I work in the office of the executive mayor who is also the regional chairperson of the ANC in Ekurhuleni. It is no secret that I hold my boss in extremely high regard. Under his leadership, the City of Ekurhuleni has achieved a lot of notable things, including but not limited to maintaining clean and unqualified audits over the past five years, with no unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless expenditure, and a clean audit on performance information.
Three months ago, the seventh Citizen Satisfaction Index was released by Consulta. The SA-csi Municipalities 2020 measures citizen satisfaction and trust in service delivery in SA metropolitan municipalities. Of the eight metros polled, the City of Ekurhuleni came out second. In terms of the trust index, the metro received well above the industry average – at nearly 64%. No other metro in Gauteng managed to achieve more than 60%.
These are only some of the amazing things that have been achieved under Mzwandile Masina's leadership. My respect and admiration for him is therefore not misplaced, for it is based on concrete evidence of results and his profound work ethic.
On any day I will defend him against malicious and unfounded accusations that often do the rounds. But there is one thing I will never do, and that is to ever join a “Hands off!” should he ever be personally accused of benefiting from corruption. I state without fear of contradiction that I will never attend a vigil or court hearing to lend support should this man that I so dearly love and admire, ever be charged.
Over the past few weeks, I have seen many young people stage vigils and attend court hearings when politicians are accused of corruption. A few days ago, City of Johannesburg mayor, Geoff Makhubo, appeared before the Zondo commission to answer to accusations of corruption. Scores of young people publicly declared support for him, holding “Hands off Makhubo!” placards as a demonstration of their unwavering loyalty, just as had been done recently in the court appearance of ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule,who is also accused of corruption in the controversial asbestos case in the Free State, where he was previously a premier.
I can never understand how young people who are on the receiving end of poverty and unemployment could so boldly defend persons accused of actions that directly contribute to this perilous state in our country. Just the day before young people converged in Mangaung to defend Magashule, Statistics SA released a report indicating that youth unemployment had risen to a shocking 61%.
Instead of marching against this and demanding that the government and the private sector partner to create sustainable employment, the youth were defending an old man facing criminal charges that have nothing to do with creating a productive state.
Corruption destroys our country and denies people much-needed resources to develop. For this reason, I cannot reconcile how any young person could voluntarily defend someone accused of graft.
Young people in our country need to stop fighting battles of old people in the ANC. Those battles are not ours and we have no obligation to dedicate our efforts to defending old people who commit crimes or engage in unethical conduct.
If we don’t reflect deeply on this, we are going to be perpetual casualties, because old people will continue to start wars and then send us to go fight and die in them. If we must “Hands off!” anything, let us “Hands off our future!”. This is a vigil I would gladly attend.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.