Replace ANC to save South Africa

31 October 2018

Everything that the ANC has laid its hands on since 1994 has been tainted. Institutions, municipalities and services are collapsing. There is not a single success story. Things will only change if the ANC is ousted at the polls.

At this late stage, the ANC itself cannot even agree on what is wrong in South Africa and whether there is indeed something wrong or not.

ANC Members of Parliament say that there is absolutely nothing wrong in our country. Everything is fine and there are no problems. In stark contrast to this, the President of our country, Cyril Ramaphosa, said exactly the opposite earlier today in Germany.

He said that over the last nine years, there has been an obvious deterioration in government, a weakening in state institutions, an increase in corruption and unemployment (the figures recently released by Statistics South Africa (SSA) confirm this), a lack of growth and that crime is out of control.

There is nothing that the ANC has not touched since 1994 that does not need a turn-around strategy to get things back on track. The ANC must name one thing that the party laid its hands on that did not break down and now needs fixing.

Racism is on the rise, trade unions are orchestrating unprotected strikes on a daily basis, there are protest actions against poor service delivery nationwide, municipalities and service delivery are failing.

South Africa's Constitution gives us a clear indication of what went wrong in our country. Section 83(c) states unequivocally that the country's president must promote unity and nation building for the benefit of the entire country.

Since 1994, however, the country's various presidents only worked to ensure unity within the ANC at the expense of the rest of the country.

The conclusion of the Interim Constitution is quite relevant here. It states that what is needed in South Africa is mutual understanding and not vengeance. And yet vengeance reigns supreme. There needs to be redress and not revenge. Ubuntu and not victimisation. And yet we experience the consequences of revenge and victimisation on a daily basis. Particularly toward minority groups.

The ruling party failed miserably, and it let the country and its people down. There is only one way to fix this and that is to get rid of the ANC and to replace it with a coalition of pragmatic opposition parties that will cooperate to get South Africa back on the road to recovery.

Issued by Corné Mulder, FF Plus chief whip, 31 October 2018