By: Udo W. Froese

(Part 2)

The ANC leadership’s acceptance of alien neo-liberalism has deviated from its hard-earned democracy. The generously open embrace of literally everyone in the ‘broad church’ of the African National Congress has opened the movement to every scoundrel with a range of hidden agendas, claiming the ANC for themselves.

Such vulnerabilities would naturally, eventually allow for a “Fifth Column” to establish itself and undermine South Africa’s first democratically elected ruling party from within.

In real terms, this means the ANC, its government and the country were set up to fail.  
Imagine, the constitutional fathers of football, or rugby, write the rules that only one team could play and that that one team only could win. How good for sport would that be?

South Africa’s constitution was framed in such a way that makes the development of the country almost impossible. The reality is that the constitution works for the haves, not for the have-nots, as demonstrated by the many cases taken to the courts. Minority groups sing from the same hymnbook and the same page, maintaining the status quo.

A case in point is the white minority, “former” colonial-apartheid group’s NGO, ‘Afriforum’, which takes every opportunity to make sure the “former” racists get their fair share of constitutional protection.
One should take into account that South Africa is a developing country, not a modern society. But, South African citizens have more rights than the average citizen of the European Union (EU).

This country’s judiciary is more sovereign and thus, more powerful than the executive of the government.
Highly surreptitious elements are in control of chapter 39 institutions. Those include the media, particularly its ownership, who are an integral part of the oligopolistic crony-capitalists and their paid-up agents. It makes it almost impossible to govern South Africa.
The economy is closed to the average citizen. The youth get educated into unemployment. This is by design and out of the control of the ruling party.

When the colonial borders of colonised Africa were demarcated at the Berlin conference in 1884/85 under the German Reichs-Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, the imperial masters adopted the plan for Africa from the buccaneer of the British crown and arch-conqueror, Cecil John Rhodes, to own the continent from Cape Town to Cairo. This has never changed.
It has made it impossible for the indigenous black Africans to constructively establish co-ownership, not to mention full ownership of the economy on their own continent.

Therefore, unemployment and poverty prevail. There is not much more a government can do for its citizens in a hostile economic climate such as this one.

Historically, crony-capitalism is fascist-racist and exclusive. It is the other side of the same coin, shared with neo-liberalism. This is the real basis for the global elite’s corporatisation too. It is all built on insatiable greed.

Ever since Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the democratically elected President of a “new” South Africa, heartless and greedy crony-capitalism and structured poverty for the majority of the citizens, the pillar for elitist fascist-racism, has grown stronger. In fact, that form of racial and class discrimination has spilled over to the rest of the SADC region, making life hell in Africa for the greater majority of the indigenous black Africans.

The aforementioned slave strategies and structures, backed by a tendentious media with defensive and uninformed talk-show hosts and paid-up hooligan armchair academic analysts with nothing to add, but “credibility” to propaganda, are set up to stifle and discredit every debate. It is indeed the rollout of a crude, dishonest and misleading, neo-liberal-fascist manipulation of public opinion. Daily, the ruling party faces a media that is united in its efforts of fear mongering and power peddling. The media is culpable of misleading the general public.

The Caucasian civilised genetic memory has focused its mindset on its Afro-pessimism, that Africa is a continent of easy and cheap access to developing markets. It is a reductionist approach, similar to throwing everything into one pot and boiling it until only a salty pulp remains.

Africa’s strategic minerals are the main attraction, as those sustain the modern economy of the G-8 countries. “Human rights” and “democracy” are mere smoke and mirrors to exploit the strategic minerals of this continent cheaply, particularly when their covert operations repeatedly instigate so-called “genocides, tribal and civil wars, black-on-black violence and xenophobia” throughout this continent.

“Popular democracy” identified a ‘representative and legitimate elite’, which was made ready for purchase. As a result the new leadership was transformed into “cronies” selling out, advocating neo-liberalism and assisting with the creation of the most expensive neo-liberal constitution in the world.

Simply put, “democracy” created and bought its cronies. It is evident that those cronies are over-compromised and held to ransom.
The EU is a “classic democracy”. In contrast, South Africa is a “developing democracy”. The owners of neo-liberalism have compromised and manipulated South Africa’s government to set up one of the most expensive of institutional structures. One of the outcomes is a strong judiciary versus a weak parliament.

The creation of nine provinces is more like the distribution of fragmented state-power into provincial structures.
After debt redemption, the nine provinces consume 50% of the national fiscus. In return, those provinces have become expensive post office boxes.

In addition, powerful watchdogs were created in the form of, for example, the Attorney General’s office, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), the Public Protector, chapter 39 institutions such as the Human Rights Commission (HRC), the National Prosecutor’s Agency (NPA).

Civil society projects such as the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA), the SA Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and a media industry with its extensive network play their roles respectively. Their aim seems to be amongst others, to mess up those, who are perceived as dissidents, as they refuse to buy into these strategies.
A strong and growing civil society has been established. Trade unions and other NGOs and CBOs are mushrooming. Together, they seem to be punching above their weight to irritate and discredit.

Crony-capitalism is based on co-option, creating a small black African, Indian and Coloured (people of mixed race) elite, as a buffer between the owners of the status quo and the poor majority.

The architects of destabilisation work tirelessly at weakening the ruling party, to discredit and hijack the moral high ground away from the ANC. In that way they strategise splitting the ANC into factions, trying to cause a destructive war within the movement. This too is based on chequebook politicking.

The signs are there for everyone to see. On the one hand, COSATU’s Zwelinzima Vavi and the disgruntled political left and trade unions seem to have their own agenda for the future. This is backed by civil society. On the other hand, there is an alleged small

“Fifth Column” within the ANC, working hard at disintegrating the ANC from within. This too is backed by civil society.
If aforementioned scenario would be successful, it would eventually result in a totally different ANC, to what it once was. Taking these agendas into consideration, the intended date to defeat the ruling ANC at the general elections would be in 2019, when a new, centrist party alliance is planned. It is supposed to lead to the collapse of the ANC into the Democratic Alliance (DA) then. This would explain persistent serious allegations that a certain “Dr Mamphela Ramphele could take over the lead of the DA”, a known academic researcher explained.

Former, re-called president Thabo Mbeki’s brother, a political analyst, Moeletsi Mbeki, referred to a “North African-style Arab Spring” for South Africa by 2019. So did the ANC Treasurer General, Mathews Phosa, in his public support of the expelled former ANCYL president, Julius Malema.

The aforementioned analysed scenario would be seriously dangerous for South Africa and the SADC region, as it would rob the indigenous black African majority of its political and historical home.

It would result in major, nation-wide uprisings, fanned on by the powerful players in the shadows. Foreigners and perceived foreigners, including whites and Indians could bear the brunt of the wrath of an angry majority. This would spill over to the neighbouring countries. A totally destabilised southern Africa would find it hard to recover.

Imperialist crony-capitalists and corporatists would have won the day, as they would be able to pick the jewels from the economic crown for nothing at all.

May God forgive us for our sorry deeds, disguised as “glorious intentions”.

• Udo W. Froese is an independent political and socio-economic analyst and published columnist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.