President Cyril Ramaphosa indeed you inherited a crippled administration that was subjected to state capture tendencies by forces of doom in the name of the Gupta family who remotely controlled your predecessor, former president Jacob Zuma of Umkhonto weSizwe party fame.
I couldn’t agree more that you had to watch your back consistently when dealing with Zuma’s allies who labelled you a "white monopoly puppet" who didn’t care about the majority of black people in the country. Some even pushed it by saying that you are a white man who is trapped in a black man's skin.
As the former Deputy President one is asking if you were hypnotized because you failed to call Zuma to order when he sold our country to the Guptas who were so reckless and disrespectful to the ruling party’s comrades. The Guptas were so pompous that they even called Ministers and told them about their appointments before their crony Zuma could officially announce their deployment or reshuffle his cabinet.
Mr President, yesterday during the State of Nations Address, you explained yourself that after ascending the Presidential Hot Seat your first assignment was to defuse state capture tendencies which gave birth to the State Capture Commission known as the Zondo Commission. It will also be disingenuous to subject myself to amnesia that you also had to deal with Covid-19 invisible dinosaur that claimed people's lives. Just when you were starting to find your feet, Zuma's action of not respecting the constitution by refusing to testify at the Zondo Commission contributed to the 2021 July unrest. The South African government reported that 354 people had died in the riots. As of 12 August 2022, 5,500 people had been arrested, in connection with the unrest which resulted in widespread looting, burning and destruction of public and private properties which cost about R50 billion in damage. This could have been prevented if our National Intelligence was not sleeping on the job.
I dismiss the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) recent report of not linking Zuma with the 2021 July unrest. Let me put it to you, it will be deceitful to allow SAHRC to subject us to Epistemicide trends which is the killing, silencing, annihilation or devaluing of a knowledge system.
Earlier, your political rival former president Zuma publicly threatened the ruling party that if his new political party uMkhonto weSizwe doesn’t get a two-thirds majority vote then the country will be subjected to instability which will give birth to calamity. His crony and your political opponent Ace Magashule, former secretary general of the ANC echoed Zuma as well, saying that there will be no “vote rigging” now that he will be contesting the upcoming elections under his own party, the African Congress for Transformation (ACT).
The two former ANC senior leaders' public spats raised eyebrows of the masses which questioned the credibility of IEC. Their remarks irked you Mr President and you labelled Zuma and Magashule "losers", saying that South Africa is not a banana republic that will allow anarchism to threaten the right of the people as a democratic nation therefore those who think they can enforce a two-thirds majority vote undemocratically they won’t succeed with their selfish intentions. My question is why don’t you charge them for TREASON? What if they are planning a civil war?
Zuma hasn’t recovered from being walloped by you, “Mr Buffalo Soldier” for the secretary general position during the 48th national elective conference of the ANC in 1991. His ego could not allow him to accept that you, “Mr Cup Cake” emerged victor as ANC president against his ex-wife Mme Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during the 54th ANC national elective conference in 2017. His actions of subjecting you my Commander in Chief to a private prosecution is proof that Zuma is not at peace with authenticity. Mr President, please deal with the Phalaphala gate scandal for it keeps on boomeranging. Please be transparent and subject us as citizens to profoundness.
Mr President, let me put it to you that the people of our country Mzansi aren’t happy at all. They are running out of patience with your administration. Eskom has drastically failed to accelerate electricity to the people. Loadshedding has become the order of the day which has crippled the economy of the country. Most businesses are affected. They had to look for other options such as generators which are also affecting their pockets. Hardly have they made profit and most employees in the private sector lost their jobs as a result thereof. Foreign investors are sceptical about investing in our country because of the unstable economy. This is the essence of the absence of the presence.
Mr President, emerging businesses are not finding joy. They don’t get opportunities to do business with the government and its entities. Only a few are getting while the majority of emerging businesses get breadcrumbs because they are not invited to the table of certain powerful connected politicians of your ruling party, the ANC. Mr President, let me take you to confidence, business people are so desperate comparing your administration to your predecessor. They utter out of desperation that during Zuma’s administration they were getting tenders and business opportunities stressing that under your leadership you closed the doors and opened them to those associated with white monopoly capitalists. Do something about this Mr President, your people are discontent and depressed. I put it to you Mr President, I am also depressed as an emerging young businessman. Or business people are being punished because of the Gupta gate scandals by looting the state purse as well as capturing it during Papa Dududuzane’s administration?
The cost of living is too high in South Africa. Fuel price hikes.. Consumers in South Africa are in for a prolonged period of rising cost of living as the price of petrol is set to rise again in March, following a hefty hike this month, as the finance minister hikes the general fuel levy to shore up the government’s deteriorating revenue collection.
This week reportedly, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced the fuel price hike for the year, with both types of petrol rising by 75 cents per litre and diesel going up by 70 to 73c a litre.
It has been confirmed that this will bring the inland price of 95 unleaded petrol to R23.24 a litre, while the coastal price will reach R22.52 a litre.
And the wholesale price for illuminating paraffin rose by 53c/litre while the maximum LPGas retail price increased by 37c/litre.
DMRE argued that the reason for the fuel price hikes was the rise in the global fuel prices and the weakening of the rand. Even worse, Mr President it has been said that the average Brent Crude oil price increased from $77.35 to $82.03 per barrel during the period under review due to the impact of the geopolitical risk or attacks on oil cargoes in the Middle East, which caused an increase in shipping rates, as well as the cold weather that affected production in the US, resulting in more than expected inventory draws.
To add salt to the wound, Mr President we are told the SA Reserve Bank has been reluctant to cut interest rate and held it at 8.25% last month, saying it won’t act until there was convincing evidence that price pressures were heading sustainably to the midpoint of the target of 3–6%. How do we get out of the current developments that are not stressing us but giving birth to catastrophe in our lives?
Let me thank you for your Israel and Palestine intervention to prevent genocide tendencies. Your administration led by Justice and Correctional Service Minister Ronald Lamola last year filed the lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza and seeking cessation to the brutal military assault that has killed more than 23 000 Palestinians, approximately 10 000 of them children. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) the principal judicial organ of the United Nations recently during the much-anticipated judgement ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza however didn’t order a ceasefire verdict expected by South African majority.
ICJ also during its sitting in The Hague demanded that Israel contain death and damage in Gaza following a request from South Africa. I can only say bravo Mr President.
Should you retain power as President after the general election, you must get rid of old people in your cabinet. There’s a need for new blood with fresh ideas. Some have been in Parliament for more than 30 years. They are sleeping in the National Assembly most of the time because they are suffering from entitlement syndrome. They are deadwoods just like old furniture that is no longer relevant. Mr President, please get rid of the old deadwoods and get new furniture that is suitable for our current generation. Deadwoods have a tendency of contaminating others with their weaknesses. South Africa belongs to all of us not those who behave like they are being owed by the masses and they reserve a right to be in those positions because they are ANC comrades.
Mr President, our security cluster is not intact. The police are failing to crack high profile cases. To this day details surrounding the death of former Bafana Bafana Captain Senzo Meyiwa are still not resolved ten years later. Killers of award winning hip hop artist Kiernan Forbes known as AKA have not been arrested. A year has passed since he was approached by two armed men at the entrance of Wish Restaurant. One of the men shot him in the head at close range along with his close friend, Tebello Motsoane known as Tibza. Oupa John Sefoka, better known as DJ Sumbody, was gunned down in Johannesburg in November last year. No remedy to the situation to this day.
Another pressing issue is hijacked buildings by foreign nationals. Some don’t have proper documents to live in the country. Some counterrevolutionary Pakistani and Indians nationals sell fake goods and rotten expired food to our citizens at their spaza shops. Some consumers died Mr President as a result thereof and nothing was done to remedy the situation. Women are being raped by undocumented foreign nationals who also kill our kids or subject the society to human trafficking. At times some commit such evil crimes in the name of making strong muti. That’s absolute bunkum.
Our borders aren’t intact as foreign nationals come in and go as they like without facing consequences. They temper with our electricity cables, cable theft and illegal mining is on the rise, Mr President. We are in dire straits. Some continue to engage with drugs and prostitution as they are protected by corrupt police high ranking officials such as station commissioners, captains, Lt generals among other ranks of men and women in blue. My argument is that it can’t be allowed that a person builds a mkhukhu(shack) in my own yard without my permission.
The Police Minister assured the public that the police are hot on the heels of various perpetrators and no arrests have been made to this day. Don’t you think it is time for Mr Cele to go on pension?
Poor service delivery by incompetent government employees following cadre deployment continues to haunt our country. Corruption by public servants is destroying the gains of our democracy. Incomplete government projects by companies who don’t have the capacity because they were appointed and awarded tenders by their comrades who are power drunk.
I know Rome wasn’t built in a day. My Commander in Chief, there's a need to improve in your administration. You must ensure that your administration emancipates people from all forms of depression by practising what you sermonise.
Lastly, I’m of the view that Tintswalo is the imaginary friend of you Mr President and your administration. I can only imagine Tintswalo playing hide and seek with Minister Gwede Mantashe… good luck Mr President. Let me crocodile. I thank you. Salute.
Regards Mpho J Dube.
Founder and Editor in Chief of The Azanian
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