LETTER: Provoking revolution

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address refers (“Disaster declared amid chaotic scenes at Sona”, February 9). It is by now abundantly clear that he is primarily focused on the unity of the ANC rather than the growth and prosperity of the nation. The crucial question is, why?

Ramaphosa started his political life within the trade union movement, which was dominated by socialists at best, and communists within the SACP and supported by the then-USSR.

The unions provided the organising ability and reach needed by the ANC, which became the basis of its success. Azapo, the PAC and other extreme black nationalist parties lacked that resource and have dwindled or disappeared. On coming into power in 1994 the ANC naturally packed its communist supporters into parliament and the nation’s administration, at all levels.

Allegiance to the party is one of the hallmarks of all communist regimes, starting in Russia in 1917 and still so now, not least in SA. Diehard communists within the union movement and national administration still believe that to achieve the power of the workers (under their leadership of course — think Pol Pot) the capitalist state must fail and so provoke the needed revolution.

Hence the huge and largely unchecked obfuscation and delay inherent in dealing with government. 

Robert Stone
Linden

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.