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In its desperate bids to countereffect the Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF’s) ideological insurgency, the African National Congress (ANC), which is increasingly losing touch with the latter-day politics’ terminology, sounds more confused, using some words and phrases such as radicalism, revolution, and economic transformation out of their proper contexts. Whilst the ANC pursues the laisser-faire policies, it sings a different tune on public platforms – that is, radical socioeconomic transformation. What is radical about the National Development Plan (NDP)?
In itself, the NDP is not a far cry from either Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) or the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative South Africa (ASGISA), the more conservative policies that the ANC had pursued under its former presidents, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, not even by a long shot. Even worse, some ANC ministers seem not to understand what the NDP entails, especially the Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, who goes against it.
To countereffect the EFF’s ideological insurgency on a radical economic transformation, the International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, addressing the media before the US-Africa Leadership Summit in Washington DC, United States, said, “Ordinary South Africans would want to see radical economic transformation of our economy and that would happen if we go all out and take advantage of opportunities like this to say SA is open for business”. This is in direct opposite to what the NDP purports.
Another word that the ANC members use out of context is revolution. For a layman on the street, a revolution is an overthrow of an incumbent government or a social disorder in favour of a new one or system. To start with, the ANC itself did not ascend into power through a revolution, nor has it changed the apartheid system, but inherited it and preserves its legacy. It is important to lay emphasis that the ANC inherited power from the National Party (NP) through the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations. As part of the negotiations, the whites relinquished power to the ANC and then keep the country’s economy. As it stands, the country’s economy largely remains in their hands. This puts the word revolution into a proper context from the South African political perspective. But for the ANC members, the word has a different meaning or definition.
Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, speaking after the ANC’s national executive meetings, having earlier said, “The ANC has a revolutionary duty to defend itself, the revolution, and democracy,” added that, “The emergence of a right-wing coalition among the political parties is one of convenience and is brought together only by their common animosity towards the ANC.” He went further to add that, “Their intention is to derail the revolution, and therefore to be called a counter-revolutionary coalition”. What revolution is Mantashe referring to? What democracy is Mantashe referring to?
The EFF, by virtue of its state interventionist stance, is the one that is more revolutionary and the ANC is anti-revolutionary. It is important to mention that for the former often resorts to violent means to bring about change. Resorting to laws, makes the proponents of state interventionism even more rebellious, the mistake that the ANC does in its desperate attempt to quell the EFF’s insurgent presence in Parliament.
As for democracy. There is no democracy in Parliament, but a pseudo-democracy, characterised by the ANC’s political bullyism, thanks to majoritism.
