Blaming AfriForum for the Donald Trump administration cutting off USAID development funding to South Africa is a case of the ANC government not taking responsibility for putting in place irresponsible foreign policies and marginalising minorities for years when it was able to form a majority government.
It is high time ANC leaders matured and took responsibility for their populist and self-serving actions, which have had a disastrous impact on the country. Sadly, though the ANC continually put in place policies harmful to South Africa when it alone formed the government, and still does so today, it blames the negative fallout on others.
By accepting the ANC’s blaming of AfriForum for its own anti-US policies, its marginalisation of minorities, and its populist Expropriation Act, we give the ANC a free pass for its irresponsible actions. Not taking the ANC to task for adopting policies that harm South Africa’s interests means the ANC escapes accountability, does not engage in critical introspection, and continues to make bad decisions.
No policy should be made without weighing the likely impact on the country and its citizens. Up to now, the ANC has formulated policies without assessing their impact. Unfortunately, a culture of scapegoating has emerged. “White monopoly capital”, “Western imperialism” and various other bogies are put forward to explain away self-inflicted harms. The negative outcomes of bad policies are always someone else’s fault, and never that of the leaders who implemented them — usually after ignoring the warnings of others not to.
It is endemic government corruption, relentless cadre deployment and destructive populist policies that should be viewed as treasonous, not citizens protesting against questionable government programmes
When it had a parliamentary majority, the ANC consistently marginalised minorities. Some government departments, state-owned enterprises and agencies look like Bantustans today — because people from only one ethnic group or region are appointed to them. Upon entering one of these entities, you would swear you were back in the apartheid era — or a monoethnic African country such as Lesotho — not in contemporary South Africa, one of the world’s most diverse societies.
South Africa’s constitution makes express provision for freedom of expression. Individuals or groups are free to openly express their opinions or complain about how they are being treated to the South African government, foreign governments, the International Criminal Court (ICC), or global human rights bodies. Doing so is not treason, provided it does not constitute hate speech, incitement to violence or disinformation.
Before the watershed April 2024 elections, the ANC put in place toxic policies that harmed South Africans and contemptuously dismissed calls to abandon them. However, because voters uncritically voted for the ruling party based on its struggle credentials or racial composition, the ANC and its leaders became arrogant and hard of hearing.
Many South Africans have been left with no option apart from going to the courts, while others have had to take to the streets or appeal to international bodies to have such policies reversed. It is endemic government corruption, relentless cadre deployment and destructive populist policies that should be viewed as treasonous, not citizens protesting against questionable government programmes.
On August 4 2021, the #FreeJacobZuma campaign said it would approach the ICC to complain about international crimes allegedly committed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, which then ruled with an outright majority. One may laugh at Zuma’s hypocrisy, but it was his right to do so.
Leftist black opposition parties such as the populist EFF and MK Party call for violence to address socio-political issues and publicly reject the constitution — and there should be a public uproar about that.
South Africa is not experiencing a “white genocide”, but it has staggeringly high murder rates. The lives of South Africans of all colours are threatened because of ANC-driven corruption and incompetence, both of which have crippled public services, collapsed infrastructure and allowed lawlessness to spiral out of control.
The property rights of all South Africans are also in peril. A few weeks ago, taxi mafias burnt 51 Putco buses in Mpumalanga to seize control of the route. The construction mafia has taken control of many projects in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, while hundreds of buildings have been hijacked in the Johannesburg CBD.
Various industries have increasingly been hijacked by syndicates. “Zama zamas” have taken over large parts of the mining industry, and even state-owned property such as the national rail network has been seized by mafias.
The government now wants to force through the National Health Insurance scheme, which will allow the regulatory expropriation of private medical aids. The ANC has also continually threatened to force private pension funds to invest in government infrastructure.
ANC leaders have shown little will to prevent such destruction of property rights. To give the state the power to expropriate property without compensation, when it has previously been unable to protect property rights and been a threat to them, unsurprisingly unleashes massive fears, undermines market confidence and creates business uncertainty. Formulating policies in the interest of all South Africans is essential for economic growth, poverty reduction, job creation and peace.
• William Gumede started the Democracy Works Foundation and is the author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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