Review affirmative action - Boesak

Review affirmative action - Boesak
By Christelle Terreblanche

The Congress of the People's newest leadership recruit, Allan Boesak, has charged that the ANC government's interpretation of affirmative action was putting "narrow ethnic considerations" before South Africa's skills needs.

The way in which affirmative action was applied in the Western Cape, for instance, was "totally inexcusable", he said.

"All of a sudden, coloured people are told that if they are not an ethnic African, they can't get certain jobs," Boesak said in an interview about the current implementation of black empowerment policies and affirmative action along strict racial lines.

"At such moments you can see that the narrow racist ethnic (concerns) are considerably far more important than the needs of the country."

The controversial cleric said a problem was arising of affirmative action being "used to exert feelings of racial justification".

Boesak's comments feed into a heated debate stirred up by COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota's suggestion at the party's founding congress last week that empowerment programmes should be opened up to deserving candidates from all races.

Lekota later compared the current implementation of the constitutionally mandated redress policies to apartheid racial segregation.

"If you have 100 poor people and three of them are white and you give the programmes to the 97 people, leaving the three whites. What is this? What is the difference between us and BJ Vorster?" he asked.

The Black Lawyers' Association and Advocates for Transformation dismissed Lekota's as "a ploy to win white votes".

The Association for the Advancement of Black Chartered Accountants of Southern Africa also expressed concern.

It comes as the Afrikanerbond again implored ANC president Jacob Zuma on Friday to address their alarm over thousands of skilled South Africans leaving the country due to a perceived lack of opportunities in the face of affirmative action.

Whether or not the empowerment policies should be reviewed has also seen sharp differences of opinion in ANC circles.

Boesak was at pains to say that a debate on how the corrective action should be applied "has to be dealt with with a great deal of sensitivity".

"I have never said the time for affirmative action is over, but have said it is time to take a look at how we employ this concept in dealing with all these matters and create a situation so that skills we do not have are jettisoned for the skills we hope to have," he said.

The government should rather depart from the point that the level of skills and opportunities should be raised for those "who never had them and could not acquire them".

This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on December 22, 2008

any particular reason why you've posted this?

Because it is a matter of of interest. It might also be good news for those thinking of leaving the country because of the lack of job opportunities. I liked the article, I think it is challenging the existing policies, which is healthy.

Any particular reason why you did not find it interesting?

Never mind, I can see from your other posts you were not in the best of moods last night.

Well what happened was, I saw it was one of the 5 most read articles on IOL day before yesterday. Then remembered you posted a topic with the same title. Then read the post. Then read the article. Then concluded it was a copy-paste (like most things BA's do ) Then I was wondering why would you copy-paste the article and not make any comments on it?

I thought that you would refer to an article if you got a certain opinion or comment to raise about it.


Personally I think it is Bull Shit! What do you think about COPE. I think it will be great if they can provide some real competition in the political environment, but I think these statements are desperate ploys to win votes. I've spoken to a lot of "low-income" blacks, the past year and every single one of them said that this BEE thing is Bull shit and it doesn't work for them. So they (COPE) could win more than just white votes with statements like these.

As a typical south african (if there is something like that) AA hasn't really effected me directly. So I don't care that much about it. I believe it just cost the country money. IMHO, majority of the AA appointments doesn't have the skill, training and ability to perform the job they were appointed for. So the company ends up appointing two persons to do one guys job. (That's now if the company cares about getting the job done, which in not the case with most SA institutions)


There is life after AA and hope!

"Imagine all the people
Living life in peace" - J Lennon

Hoehoe-hoehoe-hoe

There is life after AA and hope - lets COPE with it

hehehe, well, I just read another very interesting article, and in true BA style, I am copying and pasting it here


The hour of maximum danger

By Patrick Laurence

A testing time lies ahead for South Africa's young democracy in the New Year, a time that may determine whether it matures into greater strength and resilience or degenerates into a quasi-democracy.

The vital test of whether a democracy has really taken root, particularly in former colonial or dictatorial states, is whether the ruling party accepts defeat at the polls and allows the triumphant opposition party - or coalition of parties - to take over as the new government.

The test is particularly pertinent to states when the nationalist or revolutionary movement that overthrew the ancient regime has held power for 15 or more years, and still considers itself to be the embodiment of the will of the people, and the sole guarantor against political regression.

A lesser but still important test of a young democracy is how a ruling party that has grown accustomed to decisively repelling the challenge of opposition parties at the polls reacts when it faces a viable opposition party for the first time.

The experience of two of South Africa's neighbouring states is worth citing as it provides two concrete examples of how young or relatively young democracies failed to pass the two tests outlined above.

Lesotho illustrates the first case where a post-colonial ruling party loses an election but refuses to surrender power.

Having won the 1965 independence election, Leabua Jonathan, leader of the Basotho National Party, became Lesotho's first prime minister, but when he lost the 1970 election to Ntsu Mokhele, of the Basutoland Congress Party, he refused to surrender power and ruled by a combination of brutal oppression and cunning co-option of his opponents, thereby converting Lesotho into a pseudo or failed democracy for at least the next 20 years.

Zimbabwe epitomises the second case of a ruling party that seeks to prevent the mergence of a viable rival party by unfair means.

The ruling Zanu-PF, buoyed by a succession of election victories over nearly 20 years, reacted adversely to the emergence of a strong coalition of opposition forces in the 2000 constitutional referendum, which mutated into the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Instead of engaging the MDC in open and fair competition for power, President Robert Mugabe progressively jettisoned Afro-democracy for Afro-fascism, a progress that was aided and abetted by advancing age and senile dementia.

To cite these developments in Lesotho and Zimbabwe is not to assume they will be replicated in South Africa but, rather, to warn South African democrats that the hour of maximum danger - to use a phrase popularised by the British novelist James Barlow - may be ahead.

While the ruling African National Congress has long prided itself on its dedication to, and fight for, democracy against the previous race-based oligarchy of the ascendant whites, it has yet to prove that its commitment will not wither if - or when - it faces the prospect of defeat at the polls.

The emergence of the Congress of Democrats (COPE) in the past three months may have brought that prospect closer, judging by the setbacks suffered by the ANC in municipal by-elections in the Western Cape, and the apparently ongoing jostling within the ANC for prime positions on its election list for next year's election.

A caveat is in order here.

COPE has the potential to generate a fundamental political realignment and, if its leadership shows the required wisdom and flexibility, to serve as the catalyst for, and spearhead of, a coalition of forces with a reasonable chance of reducing the ANC's majority in the coming election and even ousting the ANC in the 2014 election.

If the ANC reacts negatively to COPE's potential threat to its dominance by breaking up opposition meetings, establishing no-go areas for opposition parties and circumventing the rule of law by seeking a political solution for the as-yet unresolved legal difficulties of its president, Jacob Zuma, the maturation - and perhaps even the survival - of South Africa's young democracy will be imperilled.

The ANC has, however, offered assurances that it is genuinely committed to the constitution and the fundamental freedoms contained in it, including - to quote the preamble - "a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness".

Zuma, whom the ANC regards as South Africa's de facto president-elect, has cast the ANC in the role of the defender of judicial independence and the rule of law.

Reinforcing that, Mathews Phosa, ANC treasurer-general, has described the emergence of new political forces and alignments as part of a process that began in 1994 with the inauguration of South Africa's new non-racial democracy and, importantly, as one which "the ANC encourages".

While these statements are welcome, they have to be offset against the more unsettling utterances from senior members of the ANC and the ANC Youth League, including Gwede Matashe, the ANC secretary-general, and Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president.

Matashe is on record as describing the constitutional court justices as "counter-revolutionaries" - a special term of abuse in his Marxist-influenced vocabulary - and two senior black judges as apartheid apologists for daring to concur with their white colleague when he upheld the right of ANC dissidents Mosioua Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa to adopt the name Congress of the People for their new party.

Malema, of course, has earned notoriety by proclaiming that the ANC Youth League would "take up arms and kill for Zuma" if his aspirations to serve as South Africa's president were thwarted.

His pernicious influence is evident in the behaviour of ANC cadres who marched on a COPE meeting in Orange Farm, near Johannesburg, chanting "Kill Lekota, kill Shilowa".

Intolerant behaviour by ANC zealots is evident, too, in their attempts to disrupt the recent local government by-elections in the Western Cape by verbally abusing people queuing to vote, chaining closed the gates into one designated polling station and blocking the entrance of another with rubbish and human excreta.

These anti-democratic declarations and actions symptomise a disturbing tendency in the ANC to de-legitimise and demonise opposition parties as reactionary forces seeking to re-establish the apartheid system, much as the National Party of BJ Vorster and PW Botha used to label liberals as the naive or, worse still, willing harbingers of godless communists.

But the ANC has a long and cherished pro-democracy stance. An optimum outcome in the testing times ahead will be one in which the admirable values of ANC democrats, past and present, outweigh the aberrant behaviour of the over-zealous cadres.



Patrick Laurence is an independent political analyst and a contributing editor to The Star.

I got bored very very bored at paragraph 5. Forced my will forward, kept on reading but gave up 8 paragraphs from the end.

Sorry, but this is nothing I didn't thought of by my self months ago already. Maybe I'm just a genius

rklopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thousands of skilled South Africans leaving the
> country due to a perceived lack of opportunities

not even repealing affirmative action will fix that, spend just a week overseas and you'll see what i mean.

rdebruyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I got bored very very bored at paragraph 5. Forced
> my will forward, kept on reading but gave up 8
> paragraphs from the end.
>
> Sorry, but this is nothing I didn't thought of by
> my self months ago already. Maybe I'm just a
> genius

Maybe nothing new yes, but what is interesting is that these issues and questions are getting more and more airtime....and that I think is a good thing!

PS: I think the good thing about COPE, is that the ANC is not practicing silent diplomacy when confronted by cope, unlike its attitude toward the DA.

Interesting articles on subjects that I'm sure have been debated a million times, and will still be in time to come.

One thing that is sad though, is how quickly the racism surfaces. I'd venture to say that as far as racism goes, we have not evolved much since the 70's and 80's. Sure, we talk of a rainbow nation (a phrase I truly hate) and tolerance, but the prejudice and hatred remains.
What I do find a shame is the fact that racism is as alive as it is, and many constitutional policies are race driven or orientated, yet it is denied. Prejudice based on race, religion, class, etc have always existed, why should South Africa be any different? Yet we continue denying that it exists until some white guy uses the "k" word.
Then there is the constant politically correct propaganda in the form of advertising, which in itself is a form of racism.

I have truly only met a few (very few) people who remain proud of their heritage and culture, yet have the ability to view other people as they are (as individuals) with no prejudice and fear.

The notion that the ANC or any other political party is going to create a better SA for all (not just an elect few) is a bloody joke. For this to happen, there'd need to be some pretty revolutionary (I'm not talking about machine guns here), free thinking leadership.
I do realise that "Free Thinking" and "leadership" should not be used in the same discussion as politics, or politicians. But with out this, I cannot see the situation improving.

Perhaps the way forward includes the embracing of diversity instead of the denial that it exists.
Anyway - it's late and that's enough philosphy for now.

On the subject of the forbidden "k" word - I've had the pleasure of hearing it being used by black South Africans a few times and every time I can't help but to ROFL. They have the ability to use it with style and honesty.

affirmative action should pretty much (but not entirely) be limited to free education for previously disadvantaged people who choose to pursue it, instead of a money/power grabbing bonanza :|


AndreB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rainbow nation (a phrase I truly hate)

me too, where are all the green people?

> The notion that the ANC or any other political
> party is going to create a better SA for all (not
> just an elect few) is a bloody joke. For this to
> happen, there'd need to be some pretty
> revolutionary (I'm not talking about machine guns
> here), free thinking leadership.

as someone who's studied german history, specifically the mindset of a battered people looking for someone to solve their problems, that's sending up red flags eh!

who is going to bring about this change, and will it be by force? if not, that leads us to...

> I do realise that "Free Thinking" and "leadership"
> should not be used in the same discussion as
> politics, or politicians. But with out this, I
> cannot see the situation improving.

if your vote for change doesn't change things you might consider... well, let's say it's a pretty strong way to vote

Lycium - you are quite right. The rich get richer and the poor, well they just stay dirt poor.
Education programmes is probably the way to go, but that only provides a beter future for the next generation, the current generation of PDI's would not benefit.
However at this rate, only the already rich bastards are benfitting, and everyone's future looks a little bleak.

May I recommend the book Freakonomics, by Steven SomeoneOrTheOther? It provides excellent insight into asking the right questions in the context of human desires.