My friend Justice Malala implied during a panel discussion on eNCA on 11 December that our people are stupid for electing the ANC over and over again, regardless of how much the ANC messes up. He stated, and I’m not quoting verbatim, they mess up the economy, the people vote for them; they allow State Capture, they vote for them; there is blatant corruption with respect to Covid-19 protective gear, the people vote for the ANC.
He concluded that there is a problem with our people.
On the one hand he might imply they therefore deserve what they get, which would be callous, or on the other hand, they are stupid. I decided to take serious issue with his sentiments because I have often also heard it being expressed by my white compatriots: the ANC can do whatever it wants and the stupid masses will keep on voting for them and they know it, so don’t expect any change from the ANC any time soon.
I presume these are the same people who fought for centuries to rid themselves of slavery, colonial occupation, and apartheid? These stupid people are the same ones who have bled and died in pursuit of their freedoms, Justice? Many of them chose to languish in our prisons, jail cells and indeed on the gallows, stupid fools. These are the stupid people you are referring to, right?
A people who saw the fruits of their labour come to fruition in 1990 and as a result could savour that sweet taste of freedom on that fateful day, 27 April 1994. After so many of them died between the period of 1989-1994, right till the eve of the election day.
Are these the stupid people you are referring to?
They, who experienced first-hand in many communities how their ordinary poor and destitute lives are improving and taking shape in the right direction post-1994.
Perhaps you are not used to not having piped water, but they saw this ANC government give them access, similarly with electricity, a most basic commodity. It was slow on the job front, yes; the global economy can be a very complex and lonely place, but these are the people who saw their government making the effort and at least giving them a child grant, equalising old age pensions across the colour line and restoring the dignity of our aged and most vulnerable.
Even in a time of a desperate shortage of extra cash, it is this ANC government that went an extra mile and provided an additional seven million of these stupid people with some relief to assist in a desperate situation with the Covid-19 special grant.
You might have the luxury of debating dependency syndromes etc, but the stupid people can feel the difference in their tummies.
With literally thousands of service delivery protests all over the country for a number of years already now, with civil society taking good shape in holding government at local level accountable, and with so many deciding to register their protest votes against the ANC in the 2016 local government elections, resulting in the ANC having lost three major metropolitan areas, are these still the stupid people you are referring to?
Our people are not stupid, Malala, they are realists.
If not the ANC then who? That’s not to suggest we cannot survive politically without this ANC, no, but who are the alternatives here and now? I won’t go through the perilous state of our opposition parties, but seriously, there are so many of your types that seem to know what’s best for us stupid people, why rely on a breakaway group from this ANC?
Why don’t you and your ilk form a political party and steer us all out of this abyss? Why is it that certain labour groups have not yet thought of breaking away and forming a workers’ party to the left, or the Communist Party for that matter? Oh, I forget, because they are stupid?
I think, my friend, that the ‘born free’ generation has the luxury to not care about our struggles and our sacrifices over the preceding decades, but you don’t have that luxury, Justice. It’s not that I constantly want to bask in the glory of the past, I can’t rid myself of it… it happened!
So, before you call us stupid, remember this – the people shall govern! DM
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> If not the ANC then who?
Is this a *serious* question? And what “perilous state” of opposition parties are you referring to? That some of them have charged their own members with corruption? Or that maybe their are dissenting opinions within their own ranks? Or that their members use social media in a laughable manner? Or maybe they have members that cheated on their spouses?
Seriously, what is this perilous state you are talking about, and how is it *any way* worse than a fraction of the problems plaguing the ANC (and the rest of South Africa, by implication)?
What inconsequential waffle, Oscar.
I am not privy to what Justice Malala said or implied, but it would be unfortunate if he called everyone who votes for the ANC “stupid”. Yes, the ANC has done a lot of good, built houses, provided water and electricity, grants and COVID special grants. But, how much more could’ve been done if they hadn’t stolen, squandered, misappropriated and wasted billions? How many more houses, how much more water and electricity and bigger grants could’ve been provided if the politically connected hadn’t been so greedy and stolen so much? How many schools could’ve been built, good teachers trained and jobs created if the ANC had had the foresight, will and insight to truly empower and uplift the people and not merely give them a band aid? The global economy may be a complex and lonely place but if virtually all our SOE’s had not been hollowed out and mismanaged by nepotism, cronyism and incompetent cadre deployments, we’d be in an infinitely better place. Service delivery is failing, infrastructure is crumbling, crime is rampant, corruption is sky high while the corrupters act with brazen impunity, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting grants which are being paid out of a dwindling tax base as people seek safe havens for their money. On a balance, anyone who removes their ANC blinkers can see that, apart from liberating the people from the evils of apartheid (and kudos to the ANC for that), the party has failed miserably. Stupid? No. Blinded by misplaced loyalty and placated by a few shiny beads and baubles? Definitely.
Well said. Please take note, Oscar!
Well put, Nicolas Bekker. You write “how much ………..(more) could’ve been provided if the politically connected hadn’t been so greedy and stolen so much”. This high degree of greed has been protected by capturing the law-enforcement systems that should nail corruption.
Just maybe the ANC need to understand that they cannot just do what they want and are answerable to the populous.
Anyway, just who represents the ANC? CR and his group, the RET faction, the Unions or any other dissatisfied group who have not yet joined the ATM!
Oscar, you better face it. Your beloved party, in its present form/structure, is in terminal decline. Let’s just take one example. the education system, your government has expanded the system and more pupils than ever before are able to attend school. To what benefit, however? Providing education of such low standard that the majority of school leavers are unemployable is a crime against humanity and will end tragically. If your party stays the present course, a South African spring is inevitable.
The answer is ‘yes’.
true
Well said Oscar – I just wish more of my melanin-deficient compatriots (and most especially, those in the official opposition party) could see beyond their usual ‘the ANC is so corrupt and has done so much damage to the country’ view – not that they aren’t correct, but the fact is that the ANC are in charge by a huge majority, which means it is up to the opposition to demonstrate that they are a better and more viable party to vote for.
the problem, of course, is that there are only two relatively large opposition parties:
the Red Berets are far too radical for the majority, I think, many of whom still ultimately believe in Mandela’s Rainbow Nation,
That only leaves the DA, who could so easily dance their way around the failing and corrupt ANC (like Muhammad Ali) – if only they could stop shooting themselves in the feet!
Instead, they allow senior leaders to get away with a constant barrage of insulting and racist tweets; they always elect middle aged white men into all their major party positions; and for good measure, they consistently sideline or remove all their senior black party members…. and then they wonder why they end up with a smaller share of votes in national elections.
It has nothing to do with stupidity on the part of voters and everything to do with the fact that the DA has regressed to its old ‘Tony Leon’ phase – impotent and whining about everything that is wrong with the ANC, without demonstrating any clear differentiators in their policy or any plans on how to drag our country out of the mess the ANC has created!
So who do YOU vote for? I bet it is the DA. If it got the support of whiners like some we know it would have a lot more power to bat the ANC into touch. Continual bitching is not constructive for a healthy democracy. PS: You write “constant barrage of insulting and racist tweets” Quote just one “racist tweet”!
I refuse to vote for the DA anymore – they do not represent my views in any way, and I refuse to vote for them simply because they are the official opposition.
And I’m not whining, I’m pointing out exactly why they will never win an election here – they claim that they no longer see colour, but unfortunately for them, the majority of voter still do, and they won’t vote for a white dominated party (and who could blame them, considering our past 350 years of history?)
If the DA wants to truly be effective, it needs to evolve into a genuine, centre-left multiracial party. Oh, and it needs to get rid of godZille – she is a liability today and undoubtedly costs the DA more votes than she earns for them…
Also, there have been a number of controversial tweets from her – it is definitely significantly more than one!
Look at the Western Cape and their audit reports.
There are dozens of other parties with quality black leadership, but ANC voters are brainwashed or just too stupid to explore outside the “church” of the ANC. At this point voting for ANY party but the ANC is the right idea.
Right. Only some will have no effect at all on the final outcome. Voting for the Purple Party for instance will be a total waste of your vote. Vote for the most effect at bringing the ANC down.
Yes. It’s like saying he was a really good teacher til he raped that student. He was a really good worker til he stole from the company. Only very short sighted and foolishly gullible people cannot see when present behaviour is very different from original intentions.
Exactly!
“Are we, the people who shall govern, really stupid because we continue to vote for the ANC?” – No, not stupid. Just very very ignorant. We have a democracy, that means people can vote for other parties, they are not locked into the party that is trashing the entire country for the benefit of a few mega-rich “cadres”. The stupids are the people who know the alternatives but do not act on logic but on blind tradition.
The sooner the ANC splits the better as the electorate will no longer have the luxury of a knee jerk vote for the ANC. They will then at last have to think which party they want to support. The fight that will be worth watching is which faction of the ANC, if any but probably none, gets to keep the letters ANC.
It could get interesting, the sooner the better.
Suggest the reading of the book ‘After the Party’ by Andrew Feinstein
Seems to forget that it was the ANC that killed most of the people who died in the “struggle” to ensure that it eliminated resistance( and the fear of opposing the ANC is still very real and continually cultivated in the townships and rural areas of KZN, and elsewhere)
So, just how bad must it get before your arguments will no longer hold water? The ANC is an unmitigated cancer in our society and you believe, better to live with cancer than go to find or create alternatives? Why, 25 years later, is there still no opposition party in place to counter the ANC? Today we vote for the ANC, tomorrow we burn our schools because we are unhappy with our choice, just to repeat that choice 5 years later. How could this not be anything but dumb?.
Are we, the people who shall govern, really stupid because we continue to vote for the ANC?
Short answer: yes.
Just about any step towards the removal of the criminal patronage network is a step in the right direction. The party as a whole is too compromised and will drag us down with them while they sort out their squabbles. Better to remove it from politics while they sort their rubbish out.
Yes, the ANC has magnanimously applied some taxpayer money for the benefit of the taxpayer (albeit at an ever-decreasing rate)
The ANC of now is not the glorious ANC of yore, and we owe the present ANC no debts of gratitude. And this is my message to the stupid electorate.
The ANC has not passed its leadership through the eye of the needle, and it is thoroughly, terminally contaminated. The harder the reformists fight, the harder the fightback from those without integrity. And now new leaders will now not be selected for integrity – too stifling. Quoting Machiavelli: “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things …etc.”
Oscar, I fear you are delusional.
Looking back on the past is most helpful when using it to avoid repeating mistakes in the future. Little wonder then that the Bible urges us to forgive our enemies. Letting our hurts affect our future is unproductive. If we are to have a chance at a productive future for all our people, we need a government that is focused on effective plans, and with the will to make them happen through people at all management levels who are experienced and equipped to do so. Only a razor-sharp focus, free of party-political and adverse cultural norms, will produce the results we need. Ethics and morality should dictate our decision making and our practices, and anything less dealt with. Such a government is possible. As citizens why should we accept anything less?
What a stupid article!
Rubbish, Mr Van Heerden. So many of us backed the ANC struggle. It doesn’t follow that we should accept outright plunder to the point where we may as well be a province of that West African country starting with N. And the level of laughable incompetence. These people can’t run a spaza shop.And did they really win us freedom? So much ANC myth making as far as I can see. There is more eg Ramaphosa as the profound and ruthless wily strategist playing the long game. What rubbish. We have a president missing in action. An actual backbone is as afr as I know still a necessary requirement to be a vertebrate. But I digress. I remember as a young advocate reacting with horror to a senior colleague who did political cases in the 80s saying how the police knew who were the guys who returned from military training. The answer: They had brand new takkies . Sadly the struggle and material advancement have had a long entwined history. The people are stupid. This is not a comment about Africa. Witness the 70 odd million who voted for that creature Trump. Ours is the only country where people will do a service delivery protest and vote ANC at the next election.
It is common for commentators to say that the people aren’t stupid.
Of course, the electorate is stupid. 70 mill voted for that idiot trump and the majority for the mistake-Zuma. That doesn’t mean it must remain that way and commentators need to take some responsibility for the dearth political lituracy.
Like many ANC and other political party leaders, Oscar seems to put the ANC before South Africa. Maybe he should read Psalm 82.
“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
The know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness.”
Looking at the pictures of the stripped and looted Roodepoort railway station had me almost wanting to shout “For Gods Sake, people, how much abuse can we take before we realise the ANC has killed the hopes of 2 full generations, wrecked the health, education and policing departments and are now going making a final round of bayoneting the wounded before the last of the money runs out?” This question of people voting for the ANC when it is clear they care not a jot for their voters is almost like a wife staying with an abusive husband in the hope he will transform. I was going to say any of the parties would be a better option, but then remembered the EFF. So any reasonable party would be better for the country, the voters and the future of our kids. Oscar, you are a bright guy, please stop the emotional kak now, the time for this is over.
Ar the people stupid? Yes and No
Continuing to vote for what any rational person MUST recognise is a severely compromised party can ONLY be described as stupid.
Clever would be voting for the ANC but also doing something about fixing the party. There is no point to changing the DA because they will not govern.
If all the not-stupid ANC voters took control of the branch structure that puts outright thugs up as the ANC cadres and candidates, that would be clever. What fraction of ANC voters are active in the ANC even if it were only to involve registering and voting within the branch?? Maybe 1 in 25? But maybe this requires getting up from the comfortable seat in front of the big flatscreen and doing something to honour the old guard that sacrificed a lot more than taking part.
Yes. It was already pretty damned stupid to elect a known criminal into the highest office of the land. But twice? Now that IS stupid.
Hi Oscar,
You refer to “the same people who fought for centuries to rid themselves of slavery, colonial occupation, and apartheid? These stupid people are the same ones who have bled and died in pursuit of their freedoms”. Sadly not Oscar. You see, you are using selective reasoning to justify not doing something against these corrupt thieves.
The thing is, the ANC is no more – there are two ANC’s. The one, that of Cyril, Pravin, Cheryl Carolus, etc – those are the ones that justify your reasoning. If that was the ANC, I would join them tomorrow. But the majority seems to be the other ANC – the thieves, the so called veterans who are twenty year old, the so-called Youth who are forty years old and looking to join the feeding trough. Yes, the people who vote for those, they are indeed stupid. As Forrest Gump’s momma said, “Stupid is as stupid does”.
I do agree on one thing – the choices are thin, as it seems in other countries too.
What a question! Embarrassingly so!
The mob-led ANC is unfit to govern!
I don’t always agree with Oscar – but this time he’s quite right. Who on earth could you vote for in SA’s fractured political landscape? Hold your nose and vote for one of the other minority or identity group parties? Or parties which often have some pretty difficult issues to deal with themselves – or who don’t have the struggle credentials of the ANC? In fact were supporters or beneficiaries of Apartheid?
Like it or not – the ANC still has many old and young SA’s who have their scars but recognize that it took the USA a bloody civil war, and a comatose period of nearly 100 years after that before they passed the civil rights legislation amid the senseless VietNam war and death of MLK – and then there’s Trump, and the rest of them today. So stupid? Oh come on – just people. Like the rest of us – doing our best and hoping within our little circles of influence for a better future for all.
Sorry Oscar, on this you are completely wrong. Stupidity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again, in this case voting, and expecting a different result. Justice Malala is 100% right – our people are stupid. They are the ones mostly at the receiving end and who have been thoroughly betrayed and let grievously let down. Stop playing the race card and see reality for what it is.
I have a lot of respect for both Justice Malala and Oscar van Heerden. The exchange on these pages, and specifically the readers’ comments, show how destructive (I almost said “stupid) it is to label people. A label says more about the one who uses it than the one that is labeled. Name calling people distract us from focusing on the real problems. People are not the problem. The problem (governance, blind loyalty, corruption, wounds of the past, etc) is the problem. It’s time for us to get out of our political corners in a boxing ring and sit in a circle to do the hard thing: listen to understand.
Dear Oscar, what a lot of verbiage to repeatedly ask the same question. Of course they are stupid. Not all of them, but most of them, for sure. The only thing they have really remembered from ‘the struggle’ is, “don’t pay your utility bills, make the country ungovernable”. They have got that 100% right. That’s why Eskom, the Water Boards, the Municipalities (with notable exceptions in DA areas), the SOEs, are all bankrupt and non-functional.
I recall when I was in the SANDF in 1974 I asked an Afrikaner why he voted Nat and his response was because his parents voted Nat. That principle also applies in the case of ANC voters.
The only hope for some change is that there is a split in the ANC and that the ‘good guys’ get more of the votes.
Herman Mashaba has good intentions but can he build a party strong enough to take on the ANC? Time will tell.
Poor old Oscar suffers from a logical inconsistency:
Apartheid was bad, the ANC were against apartheid, therefore the ANC are good!
The reality is that apartheid was bad, the ANC were amongst MANY organizations that were against apartheid, but, unfortunately, because of in-house corruption and incompetence, have turned out to be worse!
The other TOTALLY ILLOGICAL argument is that, because some people suffered and even died for a cause many years ago, people currently must support the inheritors of what once was an organization of integrity,even though it is now just a gaggle of hyenas!
I suspect Oscar is a stooge – no rational, intelligent person could honestly produce some of the drivel ascribed to him……
No. Stupid is a disability. Ignorance, however, is a choice. Sadly, this malady is not restricted to South Africa. More than 70 million Americans, without the limitations that Africa often presents, voted for Donald Trump!
I have read your article Oscar and believe you are missing the point; it is the ANC, with their corrupt mismanagement, who are robbing the people of the gains made with the struggle. The progress in uplifting the very people who have been liberated, could have been so, so much better and faster. The ANC is failing those very people. They were good at liberating but atrocious at governing and growing the economy for the sake of jobs. Artificially created and maintained racism in politics, is what keeps the governing party in power and what ensures parties like the EFF their support. It sure cannot be the results of the past almost 27 years; you must be blind to stubornely believe that. Who to vote for? Come on Oscar, just about every party will do better. Surely it’s fair to question why people are still voting ANC after all they have done or not done!?!
The late veteran political journalist Allister Sparks predicted many years back that the ANC would follow the route of most revolutionary parties and would disintegrate under the burden of years of factional fighting. The current stand-off between the CR and RET factions, that commenced well before the ANC’s December 2017 elective conference, marks the biggest factional battle that the ANC has yet experienced. It will emerge from this battle either broken in half, and severely weakened, or it will manage the metamorphosis into a more modern party with greater public service capabilities. At this juncture, it is also worth bearing in mind that political parties do not control economies – rather it is economies that control political parties! The post-Covid economic meltdown may just be the economic catalyst needed to bring about big political change in SA, whether that’s an entirely new dominant party (very unlikely), or a transformed ethical ANC (unlikely) or a major splinter break-away is made from within the ANC (more likely, especially once the NPA actions starts putting unbearable heat on the RET faction). Remember that the only reason the members of the RET faction have until now remained in the ANC is that the previous capture of the investigative and prosecuting offices in government shielded them from prosecution. Once that disappears there is less reason to remain in the Congress. That’s exactly why Julius Malema left the ANC – in his case he was singled out as a lone member who was not going to receive ANC protection. He then left and formed the EFF, relatively successfully (although his radical appeal has until now been quite limited politically), but he did it nonetheless. Maybe the break-away is part of the RET faction and will look to join the EFF. Given the economic woes for many more millions of unemployed and disillusioned South Africans, the combined forces of the ANC RET faction and the EFF may gain greater political appeal and wider political powers.
Ja Oscar, I have been chewing my gums for days and finally, I burst out laughing thinking of the consternation that would have been because if a white man like me had the nuts to make that claim Julius would be pumping bullets in the air and the SANDF would be on full alert. I wish it was funny but it is not. The ANC has done nothing other than one would expect from a social democracy, there are no achievements per se. Whatever the ANC has earned for the minor achievements they can claim has been destroyed by the wholesale rape of the citizens. In time the ANC will be accused of crimes against humanity. Just more than 50% of the people in the country live below the poverty line. Some 8 maybe 10 million people are jobless and they will never get jobs. I dont know how to fix this but I am certain youu and the ANC will never fix it and those that suffer willl eventually figure it out.