There was a very brief time in South Africa when the same feeling of hope that Barack Obama has instilled was floating around. It was, of course, marred a little by the fears of civil war and stockpiling of baked beans – but as a young schoolboy I believed in a system. Dare I say I even had respect for our leaders and the efforts and sacrifices they made to get where they were.
Naivety. I have to admit that being out of the country for two years has limited my knowledge of what is going on, so much so that I have to Wikipedia news makers on a weekly basis.
Case in point; Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League leader. 28 years old is a little old to me to be president of a youth league, but considering that he “passed” high school at the age of 21, what’s a few years. That’s if you believe he went from the “fake” grades of 33% for English where writing your name on your exams is usually enough to at least get that far. If those qualifications don’t help, the military training at age 13 surely give him some good skills.
This guy really is a piece of work, slinging insults at his peers and competitors as if he was still on the playground. I spent a good half an hour googling news stories trying to find one positive thing the guy has said, so such quotes. But he is smart, in a very dangerous way – rallying the youth by appearing at junior and high schools – not exactly the kind of role model you want your kids looking up to.
Bring in the DA and you’ll find another child who just loves bickering with Mr Malema. Watching the repertoire between Helen Zille and Malema, you may be reminded of the fights you used to have with your little brother over who was going to get the last piece of cake from the fridge, except that these two aren’t that mature.
Calling each other names, that’s the way – make me proud to be South African. How about telling me for a change what your policies are, or have you all forgotten about why you want to be in office, servants to the public?
I hope this didn't cost too much
I took a look at the ANC and DA websites looking for their actual policies. The DA has a pretty website, a logo copied straight from Mr Obama and … no really, policies written by 12 year old girls dreaming of Knights in Shining Armour.. Ok I’ll give them a few points, they have a lot of information, idealistic, but there’s something.
The ANC takes the cake, their policy site was last updated in 2009, confident, arrogant or apathetic?
So after getting really depressed I looked for hope, or is that COPE. The new opposition party made up of ANC defectors that seems quite outspoken against the ANC, but at the same time are way too diplomatic. Their manifesto, too, is weak and cute. “protect the environment and our natural resources for future generations” – I think I wrote that in an school essay when I was 16.
The clincher for me this week was when the ANC was charged with impersonation for distributing fake DA pamphlets, making the party look racist claiming that they want to bring back the days of “permits”, with the final line on the pamphlet saying “‘Warning: Do not show this pamphlet to your maids and garden boys… we need their votes”. The worst of all is that these were given to kids at schools as well.
Propaganda in an act of desperation, good job guys, we’ve come so far – I hope the fight was worth it.