No more beef patty in the ANC’s hamburger

In power for nearly 30 years, the ANC has gradually shed the pretension of a “party for all” and seems to have no place for the millions of South Africans belonging to minority groups.

ANC leadership’s commitment to eradicate “Zumaism” dubious – Suttner

CAPE TOWN — How painful must it be for seasoned anti-apartheid activists and academics who sacrificed years of their lives in jail or under house arrest to see populist rhetoric driving the ANC to tamper with the Constitution or bending its leadership knee before tribal chiefs and kings who profit handsomely from land at the expense of their subjects. Political analyst and author of Inside Apartheid’s Prison, Professor Raymond Suttner, tries to define what Zumaism means – beyond the easy narrative of State Capture and corruption – to the insidious, all-pervasive influence that it continues to wreak on our society under a compromised President Cyril Ramaphosa. It’s an erudite treatise that picks apart the fractured party that his once-beloved ANC has become, having moved miles from the fundamental tenets of the Freedom Charter. He bemoans Zuma’s economically-suicidal announcement of an unplanned free university education system – and the unquestioning continuance of this policy under the new ANC ruling cadre. Populism, he argues has replaced the will to tackle problems in good faith. He asks probably the most pertinent current question of all; has the new leadership done all it can, within the available space, to break free of the constraints? Story courtesy of the Daily Maverick. – Chris Bateman

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