The distribution of donated food to those who are hungry, and have no means to earn incomes because of lockdown, has revealed the very ugly in our ANC leadership. It is the use of the ubiquitous and sublimely racist phrase "our people".Not South Africans!!
Even President Ramaphosa has frequently, and by default, used the phrase "our people". Logically this means that there are South Africans who fall outside this exclusive group and the state sponsored assistance and benefits. Mandela should be turning in his
grave. He understood and recognised that whereas apartheid was anchored on racial discrimination as a state policy, building a new democratic SA required nation building and the elimination of radicalised inequities as the basis for a new SA.
Covid-19 pandemic and its massive social disruption has tested the suitability of leaders of the governing ANC and exposed their inherent weaknesses to lead in a national crisis. President Ramaphosa appealed to all of us to to offer help by donating to The
Solidarity Fund and in any manner we can. Food parcels were also generously donated. And then the divisive snake emerged. Only "our people" will benefit from the proceeds of donations. In the eyes of the ANC only "our people" are in distress.
Like the apartheid regime, hunger has again assumed racial dimensions. BEE has also emerged as a radicalised and blunt instrument to effect this belief. Just like the apartheid regime. We are on a slippery road to unravelling the society at a moment when
solidarity should be the clarion call. This, together with corruption and the rent seeking that have now become the culture of the ANC, proves that the party has drifted off the course laid by its founders. It has floundered in its Pursuit of Relevance
