Comments on: Will South Africa’s poor always back ANC?

By: eqothoindoda

eqothoindoda — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:31:50 +0000

First, what is needed is South African politics is a credible opposition politics. Currently, all opposition political parties lack the credentials for stronger opposition and winning the previously disadvantaged majority. Second, race politics is still a very long way to go in South African political stage – it’s the way things are and will continue to be so for a good while until a ‘political miracle’ happens. Clearly, both 1 and 2 require some kind of a political school for all of us in South Africa.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:06:28 +0000

I am not an ANC voter, since I think that their affirmative action policies and over-enthusiastic grant handouts serve as a crutch to the poor and uneducated, instead of educating and empowering them. Remember the story about how one helps someone much more by teaching him to plant corn than by giving him a slice of bread every day? But I often feel sorry for the ANC, since people usually forget just how much work there is for them to do. Ask yourself this question: how would you run a country where more than three quarters of the population does not have homes, decent jobs, education, and so forth? And where you can tap into the financial resources of only a quarter of the population in order to support the other three quarters? Any party that ruled South Africa after apartheid would have delivered homes and jobs at a very slow pace spanning many, many years. Whoever thinks different is either very naive or uninformed about the state of the country that the ANC took over. Whether the ANC is delivering more slowly than some other party would have delivered is something we can speculate about.But if I was a poor black person, and my choice was between voting for the DA and the ANC, I’d have the ANC any day. I am a white South African, and I despise the DA for the fact that 90% of their members of parliament are white, and about 80% of that 90% is Afrikaans speaking. If I have to choose between being a poor person in a country where I am respected as a human being, and being a poor person in a country where I’m treated like some inferior being, heaven knows, I’ll take the first option any day. And if I as white person is not convinced that the DA does not represent the second option, then one will never convince black South Africans of that.White South Africans always accuse black South Africans of voting according to their emotions when they vote for the ANC. But white people vote just as much according to their emotions when they vote for the DA, since the DA has done fairly little to show us that they represent the interests of non-whites.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:59:04 +0000

Anything is better than Apartheid.

By: Sean-Thayi

Sean-Thayi — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:57:30 +0000

people will always vote for the ANC . We will give him the go ahead because the other opposition party COPE(NO HOPE) they were in power and they did not deliver and are just power hungry individuals . So ANC will win the elections because people dont have anyone to VOTE for .

By: Faka di maboya

Faka di maboya — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:48:49 +0000

South Africa economy is the biggest in Africa, but the life expectancy is the lowest in Africa. Corporate SA is free-loading at the expenses of the masses’ social cost.Large scale of poverty don’t exist because people are lazy,stupid or incompent. Millions of poor people languish in poverty and hopelessness due to social,cultural and economic forces.Large scale of poverty doesn’t exist because people are lazy/stupid or incompetent. Millions of our poor people languish in poverty and hopelessness due to social\cultural and economic forces. In this country, where most of our youth have to do the same jobs that have killed their fathers, life is no longer a journey but pain. It used to take the entire village to raise a child but now the villagers are running scared because the children have lost it. Poverty is to be understood in broader terms as the erosion of the capabilities of individuals due to the denial of certain rights or the manner in which opportunities are distributed in the society. While there is a general tendency to focus the problem of poverty as being the result of the behaviour of the poor people, it is also important to focus on the behaviour of the rich in terms of how wealth is accumulated, distributed or disposed of. In general, inequality is a result of the lack of proper system of distributive justice. The important thing about a social good is that while benefits accrue to individuals, the good can only be accomplished through the collective action. The common understanding of apartheid as the system that was designed to exclude the masses from benefiting from public goods such as national social safety net, right to information, knowledge, sport and cultural activities can be thought as a national social good. In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rival and non excludable. This means, respectively, that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce the amount of the good available for consumption by others; and on one can be effectively exclude from using it. For example, if one individual eats cake, there is no cake left for anyone else, and it is possible to exclude others from consuming the cake and it is a rival and private good. Conversely, breathing air neither significantly reduce the amount of air available to others, nor can people be effectively excluded from using air. How the masses are suppose to live without public goods?

By: Mr Smith

Mr Smith — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:48:33 +0000

Africa, like all other independent nations, get the leaders it deserves.And at the moment that means a Mbeki at the best, and a Mugabe at the worst.

By: Tay

Tay — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:32:42 +0000

Soon ANC will be kick out of power if they do not reform, be it 10 or 20 years. The masses are not blind and will not be taken for a ride. A good reference will be the fate of many once-mighty political parties who have fallen foul of the masses. Just look at the recent political history of many countries.

By: John Braund

John Braund — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:49:15 +0000

The ANC had delivered a lot for black people in South Africa. The problem with western journalists is that they are mostly white who go to South Africa and hang out in the white neighborhood. The supposed stories of ANC let-down are rampant in the white community. As such the western media keep misrepresenting the views of the majority of South Africans.In subsequent elections since 1994, the western media has always predicted a reduced majority for the ANC. Again and agin they have been proven wrong. Wonder why? Because they always get views of the minority white community.The reason blacks stick with the ANC is because they feel the ANC is delivering. They were the ones who suffered under apartheid and they know the difference! They dont need a white person to tell them which party to vote for.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:09:49 +0000

I’m happy to hear stories like this. When African nations wanted freedom from “white oppression” and independence, it’s exactly what they got: Independence. Welcome to the world of adults, Africa! If you want to be treated as equals, start acting like equals and pull your own weight. Without financial aid from your “white oppressors.”

By: D Sakarya

D Sakarya — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:02:35 +0000

The poor Blacks of SA remind me of the poor Whites of the US who vote for the Republican party.