The ANC – A Failed Promise

South Africa is facing a number of challenges like any other country in the world. Central to that is our challenge of social development. Our social protection plan continues to demand more resources than ever before. In his 2009 budget speech Trevor Manuel said, “...the Social Protection and Community Development Cluster leads the anti-poverty strategy and will facilitate synergies between government and other sections of society.”

A Time Bomb
We have witness a number of mass actions staged by organisations that are not satisfied by the pace at which the government is moving in fulfilling its promise. All of these actions are conducted by the poor. The ANC secretary, Gwede Mantashe, claims that the ANC is now in a better position to understand the cause of all protests that have been taking place.

These actions are a clear indication that people are beginning to untrust the ANC government. One of the reasons is that the government is slow on service delivery. People are still struggling with basic needs like water and electricity. Education detoriation is also one of the issue that keep crawling into the debate around the government performance over the last 15 years. This poses a serious risk on the stability of the country. The high rate of crime is also linked to the failure of government to facilitate programs to create employment.

Black Elite versus Poor Blacks
A new class of black people emerged since the birth of Bee. These are entrepreneurs who have collected millions of rands from Bee deals facilitated by some ANC members who occupy senior positions within the party. In his political report in 2007, former president Thabo Mbeki admitted that, “One of these negative features is the emergence of careerism within our ranks. Many among our members see their membership of the ANC as a means to advance their personal ambitions to attain positions of power and access to resources for their own individual gratification.”

There are masses of black people who have not benefited from the installation of democratic government. There is also a new group of white Afrikaners who are now joining these masses. Poverty is the common factor between these groups. The growth of these masses is a serious threat because of the history of South Africa.


The Reign of Nationalists
Since its independence in 1909, South Africa has been ruled by the nationalists system of governance. First it was the Afrikaner nationalists who crafted the apartheid system to prevent black people from accessing and enjoying state resources. This is always confused with racism but not nationalists rule.
The Afrikaners nationalists abused the state resources to fund programs that benefited them and excluded all other group. They exploited the political power that had been handed over to the South Africa and exercised by the Union of Southern Africa. They formed many enterprises some of which have now become multination companies. These were used to enrich these nationalists who are still controlling the country’s resources.

After the collapse of the apartheid government, a new government was formed in 1994. This government is under the control of black nationalists. The difference is that when these nationalists took over, the state resources were already under the control of Afrikaners. This results in the lack of transformation both at the society and economic level.

The Bee – Its Birth
The Afrikaners nationalist were forced to hand the political power over to black nationalists but they held on to their assets which had been funded by state resources. Negotiations did not succeed. Even today, the employment equity act has failed to force them to surrender this control.

The outcome of a series of negotiations resulted in the birth of Bee which is a mechanism to protect white nationalists from black masses. It was agreed that only a portion would be transferred to black people. This resources transfer process has benefited on the elite but not the masses of people.

President Jacob Zuma is currently conducting a number of campaigns focusing on the poor people. These campaigns appear to be a strategy of managing the masses from causing instability. His approach does not guarantee that the poor will have equal access to resources.

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