Foreword
The start of South Africa’s decline, from ‘Rainbow Nation’ to ‘State Capture’, can be traced back to the election of Jacob Zuma as President.
In 2007, together with COSATU, the SACP helped anti-Mbeki elements to seize control of the ANC, to have Jacob Zuma appointed as President of the ANC and to subsequently influence the recall President Mbeki.
Together with COSATU, it took the lead in dispensing with President Mbeki's successful GEAR economic policies.
In 2012, the SACP played a leading role in formulating and introducing the radical second phase of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).
The NDR has become the ANC's guiding ideology and is the fountainhead of government policy. Incredibly, its central element is an ongoing struggle by the ANC controlled state against white South Africans based on their race.
The National Development Plan (NDP), formulated to set development goals for the country to the year 2030, meanwhile gathers dust under the guidance, or lack thereof, of Minister Radebe.
|
|
On Wednesday May 17, 2017, former finance minister Trevor Manuel, the Chairman of the National Planning Commission Committee which produced the National Development Plan, asserted that the National Development Plan was no closer to realization than when it was adopted six years ago. Minister Jeff Radebe (left) is charged with implementing the National Development Plan for the ANC Government He is married to Bridgette Radebe, South Africa's first black female mining entrepreneur and sister of the billionaire mining magnate, Patrice Motsepe. Radebe |
|
studied towards a law degree at the University of Zululand and finished an LLM in International Law at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in 1981. He was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment on Robben Island., Radebe was released from prison in 1990. |
|
Jeff Radebe is Minister in the Presidency: Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation.
Dedicated to the memory of Chris Hani
|
Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated on 10 April 1993 outside his home in Boksburg. His murder was a near breaking point which could |
|
|
|
have resulted in a civil or rather race war and halt the process for reconciliation and the quest for a united democratic South Africa. The assassin Janusz Waluz and his accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis admitted during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that they murdered Hani and their intent was to provoke a race war and derail the negotiation process that would inevitably lead to the end of white minority rule. |
It was Nelson Mandela who addressed the nation in his capacity as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) and appealed to the nation to use Hani’s death to affirm his views of peace and a united democratic South Africa for which he fought.
Mandela's speech helped to keep in check Black anger that could have spilled out after the murder.
Mandela and the ANC also used this tragic death strategically to force the Apartheid government to agree on the election date to appease the angry nation. After his speech, it was quite clear that the then President De Klerk was no longer in charge of country.
Nelson Mandela said ‘Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for - the freedom of all of us. Our decisions and actions will determine whether we use our pain, our grief and our outrage to move forward to what is the only lasting solution for our country - an elected government of the people, by the people and for the people.’
In his lifetime Chris Hani had famously said:
‘What we need in South Africa is for egos to be suppressed in favour of peace. We need to create a new breed of South Africans who love their country and love everybody irrespective of colour’.
‘What I fear is that the liberators emerge as elitists who drive around in Mercedes Benz’s and use the resources of this country to live in palaces and gather riches’.
Prophetic words indeed.
I have dedicated ‘The Longer Walk to Economic Freedom’ to the memory of Chris Hani who would, with his selfless attitude and love for his fellow man - white or black, have made a substantial contribution to South Africa’s progress towards economic freedom.
Once again, my thanks and admiration to the boys and girls of the Fourth Pillar of Democracy. Their fearless efforts, some reflected in this narrative, have held this tatty nation to account where others have failed to do so.
