'The Voice' brings back Aguilera, Cee Lo Green as 'Idol' viewership plummets
 
pic

Politics on Record

An archive of South African legislation, policy and parties
 

What would Ruth First really make of the ANC today?

Posted: August 21st, 2010 | By Brendan Boyle


The anniversary of Ruth First’s assassination gave everyone a chance to assume what she might have made of the state of South African politics today. Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the Cosatu labour federation, presumed to know that she would have opposed the ANC’s move to restrict media freedom; Blade Nzimande, the general secretary of the South African Communist Party, presumed to know that First, a former journalist, would have been in the frontline, fighting for a media appeals tribunal; and the ANC Youth League was outraged that Nzimande should think she would have been disappointed to see what had become of the ruling party’s youth wing – and presumed to know she would have endorsed its leadership – for which read Julius Malema.
Read them for yourself:

  
 
 

Comments

 

Mahmood

August 21, 2010 at 5:03 pm

What a lot of drivel – 5 pages of it, nogal!

Ruth did not have crystal balls to foresee the events in this address and the way the ANC has deviated from the ideals of the struggle she sacrificed herself for. She did not leave behind any pointers in that regard as her legacy.

So there is no saying whether she, or any other “freedom fighter” who did not see this century in, would have allowed the ANC to evolve the way it has or allowed the masses to remain disadvantaged and neglected (except as votes), without calling her comrades to order. Or whether she would have realigned her thinking from those -isms and also enjoyed the trappings and entitlements of being well-connected, as so many do.

Suppose those struggle veterans (Nelson, Desmond, Winnie, Thabo, Tokyo, Zwelinzima, Jacob, Ahmed, Mac, etc, etc) who did see the century in were like what Ruth is assumed to have been today, would it not be expected of them that they re-think the direction the country is being led? Most definitely, yes.

It would be expected that they publicly renounce the ANC government, acknowledge that the ANC has failed to deliver on its’ promises and the expectations of the citizens, and then support the installation of a DA-led government, with the hope that it can turn the country around.

Parties are mere tools to achieve a just and prosperous country, with opportunities open to all who have the ability to enter and perform well within those open opportunities.

Leave a Comment




 

  • About