A Verbal Laxative called The Peoples Republic of South Africa

A fundamental revolutionary lesson:The enemy manouevres (sic) but it remains the enemy / Part I

The ANC must depend on itself to defend and advance the democratic revolution!

I’ve been reading Thabo Mbeki’s letter to the nation part1 as on ANC Today with a growing unease. The same unease a diarrhoea sufferer experiences when starting a fart and realising that he is nowhere near a toilet, dressed in white trousers and in a crowd.

At first glance it is a well written piece of rhetoric but after a few more reads the feeling of trepidation grows stronger and stronger. I had this feeling before; when I watched the planes crash into the World Trade Centre on television. I then told my boy to watch as history was forever changed in front of our eyes.

First of all the president repeatedly addresses a “democratic revolution.” I have no idea what this means and to further confuse the issue he describes it as an ongoing event. The only reasonable conclusion I can draw from it is that first one must have a revolution to ensure democracy. Then you screw up that democracy with incompetence until your back is against the wall and you are under siege from the western world to start governing your country. When there is no other way out, you then promote another revolution. In this process you find enemies everywhere. These enemies do not exist but that hardly matters as long as your blind followers believe what you are promoting.

He then takes the quantum leap of declaring an independent judiciary body, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the ANC as one. He continues to describe what they (ANC/TRC) did not uncover and still need to do. This is sending a clear message to the already under siege realistic, law-abiding and competent minority and the message is: “Toe the line and don’t criticise our government, we are not done with you yet.” I wonder what the International Court in Den Haag will have to say about this. I also wonder where Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch stand on this issue.

The next heading is the real scary one. “Let a hundred flowers bloom.”
No sane government anywhere else in the world will use this line in any of their speeches. Was this not what Mao said? Are we talking about a future “Peoples Republic of South Africa?” Are we going to see a purging of the intelligentsia as under Pol Pot?

The “democratic revolution” then becomes the “national democratic revolution” and for the remainder of the speech the media gets bashed for daring to expose any ANC weakness. Mbeki lavishly quote The New York times as argument for his opinions but he tends to forget that the same newspaper recently carried a strong worded attack against him about his stance on HIV and AIDS.

I will be on the look-out for part 2 of this speech and like a diarrhoea sufferer I will ensure that I am close to a toilet when reading it as things like this does tend to keep me regular.