Councillor's Corner
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Lifetime Bluff resident serving his third term in office as representative
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
This weeks Councillor comments
| Duncan Du Bois |
Phone:467-0343 or mobile:083 291-4913
Municipal Manager - Dr Sutcliffe: Tel 311-2130 ;
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
Report dumping or unauthorised use of verges; Phone 311-7448
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Metro All-Call / All hours Tel No.: 361-0000
Metro Police: Tel 402-0680
Brighton Beach SAPS: Tel 451 8060 / 8059
Brighton Beach Community Policing Forum Chairman: Carl Knauff : 082 449-6503
Useful Contacts
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| Bluff Ward 66 Sub Pages |
Politican leviathan menaces
South Africa
•Fri, 28 Sep 2007
The march towards socialist dictatorship in
South Africa is not an overnight occurrence; it’
s a piecemeal process, issue by issue,
appointment by appointment, decision by
decision, writes DUNCAN DU BOIS.
On Wednesday, Citigroup, one of the six
largest banks in the world, scheduled a
private lunch with Jacob Zuma to find out
about his economic policies. They’d have
done better to study the ANC’s website to find
out the direction South Africa is headed
under the ANC — with or without Zuma.
At the time of the 10th anniversary of the ANC’
s accession to power this column remarked
that the second decade of ANC rule would
pose testing times for democracy. It also
pointed out that it was Robert Mugabe’s
second decade in office that saw the total
entrenchment of Zanu-PF power (The
Witness, April 30, 2004). Now, one third of the
way through the ANC’s second decade in
power, the signs of zanufication are
unmistakable.
A recent four-part series on the ANC’s
website entitled “The enemy manoeuvres but
it is still the enemy” makes it quite clear that
the objective of the so-called national
democratic revolution (NDR) is a one-party
state under socialism. The driving force of the
NDR is called the “vanguard party” and is
defined as a core of “professional
revolutionaries with an understanding of
Marxist theory and practice … prepared to
sacrifice their lives in the cause of socialism”.
In this connection, part four of the series
notes approvingly: “We believe that
perspective remains correct and relevant to
the pursuit of the NDR.”
Part one of the series gloats that the so-
called Jacobin option was not exercised after
1994 although in Russia, China and many
African states that had been the case —
meaning the opposition was spared, unlike its
fate in France under Robespierre during
1793-1794. Although it is clear from the
ideological premise of the series that the ANC
pays only lip service to political pluralism, the
article boasts of the indulgence of
multipartyism in the years since 1994 likening
it to Mao Tse Tung’s (shortlived) “Let a
hundred flowers bloom” exercise in 1957.
The recent floor crossing exercise confirms
the above. Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota
stated that the ANC will not rest until “every
member of the South African public is an ANC
member”. In other words, opposition is to be
demonised, marginalised and colonised, as
Tony Leon once stated. Floor crossing
perverts democracy which is why it suits the
ends of those who initiated it. That, in turn,
speaks volumes about the nature and
integrity of those individuals who recently
crossed the floor to the ANC.
The march towards socialist dictatorship is
not an overnight occurrence, as DA leader
Helen Zille pointed out in her September 21
newsletter. It’s a piecemeal process: issue by
issue, appointment by appointment, decision
by decision. Further illustrations of progress
towards that goal include the stance of the
Speaker of the National Assembly towards the
DA’s spokesman on health, Mike Waters.
South Africa
•Fri, 28 Sep 2007
The march towards socialist dictatorship in
South Africa is not an overnight occurrence; it’
s a piecemeal process, issue by issue,
appointment by appointment, decision by
decision, writes DUNCAN DU BOIS.
On Wednesday, Citigroup, one of the six
largest banks in the world, scheduled a
private lunch with Jacob Zuma to find out
about his economic policies. They’d have
done better to study the ANC’s website to find
out the direction South Africa is headed
under the ANC — with or without Zuma.
At the time of the 10th anniversary of the ANC’
s accession to power this column remarked
that the second decade of ANC rule would
pose testing times for democracy. It also
pointed out that it was Robert Mugabe’s
second decade in office that saw the total
entrenchment of Zanu-PF power (The
Witness, April 30, 2004). Now, one third of the
way through the ANC’s second decade in
power, the signs of zanufication are
unmistakable.
A recent four-part series on the ANC’s
website entitled “The enemy manoeuvres but
it is still the enemy” makes it quite clear that
the objective of the so-called national
democratic revolution (NDR) is a one-party
state under socialism. The driving force of the
NDR is called the “vanguard party” and is
defined as a core of “professional
revolutionaries with an understanding of
Marxist theory and practice … prepared to
sacrifice their lives in the cause of socialism”.
In this connection, part four of the series
notes approvingly: “We believe that
perspective remains correct and relevant to
the pursuit of the NDR.”
Part one of the series gloats that the so-
called Jacobin option was not exercised after
1994 although in Russia, China and many
African states that had been the case —
meaning the opposition was spared, unlike its
fate in France under Robespierre during
1793-1794. Although it is clear from the
ideological premise of the series that the ANC
pays only lip service to political pluralism, the
article boasts of the indulgence of
multipartyism in the years since 1994 likening
it to Mao Tse Tung’s (shortlived) “Let a
hundred flowers bloom” exercise in 1957.
The recent floor crossing exercise confirms
the above. Defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota
stated that the ANC will not rest until “every
member of the South African public is an ANC
member”. In other words, opposition is to be
demonised, marginalised and colonised, as
Tony Leon once stated. Floor crossing
perverts democracy which is why it suits the
ends of those who initiated it. That, in turn,
speaks volumes about the nature and
integrity of those individuals who recently
crossed the floor to the ANC.
The march towards socialist dictatorship is
not an overnight occurrence, as DA leader
Helen Zille pointed out in her September 21
newsletter. It’s a piecemeal process: issue by
issue, appointment by appointment, decision
by decision. Further illustrations of progress
towards that goal include the stance of the
Speaker of the National Assembly towards the
DA’s spokesman on health, Mike Waters.
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Twice she has refused to allow him to raise
the issue of the 1976 criminal conviction of
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
As former veteran MP Helen Suzman has
pointed out, in her 36 years in Parliament she
was never prevented from asking “hundreds
of questions” of cabinet ministers “all of which
were answered”.
Then there is the direct intervention by
Luthuli House (ANC headquarters) in
favouring Mbeki loyalists for SABC board
nominations, overriding those of the
parliamentary portfolio committee. The
comments of SABC CEO Dali Mpofu echo the
goal of the national democratic revolution. In
withdrawing the SABC from the SA National
Editors Forum he stated that the SABC ought
not to associate with publications that do not
espouse “African values” and that have
become “enemies of freedom and of our
people”. The SABC, like the ZBC in
Zimbabwe, is more than ever a mouthpiece of
the ruling party.
Central to the concerns being raised by the
likes of Citigroup is the extent to which the “n”
word — nationalisation — is on the ANC’s
agenda. There seems little doubt about that
answer given socialism as the declared
objective and the continued embrace of the
Freedom Charter with its assertion that the
mines and banks belong to “the people”. The
likes of Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni
and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel might
scoff at the prospect of nationalisation but
being outside the “vanguard party” it’s not
their call. While it is a fact that the
Constitution protects the right to property, it
does allow for expropriation “in the public
interest” (section 25 (2) a). With the ANC now
just three seats short of controlling 75% of
the seats in Parliament as a result of the
recent floor crossing, the means to amend
the Constitution, as provided for in section
74, is within their grasp, should the interests
of the national democratic revolution so
dictate.
Some would argue that the emerging black
middle class and capitalist elite would oppose
nationalisation for obvious reasons. But the
way the ANC is structured and the voting
clout of its structures afford the voices of the
recently enriched no special dispensation.
Moreover, it must be remembered that
millionaires existed inside and outside the
Kremlin long before the fall of communism in
Russia.
Leviathan in the form of a new baasskap
menaces South Africa.
• Duncan du Bois is a Durban Metro DA ward
councillor. He writes in his private capacity.
Published: 28 September 2007
The Witness
Pietermaritzburg
the issue of the 1976 criminal conviction of
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
As former veteran MP Helen Suzman has
pointed out, in her 36 years in Parliament she
was never prevented from asking “hundreds
of questions” of cabinet ministers “all of which
were answered”.
Then there is the direct intervention by
Luthuli House (ANC headquarters) in
favouring Mbeki loyalists for SABC board
nominations, overriding those of the
parliamentary portfolio committee. The
comments of SABC CEO Dali Mpofu echo the
goal of the national democratic revolution. In
withdrawing the SABC from the SA National
Editors Forum he stated that the SABC ought
not to associate with publications that do not
espouse “African values” and that have
become “enemies of freedom and of our
people”. The SABC, like the ZBC in
Zimbabwe, is more than ever a mouthpiece of
the ruling party.
Central to the concerns being raised by the
likes of Citigroup is the extent to which the “n”
word — nationalisation — is on the ANC’s
agenda. There seems little doubt about that
answer given socialism as the declared
objective and the continued embrace of the
Freedom Charter with its assertion that the
mines and banks belong to “the people”. The
likes of Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni
and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel might
scoff at the prospect of nationalisation but
being outside the “vanguard party” it’s not
their call. While it is a fact that the
Constitution protects the right to property, it
does allow for expropriation “in the public
interest” (section 25 (2) a). With the ANC now
just three seats short of controlling 75% of
the seats in Parliament as a result of the
recent floor crossing, the means to amend
the Constitution, as provided for in section
74, is within their grasp, should the interests
of the national democratic revolution so
dictate.
Some would argue that the emerging black
middle class and capitalist elite would oppose
nationalisation for obvious reasons. But the
way the ANC is structured and the voting
clout of its structures afford the voices of the
recently enriched no special dispensation.
Moreover, it must be remembered that
millionaires existed inside and outside the
Kremlin long before the fall of communism in
Russia.
Leviathan in the form of a new baasskap
menaces South Africa.
• Duncan du Bois is a Durban Metro DA ward
councillor. He writes in his private capacity.
Published: 28 September 2007
The Witness
Pietermaritzburg
| Published: 28 September 2007 The Witness Pietermaritzburg |
You can contact Councillor D Du Bois by e-mail @ dubois@axxess.co.za