think all of us have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that our law enforcement & prosecution authorities are ‘not solutions’ & that we no longer have the luxury of time to wait for these institutions to fix themselves (in fact I am not convinced they can or even want to) Let’s hold onto our seats – grab some popcorn (if you got power) & see where this road takes us!
Yes, I think that this is an extremely important moment, and I certainly hope that the lid is now well and truly blown off the whole cesspit. Civil society organisations and the general public need to give the strongest possible support to this process, in order to have a hope of breaking the chains of criminality that have Eskom and so many other sectors of the country, in its grip, and to ensure that the ANC is out of power permanently.
The problem that Gordhan misses is that by their own admission the criminal justice system and the police seem to be part of the criminality itself at Eskom. Andre de Ruyter and the Head of Security explained that cases that they report to the police do not go anywhere and they have to explain to the very police what the implications of load shedding are. Also, we have a trial collapsing because of poor handling by the Hawks and the NPA of the first state capture case to be concluded. You have failure that is deliberate by the Ramaphosa regime to protect whistleblowers and all they do is lip service with the Lamola lies. To tell de Ruyter to go to the police was rich of Pravin and as a Minister he ought to have told his Cabinet colleague, the pick and pay general and the riot squad commissioner of police that there are issues he got from the CEO and he needs advice on how to handle them. One bets that even if the pick and pay general was told he would have lied about a task team that would not produce any results from KZN to Kagiso zama zamas and other string of lies he has told the public.
The dishonesty of Pravin Gordhan has been exposed and laid bare and he has nowhere to hide. The Emperor has no clothes. The ANC has never been opposed to corruption except on paper and meaningless words. The collapse of the Vrede Dairy case is the harbinger of things to come.
The impending collapse of the Vrede Dairy case, the defeat of the NPA despite 10? years of preparation is a direct result of anc cadre deployment. The ‘government’ would get better results (and more ‘bang for the buck’) if they employed some of the top-rate legal firms and advocates to prosecute. Put the brains on the side of the law for a change.
Let’s hope you are not right about the Vrede case. . . but I suspect that is indeed a sign of things to come.
It’s amazing how instead of behaving as a true minister (of public enterprises) and taking the right actions to support and investigate, he temporarily jumps ship to support the anc, and then thinks he’s still a valid minister of public enterprises. He’s a clown. He just looks like a nice guy. But he’s no different to the others.
Like many of his cabinet colleagues PG is a communist. Their unwritten rule is never to implicate a fellow communist in anything, no matter how damning the evidence is.
Thanks for a very enlightening article. We sometimes tend to forget and the criminal acts against the people of South Africa demands justice.
How about the honest opposition parties put their own interests aside for 5 years and form a coalition party before next year’s National Elections. Form a coalition before and not after the event, and stand on a united agreed platform that will appeal to the masses. And get a trusted figurehead to lead this and stand as President elect, not a Steenhuizen, Mashaba, Maimane, Zibi, Mulder or Lekota, but a Jonas, Madonsela, Motlanthe or Busisiwe Mavuso. The relevant parties can stand on their own in the provincial elections but must stand together at National level. And then get business and all the good South Africans to rally behind them, encouraging nonvoters to vote and trying to educate the masses about the poison that is the ANC. That way South Africa will start to have hope that we can rid our beautiful country of the ANC parasites, and start to turn it around. If the ANC and the EFF form a coalition after 2024, this country is doomed and nothing will remain to be saved.
Great idea. I share your sentiments. Put two South Africans together and they will try to form three political parties.
Motlanthe is part of state capture he closed the Scorpions with Jeff Radebe before Zuma could come in 2009. He is even proud of doing it. He alleges that they had accused Zweli Mkhize of moving arms and being involved in serious crimes and that was before Digital Vibes. He is a thug and a half. Now he is trying to dry clean himself and we are keeping a close eye on him.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
There’s no such thing as a credible opposition party and, if recent performance in local government is anything to go by, definitely none that could stitch together a reliable coalition.
To me, the overarching problem in our politics is that the party that espouses the mix of social and economic polices that might appeal to the majority of voters is the same party that crippled our country. It is riven by internal strife, has no credible leadership, and is rapidly losing support.
But our opposition leaves me with little hope. The party that had some credibility in the past, and was showing potential to attract an electoral mandate, now appears to be a reactionary throwback. It’s leaders to offer little more than supercilious attacks on government – not a very high bar to clear. They claim to offer administrative ability, but fail to deliver basic needs to marginalised communities where they do govern.
The other party delivers a radical and disastrous economic vision. But they do so consistently, and they deliver the message in a way that I fear will appeal to the millions who have become disenchanted by the ANC.
We need an alternative that espouses a vision that voters can embrace as a cure to the ills foisted upon us by the ANC, not a radical populist vision proposed by a party led by those who have already had their snouts in the trough, nor by a cabal of privileged pale-skinned politicians who are barely able to conceal their nostalgia for a white-ruled past.
Correct Brian, you are so right there. Everyone please, this idea needs to be tried at least, perhaps someone needs to talk to Madonsela or all of the short preferred list above. Who would be the right person to put this forward, or perhaps we try to get this to go viral?
AdR has made it quite clear that he has reported to the police and the SSA and nothing has happened so not clear to me why there is this focus on him speaking to these agencies again?
Absolutely
We have a silly season of elections and according to them he has upset the apple cart of deflection of the electricity crisis as not an ANC problem but some disaster by some unnamed people. Now that he has fingered the ANC, they had to come down on him very hard including one Pravin Gordhan who has been hiding in a hole whilst the country was enveloped in darkness. This is a desperate attempt to remove Eskom from the ballot and they view from the statements from the ANC that de Ruyter is undermining their programme of removing Eskom from being an electoral issue. Those who are attacking him clearly know where the money is going. The manner in which Gordhan spoke was very despicable as he referred to the “purported” poisoning. Yet he had reported the case to the police and has toxicology reports. Anybody who worked with Zuma you must ask if there is a spine in that person. The DA approach is welcome to as for the adult day care centre called parliament to investigate the corruption. The tendency to make criminal issues a race issue is very sill and must never be counternanced.
Ramaphosa has nothing to lose. He doesn’t want the job, so why not go out with a bang? Fire and arrest the ringleaders in cabinet, sweep every incompetent, lying moron out of government and let the pieces fall where they may. Because the alternative – slow death by a thousand cuts – will be worse.
De Ruyter knew that he had to report crimes (facts) to the authorities, and has done so. Joining the dots are inferences. His interview was his way of telling the public.
At the fall of the Soviet union, things were deteriorating rapidly. Just as here. Another year at an accelerating rate? A change must come. A party of thieves will want to steal the election.
The ANC has hit rock bottom now and I don’t see a way forward for them. The sheer arrogance of the members is unbelievable and I just hope that they get severely punished in the next general election. My biggest concern though is that they try to form a coalition with the EFF which could be another unfolding disaster for SA. If only the DA could stop shooting itself in the foot…
Thank you, thank you, for the work you do DM, I have just registered to try and support you a little. I don’t believe we will beat this corrupt culture, but exposing them for the ****** that they are makes me feel better.
And perhaps the saddest of all is to see that 99% of the comments come from whites, and basically both we and our ideas are irrelevant to the ANC. Perhaps the greatest damage to SA was inflicted by Bell Pottinger with their mantra of “white monopoly capital”. The government certainly doesn’t give a rat’s ass what we think, and we are labelled racist for any criticism. All we have left is to keep our heads down and pray. We’re not permitted the luxury of patriotism, or the recognition of genuine concern.
Good point and unfortunately I think that you are right.
Indeed, the entire RET movement, its principles and rhetoric, were created by the London-based company Bell Pottinger and paid for by the Zuma’s supporters. As a British citizen, maybe I should feel pride that South Africa is, after nearly a century of independence, succumbing once more to British dominance? Alas, I do not.
So many millions of good South African citizens go to work each day, working at petrol stations, retail outlets, construction sites, transport operations, and many other areas. They build businesses in tech, agriculture, tourism, etc. They serve other South Africans and visitors faithfully and with a smile. The unequivocal truth is they do not deserve to be continually abused via a system of graft set up for a minuscule gangster “elite”. These self-respecting people should rise up now and say: “Enough”.
There is absolutely nothing to be surprised about – the dire ethical state of the ANC has been apparent for a decade or more. The ANC’s incompetence and downright criminality as well as its backward ideological bent is mind blowing. These cadres live in the same parallel universe as their paymaster Putin.
Think back South Africans .
Do you know any doctor / medical person who supported ” The Party ” during the tenure of
Mr Mbeki who would not believe HIV causes AIDS – think of the number of unnecessary deaths and orphans resulting – apart from the young English doctor who attempted to put patients on ARVs and was dismissed from Manguzi rural hospital .
NO – the rot is not new , and those feeding at the party trough ( medicos should hang their heads in shame ) are decades old .
Perhaps an organization should get Mr Spoors opinion on the viability of another class-action case against ” The Party ” / Mr Mbeki .
I think the DM journalist last night, shed an interesting light on this situation. The ANC needs the lights on to do vaguely well in the election. Who would want to create a Zimbabwe style country for their pecuniary benefit, as the journalist put it? RET? EFF? I think we need to spread the net wider.
The ANC behavior is not a mystery : greed and power. The mystery to me is voters.
An interesting social experiment would be if people can cede their vote for a payment : what would the value be that voters place on their vote? (and what would people pay for that vote…). The ANC has been buying votes for decades and it has cost the country about a trillion runts.
During the struggle the ANC claimed that it was fighting for freedom. What they did not let people know was that the freedom that they wanted was freedom from morality.
We have to always remember that all these people were there with Zuma. They did nothing to change things then or spoke up when they knew what was happening. They are an incestuous bunch and everybody knows about everybody else and owes everybody else something. The real weakness of the ANC now lies in their fear of one another.
Them losing the election and then tried and punished will be the only way out for us. We will never get to the bottom of anything with any of these rogues around.
Because they have lost all contact with the people they should serve, so early on, as well as their infantile illusion of what power is and how powerful they think they are has left them without any idea of how informed the people are how decisive the ballot box can be.
It is a very sad bunch of old men and women who have not only disappointed a country, but are left sitting in the ashes of a beautiful dream they meticulously destroyed by being utterly incompetent, misguided, disrespectful and frightfully greedy.
Very, very sad.
If ADR needs crowdfunding, count me in!!
The ANC are currently staring up at rock bottom.
Very clever. LOL
Clinging to the hope that the demise of the ANC in the 2024 election will solve the problem is delusional. Coalition government will only lead to stagnation while the termites that have been planted in all areas of civil service (oxymoron noted) ramp up. At the same time the deliberately incompetent, if not complicit, law enforcement serve their masters – even if no longer in power.
Current labour laws ensure it will take longer to purge the system than it took to build.
The 90% are certainly giving the 10% of hard working committed civil servants a really bad name.
Kevin Bloom’s detailed revelations of the four cartels who have brought Eskom and South Africa to their knees would make very good bed-time-story-reading-matter for for the ANC.
That document alone, should be sufficient for prosecuters to get started on the important task of collecting evidence, particularly, if they get the bonus of the identity of ANC political Kingpins. Then just follow the money trails where they lead – to the greedy ‘Fatcats’. Finally jail all of them, including the Kingpins.
Perhaps easier said than done. But this has to be done before even trying to fix Eskom.
What is to be done about Eskom? It is no use trying to fix it while it is controlled by the ANC. Then the ‘Goodguys’ have to get them out by: 1) Voting them out, 2) Privitising Eskom, 3)Temporarily closing Eskom. All of these options should be followed up by retrenching ALL pesent staff, including management and politicians. The whole sorry chain of them. Then offering the option of applying for their jobs again, in an effort to get rid of the ‘bad eggs’, also using(dare I say) lie detectors while interrogating them or using mild forms of psychological bribing to get to the truth?
Once the ‘Bad eggs’ are largely gone the others will realise the game is up. And will leave.
Then fix Eskom and loadshedding in one fell swoop.
With a strong will this bold move can be implemented to the benefit of all South Africans And to show the world that that ‘Good’ can prevail.
As Hendrik Du Toit from 91 says it is time that we un-apologetically consolidate how we can and should ‘Push Back’ and ‘not accept excuses’
‘I think we now have to raise our voices strongly at every level, not just about this. If we leave Eskom like it is, and we listen to the feeble excuses, and we listen to a management team that is honestly trying to change things, and we accept that, then we can only hold ourselves responsible for the bigger mess we will find ourselves in. ‘ … Hendrik Du Toit.
Who is Hendrik du Toit, Dou?
Are you his voice?
Time someone joined Gordhan’s dots. Julius?
State Capture V2. Now with Ramaphosa & Co leading the sty.