Revolutionaries to the front and defend our revolution and the movement from the liberal offensive
*Benson Ngqentsu* Liberals have always something to say in order to dilute the content of our revolution. The Sunday, 22nd April 2012 City Press carried a story titled “*Does SA need a rich president?* This story is written by the learned Ms. Ferial Haffajee who is a columnist of the City Press. The question I would like to pose is-what does this mean to the people out there? Of course this question has different meanings to different readers. But I must say that, this is yet another attempt by liberal columnist to suggest that being in the state is a matter of narrow personal accumulation of wealth. We have seen these insinuations in the past referred to many in the movement and the alliance leadership. Against this background, revolutionaries must come to the front and defend our revolution and the movement from liberals and right wing elements who pretend to be the voice of our people. The columnist Ms. Ferial Haffajee has definitely also joined the chorus of many liberal columnist and right wing journalist who have for many years attempted to tarnish both the political and personal image of the person of President Jacob Zuma. Clearly, in the eyes of liberal columnist, journalist and the so called political analyst and commentators, President Jacob Zuma availed himself for the presidency both in the ANC and government just for mere narrow accumulation of wealth. This is a serious distortion which we must contest as revolutionaries so that liberals and the right wing elements can be exposed of their attempts to rule from the grave undermining the power of our people. This liberal offensive indeed seeks to undermine the power of the people, the people who voted comrade Jacob Zuma to lead us in this country and whether he is poor or rich to our people that was and it is still immaterial. Members of the ANC on the one hand elected President Zuma based on his struggle credentials not based on the state of his pocket whilst on the other hand, the majority people of our country voted Jacob Zuma to power because of his capacity to lead our people not based on his pocket and education as the lumpen so called analyst such as Prince Mashele wants us to believe. It is indeed, disingenuous to suggest that if Zuma avails himself for the second term as the President it will be a matter of ensuring that he secures enough wealth for his future post the presidency. And on the other side Ferial suggest that if comrade Cyril Ramaphosa avails himself to be the President of the ANC and the state, he will be the most focused president on the basis that he is filth rich. This is in the eyes of revolutionaries’ an absolute rubbish and a very disgusting analysis as it lack political content. To set the record straight, it must be clear to those who choose to be selective in understanding the content of our revolution to understand the reality that the ANC contest state power to advance our programme; the national democratic revolution as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter. As they seek to undermine President Zuma, I would like to remind many that under President Zuma’s leadership our country has made many advances to better the lives of our people. What we must always report about as the liberals refuse to do is the reality that under Zuma’s leadership we are seeing an active state capable of delivering to our people, the revival of law enforcement agencies and including the chapter 9 institutions such as the Public Protector in the fight against corruption. In addition, the government’s five priorities namely; the fight against crime and corruption; land and rural development; access to basic health care through the rolling out of National Health Insurance Scheme; access to free and quality education and skill development; creation of jobs are moving quite aggressive. Now, based on that, as revolutionaries we must be resolute and refuse any kind of blackmail and distraction by liberals from understanding the content of our revolution. Lastly; maybe we should also ask a question as to why this onslaught against President Zuma? Let me respond by giving my own observation, I hope that as I outline this observation that I am not going to bother to what could be describe as praise singing comrade Jacob Zuma. Back from my student political activism in SASCO, I analysed Zuma as a person who is capable of adapting with changing condition. In SASCO, we would invite him to address our events and I can recall when he addressed SASCO’s 11thNational Congress in Fort Hare, Alice in 2003, at a time he was a deputy President. The tone and level of his speech would be at the level of students from the working class background in the main, the other day you would hear him addressing workers, and he would speak the language of the workers. Lastly, again I can recall when he went to address the SACP’s Augmented Central Committee in 2008 and the 2nd National Special Congress in 2009, the tone of his speech was a communist tone and I said to comrades that JZ came to give us an induction. The point am making here is that, comrade Jacob Zuma falls into the catergory of the ANC’s presidents who pushed for progressive politics and politics of leading all class forces and stratum existing in the body politics of the ANC. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. 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