Visa disaster 'shows lack of genuine ANC leadership'

Source: News24, 27/10/2015

Here`s something to chew on: if minister Malusi Gigaba had not issued
the stricter visa regulations or if he had scrapped them as soon as he
knew the damage they were doing, South Africa wouldn`t even wonder
today whether we can afford the R2bn or so we now need for tertiary
education.


These regulations severely damaged the one sector of our economy that
could have grown phenomenally with our weakening currency. It will
take months before we will be able to undo the damage.


The consulting firm Grant Thornton advised the Tourism Business
Council recently that the regulations would result in a net loss to
South Africa`s GDP of around R4.1bn.


Gigaba defended the regulations as recently as three weeks ago, saying
the tourist industry shouldn`t blame him when they can`t market the
country properly.


The handling of this issue is deeply depressing, also because Gigaba
isn`t the worst minister in the Cabinet – in the ANC he`s talked about
as a future president.


Too scared to stand up
The visa disaster was purely a result of the ANC`s instinct to want to
control and regulate everything, of incompetent bureaucrats that are
not managed properly by their political principals, of Gigaba`s
massive ego that prevented him from admitting a mistake, and because
different state departments don`t communicate with each other on
critical decisions.


Most of all it was a reflection on the absence of genuine leadership
in government. There was no president, deputy president or Cabinet
that got up quickly and decisively and stopped the nonsense before too
much damage was done.


All the politicians were too scared to stand up to a colleague, just
in case it damaged their own careers and position in the
faction-riddled ANC.


The question in the ANC seems to be not whether you are competent and
doing your job properly. It is: In what camp are you? Are you for or
against Jacob Zuma? Are you a Cyril Ramaphosa-supporter or are you
campaigning for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma? Does Gwede Mantashe like you
or not?


I wish I could say that last week`s earth-moving events will change
the thinking in the Union Buildings and Luthuli House; lead to a
sharper focus and more deliberate action.


The student protests were perhaps not our own version of the Arab
Spring that would lead to regime change. But we could call it a Campus
Spring. It will have consequences for the ruling party.
No longer swallowing populist rhetoric
If Zuma and his colleagues didn`t have their heads buried in the sand,
they would be seriously concerned about next year`s municipal
elections and the general election of 2019.


They would also have realised that ordinary South Africans - certainly
the youth - no longer simply swallow their populist rhetoric, double
talk, tactics of diversion and cheap promises.
Alas, no.


On Sunday Zuma and Blade Nzimande declared on separate platforms that
the ANC had supported the #FeesMustFall movement from the start and
that free higher education had been ANC policy all along. Ha!
You don`t need to be a student to ask: but why then did you spend less
and less on tertiary education the last number of years relative to
the huge increase in the number of students?


Nzimande also said that there was enough money in the country to pay
for free tertiary education, but this money was "in the private
sector". (Read: "white monopoly capital".)


Hehehe. That`s Doctor Six Percent Nzimande for you, leader of the
party that prides itself in being in the vanguard of the struggle of
the working class and the poor.


Nzimande also gave an indication that he planned to abuse last week`s
events to undermine the autonomy of universities. I sincerely hope the
students won`t fall for this.


Steering the debate
Everything is always everybody else`s fault, never the ANC`s.
It is predictable that the ANC leadership will now attempt to steer
the debates and anger towards a simplistic blaming of the white
minority in the weeks and months ahead. Define a new enemy and turn
the flak away from yourself.


In the meantime, more millions have been rolled out to prepare for the
trillion rand nuclear power stations government has committed to.
There`s an Afrikaans saying: As dit pap reën, skep! (If porridge rains
down, help yourself.)


And this just in: the ANC Woman`s League and the Youth League are
planning marches to the Union Building in defence of Zuma, "the
champion of our revolution".


Which revolution would that be?