AZAPO REGISTERS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND ALL 9 PROVINCES
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4th Floor Investment Building
97 Commissioner Street
Pop Up Arcade
JOHANNESBURG
2001
info@azapo.org.za
www.azapo.org.za
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 11 AZAPO WEEKLY ONLINE PUBLICATION
AZAPO REGISTERS FOR THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND ALL 9 PROVINCES
It might sound trite, but given the high number of fly-by of time on the type of message that should be taken to
-night parties claiming that they would participate in the voters in the run-up to Elections. The Central Com-
the National and Provincial Elections in May this year, mittee members were unanimous in their position that
it is appropriate to state that the Azanian People’s Or- there is no need for AZAPO to change its message be-
ganisation (AZAPO) has registered to contest elections cause it remains relevant and true.
– both in the National Assembly and in all the 9 Provin-
cial Legislatures. Just to illustrate the sentiments of the leadership, if you
are a crusader for the gospel of Jesus Christ and you
keep preaching to people to repent and follow Jesus,
would you change the message because people are not
receptive to the preaching? Of course, not. You might
use other tactics to ensure that the message is well re-
ceived but the content of the message will remain.
AZAPO has the same challenge. We have been con-
sistent in saying that there is no alternative to the truth.
AZAPO speaks the truth. AZAPO is the truth. And the
truth is that the 1994 April Elections ushered in democ-
racy, but failed to deliver economic freedom and partic-
ularly land. The struggle in occupied Azania has always
been about land. 25 years after the dawn of democracy,
And with Elections only 6 weeks away, AZAPO is con- most of the land remains in the hands and ownership of
stantly being asked by the media and political commen- the minority white tribe.
tators; “What is it that you will do differently this time
to change your fortunes for the better?” Some of these For a long time, AZAPO has been alone in this space of
self-appointed experts on AZAPO even venture to sug- calling for the return of the land to the dispossessed
gest “perhaps it is time for AZAPO to change its mes- Black majority. Fortunately, virtually all political par-
sage so that the party can attract more voters.” ties worth their salt have now embraced the call that
land should be returned to Black people. We know that
This past weekend, AZAPO held its Central Committee for many of these political parties, this is just a political
meeting in Johannesburg. The Central Committee fo- gimmick to attract voters. We can single out the ruling
cused on Elections. The leadership of AZAPO spent a lot party for its dismal performance on land reform. If the
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ruling party was sincere about returning land to Black conflict between the descendants of the European
people, it would have done that during the past 25 settlers and those of the indigenous Afrikans. There
years of its rule. can be no real freedom without land.
We also know that the ruling party derives its posi- While virtually all strands of the liberation movement
tion on land from the Freedom Charter - that infa- and their off-shoots would talk about delivering land
mous document which sold out Afrikans on the Land to the people, AZAPO offers something different.
Question. Whereas the Afrikan liberation struggles AZAPO offers the country Black Consciousness (BC).
throughout the Continent were about the reconquest
of the land and the natural wealth, the Freedom Char- Many of our problems, especially in failing to render
ter betrayed this position by stating that the land basic services, stem from the fact that our people lack
shall belong to all who work it. It is for this reason BC. When you have been baptised in BC, you respect
that the ruling party cannot be trusted with deliver- yourself and other Black people. You love yourself
ing land to Black people. After all, the party had 25 and also love other Black people. If you are a con-
years to do that and failed dismally. scious Black public servant in Home Affairs, you will
be patriotic to give the best service to the people. If
you are a conscious Black teacher, you will give the
best quality education to our children and there
would be no need for Black parents to smuggle their
children into schools where teachers are white and
resent Black kids. If you are a conscious Black nurse
or medical doctor, the treatment you give to patients
in public hospitals and clinics would be so good that
there would be no need for Black people to pay huge
amounts of money to white owned private hospitals.
There is no magic for the solutions to our country’s
If you have been agitating for something, and sudden- problems. The first step is to get a Conscious Black
ly your rival sees the light and embraces your posi- government into power. AZAPO will not change its
tion, you do not change your position just to be differ- message. We can only hope that our people will
ent. That is why the Central Committee was adamant change their voting patterns and vote AZAPO – the
that the message of the return of the land to Black only hope for Black people and the only real force for
people as the main primary issue of this Election cam- real change.
paign should remain.
CORRUPTION ERODES DEMOCRACY
Whether you are talking about the building of houses
for the millions of homeless people, you need land. AND DEVELOPMENT
Whether you talk about supporting emerging farmers
so that you ensure the country’s food security and South Africa is presently at a standstill because there
sovereignty, you need land for agriculture. Whether are a handful of commissions of enquiry into corrup-
you talk about building more schools so that you can tion. The prominent ones are the Zondo, PIC and
offer our children quality education in properly built SARS Commissions. The PIC (Public Investment Cor-
schools and not under trees, you need land. Whether poration) Commission is investigating about R43 bil-
you talk about creating employment, you need firms lion that has been looted through corruption.
that would have been built on land. Land is the most
valuable economic asset. It was the primary source of The PIC is a State institution that manages over R2
conflict between the European settlers and the indig- trillion worth of assets on behalf of the public sector
enous Afrikans. It still remains the primary source of 2
employees. It also invests on behalf of the
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Government Employees Pension Fund and four other than two thirds of countries scored below 50.
State-run insurance institutions, which include the
Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Com- Of interest to us are the conclusions drawn by Trans-
pensation Fund. These State resources have been parency International from this study. Managing Di-
compromised and looted. These are hard-earned rector Patricia Moreira makes a connection between
monies of the people. corruption and democracy:
“With many democratic institutions under
threat across the globe – often by leaders with
authoritarian or populist tendencies – we
need to do more to strengthen checks and bal-
ances and protect citizen’ rights. Corruption
chips away at democracy to produce a vicious
cycle, where corruption undermines demo-
cratic institutions and, in turn, weak institu-
tions are less able to control corruption”.
South Africa scored 43 points out of 100. This tells
We have in the past heard, through yet another Com- you that Moreira could be talking about South where
mission, of the corruption that took place in the Arms she explains how democracy is undermined by cor-
Deal. The nation thought the State Capture by the ruption that weakens and destroys institutions, while
Gupta family and the politicians of the ruling party those institutions end up being unable to fight cor-
was massive. It has since dawned upon the nation ruption. In South Africa we have witnessed the de-
that such corruption was a picnic compared to the struction of the crime-busting Scorpions and the dis-
Steinhoff International corruption of which the PIC empowerment of the National Prosecution Authority
was the second largest investor. The Gupta and the (NPA). We have also seen the weakening of many
VBS corruption scandals were soon dwarfed by the important State institutions through cadre deploy-
Bosasa grand corruption, which mainly involves the ment by the ruling party.
ANC and its leaders. Gavin Watson, the owner of
Bosasa, is himself a veteran leader of the ruling party. If the people did not know who is responsible for
their miseries in this country, they now know. That
What has not been made clear to the citizens, is that knowledge is complete without knowing who can res-
all these commissions are investigating corruption by cue them from that misery. There is nobody else, but
the ruling party and its leaders against the State. In- AZAPO that can rescue them from their misery. How-
stead of committing resources to grow the economy ever, AZAPO needs their votes to be in a position to
and develop Black people who have been oppressed change Azania for the better.
and marginalised for hundreds of years, the ruling
politicians steal those State resources. As a result, the PARTY ELECTION LISTS GIVE
economy is being run to the ground; and the chronic
poverty of Black people is being worsened as we are VOTERS A MIDDLE FINGER
told that about 60% of the population is poor.
Yesterday was the deadline for political parties to
Transparency International Secretariat published its submit their Lists and pay the Election registration
2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in January fee. Apart from the Election Manifesto, political par-
2019. The 2018 CPI measured public sector corrup- ties communicate their seriousness about addressing
tion in 180 countries. Each country was given a score the plight of the voters by the quality of the candi-
from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 ((very clean). More dates in their Lists.
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The ruling party has once again clearly communicated of questionable characters are the best to protect the
its intention to the voters through its List. Prominent resources of the State and address the plight of the
in that List are names like Bathabile Dlamini, Malusi poor and the development of the voters.
Gigaba, Nomvula Mokonyane, Mosebenzi Zwane, Pule
Mabe, Zizi Kodwa and many others whose names have Kodwa and Mabe are still facing alleged scandals of
question marks. Jacob Zuma and Yengeni have de- Rape and sexual harassment. The ruling party was
clined nomination onto the List even though the ruling found wanting in dealing with the case of sexual har-
party had shown confidence in their leadership and assment because it does not have a policy on this
general conduct. crime against women. Yet the ruling party thought
the women of South Africa are safe in the presence of
Who are these candidates that the voters are asked to the two men.
put their future in their hands? Apart from coming
from Nkandla like Jacob Zuma, Bathabile Dlamini is a
scandals-ridden leader of the ANC. While she was a
Member of Parliament, in 2006 she was charged and
found guilty for defrauding the taxpayers through
what was known as the Travelgate. She misused trav-
el vouchers to the tune of R245 000 in fraudulent trav-
el claims. In recent years, she was associated with the
SASA scandal which led to a series of undermining and
blackmailing the Constitutional Court to validate an
unconstitutional contract between SASA and a white
foreign company Cashpay Masters Services (CPS). The
court ruled that she lied under oath, and was slapped
with an order to personally pay 20% of her legal costs. Less said about Jacob Zuma who is facing about 783
She also had to appear before SCOPA for an irregular counts, the better. He is the one who destroyed State
R1 billion spending by SASA. institutions and violated the Constitution under the
direction and protection of the ANC. Yet the ruling
Like Dlamini, Malusi Gigaba is a disgraced politician party thought the future of the voters and State re-
who was found by the Public Protector to have violat- sources are in safe hands under this man.
ed the Constitution and the Executive Ethics Code by
lying under oath. The Public Protector went further Where is Thuma Mina and his “New Dawn” in all this?
and asked for appropriate action to be taken by Presi- Ramaphosa has recently lied in Parliament in relation
dent Ramaphosa who promised the South African citi- to the R500 000 donated to him by the corrupt Bosasa
zens to bring about a “New Dawn” by removing cor- to win the ANC’s election as its president. It has now
rupt elements from governance institutions. Gigaba been revealed at the Zondo Commission that this
made it public that he was going nowhere, and dared Bosasa is the one that has been corruptly bankrolling
“Thuma Mina” to act against him. Indeed, Thuma Mi- the election campaigns of the ruling party for years in
na developed cold feet and did not move even a finger return for tenders. Why would this “dirty” company
towards disciplining Gigaba. It is only when he was fund the rise of “Mr Clean” to the throne? To stop its
advised by his dubious friends to resign to save his dirty business? No ways.
pension that Gigaba stepped down.
Unlike the people who think the ANC has no regard for
Mosebenzi Zwane and Nomvula Mokonyane have the voters and the development of this country,
been fingered at the Zondo Commission as having AZAPO takes the view that the ruling party is honest
been implicated in the Gupta and Bosasa corruption to its mission of corruption and running the country
scandals. Yet the ruling party thinks these individuals to the ground.
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