ANC vultures love money more than their country

You do not go into politics, especially at local level, to be rich.

It is only when you are rich, especially at a spiritual and moral level, that you should go into politics.

The problem with South African politics, especially in organisations like the ANC, is that people who run for office see politics as a get-rich-quick scheme.

You cannot serve two masters at the same time.

You cannot manoeuvre your way into high-powered positions in the ANC, for instance, to get rich quick and, at the same time claim that your desire is to serve the people.

The fact is, you cannot serve the people if you love yourself more than the people.

It is time that we, the people, know whose interests you serve when you get into politics.

Do you really love the people or are you like a typical player and man-about-town who promises women paradise, only to use them to satisfy your sexual appetite.

For the last 17 years — especially after Thabo Mbeki’s pet project to create a so-called black middle class — ANC politics have been bedevilled by vultures that are looking out for number one.

These flamboyant high-flyers are only interested in getting into government positions to gain access to state resources. They are definitely not interested in serving the people.

What are you willing to do to satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the people when you run for political office?

These are fundamental questions that people in constituencies must be taught to ask.

It does not matter what car you drive, your suburban address or the amount of money you have accrued since you got your job as councillor, mayor, MEC, premier or minister. The question is: do you love the people, especially the African majority?

It is time that we introduced the concept of love into our political vocabulary. Let us admit it, successful politicians today are, mostly black males who suffer from deep-seated inferiority complex, had a difficult single-parent upbringing and lack self-love.

As a result, contemporary politics as practised by black males are not only difficult and dangerous but also destructive to the ideal of building a united nation with solid moral values and spiritual infrastructure.

Why?

Because many black people who grew up under apartheid are so much full of self-hate that they have become incapable of showing love to their own people.

For this country to become what it ought to be, especially under ANC governance, the politicians must begin by loving themselves.

At the moment our politicians have neither love for themselves nor their people who are non-racial, patriotic and very tolerant of shenanigans.

In fact, it would be incorrect for anyone to suggest that black politicians are helpless victims of apartheid who cannot be held responsible for their sins.

All people, including politicians, have a choice to decide what kind of human beings they want to be.

That is why the founding fathers of the original ANC could choose between loving themselves and putting the interests of the people first.

They were, mostly, conscientised and self-awakened black males with a solid sense of self-knowledge, identity, existential meaning and purposefulness.

To them, the ANC was a calling, that is, a choice to serve the people and not just to pursue material accumulation and wealth.

What today’s black politicians need to understand is that pursuit of wealth controlled and created by others is not freedom.

It is a perpetuation of an unjust economic system where black politicians only exist to protect and preserve monopolisation of wealth by a few.

Today the face of the country has assumed a profile that is corrupt, greedy and selfish.

For us to regain the glory and stature of a Nelson Mandela, for instance, we have to get our politicians to practice a special kind of selfless love or unwavering commitment to putting the interests of the people first.

We have to believe that this society can only be transformed when politicians, especially in the black community, reveal a face of love for the people and putting the interests of the country first.

This may seem absurd given the preoccupation with riches and the accumulation of wealth, which has become the new standard to measure the worth of a man.

But for a new nation in the making, the greatest among us will be, first, a politician who is a selfless servant of the people.

We must be willing to examine the quality of the service that every black politician has to offer.

Politics must not be reduced to a get-rich scheme.

In fact, we must defend the rights of the people by any means necessary.