Well known anti-Apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu blasted the South African ruling party and its leader Jacob Zuma back in 2011. Biznews managed to get hold of the piece and transcribe it below. It’s a message that’s run through the party like water off a duck’s back. The number of incidents that have brought the country into disrepute since this message can’t be counted on two hands. It’s a scathing attack where Tutu separates himself from the president and the ANC. He makes reference to both Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi, both powerful leaders with vast majorities that fell. And as is Tutu’s way, he calls it a warning out of love. Incredible passion. And with the State of the Nation around the corner, one wonders if now anyone’s been listening. – Stuart Lowman
Desmond Tutu:Â This Government, our Government is worse than the Apartheid Government because at least you were expecting it with the Apartheid Government. Our Government: we were expecting that now we would have a Government that was sensitive to the sentiments of our Constitution. One of the big troubles is that the ANC on the whole, reckons that the freedom that we enjoy, is due to them. They reckon that everybody else is just a sideline.
Now, there was a time when the people who were leading the struggle were religious leaders. I said in Parliament when this President of ours was giving his State of the Nation Address… This President… I’m sitting in the audience. I listen to this President paying tribute to all kinds of people who had helped in bringing about democracy in this country. This President didn’t mention a single religious leader.
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In 1989, religious leaders said to the people of Cape Town, “We’ve had enough.” It was religious leaders who got 30,000 people to come to march. Let the ANC know that they cannot airbrush us out. Let the ANC know that they have a large majority. Well, Mubarak had a large majority. Gadhafi had a large majority.
Watch out. I am warning you. Watch out. Watch out. Please watch out. We were helped by the international community to overcome Apartheid. We people were opposed to injustice and oppression and people believed that we South Africans would automatically be on the side of those who were being oppressed.
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Mr. Zuma, you and your Government don’t represent me. You represent your own interest and I am warning you. I really am warning you out of love. I’m warning you like I warned the Nationalists. I am warning you. One day, we will start praying for the defeat of the ANC Government. You are disgraceful. I want to warn you. You are behaving in a way that is totally at variance with the things for which we stood.
I am warning you. I am warning you that we will pray as we prayed for the downfall of the Apartheid Government. We will pray for the downfall of a Government that misrepresents us. You have got a huge majority. That’s nothing. The Nationalists had a huge majority that was increasing. They bit the dust. Watch out, ANC Government. Watch out. Watch out. Watch out.
