The ANC hates democracy. Instead of using constitutional strategies to contest elections, it uses thugs to do its bidding, and sow racial division in communities. The encroaching by-election in the Grabouw region has mobilised the ANC's acolytes into destructive mode.
Its adherents are in it for the money, hence the political contestation is vicious and they will use any means possible to woo people into the party. There is no doubt that the Grabouw protests are being fuelled by activists inciting racial tension in an area where coloureds and Africans got along reasonably ok.
It is no secret that the senior coloured members in the ANC leadership are desperate to wrest the Western Cape from the Democratic Alliance instead of turning their stronghold, the Eastern Cape, into a model of governance excellence.
They seem intent on destroying everything in their wake to achieve this goal. Civic leaders have incited people to stone cars on the N2, to disrupt the flow of traffic, to endanger motorists' lives, to throw stones and erect barricades.
The SABC crew escaped a hail of stones while filming events for morning news. Chairman of the Elgin Grabouw Civic Organisation, John Michels, issues empty threats to MEC of Education, Donald Grant, when the schools in the area are on the provincial government's agenda.
If Michels is so concerned about the education of black children, he will fight his battles without disrupting the schooling of children who need education most and meet with Donald Grant who has indicated his willingness to meet with him.
Pitting Groenberg against Umyezo Wama Apile School is a cheap political trick but tragically it is intrinsic to the ANC's modus operandi, of creating monsters that they are not able to control should matters get out of hand. Julius Malema is a product of this anarchic form of governance; the ANC Youth League is another; the National Youth Development Agency epitomises this dishevelment.
Intolerance for opposite views has been cultivated in Parliament since 1994 when Tony Leon was leader of the opposition Democratic Party. The contestation of ideas, even in Parliament, where debate should be central, has been shunned by the ANC. It excels in booing and shutting people down. And all the Speakers, have made it their business to silence dissent that even Helen Suzman declared that life under the Apartheid parliament was more tolerable for her than for Tony Leon and Patricia De Lille in the democratic parliament.
The ANC got a taste of its own medicine when Deputy President Pumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was booed at a national Women's Day Rally 9 August 2005. It was so vicious that she had to leave. The same happened to President Mbeki and now it is happening to President Zuma. Be careful what you wish for!
Already the ANC's own monsters are running amok in this country. The Intelligence forces are ratting on each other; rumours that General Richard Mdluli, Head of Crime Intelligence, will replace Bheki Cele, despite his track record, have taught the president nothing. The rationale that the ANC can retain power only when it has dirt on each other bodes ill for the future and is the height of cynicism.
Whatever criticism one might have of the Republicans in the USA, in their current contest, they debate ideological, social, economic, health-care, and foreign policy issues vigorously and publicly. Going around the country, they build grassroots political organisations, mobilise religious organisations, women, students, and so on.
But building democracy at grassroots level is hard work and regrettably such discipline is inimical to a movement like the ANC that is determined to rule until Jesus comes.
This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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