ANC members in particular and Eastern Cape residents in general must be a dumb lot, to leave their daily chores to listen to ANC leader Jacob Zuma delivering “empty promises”. This will bring them nothing but penury and suffering as a result of decreased investor confidence, inflation and lack of entrepreneurial incentives such as tax cuts and will also exacerbate rather than ameliorate economic anarchy, media reports inferred before and after the ANC manifesto rally in the Eastern Cape.
Consistent with this line of reporting, the Sunday Times protested, “It will trigger tax hikes” and then went on to detail how dangerous this ANC manifesto is to “rich” South Africans. Following the cue from the Sunday Times, subsidiary newspapers during the week had a field day. The Daily Dispatch to the Daily Sun attacked the manifesto and only differed on emphasis. This is in total contrast to the romantic manner in which the same media institutions report about Congress of the People (Cope), which often borders on open support.
Lest I be accused of media hatred, let me state that I like Mondli Makhanya and the Sunday Times a great deal. This is regardless of the paper’s editorial orientation, which I find perturbing, let alone its editor’s dubious decision to fire David Bullard who, for a long time I believed, made us understand what some racist white South Africans really think of us, beyond the curtain and glory of the “rainbow nation”.
While I like Makhanya and his paper, I have lost even the iota of compassion I felt towards the Daily Dispatch. Its bias and agenda is disgusting and hidden only to the eyes of those who have consciously decided to remain oblivious to an agenda unfolding right before our eyes. How could these media institutions treat the most basic needs of South Africans with such derision and cold hearted petty bourgeois economic calculation? To them, everything is deducible to a price and who pays for it matters most, than the beneficiary!
For that matter, did the ANC say it will increase tax? This manifesto is also far less incisive. It is clearly a compromise between the left and the right in the party. To sensationally arrogate it as a triumph for the left within the party is nothing but an unpalatable lie. This lie ca only survive because it is told by arrogant newspapers whose main aim is to let nothing get in the way of a good story.
To crown it all, the Sunday Times protested about the costly nature of the ANC election manifesto even before it was officially released, making wild accusations so as to create alarm and discontent at something that had not yet been seen by anyone else but its drafters.
Costly? To whom is this manifesto costly? Is it the man on the street or to cigar smoking and whisky drinking highfliers who are sniffing the joys of democracy as if it were cocaine while masses languish in penury who, by the look of things, shall remain there if the Sunday Times has its way? What the ANC is simply requesting is that the wealthy must throw at least some crumbs to the poor majority. Is that too much to ask? People have forgotten the story of Mary Antoinette and the cause of the French Revolution!
Back to the Sunday Times and its anti-tax campaign. While quick to impugn the motives of the ruling party, it has not managed even a lowly sentence of protest at those who rake millions out of the sweat and blood of poor South Africans, then run successful gambling attempts in the New York and London stock markets while leaving the country that produced them, impoverished and downtrodden. Only a heartless and purely selfish society of the Sunday Times making can come to a conclusion that attempts to curb poverty through increased child support grants and other similar alternatives is unrealistic and irresponsible.
Hold on here, who does the Sunday Times really serve? The answer can be found in the angles of its stories.
For example, while the paper is vociferous against the possibility of the ANC manifesto increasing taxation, it conceals the fact that its agenda is to defend profit maximisation, which is threatened by the prospect of increased government spending because it might mean more taxation on the rich. But, it is careful that it might get exposed, so it pursues its agenda under the pretext of defence for the ordinary tax payer.
Its report does not speak about possibilities of collecting tax without affecting poor individuals and businesses such as granting immunity from tax increases to businesses and individuals within a particular profit or salary range. Instead, the Sunday Times combines tax on rich people and businesses with that on poor people and poor businesses and presents it as one grievance so as to mobilise popular sympathy. Clearly that approach will go no further than the ink and paper it was written on and will in no way sway electoral choices as I suspect the Sunday Times was attempting to achieve.
This attempt and many others shall not go unnoticed and unpunished. With this I do not suggest that either the Sunday Times or the Daily Dispatch need my support for survival. By the way, they do not survive through my meagre subscription but rake in millions through adverts, so they need the capitalist more than they need poor like me and many others that the ANC manifesto is aimed at, hence their understandable bias to the one who pays them rent and salaries.
However, lowly as I am, one thing is for sure — to solicit adverts from marketing firms, they need me to increase their circulation so as to appear a credible force. I do not suggest that the ANC manifesto must be romanticised or accepted without scrutiny. That would be plainly wrong and unhelpful. However, it is noticeable that media institutions put themselves squarely on the side of rich classes in the South African contest for resources and survival. History shall remember them harshly as it did of their support for apartheid policies which they later denied, profusely.
But, one thing is for sure: the ANC faces an uphill battle. The media is powerful. Those who contest its will do that at their own peril. The ANC is no different. Those of us who hope it does survive can only wish it luck and close our eyes as it goes head on against its enemy.
you forget that the ruch are taxed heavily up to 47% and they are thw ones who see the least benefit for there mony, the average middle class person sees something in the order of 5cents per rand tax payed while those that pay no tax see up to 15 rand, this is unsustainable! if the ANC had spent the last 15 years creating jobs they would have had a lartger pool of middle class to tax and a smaller pool of poor to support, it is unfair to punish those people who have had the skills and ability to do well for themselves. imagine if you could subtract form your tax burder facilities that should be provided by the state but which due to mismanagment you are forced to rely on private companies (schools hospitals,etc)
‘…made us understand what some racist white South Africans really think of us…’
What do you mean by the abovementioned statement? Surely ‘racists’ would’ve sufficed. And ‘us’; i’m white, so tell me what white racists think of me?
From your argument I gather that you indulge yourself in Malemaniacs and unfounded ANC conspiracy theories.
Get real my man, this rich elite classes you’re referring to is A) your corrupt politicians, B) Tokio, Ramaphosa et al. and c) BEE exploiters. Your racist view of non-blacks and your argument regarding this article is indicative of the ANC electorate who supports this corrupt institution as a matter of association only.
Spot on man, good to hear from you after a while
I agree that sympathy would be better directed at poor and struggling South Africans than at the wealthy minority… Though I hope the papers have businesses in mind rather than wealthy white South Africans (although these may often be one and the same)… If the costs of doing business in South Africa increases, and investors pull out, the economy slows down, jobs are lost, and then the poorest South Africans are worse off, not better.
Oh please get over the persecution complex and stop trying to find conspiracies were they don’t exist. Maybe you should take a closer, more reflective look at the contents of the manifesto in the light of what the party has achieved and how its senior members behave on a daily basis befoe flying off the proverbial handle and tilting at windmills.
I can’t believe I wasted my time reading and responding to this.
It’s been a long time since I last read your writing and indeed what U have written here is the absolute truth that many South Africans have been led to believe as if it is the conscious voice of the country. Bua !!!!!
Lazola, as usual you wrote a lot of nothing. The ANC often calls itself a broad church; included in this Business, Labour, Capitalists, Social Democrats, African Nationalists, Communists etc.. The ANC itself stated that the manifesto is a result of inputs from its partners in the Tripartite Alliance. That being said, the manifesto is the blueprint of what the ANC seeks to achieve in the next five years and beyond. It is accordingly important to appraise the contents therein.
The shortcomings of your article, is the focus on the unfavourable newspaper reports as opposed to the merits of the arguments advanced. Why not focus on what the manifesto entails?
The point most people are raising, which you conveniently neglect to address, is that the manifesto promised greater state expenditure without providing the source of financing same; borrowing and increasing taxes is but some of the ways to generate sources of finance to fund the proposed expenditure.
The problem with your argument is that you seem to believe that by making the promise, the ANC has already achieved the desired goal (I suspect this is exactly what the ANC believe; in the end, abusing the trust of the electorate). The ANC claim to represent the poor and the marginalized yet poverty seems to escalate with the ever increasing unemployment rate.
Lastly, when you get invited and your host starts making all manner of unbecoming overtures and statements, walk out and do not respond to the next invitation. I’m elated that people across the country are beginning to see through the lies propagated by the once “glorious movement”; the ANC.
yawn!
@ KC
One thing the Manifesto launch should have taught you and those that share similar wishes with you is that, the ANC still commands mass support in South Africa and in the Eastern Cape.
Who are these “people across the country” who “are beginning to see through the lies propagated by the once ‘glorious movement’; the ANC?” Anyway it is not for me to convince you and those that attempt to write an obituary for the ANC that this is certainly not the time, history shall expose that.
Let me now respond on the issues you raise with me. I’m sure you understand that as much as the ANC is a broad church, certain class interests hold sway within it during a particular epoch as had happened under Mbeki’s regime and shall continue under Zuma’s leadership.
Now, in the ANC, it is for every class for itself, whether bourgeois or proletariat. Alliance imput does not shake the fact that the majority of ANC NEC members are capitalists out to defend their own class interests.
In no way is this manifesto a simple working class victory. It represents progress.
Continuation
A majority ANC NEC members are capitalists hell bent on accumulation, by hook or crook. The one factor that unites the bourgeoisie in totality is the thirst for accumulation.
And how about your buddies in the ANCYL who are living it up in Sandton Lazola? The same ANCYL with the investment arm that plays happily alongside the ‘racists’ at the JSE. The same ANCYL that hasn’t questioned why taxpayers hard-earned money was used to buy submarines and other arms instead of providing for the poor. The same ANCYL that hasn’t questioned service delivery such as the housing backlog and the crooked tenders associated with it. The same ANCYL that hasn’t asked why an ANC minister of state needs the waste of a retinue of 15 cars, an ambulance and God knows how many motorcycles just to get from a to b.
And how do I know all this? Because papers like the Sunday Times publish articles about these issues. And naturally if any remedial action were actually taken on these issues then it would be the poor that would benefit.
Welcome back. I hope you will blog more often than the Orlando Pirates wins a game, which is very rare.
I fully agree, the ANC were once a glorious movement, of first and foremost educated idealists, and progressive minded people,
who were to become leaders of open minded, not colour blinded, people…
and how things have changed, now the leader/s of the Glorious movement, are uneducated, well for lack of a better word, criminals, without any idea of how to bring things back into the “green”….
You understand that saying, yes we’ll give money and homes and jobs, and pixie dust, and three wishes,to the people of our country is a good thing to try do, but you can’t even grasp what is actually needed to run and sustain a country, let alone your own personaly lives…
I don’t get how the “normal working their ass off every day people”, can stll buy into the abs. bullshit they are being told…
And the guy who wrote this article, can use as many big words as he can look up in the dictionary , but this article is a bunch of opinion driven drivel…….!!! the only movement
left in the ANC is a glorious BOWEL movement!
I agree, Jacob Zuma is only as educated as my 14yr old son, and thats if?, and years ago, the standard of education has risen dramatically since then.
But should my 14yr old run a county. He’s never raped anyone, and his name is also Jacob. What do you say Lazola ? He can do the “machine gun” dance, which is very racist i find, but why not him, he’d be cheaper, he’s not married to so many “lovely self respecting”, “ladies”.. I pray for our once grand now half a grand country… OMG!
With 12.5 million getting state handouts, we’re the most beggarly nation on earth. The so-called child grant, for instance, turn 14-year-olds into nothing other than economic prostitutes and a future source of voting fodder for the ruling kleptocracy
Lazola
May be you have a point but then again may be you don’t have a point. I would have expected you to, perhaps, disect the contents of the manifesto as the sunday times did. Perhaps go further and demonstrate the contra sentiments that you have against those of the paper you declare your “like” for.
You see Lazola what you have done hear is nothing short of empty rhetoric. May be it is because you don’t have a good appreciation of economics. may be just like many chancetakers in the ANC you don’t have a grasp of the basics of fiscal policy and just may be you don’t even have an idea of what our Medium Term budget (MTBPS) looked like.
Since you read a lot of papers I think it is fair for me to assume that you have seen the recent job cuts and you also have a good idea of what the possible job cuts are likely to be. With that in mind, let us start by exhausting the mining sector which has being leading in job cuts. I am sure you know whos name would come to mind when someone says “mining sector”… Tokyo Sexwale, Partice Motsepe and others. What I find rather perturbing is that even Tokyo did not (or may be could not) come out and express his feeling about this worrying job losses. May be he did not have a feeling at all. May be he left those strange feelings to the experts running his show whom may turnout to be capitalists like myself. People who know what Tokyo really needs which can be summarized as “more for me!”. And you have the balls to come out and advocate for the ANC manifesto.
You sound very funny Mr Ndamase.
Good point Laz…
I dont understand why you’ve decided to leave out City Press, Business Day & other media firms.
It is not at all unusual for newspapers to align themselves with a particular party (in the UK this is the norm) – you need to get over the fact that not everybody in SA would be ecstatic at the prospect of moving towards a more socialist state.
History will judge the politicians most harshly anyway, not the newspapers
This is typical communist myth. The fact that it drove every communist country to bankruptcy including Russia, China and Cuba is a fact that simply does not penetrate.
The myth is – take from the rich and redistribute to the poor and everyone will be rich. They won’t be – they will all be poor and the rich will be making money (and jobs and taxes) in another part of the global world.
Even in the days of slavery – a slave to a rich man could become rich. Think of Joseph! If you want your children to be wealthy – send them as slaves to the rich. In today’s terminology – personal trainers, PAs, personal shoppers, personal chefs!
A friend of a friend has a job to die for – caretaker (in her own cottage ) of a massive estate, with full access to gardens, pool, and the lot – and PAID for it!
Housekeepers in the holiday homes of the rich in my area get paid very good salaries all year – yet probably only really work a few months of that year when the owners are here.
Plus the local weathly donate generously to any need or charity. Think Bill Gates, think Warren Buffet.
Anyhow – the Budget Speech will come out before the elections, and the ANC will have to show where the money is to come from.
“…and shall continue under Zuma’s leadership.”
what leadership?
Somebody had this to say:
“Those who float Zuma’s name as our country’s next CEO want us to do so on the basis of faith rather than policy initiatives. It is not good enough that he has no defined thought on critical areas, saying they need to be debated. If you want things debated, join a radio station and be a talk show host. Leaders must lead.”
Enough said!
Lazola, I am glad you raised these points. White South Africans keep harping on about how they have a right to use their skills in private institutions for maximum profit. They forget that it is because of Apartheid that they have those skills to begin with. That government spent a lot of money on their education (even private). Many whites were raised by black women who had no choice but to work in their homes changing their nappies, feeding and looking after them. Many whites have been successful because there were servants to mind their children and ensure the upkeep of their homes etc. They made millions exploiting blacks. Many will threaten but will never leave South Africa for the West because SA is one of the few places in the world where a white skin is one’s passport to privilege. 80% of the economy is in the hands of whites here and that is not likely to change unless the ANC intensifies transformation.
@ Lazola, what are you on about? On the one hand you bemoan the capitalists in the ANC; suggest that the manifesto is not a simple working class victory, yet on the other hand you claim that it represent progress. You seem to have lost track of your own argument; shouldn’t you then be directing your arsenals to your “comrade capitalists” in the ANC and not the newspapers?
And your point is…
Remember that the ANC was the media darling not too long ago. A little after that the ANC started to threaten the media with the establishment of media tribunals, withdrawal of advertisements, etc. The ANC was beginning to become arrogant and no longer willing to be transparent and accountable. Politicians began to place themselves above the ordinary people. The blue light brigade, in particular, cheesed people off.
What the media continuously reflects is what the ordinary people experience every day. They therefore attest to the accuracy of the media reports and accept them as being factual.
The ANC, over the years, made many manifesto promises but it has not delivered on them. Money was not the issue. Time and time again, money was returned to the treasury by the provincial departments either because they had no capacity or they were just not professional enough. At other times, corrupt procurement procedures saw billions of rands being diverted to friends and family. The ANC was well aware of the problem but it did nothing to really stamp it out. To make matters worse, the one major deterrent against crime in high places, the Scorpions, will be closed down.
The media also have a right to question whether there is any exit for certain expenditures that the government now wants to undertake. If not, it will become a crippling burden on the state in a very short while.
It is accepted that taxation must occur so that money taken from the rich is properly spent on the poor. When, however, the rich are heavily taxed but the poor are not the major beneficiaries of those funds, the situation becomes intolerable.
In respect of health, education and security, the taxpayer’s money is not buying the quality of service that the people of the country want. After paying taxes, many people still have to find the money to send their children to private schools, go to private hospitals and employ private security firms. In other words, the taxpayer is not deriving any benefits from the payment of taxes in respect of education, health and security.
Editors have become disenchanted with the ANC. It promised much in the early years but it lost its way and incurred huge expenditure which was to the detriment of the poor. At present, the ANC is serving neither the interests of the rich nor those of the poor. People are therefore becoming cynical about the promises that the ANC is making. Those brave people who stood in the hot sun, listening to the ANC promises, will have heard much but they will see very little if anything at all.
There were others before them, in other places in other years, who went through the same routine and you can ask them how many of those promises were honoured.
The emergence of COPE has now brought about a sense of panic within the ANC. Maybe if the ANC cannot or will not deliver, COPE will. On average 2400 people are joining COPE every day of the week and these people, like the newspaper editors, want a whole lot more than empty promises.
I don’t agree with anything you say but I really like the way you write. Keep it up, get’s everyone talking which is what we need.
My goodnes – I just realised that your way of thinking reflect that of the mayority that voted ANC. No wonder this country is on the road to nowhere in Zim style coocoland . If not so sad it would actually be funny.
@ T Zulu
To say Mshini Wam is racist is purely absurd. To find anything racist in this song you would have to search for a needle in a haystack and find it.
@ MF Cassim
The ANC has never been the media darling, but ruling elements in the ANC had successfully bought media institutions and manipulated them for their own ends.
When these comrades lost control of the ANC they used the newspapers they own to rubbish the ANC. One thing the ANC must learn, for now and forever, is to never attempt to use newspapers as its weapons, because, when it loses grip of them they can run riot at it as they are doing!
Any revolutionary organization has to find its own ways of communicating to its mass base without manipulating media institutions or threatenig to shut them down like in Zimbabwe because the results are only disastrous. (I will expand on this later).
Phillipa
80% of the economy is NOT in the hands of whites. It is another racist ANC myth. UNISA has just brought out a very interesting independent report which proves it.
How could it be? The ANC controls the economy, the taxes, the civil service, the investments of the civil servants pension fund (which is huge, mainly black, and in the stock exchange). Unit trusts have no colour. And over 30% of our stock exchange, even before the meltdown, was in foreign hands.It is estimated that South Africans have been selling and foreigners buying. So where can they get to 80%? Are all foreigners classified white?