Thought for the Day 8 August 2017

I’m feeling like a failure as a predictor of events. I got the winners of the Super Rugby Final and the SA vs England test wrong. And, I was sure the Speaker of the House would decide against a secret ballot in the vote of no confidence in Jacob Zuma. I’m very tempted to predict that the vote in the ballot will be resoundingly against the vote of no confidence so that I can be wrong again. In this case I’d be very happy to be wrong.

I must say that I cannot understand anybody wanting the man to stick around for a while longer. He has been a disaster for the ANC and an even bigger disaster for the country. I don’t really care how he goes as long as he goes soon, so that the government, whoever it is, can get on with putting SA back on track.

But I suspect the ANC parliamentarians will mostly toe the part line and the vote will be defeated. And SA will go on tottering from one crisis to another, while the ANC try to mend the damage they have experienced. However, I think that they will suffer more if they do not look very carefully at the messages they are sending out, all of which emphasize just how much they have lost the plot.

Given all this I can do no better than to quote Nelson Mandela on corruption.

“Having come into government with the declared intention of eliminating the corruption we knew to be endemic, we have for the past four years found that some individuals who fought for freedom have also proved corrupt. Nor should our apartheid past be used as an excuse for such misdemeanors.”

These words were spoken at the opening of the Morals Summit, which took place in Johannesburg starting on 22 October, 1998.

Take note ANC – there is no justification for blind support of leaders who are corrupt. For the ANC to survive and prosper, they must regain the moral high ground.

At the time of writing, I do not know the result of the vote of no confidence. I can only hope that enough of the ANC MP’s yearn for a return to their original commitment to the dream of the Rainbow Nation.

Cheers, Dave