Wilful manipulation of ignorance is what comes to mind in reading Jacob Zuma’s “bold vision” of how his MKP would liberate and “rectify the systemic inequalities” to deliver “true freedom” (The Mercury, December 17).
Stalin used to blame the sabotage of socialism for the chronic hardship and misery Russians experienced. Zuma’s criticism of unemployment and poverty as the consequence of “current policies” is the same classic Marxist rhetoric. ‘Socialism hasn’t failed us. We have failed socialism,’ is the line socialists trot out in defence of their inherently flawed and failed ideology.
Conspicuously absent from Zuma’s rant is his role in exacerbating impoverishment through state capture, the enrichment of his Gupta pals and the looting of at least R500 billion from the country. Corruption was not an aberration on his watch as President. It was an institutionalised policy.
His incendiary rhetoric of “slaves begging our white masters for crumbs” is a tired claptrap which shows how out of touch he is with economic realities. Has he not noticed that the “white masters” he refers to are now often Chinese or American in the case of Pepsico who owns much of what was once South African-owned industry?
The tragedy of Zuma and his MKP is that their “vision” for South Africa is one that has failed resoundingly in African states since 1960. As a result, it has led to the re-colonisation of many African states by foreign interests eager to leverage raw materials cheaply for the price of propping up dictatorships which preside over impoverished masses.
Foreign investment in South Africa under the ANC has been tepid and wary precisely because of B-BBEE and socialist policies. If Zuma’s Marxist MK were to take power, there would be an unprecedented flight of capital and skills, not only dumping his pie-in-the-sky idea of “free, quality education” in the dustbin but pushing the unemployment rate up to 90% and producing widespread hunger and misery.
The poverty-stricken, wrecked state of Zimbabwe mirrors how South Africa would become under Zuma’s MKP.
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