Racial inequality in Mzantsi is like a millstone around our necks in the politics of our country. Two decades into our democracy racial inequality is widening and the lot of the black African has exponentially worsened.
One wonders whether there is any political party that can genuinely put the poverty of the African first. What is clear is that racial inequality is a ticking bomb of an unfinished business that must be revisited with brutal honesty before it explodes. That racial inequality affects black Africans in multiple forms of deprivation is indisputable. The World Bank has recently confirmed that Mzantsi is number one’s most unequal society in the world with 30 million people living below poverty line of R992 a month. The graph below published in 2015 succinctly illustrates this grave reality.
In spite of its gravity racial inequality has instead become a low-hanging fruit for political chameleons and charlatans to manipulate it anyhow. To be sure, we had Jacob Zuma who kept the gates wide open for looters of our resources and when his stinking deed was in the open he hastily dressed this massive thieving as RET.
None other than Zuma has shown us that a party can easily be turned into a robbery vehicle from the poor. Conversely, the DA, despite its aggressive fight against corruption, has been labelled racist and is battling to gain votes in the traditionally black constituencies. The very people – black Africans being robbed of livelihood via corruption orgy - don’t get it. The EFF is deliberately and diligently flashing this race card. "We don’t hate whites, we just love blacks," says Malema. Even the land question, complex and emotional as it is, has been turned into a hot political chess game.
With general elections around the corner political parties especially those in the mould of Nazi party will conveniently exploit this racial inequality underbelly for their own ulterior political ends. Why has the ANC somersaulted on the land question, agreeing to expropriation without compensation while it has all along maintained that the Constitution is sufficient for this purpose? Surely this is owing to the twin variables of power and self-interests in politics. It is stealing Malema’s thunder and to the voters the DA is and must be portrayed as an authentic white interest boot-lickers.
As apartheid was premised on the exclusion of the blacks from the mainstream economy only a party that has the genuine interests of blacks at heart can address this massive inequality. For the last two decades the ANC has pathetically failed to redress racial inequality and its cardinal and glaring sin is failure to provide quality public education which is the cornerstone for any developmental state. At present our education is one of the worst in the world (75th out of 76 OECD countries by 2015).
The interests of the government elite rule the roost. Why is the Ministerial Handbook that dishes obscene perks to the humungous cabinet still there? Why is the government not placing a ceiling on the ever rising salaries of the top bureaucrats and politicians? In the face of the grinding poverty blacks have to daily contend with is it really necessary for a minister to drive a luxurious sedan costing over a million at the taxpayer’s expense? Self-interest and unabated greed.
The above analysis exposes a tenuous political environment that has immensely exploited and continues to exploit the black colour as a surest meal ticket for a parliamentary seat or any political benefit. This racial inequality quagmire needs a party that can adopt and has a will to implement a comprehensive plan similar to Marshall Plan in its developmental capability.
Secondly, a strong opposition ensures the governing party acts according to the will of the electorate. To defend and advance the gains of our hard-won democracy rests entirely on the shoulders of the voters, especially black voters who form majority. It is this majority that is still facing the grinding poverty, unremitting unemployment and poor education. They must claim their freedom in a free society to judiciously vote any party of their choice but they must be able to see a party that is a wolf in a sheep’s skin and vote only a party that has consistently and tenaciously defended the rainbow nation and constitutional democracy.
