South Africa 'doomed under Zuma'

Helen Zille is running for premier in the Western Cape
South African opposition leader Helen Zille has urged voters to stop the African National Congress from turning the country into a "failed state".

Speaking at the final Democratic Alliance (DA) rally before elections on Wednesday, Ms Zille accused the ruling ANC of cronyism.

A crowd of about 3,000 people came to hear her speak despite heavy rain.

She told the crowd their votes could stop the ANC from retaining their two-thirds majority.

'Telling the truth'

"Only the DA is strong enough to stop (ANC President Jacob) Zuma taking us down the road of a failed state," she said.

She made frequent reference to criminal charges of corruption and racketeering brought against Mr Zuma which he denies and which were dismissed earlier this month.

In 10 years time people will look back and everyone will know the DA was telling the truth from the start

Helen Zille
Democratic Alliance leader


Profile: Helen Zille
Speaking in three South African languages, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English, she urged the crowd to prevent the ANC from getting a two-thirds majority.

The DA fears that if the ANC achieves this, it use it to change the constitution to influence the independence of the judicial system.

"In 10 years time people will look back and everyone will know the DA was telling the truth from the start," she said.

She also accused the ruling party of overseeing a system that put services for the people in the hands of friends and family of ANC leaders.

'Electric atmosphere'

Mrs Zille danced and sang at the rally which buoyed up her supporters despite the rain.

She sang along to the Afrikaans song 'Koekie Loekie' which has become her trademark.

The lyrics of the bawdy ballad roughly translate as "Hey Koekie, with your little tight pants."

The BBC's Peter Biles in Cape Town said the atmosphere at the stadium was electric.

The DA is the only party that suggests it is possible to cross the racial barrier, he says.

Mrs Zille has massive support from coloured or mixed race South Africans in the western Cape.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8005701.stm

Jacob Zuma for President !!!!!!

Opposition tactics by Kgalema Motlanthe

Back to the politics of fear

History repeats itself. This week the Democratic Alliance (DA) unveiled its last ditch effort to garner votes ahead of the April 22 election. It wants to stop the ANC getting a two-thirds majority. This brought to mind an article that I wrote over a decade ago, as the country was in the early stages of preparing for our second democratic election. It is worth revisiting that article now, because it reveals the extent to which the DA is locked in the past; stuck in an era when fear and prejudice was seen as a legitimate political platform.

One of the parties mentioned in the article has disappeared. The other one has changed its name and got a new leader. It is now 11 years later. But, sadly, everything else remains the same. This is the article as it was written:
A two-thirds majority: the new 'swart gevaar'(black fear)
The National Party and the Democratic Party have managed to whip themselves up into quite a frenzy over the possibility that the ANC could win a two-thirds majority in the 1999 elections.

The question that needs to be asked is why, in a constitutional democracy where voters are free to decide on the party of their choice, have the opposition created such a fuss about this particular fraction.

The answer lies in great measure in these parties' approach to contesting the ANC's support.

Lacking a coherent or realisable vision for a better South Africa, these parties have fallen back on the promotion of fear to erode the ANC's support and to generate a mood of resistance to meaningful change.

The 'swart gevaar' and 'rooi gevaar', now devoid of their previous menace, have mutated into the two-thirds gevaar.

If fear is the opposition's most enduring weapon, then a two-thirds ANC majority is their latest ammunition.

The National Party tells us that a two-thirds ANC majority spells danger for democracy, reconciliation and nation building. The Democratic Party calls for a stand against an 'autocratic, all powerful government'.

Their recent preoccupation with this question is quite telling.

For one thing, it demonstrates their abiding fear of the will of the people. A fear of democracy.

It was with great reluctance in the first place that these two parties acceded to majority rule in South Africa, and to this day they continue to show scant regard for the wishes and aspirations of the people of this country.

They fail to acknowledge that the ANC's majority in this country constitutes a solemn and overwhelming mandate to implement a programme of reconstruction, development and democratic transformation.

When ANC members of parliament push transformative legislation through parliament on health, education and other matters they do so not because the ANC is autocratic, but because it is profoundly democratic.

The ANC is often forced to use its majority to pass legislation which opposition parties bitterly object to not because it is arrogant or unreasonable, but because it has a responsibility to the millions of South Africans who elected it to create a more equitable society.

Even during the negotiations process, some of these parties sought a constitutional arrangement which would forever entrench a minority veto in this country. They wanted to constrain the will of the majority by promoting disproportionately the narrow interests of a few.

Their latest outbursts about the 'danger' of a two-thirds ANC majority shows that they have not yet moved very far from this inherent dislike of democracy.

It speaks volumes, also, that so early in the election campaign the NP and DP are preparing to lose. The only question for them, it seems, is by how much and at what cost to the ANC.

That is surely not the approach of parties who have confidence that their policies and programmes can win the support of the majority of South Africans.

It is the approach instead of parties who are acutely aware that the policies they propogate appeal only to those small sections of the population who want to cling on to the privileges they gained under apartheid.

The National Party and Democratic Party have neither the capacity nor the inclination to lead this country towards a better life, and they know it.

They have therefore cast themselves as spoilers in the democratic transition.

Their responsibility, as they themselves define it, is to place whatever obstacles they can in the way of a smooth transformation. Their performance in the national Parliament, the various Provincial Legislatures and numerous local councils around the country have provided ample evidence of this.

They see themselves as opposition parties in the most literal sense of the word - oppose the ANC at all costs, and don't bother too much about developing a viable, sustainable alternative.

But perhaps the most astounding feature of their new-found preoccupation, is that it demonstrates how very short their memories are.

Was it not the Democratic Party which "expressed reservations" on the adoption of the new Constitution? Was it not the National Party which said it found it "difficult" to vote in favour of the Constition?

The new Constitution gave enough power to Cosatu to make or unmake governments and to break the economy, Tony Leon warned us. South Africa would pay a high price for opting for majority rule, FW de Klerk said. "It is a mistake," were his exact words.

The ANC, by contrast, had no reservations about voting for the new Constitution. No difficulty. No hesitation.

The ANC voted for the new Constitution because it encapsulates the fundamental human rights and democratic values for which the ANC had fought since its establishment in 1912. More than any other party in this country, the ANC embraced the new Constitution because it considers it a vehicle through which the rights of all South Africans can be safeguarded and the inequalities and injustices of the past redressed.

The intervening two years have done nothing to diminish the ANC's support for the Constitution, nor for the basic freedoms and rights which it guarantees.

How then do you explain the opposition's insistence that given the opportunity the ANC would willingly undo the very freedoms for which the organisation fought over many decades, and for which many of its cadres and supporters lost their lives?

Certainly not by virtue of any logic.

The only way to explain this obsession with a two-thirds majority is to recognise what both the NP and the DP have recognised: that the ANC is the only organisation in South Africa capable of fundamentally transforming our society and replacing inequality with a better life for all.

They recognise also that in order to achieve this objective, the ANC needs to continue to enjoy the support of the majority of South Africans.

And it is for that reason that they are trying so desperately, even at this early stage, to deny the ANC the overwhelming electoral manadate it needs to continue and accelerate the reconstruction and development of South Africa.

May 1998

Postscript: In the decade since this article was first published, the ANC has in fact held a two-thirds majority in Parliament. In all this time it has not used this majority to change the Constitution in the way that these opposition parties predicted. It is has no intention to do so now. This is the Constitution for which the ANC fought, and we will continue to do everything we can to defend it.

>> Kgalema Motlanthe is the Deputy President of the ANC and the President of the country.
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2009/at15.htm