Mr Zuma is now a threat to nation building
- The We and You culture must be avoided at all costs
The ANC's recent 103rd birthday celebrations might have been a great success from the ANC's point of view, but in the bigger picture, it was yet another blow for democracy, nation building, and destructive to the broad South African interest.
Mr Zuma's actions and speeches in the run-up to and during the birthday celebrations demonstrated that he does not have the ability, nor the will, to act as a statesman, but will rather do everything possible to protect his own interests within his party. He succeeded in drawing a line through constitutional principles and especially the oath of office he pledged with his inauguration as President of the Republic of South Africa. In the oath of office, the President affirmed that he will:
Promote all that will advance the Republic, and oppose all that may harm it.
Protect and promote the rights of all South Africans; and
Do justice to all;
During the last couple of months the office and dignity of the president, Mr Zuma, have been very controversial and consequently the office is in a moral quagmire. The recent birthday celebrations and pronouncements have brought greater distance between Mr Zuma and many other South Africans who are not in the ANC sphere. This will undoubtedly contribute to increased tensions between the president and a significant portion of the South African society.Where the office of president is normally respected across the political, cultural, and language barriers, the current dispensation places the person before the position and therefore respect cannot be taken for granted.
It appears that the actions and speeches of the last few days by Mr. Zuma are desperate attempts to regain stature within the ANC. This is done at the expense of his office as president and his oath to act in the interest of all South Africans. Rather, the 103e anniversary celebrations of the ANC has been a rather blatant and non- transparent effort to present fiction through propaganda and to ignore or to present skewed facts.
To describe Jan van Riebeeck's arrival on 6 April 1652 in Cape Town as the start of South Africa's problems is to scrape the bottom of the barrel in the search for excuses and denial and will alienate those South Africans whose history flows from that era. The demonisation of our history is not acceptable and is not worthy of the president.
It has been said many times that land and ownership of land is a priority. However, to once again blame the willing buyer and willing seller principle is easy propaganda and conceal the many admissions by the Department of Land Affairs that their structures and methods are probably the biggest cause of the failure in the transfer of land ownership. We have repeatedly said that research on the history of land in South Africa is of the utmost importance. It seems as if this history must be exposed through alternative ways. Also the President and Government must be presented with the facts.
No one denies that apartheid created an unequal society. Today's electricity ills and crisis with bad management, lack of decisions and financial woes can however not solely be blamed on apartheid. Furthermore facts cannot be ignored. In an analysis by Africa Check the following: "According to data compiled by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency as part of a review of government performance over the past twenty years, 4,477,400 households had access to electricity in 1994/95.
This was 50.9% of the country's 8,802,000 households. According to Statistics South Africa's 2012 General Household Survey, which found that 85.3% of South Africa's 14,631,000 households were connected to mains electricity. This equals 12,480,243 households. The ANC must receive recognition for the work done, but the presentation must be based on facts.
We are really disappointed in the president's actions and pronouncements. The increasing efforts by the president and the ruling party to undermine the constitutional principles and to destroy nation building in the process is creating a growing WE and YOU culture in South Africa.
The WE culture in South Africa is now the proponents of the national democratic revolution, the Freedom Charter and the government beneficiaries in South Africa. The YOU culture is presented as those whose history is demonised, who increasingly need to be excluded from free economic activity and whose race is standing in the way of the "revolution".
It is dangerous to send South Africa in this direction and the president and the ruling party must be informed of this in all possible ways. We believe there are many moderate South Africans who do not support this route and also realise how dangerous this road is to South Africa. South Africa is in dire need of statesmanship, and not ill-considered and divisive statements.
Statement issued by Jaco Schoeman, Afrikanerbond chairperson, January 12 2015
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