RANT: Of Mice and Sell-Outs

A golden opportunity came and went here on the southern tip of darkest Africa. I usually don't write about South African politics because (1) it bores me to tears (2) it's hardly democracy anyway and (3) I frankly don't give a damn anyway.

But in the past few days a momentous time occurred here in this banana republic. Or, rather, it should have been momentous. What happened is that the (mis)ruling African National Congress (ANC) had their annual powwow in the city of Mangaung (Bloemfonetin to the rest of us). It was the annual meeting of all the diehard sell-outs...ahem, delegates of the ANC to choose the leader of the party, deputy leader, chief cookie maker, etc etc.

Usually it's all very boring and of absolutely no interest to me or 99.7% of the country's population, but this year was a bit more important. Because this was the year when all the incompetencies, gross corruption and general pathetic state of Jacob Zuma should have finally come to the fore and he should have had his sorry (fat) ass kicked out of being party leader and, therefore, President of this sorry country.

But, alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, the political geniuses that are the ANC cadres decided to give the decrepit twerp another chance. How typically African - 'let's keep giving the corrupt, inane and ego-driven leader just one more chance because, hey, we're all about second chances and ubuntu and all that other nonsense.'  

So, instead of waking up to a new dawn in South African politics with a more modern, forward-thinking and less populist leader like the charismatic Cyril Ramaphosa:



Photo courtesy of Forbes

Ramaphosa might be a king player in the ultra-rich black elite of South Africa and he may have become a multi-billionaire with (much) thanks to the nonsense social engineering that is black economic empowerment (BEE), but at least he has a business mind and half-decent credentials. It's more than one can say (on any level) for Zuma.

He did come second in the voting, so is now deputy-head of the party and, therefore, should now be the Vice President of this merry little republic.

Although as for that McDonalds pin on his lapel in the photo above...ahem...

We instead continue to fumble along in the stupor that is South Africa being ruled by one of the most inept, uneducated and frankly embarrassing leaders that ever walked African soil (and that is against some damn stiff competition as we all know). This is what continues to be the leader of the richest and most powerful country in Africa:





Photo courtesy of the (ludicrously titled South African site) Football is Coming Home

Yip, the above is what this nation continues to be saddled with - a populist, divisive buffoon writ large and with way too much power.

Thank you so much to the ANC delegates at Bloemfontein. The mock democracy that is that of South Africa continues to dawdle along like some child that simply refuses to pass into adolescence, never mind adulthood.

Then again, and as I always say whenever bad and rotten leadership raises its ugly head anywhere in the world: a people gets the government it deserves.

Do you get my point?