FREEDOM DAY - A TIMELY REMINDER

Yesterday, Freedom Day brought back a memory that in 1994 I stood in a rural queue between Addo and Uitenhage waiting to cast my vote in the historic 1994 elections. Those in the queue were ebullient with hope for what they imagined would be a golden age for South Africa.

As you can imagine, it was a colourful queue of all shapes, sizes and hues. The line was unbelievably long but the people were patient, respectful and amiable. One chap, who said he originally hailed from the Western Cape, had us in paroxysms of laughter while he regaled us with superb jokes, none of which were political nor intended to be. An old man, a few metres in front of me, had to sit down because he couldn't control his laughter.

I think the comedian's name was Bennie, but it doesn't really matter because he served as the entertainer for all who could hear him. Those just out of vocal reach tried to compress the queue to get closer to Bennie's performance and, like a good performer needing to reach his whole audience, Bennie moved up and down the queue to ensure as many as possible enjoyed the hilarious entertainment. He knew he was good but it wasn't ego driving his performance. He just wanted to make people laugh and asked for nothing in return.

During Bennie's intermissions, there was always chatter, people talking to each other, smiling and laughing, something they had been unable to do for forty years. They were just a bunch of good, ordinary people.

Immediately behind me was an elderly black mama with a toddler on her back. I asked her where she lived and she shyly told me that it was a township not far from Addo. I was curious as to how she had arrived at the polling station and she explained that a taxi had brought her as far as the tarred road and she had walked the rest of the way. I knew the junction she referred to and estimated that she must have walked about 10 km with the toddler on her back. She had come because she had rightfully expected a promising life to open up for her after the oppression of apartheid. And the journey to get to the polling station had been in no way daunting.

Hope was palpable in that queue of people. Mandela was a fine statesman who would right the evils of apartheid and provide a prosperous and happy life for all South Africa's citizens. And so it was - to begin with.

But the hopes of my queue have been dashed by the sleazy rogues who now hold sway. 

I am comforted, though, with the thought that the people in that queue haven't changed. They are still good people who will stop for a chat, a joke and a laugh. They are the backbone of South Africa - the grass roots. They are a universe apart from their politicians.

GWEDE MANTASHE - DICTATOR IN THE MAKING

Politicsweb columnist David Bullard took unerring aim this morning at one of our up and coming closet dictators, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, in his column entitled 'Show Comrade Godfather some respect ... or else!' - http://bit.ly/IUNT0h. If the glove fits, wear it, and it certainly does for the vilifying and magniloquent Mantashe. 

'Bully-in-chief' is a deserved and apt term to describe what Mantashe does. He is one of those ranting bullies (the type which is becoming disturbingly more prevalent in the ANC) who believes, it seems, that a democracy should be run by an authoritarian party and robust debate roundly discouraged as being of not much consequence. His recent ad hominem, and almost savage, verbal attacks against Nedbank chair Reuel Khoza for berating the ANC (deservedly) as a strange breed of leaders is a case in point. Admitting the current folly of his party would have made a favourable impression on his opponents - and Khoza. Instead, he foolishly and not surprisingly chose to defend the untenable. He is of the type which, when they're unable to command respect, begin demanding it.

People of this ilk are probably what Reuel Khoza referred to as a strange breed of leadership. They are dangerous and won't serve the interests of the country or its people. Mantashe, as his recent behaviour suggests, is someone who, if given half a chance, could turn into a full-blown dictator.

NEDBANK CHIEF WARNS AGAINST CORRUPT AND INCOMPETENT ANC JUGGERNAUT

Chairman of Nedbank and respected former academic, Reuel Khoza, warned in the bank's annual report that South Africa is widely recognised for its liberal and enlightened Constitution yet the emergence of a strange breed of leaders can be observed who are determined to undermine the rule of law and override it. 

The now inveterately corrupt and incompetent ANC, whose goal is unquestionably to remain in power for further self-enrichment through insidious means, has already announced plans to review the judiciary and the Constitution citing the reappraisal of the latter as necessary to remove  hindrances to social and economic transformation. And the 'ruling party, as they prefer to be called, is about to promulgate changes to the Protection of Information Bill that will seriously hamper investigative efforts of journalists to openly publish incriminating material. Their unstated purpose is clear to any intelligent observer: increase, by whatever means, ways to avoid detection so that corruption may continue apace and line the pockets of a venal cabal with filthy lucre.

Khoza's comments are timely and are the first by a chairman of a JSE-listed banking group since the government began announcing its 'review' strategies.

Khoza warned that the country's political leadership moral quotient is degenerating and that the nation is fast losing the checks and balances that are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the past. 

Writing on his website about the Constitution, Khoza says 'The problem I have with the revision of the existing Constitution is not over the principle that it should be revisited but over the credibility of those who are making these proposals. The editor of of the Financial Mail, Barney Mthombothi, recently wrote that when Mandela and Mbeki made changes to the Constitution it was not with any ill-intent but to make it better. This new lot is different. They don't want to change the Constitution. They want to gut it, to remove its entrails and thus change the trajectory of society.'

Reuel Khoza understands and knows the value of informed and visionary leadership. He has spent much of his life illustrating and demonstrating its key elements and what he is now called on to witness no doubt sickens him to the core. I hope other business leaders will follow his example by bringing the incumbent rogue leadership into the spotlight to reveal all its  inglorious ugliness.