South Africa is full of ideological hypocrites

August 14, 2009 - South Africa is full of ideological hypocrites.
The storm surrounding ANC Youth League President Julius Malema's criticism of President Jacob Zuma's appointment of "minorities" to strategic economic positions, personifies this kind of hypocrisy and dishonesty.

Malema commented last week that all the security cluster ministers in President Jacob Zuma's cabinet were black while the economics cluster ministers were appointed from minority groups. And all hell broke loose.

Ministers Nathi Mthethwa, Jeff Radebe and Siyabonga Cwele are in charge of police, justice and state security respectively while Pravin Gordhan, Rob Davies and Ebrahim Patel are the ministers of finance trade and industry and economic development.

Read full text of what Julius Malema’s article HERE.

CIYDA Says: South Africa has long been cited as a ticking time bomb on many issues embedded in one common aspect, that of ‘race’. Post Zimbabwe land redistribution exercise there were stories in various respected media highlighting South Africa’s need for land redistribution as the poor black majority seemed marginalised and not party to the utilisation of the vast natural resources in South Africa. On the issue of land redistribution ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe was quoted in the Daily News as having said, “Equating land redistribution to "food insecurity" amounts to blackmail, and the land question will become a time bomb if not addressed”.

Despite its undoubted peace, tranquillity and economic growth there however remains an issue of the positive role indigenous blacks can play in South African society and its economic development and shaping its overall destiny as argued by Mr Julius Malema.

It is important to note at this stage that Zimbabwe in the past had minorities in what were arguable key ministries at the time as well as today, amongst them Dr Timothy Stamps who was the Minister of Health & Child Welfare from 1986 to 2002, Ms Fay Chung who was the Minister of Education from 1988 to 1993 and David Coltart who today is the Minister of Education in the Unity Government lead by President Robert Mugabe. Although express circumstances leading to the appointment of the above mentioned individuals are not known by CIYDA, we would like to think their credentials and record of delivery in these respective departments spoke for themselves. Furthermore being that Zimbabwe is a multi-race country a representative government was appropriate, something we are inclined to point out to Mr Malema in response to his comments on South Africa.

However in support of Mr Malema’s words on the need to build confidence in the markets that Africans are also capable of handling strategic positions in the economic sector [to banish the idea amongst] black youths not believing that one day they could work in the strategic economic positions. CIYDA says yes we need to encourage an environment that gives young indigenous African youths both black and white a platform that gives them positive aspirations to work towards the development of their countries. However we also need to educate the young people from an early age that being African is not synonymous with being black only, there is more to being African. It’s only through misinformation that young people can only be swayed by Mr Malema’s comments and actually believe that to be African you have to be black and to be seen to be an effective member of society you have to be white.

Black or white young Africans we can play a positive role in the development of our respective countries and Africa as a whole given a positive environment conducive to that agenda.

Disclamer: - Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information supplied herein from other websites, CIYDA cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Unless otherwise indicated, opinions transferred from other websites and expressed herein are those of the author of the ORIGINAL article and do not necessarily represent the views of CIYDA, it's Executive Director and the CIYDA Team.

What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.