A favourite parlour game of the white community is to draw gloomy analogies between Zimbabwe and South Africa. These prognostications of disaster highlight supposed similarities — which in reality are largely spurious — in land reform, in presidential megalomania, and in endemic incompetence.
However, there is one shared pattern that should frighten the hell out of everyone, but has curiously drawn little public reaction. It is the malevolent and burgeoning influence of the liberation war veterans.
The collapse of neighbouring Zimbabwe can be traced directly to the war vets asserting themselves and demanding the spoils of victory that they felt had been denied them. It was the crippling payment of massive benefits to war vets that sent the economy into the downward spiral that ultimately laid the country to ruin.
The war vets became the hammer of President Robert Mugabe, used to bludgeon the opposition into submission and within Zanu-PF to intimidate any who might contemplate breaking ranks to challenge the old dictator. The vets are the flying columns sent to invade and pillage white farms, and to rape and murder villagers supporting the Movement for Democratic Change.
It cannot just be assumed that the deference being shown to SA’s liberation war vets by President Jacob Zuma proceeds from similarly questionable motives, since his hold on power is, after all, completely secure. It might be that Zuma places them centre stage politically for no other reason than unlike his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, he is a war vet himself, and this is an act of nostalgic comradeship.
Or it might even be a conscious attempt on Zuma’s part to avoid a local rerun of the Zimbabwean scenario. Arguably that view is supported by Zuma’s pre-emptive and symbolic creation of a new Defence and Military Veterans ministry, with vet pension, health and employment benefits to be dramatically improved.
It is nevertheless difficult to see how placating disgruntled former soldiers, even out of the most benign of motives, is going to work unless Zuma makes to clear that political interference by them will not be tolerated. Needless to say, the ineffably accommodating Zuma has not done this.
Emboldened, the war vets are shouldering their way on to the political playing field, behaving in ways that would not be tolerated in most democracies. When ANC stalwart Kader Asmal late last year dared criticise the new administration, Kebby Maphatsoe, head of the uMkhonto weSizwe Veterans Association (MKVA), “advised” the former Cabinet minister “to go to the nearest cemetery and die”.
In response to public outrage, African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe issued an ambiguous statement in which he leant over backwards to avoid offending MKVA and ominously warned Asmal that while differing opinions would always be tolerated in the ANC, “in taking on issues, self-destruction can bleed you to death”.
An emboldened MKVA now feels free to add its tuppenceworth on all kinds of political matters, remote from its notional remit. Recently it came out in support of the embattled new head of the SA Broadcasting Corporation, warning against the “faceless … disgruntled … opportunistic counter-revolutionaries” who are undermining the state.
The language of MKVA is not dissimilar from the rantings of the ANC Youth League. And like the ANCYL, it aspires to a role in the governance of the country that is not provided for in the nation’s Constitution nor, for that matter, in the constitution of ANC.
Zuma now has two self-appointed battalions of protectors flanking him, the ANCYL and MKVA. Both readily express a desire for the obliteration of their opponents. And while one might laugh off ANCYL threats of “killing for Zuma” as childish hyperbole, MKVA has soldierly credentials that make its political rumblings far more ominous.
For your info:
Most of the Zimbabwean “War Veterans” weren’t born in 1979, the last year of War.
Or were toddlers.
They are very simply lying to get free money and rape whoever they want for cash payments.
Another example of contorted logic to blame the ones who scarified lost the most in the struggle for liberation in both in Zimbabwe and SA. Shouldn’t you be paying more respect to the MK war veterans for giving SAns the freedoms they enjoy today?
If you were honest, you would see that the real cause of the problems in Zimbabwe lies in the inequality reinforced by white supremacy that forces the hand of people impatient with the pace of reform. The Zimbabwe situation could have been easily avoided through genuine negotiations.
Similarly, in SA we see a similar pattern of sudden amnesia of the previously advantaged at to how they really acquired their wealth and privileges through centuries of white AA. To add insult to injury, they continue to spurn of the outstretched hand of reconciliation of the black government.
Given that many MK veterans were integrated into the SANDF after the fall of apartheid, and given that the only threat the SANDF could credibly cope with is the invasion of South Africa by an extra-large bucket of fried chicken, I am sanguine about the threat posed by the MKVA and their supporting cast of blowhards and loudmouths.
Worse yet there is an alarming overlap in membership between the MK vets and the ANCYL–despite the fact that the oldest YL members would have been born in 1975 and could not possibly be ‘vets’ of anything other than the nappy brigade.
Well timed article. I sat up and shivered when they attacked and marched against Zille. The leader was interviewed on 702 and classified as crazy in his rantings.
Mugabe is labeled crazy and so was Hitler.
The Chamelon is revealing its colours and the nation carries on regardless – as did the ex-farmers.
War veterans???
MK never once engaded the SADF.
The only time they fought against soldiers was in Rhodesia. They had combined with Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU and crossed the Zambezi from Zambia.
They were routed by the RLI and the ones that surrendered were later hanged for bearing arms of war.
So what makes one an ANC war vet – the fact that you went into exile?
The ANC are so short of heroes that they have to include the likes of Manto.
Ominous to say the least.
While I wasn’t yet born when the ANC commenced armed struggle, what I know of Albert Luthuli (then ANC president) makes me take his word that opportunities for nonviolent resistance had not been exhausted.
He claimed not to have been consulted on the matter, which claim is explained away by Mandela on grounds of Luthuli’s alleged senility, and in contradiction, Slovo explained that in the urgent circumstances, Luthuli could not be consulted.
I would like there to be a debate over whether the formation of MK advanced, or retarded, the end of apartheid.
Why have more than 7,500 farmenrs (white) been murdered since ‘democracy’? Why have so many once good farms been given to incompetant people since ‘democracy’? When is South Africa going to join the ranks of beggar nations as we destroy the very things that made us special – education and agriculture? All that matters now is the ANC and loyalty to the useless people installed in all levels of the economy because of who they are and not because of what they can do for the country.
How many farmers died because the ANC slogan of “One Farmer One Bullet”? Was this not an indication too of the Zim problem? “The land is ours, if we are black and no matter that we reduce the land back to weeds – justice is done”??? Zuma seems to have stopped his stupid machine gun song and dance as perhaps it sunk into his head as to what he was doing?? The intention of our great leader, Madiba, was a rainbow nation. This is not what we now have!
What are MK vets going to do? They would have to be a lot more effective than they were during the “struggle”. Couple of bombs in night clubs and a few electricity sub-stations put out of order was the extent of their success against apartheid.
Conventional thinking and conventional attitudes will undo us all.
The decent among our mish-mash society scurry home and watch the violent militant behaviour of striking municipal workers, police and military personell on our TV’s; – and thereby remain unaffected.
Much in the same way the British stand and shoot lines in our very own Boer war were undone by hit-and-run guerilla warfare by a rag-tag bunch of bearded farmers.
The MK vets will one day test their power and support in a very brutal fashion that will initally eclipse the recent xenephobic attacks on foreigners. Easy to guess who their ‘foreigner’ targets will be. We wont know how to deal with this savagery.
When freedom fighters turn into criminals they loose the respect Dave Harris is claiming for them.
This apart from the fact that they did not give SA its freedom, they only played a part in it.
South Africans enjoy millenarism.
I have heard it all my life.
Just wait till the blacks take over.
Just wait till that Mandela gets out.
Just wait till Mandela goes.
Just wait till Zuma gets in.
I agree we need to defend our democracy but after 15 years of muddling along we need to accept that the sky is not going to fall on our heads.
Interesting analysis. However ZANLA and ZIPRA were certainly more credible military forces, organised for rural insurgency and semi-conventional operations. Their philosophy was Maoist and they were notable disciplined ( unlike those youngsters posing as ‘war vets’ in Zim who were far too young to have been involved). In SA, MK were focused on urban terrorism or guerilla ops (depending on your point of view) and were less disciplined and organised in cells (the al Qaeda model) rather than military structures. SA also had far more of a trade union/ civil society based urban insurrection. Hence many other players were involved. I would be interested in knowing which factions of the alliance the MKVA are closest to – ethnic nationalists, centrists, communists or trade unions? I suspect the former.
Did anyone find out who sponsored their freshly pressed uniforms on their WC march against democracy?
I also suspect that there would be major ideological differences between the current Zulu security establishment (analogous in style to ZIPRA) and the MKVA (analogous in style to ZANLA). Some more insights on the Zim war veterans: “Beside their overall political ideologies, the main differences between ZIPRA, the armed wing of the pro-Soviet ZAPU party, and ZANLA were that: ZANLA drew its recruits mostly from Shona-speaking ethnic groups
ZANLA followed a strategy of politicisation of the peasant population (inspired by the Maoist teachings of “protracted people’s war”), most often by intimidation and outright terrorism. During the late 1970s, some ZANLA fighters were deployed in the Matabeleland and midlands provinces, areas where Zipra mainly operated. There were a lot of clashes between the two forces. ZANLA fighters were well known for their savagery when it came to dealing with Ndebele civilians who were usually taken into what were called overnight bases and forced to sing songs in Shona denouncing ZAPU and its leader Joshua Nkomo. These ZANLA cadres had a strange love for chicken and a local staple food known as Sadza. Each time they came to a Ndebele homestead given their lack of the Ndebele language, they would simply demand “ndipe sadza nehuku” (GIVE ME SADZA WITH CHICKEN) hence the local Ndebele nickname for them “Osadza nehuku”. “
I frankly feel for the MK Vets in the SANDF, and think they need support and encouragement. It is never easy to be a soldier in a peacetime army. Many are 45 year old HIV + (and I say this respectfully not pejoratively) overweight privates who fail fitness tests and do not have great chances of promotion. Their profession is entirely non-transferrable internationally, and local Southern African armies are already well-staffed with younger, talented soldiers – Botswana and Angola both have very competent defence forces. To add to the resentment, others of the same age and qualifications are Brigadiers, Colonels and above due to their closeness to the inner circle, which must rankle given that in most armies it takes years and many staff courses, field deployments and selection boards to get to these ranks (first a section leader, then a platoon, then a battalion, then a brigade, then a division etc etc ..it’s a long process). So I understand their frustrations. The best solution is not channeling this into resentment against SA’s politically insignificant minorities (in fact that would be the most counter-productive solution possible, which professional, apolitical soldiers would never stoop to), but rather extending the mandate of SA’s forces to African peacekeeping and nation building missions.
MK were the worlds least effective fighting force.The best they could do was a handful of bombs and sporadic fighting against their black brethren. A pitiful group of losers, never to be compared to the fighting SWAPO and ZANU and ZIPRA.
it would do well to remember that the ‘war vets’ in Zim had been agitating for quite a while. If Edgar Tekere is to be believed, the real WV were understanding that they would be generously compensated for their participation in the war. This compensation hadn’t come by the mid 90s, and so their demands increased for pensions, and benefits. And when the first ‘real compensation’ of increased monthly pensions, and benefits of schooling for their children, and healthcare came in the late 90s, they became emboldened, decided this wasn’t enough, and…the walls came tumbling down.
That said, DH’s assertion that the War Vets gave SA the freedom they enjoy today, drives me wild. They, like the ANC generally had nothing, or very little to do with the dismantlement of apartheid.
But, as usual, it won’t sink in, and SA would do well to pay attention to this article.
Dave Harris,
Your statement: “…DA and their cohorts…use the politics of division to cling to their white AA privileges.”
Would you like to define please what you see as these “white AA privileges” ?
Are you justifying force as a legitimate response to political action? Because if so, that is totally reprehensible !
Have you forgotten the apartheid-era right-wing calls of “Skiet die *** dood!” and left-wing calls of “One settler, one bullet !” ? If you still support this mentality, then you do not belong in SA.
Dave Harris, you are a good example of what Lenin called “useful idiots”. You say “you would see that the real cause of the problems in Zimbabwe lies in the inequality reinforced by white supremacy that forces the hand of people impatient with the pace of reform. The Zimbabwe situation could have been easily avoided through genuine negotiations” which is not true. Magabe lost a referendum in 1999/2000?, his first loss ever and then started his farm invasions. I read a glossy brochure printed by the Zim dept of Agric in 1999 setting out their 5 year agric policy/plan and there is not one chapter, not one page, not one paragraph in fact not one word about land reform and assistance/development of Black farmers etc. Then suddenly land invasions are foisted on the entire population, white and black only becuae Bob lost a vote and he saw his days were numbered.
However smart politiciain, his Hitler/Stalin methods have benefited him and his thugs thanks to people like you sprouting rubbish as shown above.
It is simple, condemn bad govt/practice no matter who does it be they black or white and Africa will develop faster to true democracy and good rule
Brent
One could also argue that the present lunacy of the MKVA is really the product of the Mbeki administration which created a parallel history in which the armed conflict was “won” and the “National Democratic Revolution” was the result of a decisive victory. I wrote as much back in 1990. The mythology of the struggle would eventually be its undoing. Truth is, we had a Velvet Revolution, not a Bloody Putsch. The conventional war got bogged down in politics. The guerrilla war largely failed because of counter-terrorism. Sanctions and the economic blockade were far more effective than any member of MK. In fact MK played very little part in the eventual victory of democracy. Now MKVA want a larger part than they should be entitled to. Why don’t they all just shut-up and stay in the old age homes where they draw state pensions, surely they must be getting on? No this about another legend altogether, a new crop of youngsters who think they can still join the revolution and pretend they are fighting a war for Zuma.
@Dave_Harris
You seem to have missed the point of the discussion Dave and you harp on about things you demonstrate to know little about, you exude racist rantings. A 20 year old democracy cannot blame it’s failures on a long-ago past, get real. Failures in Zim now, are caused by those in power now so you sound like a blubbering fool when you try portray it in the biased sense that you do.
I say the MK vets are something to be feared because although they helped liberate SA from the disgusting legacy of apartheid they are mostly ill-educated (even possibly un-educated) and still crying for blood from a people who have just about given every drop of blood they can. There is no more need for a liberation movement, we need a progressive and uplifting movement to take us in to the future and the YL is not it.
I agree with Zuma that a lot more needs to be done for the MK vets, if nothing else, to “keep them in check”.
Many of those Ex MK people that were integrated into the SANDF are not exactly flourishing as pointed out by Mark, and the evidence suggests that of those that didn’t make it into the integrated SANDF, for whatever reason, a number are unemployed, or involved in organised crime (cash-in-transit heists etc).
Like the land reform issue, if we do not deal with it (the MK issue) quickly, the consequences could be dire.
Numerically, there are probably far more – now middle aged – “war vets” from the “other side” (SADF)that received quality military training and are relatively well educated and affluent.
Like in Zimbabwe the trick is to separate the War Vets from the others as premier custodians of the struggle and gains of the struggle. Proceeding there from they arrogate to themselves the right to think what is best for the ruling party and the country. In this way who ever gives them eminence is able to bludgeon internal opposition in the party and put the fear of God in the rest of the citizenry. This lot has different rules of engagement from say the women’s league. These are the lot that always tell you that they fought and died for the country. They suffer from entitlement. Sooner or later an ANC leader will do the Mugabe and give them unaffordable gratuity payments should their influence be unchecked. Then there will be new associations that also feel entitled with names like ex-Detainees, ex-Collaborators etc. Amongst all this will be forgotten the fact that millions of people fought for this country by civil disobedience, strikes that were not good for the economy. In their own small way without military training many fought for their freedom. Hence the most important thing is to debunk the fallacy that the ANC a tool among many tools freed South Africa.
Don’t panic, Mr. Jaundice. The MK Veterans’ Association is an empty vessel and Zuma’s support for them is almost entirely rhetorical.
And, of course, the Zimbabwean war veterans were supported as a pretext by the Zimbabwean government, because the Zimbabwean government was bankrupt and needed to distract public attention from the crisis. South AFrica is not bankrupt. Yet.
Some of the above comments reveal ignorance of the large-scale war in Angola in the late 80s and its decisive effect on SA’s history. MK forces based in Angola had been deployed against UNITA, one of the factors which led to troops mutinying, which in turn led to a massive witch-hunt.
Meanwhile Angolan government forces, with help from SWAPO and Cuba, inflicted sufficient losses on the SADF to cause the apartheid regime to negotiate an exit from Namibia, which in turn became a rehearsal for the negotiated settlement in SA itself.
Nah.. I disagree. The role of War Vets is the one of the weakest analogies between SA and Zim. I mean, they actually had a war.
@DRL…perfect post…until ‘surely they must be getting on’…that was the problem also with the Zim War Vets, somehow they seem to multiply younger as the old ones get older..
I think that in South African politics people re-write history as we go along. The simple fact for me is that blacks are not free in south africa. The advent of the so called freedom only ligitimised white privillege. Whites are a minority yet they control over 80% of the land and the economy. We need to be serious about land reform and redistribution. The coming generation will go amok mainly due to the fact that the willing seller willing buyer story based on market value is nonsensical on a good day, because anyways who determines market value if not the same white who have to sell. Is there any one who is honest enough who can say what the majority gained out of the so-called freedom. The means of production are still white owned and they were acquired because of the colour of ones skin. It always amazes me when the most whites that you talk make as if they never voted for the nationalist party. Who voted the NATS into power? The unfortunate part is that the rulling party is very afraid to engage with this real issues because they might anger some white investor, who is in any way protecting his brotheren. I wuold rather see total collapse that have my grand children being enslaved by their white counterparts not because they are lazy but rather because I did not fight to adress the issue.
A surge in violence against whites would effectively destroy all the gains the new black elite have built for themselves because the economy would collapse. I.e. no more Maserati’s etc. As such it is absolutely not in the interest of the new black masters of the economy for this to happen and as such it wont.
Peter Joffe – “one settler, one bullet” was, if I recall correctly, the PAC’s slogan and not the ANC’s. It helps your credibility no end if you keep your facts straight.
@ Chuma and David Robert Lewis
You have both hit the nail on the head.
Proof, if it was needed, that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
It was investment sanctions which brought about the end of apartheid, not any real or imagined military “victory”.
Similarly, in Zimbabwe, it was ZANU-PF’s self-destruction of its own economy via hyper-inflation, disinvestment which brought down (kind of) the government of the day, notwithstanding the relative might of the Zim Army and Police.
At the end of the day, to have large numbers of disaffected and militant trained soldiers / bomb makers wandering the streets with an axe to grind is not a healthy thing for SA society, so I support Zuma’s efforts in this regard.
If we can afford to waste 90 billion rand on the arms deal for equipement that we do not need to defend against no known enemy, then a couple of billion spent eliminating the threat from MKWVA would be money well spent.
“favourite parlour game” thats weak. WSM you don’t have to contrive a balancing negative portrayal of opposition to the ANC in particular and white people in general in order to try and place yourself into a PC position as a preface before making criticisms of the ANC and their allies, something you seem to do a lot in your columns I have recently read. White people don’t hang out in parlours and waste their breath on matters of the MK Vets. More and more people of all races are more concerned about good governence and service delivery. Policing is one such service. It is not MK “war veterans” themselves that pose a risk to South Africa it is merely the possible and more likely failure (intentional) to maintain the rule of law that is a danger to South Africa. That is what happened in Zimbabwe. Mob rule by any other name is the risk we face. Please comment on what the real reason was that Commandos were removed. The Police have not filled the security void that the Commandos left behind.
@Noko: I sympathise with your statement that blacks are not free, but I would add that whites aren’t either, merely by being white. If you define freedom as economic opportunity, a higher proportion of whites may have it than blacks, but those proportions are changing all the time. Instead of seeing the country’s economy in narrow racial terms, we can also see it in the context of vast global investment empires, of which the ownership ethnicity, even if it was accessible, would be irrelevant in local political terms.
I will not succumb to the temptation of being pedantic and niggling over your statistics, as I believe the picture is more complicated and mere citizens such as ourselves can’t access accurate details.
Ok so let me get this straight;
Land and housing was the issue that sent Zimbabwe on a downward spiral; with a little help of war veteran help…
South Africa circa 2000 – 2009 the horribly failing housing delivery [housing sarafina plays; housing for cuba, congo, travel, hotels; and yes thousands of homes built under direction of one Ms Lindiwe Sisulu have to be broken down] [Yeah she of the M3; and bajillions spent on a N2 Gateway flagship #$%^up] –
she is now….
The Minister of Defence and Military veterans.
GOD HELP ME IF I DON’T DRAW the Zimbabwean comparison!
Well said “Hopeful”!!!
@brent
“genuine negotiations” is where the the previously advantaged acknowledge that they acquired their ill-gotten wealth through CENTURIES of white AA and brutal oppression and reach out to the hand of reconciliation to the black government. Unlike other colonial defeats around the world, in SA the descendants of colonialists have been spared from a bloody civil war and should now be actively working to reconcile with the people they brutally oppressed in order to heal the wounds of apartheid. Instead they use wealth and talents to cling to their privileges through the use of to push divisive politics setting the stage for another “Zimbabwe”
@Shamus
“A 20 year old democracy cannot blame it’s failures on a long-ago past, get real.”
Did you know that hundreds of years after slavery ended in the US and almost half a century since the US Civil Rights Act, black in the US still face discrimination and are still recovering from economic oppression?
I’m afraid the youth of SA have little patience to endure transformation and reconciliation at such a snail’s pace. I sure hope I’m wrong!!!
@Liege
Good observations! Lets see if WSM will engage with you
@Noko
How much does the poorest 60% of us whites control? How about the poorest 80% of whites? Sure, we are typically better off than blacks, but it’s not like we’re rich.
@Dave_Harris
I have a deep suspicion that you are either a teenager or a political plant of some sorts because your comments reflect a very slanted view of life and politics and it oozes naivety.
Black Zimbabweans have had complete and absolute control of their country for the last 20 years, any decisions good or bad were made by black Zimbabweans, you can draw no parallel with slavery and the US when dealing with the issues raised here unless you have an axe to grind
For your information, am neither a War Veteran nor the ANC YL member, but a conscious South African who understand the scientific link between historical South Africa, the current socio-economic and political conditions prevailing today, added to that I also understand and appreciate the history of Zimbabwe long before they got tired in the early 2000 of unwiwillingness to share in the real economy of that country, and further that I do understand as well the causes of conflicts all over the world, and also that during man-made conflicts there will always be casualities as we have seen in Zimbabwe before the economic turnaround strategy. But last but not least I also understand that here in South Africa, unless the marginalised step up their fight against the un-altered economic power relations following the 1994 democratic breakethrough, we might as well be preparing ourselves for violant conflicts to a scale bigger than that of Zimbabwe, because it is not only the MKV and ANC YL who has got eyes to see, but most of us as oppressed South Africans, so don’t fool yourself like DA which, when our government is trying hard to push transformation through, resort to problamatic concepts such as “race card”, “reverse apartheid” as if they don’t understand the basics of political science – in fact those deliberately coined concepts aimed at scaring our people away from real struggle for freedom and reverse our gains are not only irritating to ANC YL and MKV, but
Noko, Reading all of the comments, I was wondering why ANCYL and MKVA members were ominously quiet and then you come along with outdated political rhetoric. Redistribution of wealth if just theft justified politically and until this kind of mentality dies a quiet death, South Africa will struggle its way down the path of decline. Get the chip of of your shoulder and start looking at all SA citizens as human beings…..perhaps then something may be achieved.
“The collapse of neighbouring Zimbabwe can be traced directly to the war vets asserting themselves and demanding the spoils of victory that they felt had been denied them. ‘
Wrong. Mugabe and cronies used the so called war war vets.
‘It was the crippling payment of massive benefits to war vets that sent the economy into the downward spiral that ultimately laid the country to ruin.’
Wrong again. Would you mind letting us know where you base these notions? There were many reason for this catastrophic downward spiral. Stealing land from farmers and distributing it to greedy Ministers and small plot holders who struggle to feed themselves. Also insane actions by Mr. Gono led to disaster.
Dave Harris is not more than likely Dave Harris. Whoever he/she is he/she has completed a very prestigious degree in double-think and self delusion.
Noko
How much of the country is owed by the state? 40-50% perhaps. That makes blacks the largest landowners in the country if you add the old homelands. Added to that is land already transferred.
Asides from that, about 70% of this country’s land is marginal or semi-desert. Want to put 70% of the population where there is 5% of the water? Sounds like genocide to me. Get real, most of the land in this country does NOT look like Mpumalanga!
The land issue in this country is steeped in misinformation. People want housing and jobs in towns, not to become a subsistence farmer in the middle of the Karoo.
Nice article, but you seem to miss one thing though. The ANC is more diverse than Mugabe’s party and also not that Zuma is not a dictator, the ANC chooses who to lead them and they can get rid of a dictator wanna be whenever they want.
And no, the only thing that will make the Zim situation to play itself in SA is if SA fails to transform itself, meaning you should be writing more articles that encourages transformation than these kind of articles because as we all know it, the masses end up being impatient and eventually do as they wish. So yes to avoid the Zim situation we need to transform this country and deal with corrupt officials and corrupt tender boys in the process.
So you best start telling your people to stop resisting transformation and reconciliation.
Obzino Latino,
Maybe the ANCYL and MKV and all those who share their views will start making a contribution towards progress in SA if they stopped struggling and started working and using the opportunities presented to them on a silver platter.
“An emboldened MKVA now feels free to add its tuppenceworth on all kinds of political matters, remote from its notional remit.”
I agree with this sentiment. I get the same impression with the ANCYL, who readily opine on matters I feel are way above their remit.
More and more I get the sense that the ANC is becoming increasingly directionless – there appears to be no-one at the helm. Which is a real shame really.
W S-M
The MK have no war veterans. They never engaged the SADF in a man to man battle ever.
When in the 60′s they joined up with ZAPU they were routed by the RLI. The survivors were hanged for ‘carrying arms of war’.
As for Zimbabwe, all tv footage shows teenagers who would have not have born during the ‘chimerenga’
Obzino, the worlds problems seem very clear from where you stand.
I have one question, how is it all going to get fixed after it is broken?
‘I don’t know how to be responsible for what every black man out there did’ Tupac Shakur
@dave the people currently at the helm of the ANC are not directionless, they are, many of them, sadly, self-serving opportunists rather than public servants. Luckily however the ANC still contains some who understand that the glorious purpose of the ANC is to serve all the people of South Africa, not just themselves and their cronies.