When President Jacob Zuma made his provocative statement: "We can't think like Africans in Africa. It's not some national road in Malawi", the chattering classes and his counterpart in Malawi, Joyce Banda, went bezerk. Zuma's spokespersons hurriedly apologized trying at length to explain what he meant to say. In the noise we lost what Zuma's statement actually revealed. Deep down Zuma and his party have not come to terms with our African identity as a nation, while they bang on and on about blackness, the African Renaissance, and "African-ness". His utterance exposed a deep antipathy with the continent of which we are a part. Africa is the "Other", not "Us".
Just as I accused Thabo Mbeki of not having come to terms with his "inner Zimbabwe" for his embrace of dictator, Mugabe, and human rights violator Supreme, just so Zuma, and his party have become the new colonisers on the continent, with the help of China. That is why the three ANC stooges of the Western Cape, Marius Fransman, Andile Lili, and Loyiso Nkohla, keep painting Helen Zille as a racist, the DA as racist, and the Western Cape as racist.
The Western Cape cannot be African, because the ANC decides who is African and who is not. A province where any other ethnic groups are in the majority departs from what Zuma and the ANC consider African. Hence if the ANC cannot control the Western Cape, they will destroy it regardless of whether it is the home of Parliament, the tourism haven of South Africa, and the home of SA's most diverse population.
Working in Adderley Street, I have witnessed hundreds of protest marches passing through the main street to Parliament over the past 13 years. I was not in Cape Town on Wednesday when some 3000 citizens from the informal settlements rampaged through town under the leadership of ANC Councillor Loyiso NKohla and former councillor Andile Lili. Employed by the taxpayers, these hooligans openly incite violence, encouraging their followers to sow mayhem and wreak havoc in the city. TV footage showed very clearly how well their leaders have trained the mob, who felt nothing for the small traders who depend on their businesses for their livelihoods. Good at destroying what others have built up, the ANC lives by the mantra - if you cannot beat the DA by the ballot then resort to the bullet.
That is why they so easily violate our Constitution. Bussing in their minions, to shout down Premier Zille at the launch of the Saldanha Industrial Development Zone last week, comes naturally. Incidentally, Zille's contender for the premiership, Supreme Thug Leader, Fransman, was the Chair. Having planned several coups against the DA leader, the more he fails the nastier he becomes. The other stooge comrade, Nkohla, is paid for by the state, yet he is allowed to foment violence during work hours. This is reason enough to terminate his services. He and Lili should be charged with sedition for undermining the functioning of the Western Cape government. Nkohla's language of incitement and comments in Philippi, Samora Machel and Khayelitsha, should not go unpunished:
"You will not have to go hungry because there are so many places that you can loot in the CBD. The police can't arrest us all because there will be too many of us." He also said "Squatters will go to Cape Town and loot if Zille does not receive the memorandum."
"Loot" is what our ruling party does best - from Chancellor House down to Nkandla. And the youth are following suit!
This article first appeared in Die Burger.
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