South-African news yesterday reported that John Minto an Australian writer and active supporter of the South-African freedom movement, has refused to accept nomination for the Companion of the OR Thambo award (the award is the highest acclaim South-Africa can bestow on a foreigner).
In an open letter to the president he stated “When we protested and marched into police batons and barbed wire here in the struggle against apartheid, we were not fighting for a small black elite to become millionaires”
Yesterday our president got up and publicly stated that our current power crisis is the “unintended consequence of our growing economy”
While I don’t doubt for a moment that Minto will be tar and feathered for racism, I believe that his general idée and outlook on our countries state of government is right on the money.
Mbeki is wrong… the power crisis is not an unintended consequence of a growing economy but rather the consequence of government officials lining their pockets with tax payers money instead of pumping it into infrastructure that a growing economy needs.
The economy didn’t start growing two weeks ago Ladies and Gentlemen.
In conclusion I would like to say that after the fall of apartheid the poor are poorer and I seriously doubt that having the most democratic constitution in the world helps them sleep better.
The struggle is only over for the leaders of the freedom fight…
They have left those they claimed to be fighting for, at the mercy of their greed.
In the end democracy was a battle won while the war still rages.
10 comments:
well written... i agree, it's a sad state of affairs and in the meantime the richer are getting richer and the poorer just poorer
bucking frilliant post lee. i agree with you wholeheartedly, and its a sad state of affairs indeed.
well I know diddly squat about SA politics but the theme is pretty much the same everywhere. Greed makes most decisions, add a little power in and there ya go. It is nothing for people to sell out their friends, neighbors, party (over here) for money and power.
Well written.
Now, see. If I were you, I'd say, "Suck fakes do *I* care about South African politics?"
Being me, however, I'll take this as a lesson. The value of your blog is that you're not some douche who lives around the corner from me. I haven't heard word one in the news about anything in South Africa for months and months--and I read.
Interesting.
Well M@ basically whats happening is that we dont have enough electricity to sustain our country.
we are stuck with rolling blackouts that are so bad that our mines have started to shut down operation, this is an issue because its one of our biggest exports...
what everybody is pissed about is the fact that the govenment was informed about the looming crisis ten years ago and did squat about it.
we have the soccer word cup on the way and we are building a massive underground sorta thingie thats costing us a fortune while work on it stands still.
Its such a mess
Don't feel left out about the g'ment knowing for years and years and doing nothing to fix it, that is standard operating procedure here. See Katrina, Illegals, Social Security, Education and Social Programs just to name a few.
You mentioned soccer you were 3 minutes to early see my soccer post!!
The underground thingie that theyre working on is the Gautrain projects (if I'm not mistaken).... and I know for a FACT that we are gonna lose the 2010 soccer world cup, and once again, we will be punished, and not the bastards who are getting richer. It wouldve been such a nice opportunity for South-Africa's Tourism....but yeah.....F*$k it. I dont even know what to say about any of this anymore.
It's just so sad the lessons haven't been learned from the past....looks like they may repeat them....which, unfortunately has happened throughout history......I sure it hope it changes.....we can do that...you are, one blog at a time....good stuff!
Peace
it is a sad affair indeed. very interesting and well written post lee, got me thinking
very good post. Interesting. I really know very little about South African politics. It seems no matter how well intentioned the politician, politics keeps getting in the way.
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