In my previous life as a pedagogue I used to attach a lot of importance to the writing of corrections by the pupils after having taken them through some form of written assessment.
The reason for this was that I wanted them to learn from their mistakes and it would therefore get my goat after making an effort to capture the corrections legibly and correctly on the chalkboard, when they got this exercise wrong by copying down wrong corrections. What worried me the most was that if they could not capture corrections correctly, then they were bound to repeat the same mistakes and thus not learn from the process. It also told me that they were either not concentrating or not interested in learning.
I got to thinking about mistakes and corrections when trying to make sense of the ANC’s stranglehold on the SA electorate which has made it possible for it to return to power on six occasions despite the non-fulfilment of its electoral promises and its slide into graft. Coming to power on the back of the promise of “a better life for all”, it is clear that what the ANC had in mind was a life of affluence marked by conspicuous consumption and displays of wealth by its cadres and for the people to rely on unsustainable government grants. In return, the people would then keep on voting for the ruling party as an expression of their gratitude for this disempowering gimmick by the rulers.
It seems the ANC has been largely successful though with a diminished majority through the successive national elections. The betrayal of the trust of the electorate by the ANC commenced not long after its ascendancy in 1994. The consumption mindset of the party was captured by its former spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama who declared that he did not join the Struggle to be poor. What this implies is that the Struggle that was waged against the apartheid state was not meant to liberate the majority from racial oppression, social degradation and economic stagnation. Instead, the Struggle was supposedly waged to supplant the apartheid rulers and feed from the same trough. Through such utterances and its despicable actions, the ANC has brought the liberation Struggle into disrepute and should face censure of the worst kind.
The consumption mentality of the ANC was recently reinforced by its secretary-general Ace Magashule who put out a challenge to be shown any leader of the ANC who had not done business with the government. The looting spree triggered by Covid-19 funds should suffice to prove the levels of the ANC’s depravity. Any talk about self-correction must be dismissed with the ridicule it deserves. The ANC has reached a dead end and there is no way back. SA is in need of an alternative to clean the mess and move the country forward and ensure that it does not end up like Zimbabwe.
The notion that the country’s elections are synchronised to allow for voting for the three tiers of government on the same day should be supported with the proviso that the national and provincial elections be brought forward to coincide with local government elections scheduled for 2021. This would all SA voters to atone for their mistakes of the past six elections and consign the ANC to the dustbin of history. Mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating. For returning the ANC to power on six occasions, the voters owe the SA public a huge apology. Those in the know say that an apology has three parts which are “I am sorry”, “It is my fault” and “What can I do to make it right?”
An opportunity to make it right will present itself with the elections next year, synchronised or not. This will ensure that ANC voters are disqualified from Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The time for correcting is now.
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