PARTY

President Zuma is not an air traffic controller

Justice Piitso says it would be wrong of ANC members to cast aspersions on elected leadership of the movement

The role of the President of the state cannot be reduced to managing the movements of aircrafts entering our airports.

Once again opposition parties and most of the hostile media houses have attempted to manipulate the controversial landing of the Guptas aircraft at the Waterkloof military airport to attack the leadership of our national liberation movement and particularly our President Cde Jacob Zuma. They are so desperate that they can even get comments from expelled former members of the ANC, who have no role at all in the South African body politics, to spit venom at the leadership of our revolutionary Alliance.

The repeated futile attempts by counter revolution to cast aspersions on the leadership of our President is part of the ongoing agenda to undermine the unity and cohesion of our national liberation movement and the people of our country. Counter revolution has unleashed a massive propaganda machinery to undermine the cause of the struggles of the progressive people of the world in their effort to reconstruct a new world social order. The prime target of this smear campaign is the leadership of the progressive movements throughout the country, the continent and the whole world.

It is in the culture of imperialism and colonialism that lies often told has the propensity to be the truth. A false view has been presented to create a perception that our President has a role on the controversial landing of the Guptas aircraft at the waterkloof military airport. Counter revolution has leveled these accusations against our President even before government can complete its investigations on the matter.

Our most fundamental principle of democratic centralism affords all members of the ANC with the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights to choose their preferred leaders as stipulated by our constitution. The principle also bestows on the shoulders of the members of the ANC a political responsibility to defend and protect the elected leaders of the movement irrespective of their initial choices. Therefore it will be wrong of any member of the ANC to cast aspersions on the elected leadership of the movement based on the instincts of their personal choices.

The doubting Thomas never believed that President Jacob Zuma can successfully run the country and the ANC. The overwhelming support and confidence the collective leadership of the ANC under President Zuma received at the Mangaung conference was a last straw that broke the camel's back. The main reason why counter revolution will go all out to find wrong doing on the part of the President, even if he has nothing to do with the controversial landing of the Gupta aircraft at the waterkloof military airport.

These are just attempted acts of desperation to justify their doubts on the leadership of our President and the ANC. They will try at all cost to find skeletons from his cupboard even if there is nothing that suggest wrong doing on his part to justify their malicious campaign. In terms of the established culture of the state protocols, line function ministries, not the President, are the ones responsible for the overall management of our points of entry and all our national key points.It is therefore indeed absurd of the DA led opposition to accuse our President on the controversial landing of the Guptas aircraft at the waterkloof military airport.

The executive council has dispatched senior government officials to lead investigations into the matter. It will be in the best interest of our justice system to await for the outcomes of the investigations. The rule of law will obviously take account of all those found to have breached the security protocols of a sovereign state like South Africa. We should allow the investigations to reach finality, they will obviously reveal the truth behind the whole saga.

It is from this premise that we view the continuous effort by counter revolution to blame the President of the country for the controversial landing of the Guptas aircraft, as part of the agenda to attack the leadership of the ANC and our government. It is equally part of the broader agenda by imperialism and neo colonial forces to undermine the collective effort of the leadership of our progressive movement led by the ANC in our country and the continent. The recent developments in the continent prove that sinister forces are hard at work to undermine our collective effort for the reconstruction and development of the African continent.

We are therefore not astonished by the futile attempts by counter revolution to use the Gupta scandal to cast aspersions on the leadership of our President and even to insinuate that the leadership of the ANC is divided on the matter. The conspiracy is nothing else but to drive a perceived wedge between our President, his Executive Council and the entire people of our country. The Democratic Alliance has run out of ideas to create a platform for its campaign as we approach our general elections in the next year.

We therefore welcome the proposal by the President of the country for the establishment of an African stand by force to respond to the increasing challenges of peace and stability ravaging our continent. Our enemy is foiling low intensity counter revolution throughout the continent to replace democratically elected governments with rebel movements. This is done for the purposes of creating a platform for the monopoly capital to plunder the abundant natural resources of our continent.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo alone sits on an estimated twenty four trillion dollars worth of valuable mineral reserves such gold, diamond,tin,uranium,coltan and chrome which its estimated value is equal to the combined Gross Domestic Product of Europe and the United States of America. From this unexploited wealth of the continent about six million dollars worth of resources are smuggled out of the Congo everyday. The reason why the great lake region has become the hive of conflicts in the region.

The world economic crisis has unleashed an unprecedented acts of aggression led by imperialism and former colonial powers against our people in the former colonies and semi colonies. Millions of the poor people of the world are the ones facing the wrath of the severe world socio economic circumstances. The levels of inequalities, poverty and unemployment have increased antagonistic contradictions in our society. Neo colonial forces are manipulating the fragile world economic situation to reverse back the achievements of the struggles of our people for peace, stability and development.

The ANC remains to be a progressive national liberation movement. Our posture is still consistent with the traditions of our founding principles of creating a just and a humane world. We are still waging an anti imperialist and anti colonial struggles to change the socio economic conditions of our people in the former colonies and semi colonies. We are part of the collective effort to transform the socio economic conditions of the people of the world.

Since our democratic breakthrough in 1994 the ANC led government has made decisive interventions to improve the quality of life of the majority of the people of our country. We have made tremendous achievements to deliver to the majority of our people basic essential services such as water, electricity, education, health, roads and rail infrastructure and also to increase the absorptive capacity of our economy to create more jobs and employment. We have intensified our battle to liberate the people of our country from the shackles of poverty, disease and underdevelopment.

The ANC led government has increased its capacity to eradicate the centuries old legacy of imperialism and colonialism of a special type. Our fiscal expenditure has increased from hundred and fifty billion rands ( 150.00 billion) in 1994 to one point two trillion rands( R1,2 trillion) in the year 2012. Most of the black people of our country particularly the African people, started to receive provision of the bulk essential services with the advent of our democracy in 1994. The prospects of our growing economy are starting to yield positive results to change the living conditions of our people.

This is a living prove that the racist Apartheid government never put any effort to improve the living conditions of the majority of the people of our country. Our young people must therefore understand why the Democratic Alliance is in the forefront to undermine the efforts of the ANC led government to transform the socio economic landscapes of our country. This is equally the main reason why the DA is in a vicious campaign to rewrite the history of the struggles of our country. It has become an instant fly by night liberation movement that claims to have led the struggles of our people for liberation of our country through osmosis.

There is no a single paragraph or at least a sentence in our history books mentioning of the role of the DA in our struggles against Apartheid. There is no a single member of the DA who took the forefronts of our struggles to fight against the racist Apartheid regime. They embellished themselves in the comfort of the exclusive privileges given only to the white community at the detriment of the millions of the people of our country. Madam Hellen Zille and her bench of liars in the DA were ashamed of sharing the same public toilets, schools, church, restaurants, hospitals, queues in the banks and retail stores throughout the country with black people.

We have traversed so far to liberate ourselves from the inhumane Apartheid system of oppression and exploitation. We have build a better foundation derived out of the hopes and the aspirations of the majority of our people. The reason why the DA will go all out to restore the Apartheid policies from the grave. The reason why their main preoccupation is to oppose any measure that seeks to bring the participation of the black majority into our mainstream economy.

We appreciate the tremendous achievements by our democratic government to change the socio economic conditions of our people. It has been a difficult task to commence the reconstruction and development of our country from the rough edges of the Apartheid foundations. Our future has no room for forces of darkness who want to undermine our movement and the collective of its elected leadership. The role of the President of the state cannot be reduced to managing the movements of aircrafts entering our airports.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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