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Some things change, some things stay the same!“This is like a doctor declaring that the operation has been successful even though the patient has died.” So said general-secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions Zwelinzima Vavi, when delivering the Irene Grootboom Memorial Lecture in Khayelitsha in September.
Vavi was referring to our country’s economic policy direction, which he rightfully said is in many ways no different to that of the apartheid government of yesteryear.
“All we have done is change the skin colour of the driver but, in terms of economic policy, the direction remains the same as the one the apartheid regime was travelling,” Vavi said. “We should no longer allow our leaders to go around the world with massive business delegations, leaving behind the poor and the marginalised, and then use these trade talks to declare that no economic policy will change and that we shall stay the course.”
Powerful words indeed, particularly considering that the once-upon-a-time happy, polygamous relationship of the tripartite alliance was considered unbreakable. It now seems the marriage is hitting too many rocky patches and I do not foresee any shower washing away the disease that has set in.
With all the recent mud-slinging, which includes (among many others) mud cakes between Cosatu and the ANC Youth League, between the ANCYL and the ANC elders, the South African Communist Party and the government – things are really starting to get messy. Considering that we have an election just around the corner in 2012, this does not bode well for the current powers that be.
This may not necessarily be bad for us, though, as this could be a time for voters to take note and realise we do not like the game where one ball is put under three cups. That game normally ends up with the three cups being whisked around and inevitably, the one you choose has no glorified return.
But at the risk of annoying history buffs, it makes me recall my school days when the alliances, coalitions and ententes between countries fell apart in World Wars 1 and 2 – or, should I say, in some cases how it made them ‘have to stick together’, which inevitably become their/our Wall of Jericho.
Strength in numbers when it sometimes has no strength in its individuals is sometimes not as strong as the mathematical equation one expects.
The tide is turning, chaps, the chips are down – whichever euphemism we care to use. The people (and I mean ALL the people) need a strong governing force that has the people of South Africa as its first priority, not itself.
People for the people.
In the words of the old Santam advert: Makes you think, doesn’t it?
