Cast your vote wisely As we move towards the fifth democratic election, marking and celebrating twenty years (20) of our ‘independence’, we often overstate the gains than look into the setbacks; endemic mass unemployment, abject poverty, chronic starvation, rampant HIV/Aids and exponential rise of illiteracy despite massive government spending on education.
The 1994 dispensation has brought to us democracy, and wish to declare here, we treasure the gains thereof. History is full of examples of otherwise regarded as democratically elected government turning fascist, racist etc. The NAZI Germany is such an example. What about the Apartheid regime? Yes, Apartheid regime was undemocratic to the majority of its citizen, but certainly democratic to its exclusive European (white) settler constituency. Does the right to vote equal the return of the land, economic freedom and financial freedom from the international finance enslavement? Some revolutionaries have long deserted the discourse, decided to bench mark and become onlookers of the circus - CODESA - that was brought about the western engineered negotiated settlement. We are made to understand that the 1994 marked the end of Apartheid and Colonialism concurrently. How disingenuous is the purported end? This is tantamount to laying a claim that we were liberated by the exploiters, dispossessors and oppressors. What interests would exploiters have in curtailing their very means of existence, EXPLOITATION? The origin and making of the South African state as a neo-colonial one stems from the archaic Apartheid era. CODESA was never opposed to the modification of Apartheid that would stealthily creep into the new dispensation unnoticed and then perpetually ferments until eternity. Lest we forget, the Transitional Executive Committee (TEC), comprised of few ANC and many National Party leaders, took control of South Africa, according to their commitment, in the best way of enabling transition towards ‘independence’. The TEC’s sub-committee on finance included the following; Trevor Manuel (former minister of finance), Maria Ramos (ABSA Group CEO), Pravin Gordhan (current minister of finance) and Tito Mboweni (former reserve bank governor). On December 1, 1993 Pravin Gordhan (current minister of finance), signed the US $ 850 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on behalf of South Africa. When the melodic song goes like ‘there is no better place to live in than South Africa’, then this is meant to conceal the brutally wicked draconian terms and conditions by the IMF, inter alia; • Scrap you nationalization of mines, banks etc in South Africa (the death of the freedom charter) • Allow flight capital out of South Africa • Lower imports tariffs • Privatize state owned enterprises • Large cuts in public wage sector etc. One would like to believe that the ANC heavy weights outsmarted the IMF, and then perverted them into revolutionaries and liberators of our masses. The closer view of the terms and conditions suggest the opposite. Thank to the intervention and hindsight of the IMF (Watch-Dogism in practice), the following Apartheid stalwarts were appointed to supervise the implementation; Derek Keys and Chris Stals, finance minister and reserve bank governor, respectively. The masses of Azania had to dig deep into their pockets in order to repay the costs of the so-called miraculous and peaceful transition. The story and the heinous involvement of both the World Bank and the IMF in financing Apartheid have still to be told, lest we want to amputate our very fresh memories from the harsh and brutal realities of yesteryear. Issa Shivji has this to say: “The combination of economic crisis at home and the rise of neo-liberalism globally made many an African country a ready victim of the IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programmes or SAPs. SAP came with its stringent conditionalties — liberalization of markets, balancing of budgets, removal of subsidies, so-called cost-sharing in the provision of social services, etc.. African states, including the most nationalist among them like Tanzania, were in no position to resist. They eventually gave in, wreaking havoc in the already fragile economies on the one hand, and the welfare of the most disadvantaged of their people, on the other (Mwanza ed., 1992)” Source: Struggle for Democracy, 2003 While we want to entrench the gains of 1994, we however wish to cast our vote wisely and attempt to achieve the following: • Dismantle the neo colonial state • Replace the neo liberal constitution with the Africanistic constitution • Expropriation of land without compensation • Land reform and equitable distribution of land Izwe-lethu -- -- Sending your posting to [email protected] Unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] You can also visit http://groups.google.com/group/payco Visit our website at www.mayihlome.wordpress.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Pan Africanist Youth Congress" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
