Dirty politics in the name of Madiba Julius Malema, a beneficiary of patronage, trashes the legacy of Nelson Mandela Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela MP, The New Age, Johannesburg, 30 November 2015 Julius Malema has made gutter politics his personal brand. It is easy to pontificate on strategic choices that had to be made to bring about democracy in South Africa from the precipice of civil war, but much more complex to build a new society on the precarious edifice of 300 years of colonialism and apartheid brutality. Nelson Mandela's legacy of nation building, reconciliation and social cohesion stands as a monumental work in progress guided by the Freedom Charter, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and 103 years of struggle waged by the liberation movement led by the ANC. No, the struggle is not over and the long walk to freedom continues. But Malema does not understand. He would have us pursue a scorched earth policy so that his brand of gutter politics can gain currency. Fortunately, sanity prevails and, guided by the ANCs political programme and policies, we have created an environment in which our democracy and symbols of freedom can be freely criticized, insulted and denigrated by the likes of the EFF. Yes, all is not well in our democracy and this is rightly cause for reflection, remedial action and continued struggle. But this does not excuse Malema for making spurious and unsubstantiated claims regarding Madiba's relationship with South African big business, while himself being a beneficiary of patronage. The complex process of spearheading South Africa's transition to democracy required the engagement of all stakeholders, including business. It is a matter of record that Madiba went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the flight of capital was halted and the necessary conditions created to ensure the transition to a democratic economy in which there is equal opportunity for all. The ANC's 2007 Polokwane elective conference noted the distance we had travelled and called for the second phase of our economic transition to be intensified. This position was further ratified at the ANC's Mangaung elective conference. Unlike Julius Malema's sound bite bigotry, this struggle is real. Despite the monumental achievements of the ANC government in alleviating poverty and delivering basic services over the past two decades of democracy, the transformation of the economy remains our single biggest challenge. It is this latter challenge that informs the ANC and government's ongoing engagement with business, civil society and labour in institutions such as Nedlac, so that together we may forge a new and brighter future for all our people. South Africa, after all, belongs to all who live in it. Perhaps, it is time to make a strong call for an economic Codesa so that all who participated in shaping the foundations of our democracy can recommit, in the spirit of patriotism and justice, to intensifying the economic transformation so direly needed to ensure the vast majority of our people become active participants in the mainstream economy. It appears though that Malema has capitulated to the kind of thinking that characterised Eugene Terreblanche's mission to undermine our democracy at any cost. Malema's rant about Madiba selling out the Freedom Charter is ridiculous in the light of he and his cronies in the EFF having shown disdain for everything that the Freedom Charter stands for - including trashing Parliament, which is the highest expression of the Freedom Charter's statement that the people shall govern. He is bereft of culture, knowledge and wisdom, yet he is intent on making Parliament ungovernable, assaulting the legacy of our heroes and icons, rubbishing our democracy and driving business from our shores. Malema has no regard for traditional African values such as respect for elders, mutual respect, as encapsulated in the spirit of ubuntu, or our long tradition of principled struggled for which many generations have sacrifice life and limb. Like those of many of our stalwarts and heroes, Madiba's legacy is unassailable and Malema's drivel is just what it really is and that is drivel. There are no limits to Malema's naughty behaviour. This time it was Madiba's legacy that he attacked. He didn't realise that he was hacking the very branch on which he was sitting. He has failed woodwork again. . Nkosi Zwelivelile is a member of the royal house of Mandela. From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/30112015/epaperpdf/18.pdf -- -- 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]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
