Beloved ANC now predators' nest
NOTHWITHSTANDING the possibility that, among the many service delivery struggles and protests that are taking place in and around the Nelson Mandela Metro, some may be, in some instances, motivated by power struggles for ANC deployment positions.
But one can undertake an objective investigation of the cries and concerns that ordinary members of the community communicate during public meetings and interviews with the press, and balance those raised cries and concerns with the subjective conditions of life in townships such as Rosedale, Polarpark, Langa, Blackiedorp.
It becomes evident then that, if there is indeed an "opportunistic exploitation of the people's sufferings", these "opportunistic exploitations" have a solid base on which to settle; there are existing conditions that feed them. Communities really do not have bearable living standards and vast amounts of land which used to be public land, are now in the hands of ANC aligned local monopolies.
An example here is ward 48, 49 as well as 50 in which land-hungry residents are forced to observe large amounts of unused, residential land, because "it is private land".
In addition, in instances wherein a few plots are available, like in Moeggesukel, some unscrupulous ANC leaders would, consistent with the corrupt culture that has captured the ANC today, isolate a number of legitimate beneficiaries from the allocation list, to make space for their ANC cronies, families and relatives.
The point here is that, if anybody wants to accuse people who are organising such communities to oppose corruption, a first step should be to identify the cause of people's grievances and attempt to address these grievances rather than undermining the communities that are engaged in these service delivery struggles.
Looking at the behaviour of today's ANC leaders, the above acts are not even suppressing seeing that they, willy-nilly, without any logical consideration, fire people from government positions based not on whether those are still loyal to that party or not, but solely because they harbour a contrasting view of this or that political matter.
The accusation that claims that today's ANC is no longer that which moulded Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela is confirmed daily by many leaders of the ANC, most of whom see themselves having to flee for their lives from land-hungry and economically impoverished communities.
The above is also confirmed by the manipulation of the seasonal food parcels list.
They are seasonal because they appear mainly during election and disappear soon after the vote. The food parcel lists are manipulated by ANC councilors, to accommodate ANC loyalists, some of whom do not deserve this relief.
In the process there is the result of the isolation of severely depressed and desperate families to whom the food parcels could restore some dignity and help them at least cope with their poverty.
From where I am sitting I see the community struggles for land, houses and decent employment raging on and expanding more passionately through out the entire country, and accompanying this is the dying out of the uneducated accusation that communities are "exploited by opportunists".
An end product of this action is likely to be the rise in political understanding among the working people and impoverished communities as well as a realisation that, what many of them loved and understood to be a "political home", the ANC, has now turned out to be a predator's nest and will in the long run be the breeding ground for more and more predators.
Majola Sisa, Ex-ANC voter, Port Elizabeth
