President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the 2024 State of the Union Address at Cape Town City Hall on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Jeffrey Abrahams/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
SFollowing the campaign platform set out by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation address last week, ANC leaders on Tuesday used the debate over the speech to highlight the progress made in democracy over the past three decades.
ANC leader Pemmy Majodina and party chairperson Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe said the election was a matter of defending hard-won rights and freedoms, and that the latter would not allow the government to break into the historical trend of apartheid privileges and exclusions. He said this suggests it is still “swimming in.” .
Majodina said the progress made to reverse that legacy is inspiring and that critics are clinging to past privileges.
“This government has done everything.” [it] it is complete. The choices we face in this year's elections reflect what we set out to do in 1994: implement transformative national progress that will qualitatively change the lives of the majority of our people, who are black. This is something to reconfirm. Especially since women are the majority,” she said.
“Rather than stand for the better and for those who have benefited from the historical legacy of their privilege, they are obsessed with preserving their wealth, property, and status, and often Attempts to thwart change at all costs. ”
Opposition leaders were none of those, pointing to corruption, unemployment, economic stagnation and the energy crisis.
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Belenkosini Hlavisa says warnings from his late predecessor Mangosuthu Buthelezi about the end of Nelson Mandela's vision of a nation free of oppression, hunger, ignorance and fear are being echoed in the run-up to national elections. said.
“Thirty years later, that vision has disappeared.” Prince Buthelezi told us: “If the promise of South Africa is truly still alive, it is because of the resilience of its people. But this government How far are they going to test our resilience? They are playing a dangerous game,” Hlavisa said.
“I'm afraid, Honorable President, that one year after that sobering warning, I fear that our people's resilience has eroded. Every day, in every corner of our country, people are worried that this government is not doing what they deserve. I live my life knowing instinctively that what I'm doing is wrong.”
Mr Mantashe responded that the opposition was appealing from a position of ignorance as it lacked the ANC's 30 years of government experience.
“There are two sources of knowledge: experience and the study of the subject. Well, without both, whatever you say is just imagination. I assure you…you don't know what you're talking about. not.”
Similarly, Majodina claimed that those who oppose him are suffering from “political dementia.”
Last Thursday, President Ramaphosa sought to revive the promise of renewal that had been a hallmark of his early days in office, calling state capture perhaps the greatest scourge South Africa has faced since apartheid.
“We will not stop until all those responsible for corruption are held accountable. We will not stop until all the stolen money is recovered,” he said. “We will not stop until corruption becomes history.”
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has defended ANC leaders implicated in corruption, including deputy president Paul Mashatil, despite what the president called “Zuma-level corruption and allegations of capture”. He said he had broken that promise.
Mr Steenhuisen referred to Ramaphosa's rhetorical story about a child born in 1994 (the president called her tintswalo) who was not only previously denied education, housing and other possibilities, but was also hardly imaginable. He said that this country's so-called “born free” people have been doing this for a long time. Since then, I have become disillusioned with my life of hardship.
Record unemployment and crime are among the reasons this generation has lost hope, he continued.
“In 2021, Tintswalo joins a group of South Africans who refuse to vote.
“She was too angry after the Ramaphosa government broke all its lofty promises for a new dawn, including protecting the president’s comrades involved in state capture.
“Things got even worse. In 2022, her father became one of the 75 people killed every day in South Africa.”
For those born after 1994, this year's national election was not about defending hard-won freedoms trumpeted by the president, but about securing a better future for their children. he said.
“You know Mr President, like millions of other South Africans, Tintswalo cannot afford to live in the past. She cannot afford to live in the memory of South Africa in 1994, but in the reality of South Africa in 2024 We have to survive.”
In a direct attack on President Ramaphosa, he said this week's Constitutional Court order effectively forcing the ANC to hand over records of all decisions taken by the ANC Executive Deployment Committee since January 2013 is, at best, a He said it would show that nothing had been done. This is to block appointments that promoted the state capture project under former president Jacob Zuma.
The Constitutional Court refused permission for the ruling party to appeal against a high court ruling last February requiring the production of these records. The ANC has five days from Monday to do so or face contempt of court charges.
“The DA expects the ANC to abide by this judgment to expose the secrets of its dirty leadership and how Mr Ramaphosa’s committee laid the foundations for state capture and the subsequent collapse of service delivery. “We are doing so,” he said.
Mantashe countered that the ANC would hand over the records but would not abandon the controversial policy.
He said conflating constitutional mandates with affirmative action and executive staffing is why there are black judges on the bench and black heads of government departments.
“We will continue to hire talented people.”