Article*
DA conquest of Mamphela Ramphele The myth of integration under banner of neoliberal ideology Baxolise Mali, SACP Member, 31 January 2014 Following the DA announcement of its success in renting a black presidential candidate in the name of Grandmother Mamphela Ramphele on 28th of January, members of Agang (if such still exist anyway), some grass root supporters of Democratic Alliance, progressive citizens of South Africa were fed with various analysis about this renting including the fact that even Agang SA leaders were not brought into confidence regarding these negotiations between DA and the founder of their political platform. In the statement which caught a lot of people by surprise, Helen Zille argued "As the ANC breaks into its constituent parts, we are building a new political vehicle to bring about the South Africa we dared to dream of in 1994". She further stated "I know Mamphela as a principled, fiercely determined person who loves her country deeply and devotes her life to the cause of making democracy work". Of importance which needs noting is Helen Zille's bold claim in the January 28th statement that the old political formations have became obsolete. In simple terms, here Helen Zille is feeding society with claims that new political parties like Democratic Alliance (Note - the u-turn approach as we were once told that DA fought for democracy in "Know your DA" but today it is 'new') are "the in" political parties, very progressive that they must be given chance to replace old formations like the tried and tested African National Congress. Ordinarily, these interesting claims should not be given airtime but rather be ignored. However given the magnitude of the potential that these claims, and illusions have to mislead our people towards 2014 National general elections, it is of most importance that a little bit of objective analysis is given to the character of DA, and its rented presidential candidate. This is because now it is becoming clear that DA is a desperate political party which needs as many black people for fronting purposes so that their party can remain relevant. The relations of DA to the previously marginalized of our society are only limited to funny dances with our people in mini-rallies, empty sloganeering and with some rented black leaders being once leaders in progressive organizations like African National Congress or either by association in whatever way with founders of Black consciousness movement. Truth to be told the rented presidential candidate of DA share the same characteristics as that of a Barbie-doll, as she lacks a clear progressive ideological orientation but finds comfort amongst the liberals of DA. If She was indeed different from a Barbie-doll, and having no vacillating tendencies in terms of ideology then She would have realized that agreeing to front as a DA presidential candidate was in contradiction with the honest analysis She once gave when forming Agang SA that "DA is a party for white super rich people" Anyway the vacillation and the compromise about the truth by Mamphela Ramphela that DA is nothing else, but a vehicle to defend white monopoly capital interests reminds us of one Albert Einstein who said "Anyone who doesn't take truth serious on small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either". Surely this vacillation of Mamphela Ramphele after the initial truth which she divorced now for the interest of her ever-ballooning pockets contradicts and exposes Helen Zille to be a liar of a special type in her killer punch particularly the part of Mamphele loving 'her country deeply' Another truth is, it will be convenient for any person with a working class background to describe DA and its rented candidate as progressive. With respect, given that DA leadership endorsed Mamphela Ramphele as their candidate for 2014 elections without consulting with members of both parties, is a reflection that the party is nothing else but resurrection of National Party though placed in a different sun. Perhaps society must now start to define what really does one mean by DA and Mamphela Ramphele progressive. Is it because she was once a wife to one of the progressive son of the soils named Steve Biko? Or is she progressive because of her track record in uplifting the lives of the previously marginalized? (Unfortunately I would consciously select 'None of the above' because she was in fact a girlfriend instead of a wife). Mamphela Ramphele can only be viewed as someone to add value to South Africa by the monopoly capital which DA is representing, of which such value will be that of subjecting the previously marginalized into poverty and co-option of some people who might have some little bit of struggle credentials . The working class still remember very well that it was the same Mamphela Ramphele whom when She was the Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Town, engaged in a coordinated tango with Helen Zille, in order to destroy NEHAWU on Campus. It was the same pair of Mamphela Ramphele who made sure that UCT engaged in casualisation and privatization of services, making sure UCT staff became labour-brokered, with much lower wages, and loss of benefits (including reduced study fees for spouses and children of UCT employees) though the predominantly white academics and professional administration staff retained such benefit. It is precisely because of Mamphela Ramphele's virulent anti-working class approach on matters that DA and the monopoly capital which is funding them saw a perfect wedding of Romeo and Juliet under banner of neo-liberalism. A lot of us would realize that the DA had to find someone who would push its attack on working class defined as prioritization of "challenging the dominance of large unions" hidden under "ensuring that the labour regime serves not only the representatives of workers, but the workers themselves" as articulated in the DA Labour policy. The DA decision to make Ramphele as their candidate should be rightly understood as reconnection of that old UCT tango to push the neo-liberal agenda. It is that agenda which left the workers of UCT being slaves of some capital through outsourcing and labor-brokering that the DA always talk about when they refer to as "Ensuring that South Africa's labour regime stays in step with labour realities by strengthening recognition for temporary work" The working class must never be fooled by this marriage of convenience because such would allow DA to continued with its casualization of the previously marginalized through its 3 months contracts, and going ahead with its planned intention of Amending Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act (Act 66 of 1996 as amended) so that the monopoly capital can find it easy to retrench under the guise of "operational requirements" by removing the paragraphs dealing with consultation on reaching consensus on the method for selecting employees for dismissal if such "operational requirements" do emerge, and further removing the need for the employers to give documentation proving indeed that such retrenchments are as a result of "operational requirements". The decision of DA to marry the tango together is out of assumption that our people are stupid and will abandon the African National Congress and vote for Democratic Alliance because it has a black leader so that they can also be able to remove Section 2a of the Schedule 8 of the LRA, Act 66 of 1996 dealing with Code of Good Practice, so that it could be easy for monopoly capital to dismiss workers for "poor work performance" even if the employer did not give the worker sufficient training as it is done by the old public sector folks. South Africans should be able to see that Mamphela Ramphele is nothing else but a self-serving opportunist of the first order, pursuing her selfish objectives at the expense of all else. It was her who demanded massive public expenditure on the Vice Chancellors house by UCT before she would move into it. She was also in the World Bank where she got a very fat salary and benefits having no impact on either that institution or the world in order to save the people from being raped by her employers. History will also record that it was this same rented candidate who returned from her post in World Bank and received another fat salary for being a Chair of Goldfields with no qualifications at all but depending on favor appointments. It must be noted that the same Mamphela Ramphele did nothing to amend the continuation of the same labour regime that served monopoly capital from the time of colonialism, Rhodes and Beit, and throughout apartheid. We are now caught by surprise that She really aspire to be the President of the Republic by accepting to be a presidential candidate for the party dedicated to maintaining the balance of power and privilege that confines the majority of South African people to the margins of opportunity, but one wonders what Lindiwe Mazibuko is now thinking because first it was Joe Seremane embarrassed through ballot box and now the old lady. Steve Bantu Biko must be turning, and rolling in his grave to realize that the mother of his child has now turned to a Barbie-doll of white monopoly capital, but we are sure that he shall find peace in knowing that the electorate will see through this political stunt of DA, and knowing that she will soon realize that politics are not the bed of roses because our Alliance MP's (and maybe few Agang MPs) will be ready for her. . Baxolise Mali is the Media Liaison Officer of SACP Brian Bunting District * Those interested in publishing this article, or other articles by the same author, should contact MasonwabeSokoyi on 074 177 2068, or e-mail [email protected] -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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