SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 12: President Jacob Zuma and Nomvula Mokonyane during Zuma’s 75th birthday celebrations at Kliptown on April 12, 2017 in Soweto, South Africa. While giving a speech, Zuma said he would step down if the ANC asked him to do so. (Photo by Gallo Images / Rapport / Elizabeth Sejake)
Opinion: The ANC’s ‘gentle genocide’
Oppression and manipulation go hand-in-hand. An under-educated electorate is easily fooled by blaming the state of poor governance through the use of a vicious, populist and indefensible attack on a (dwindling) racial minority.
SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 12: President Jacob Zuma and Nomvula Mokonyane during Zuma’s 75th birthday celebrations at Kliptown on April 12, 2017 in Soweto, South Africa. While giving a speech, Zuma said he would step down if the ANC asked him to do so. (Photo by Gallo Images / Rapport / Elizabeth Sejake)
Please note: This is an opinion piece and does not reflect the views of TheSouthAfrican.com
The year is 2017 – twenty-three years after the fall of Apartheid. South Africa’s black middle class has experienced welcome growth spurts in recent years. SA’s poor black population has also grown, and with that, entrenched disenfranchisement. But the systematic oppression of poor South Africans does not come from any race group – it must come from the ANC government.
Spewing Falsehoods
A common motif among politically hungry bodies (like BLF, EFF, ANC etc) is that there is a systematic oppression of blacks by whites in SA. For example, individuals vying for power within the ANC latch onto populist statements about land reform, ‘radical economic transformation’ and ‘white monopoly capital’ to garner support.
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Cyril Ramaphosa recently used this tactic on the campaign trail for ANC president. Prof. Chris Malikane of Wits University and adviser to newly minted finance minister Malusi Gigaba is furiously milking the ‘radical economic transformation’ cow no doubt as unction for what many South Africans believe is the Gupta’s appointment of Gigaba to the National Treasury via their proxy, Zuma.
The Evil Whites
The systematic oppression by whites is allegedly ongoing, well coordinated, and ‘legal’ because the current system of Government is playing into the hands of ‘White Monopoly Capital’. In fact, none of these statements can withstand much scrutiny, South African law does not support the systematic oppression of blacks by an imaginary highly coordinated cabal of white people (that was Apartheid). The insidious idea that we’re still living under some kind of muted Apartheid, therefore, is simply ludicrous.
White people are indeed ‘privileged’, and it is fair to say that that economic privilege will continue to serve their interests for as long as they remain in SA. But it does not imply that raising and rectifying the economic advantage of previously disadvantaged South Africans is a mutually exclusive endeavour. But, politicians want to frame the issue in that way because abusing the national discourse allows them to entrench their enfranchisement: these are cheap and desperate tactics designed to hoodwink an electorate into giving ‘one more vote’ to their cause.
The Decay Of The Republic
The state of the Republic is following the curve of an asymptotic function for disaster, and the input, South African politics, is very much to blame: the theft of democratic votes through demonizing a minority continues to push SA to the brink of ruin, and whilst we’re not quite there yet, we are indeed getting dangerously close – SA’s credit downgrade was the first canary in the mine, future sentinels will likely be more devastating if not extremely violent.
A New Kind Of Genocide
This rhetoric pushes us to the brink of ruin because instead of ending entrenched disenfranchisement through good governance, people are manipulated to continue to support political magnates and bodies that have systematically oppressed them to maintain a grip on power.
How are they oppressed? The South African Government (the ANC) has through sheer incompetence, or perhaps something more calculated, severely hampered access to high-quality education for the poor and rising middle class. In fact, the ANC has made it very clear the kind of disdain they have for an educated electorate. Once, the ANC praised those who were able to get qualifications, it was a sign of strength, of will, of energy and determination to succeed under the cruelty of Apartheid. Now, qualifications are derided – ‘clever blacks’ are a threat to the incumbent.
Oppression and manipulation go hand-in-hand. An under-educated electorate is easily fooled by blaming the state of poor governance through the use of a vicious, populist and indefensible attack on a (dwindling) racial minority.
The ANC, knowingly or unknowingly, has engineered a new kind of genocide where the livelihoods, hopes and aspirations of millions of black South Africans have been buried in a shallow grave, all to the service of their political agendas.
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