Get ready for often violent political rhetoric statements as the general elections beckon, in a matter of months.
At the time of the writing of this piece, the ANC had just emerged from the party’s elections manifesto launch, which promises jobs, jobs and more jobs for the unemployed youth.
Listening carefully to President Cyril Ramaphosa on the land issue, it is like the man speaks differently to varying audiences about this issue.
For instance, when he spoke to the ANC’s masses at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, the president was somewhat aggressive, declaring something to the effect that the expropriation of land without compensation was non-negotiable.
But then I swear on my last dime, that when he speaks to investors in, say, Davos, Switzerland, going forward, Ramaphosa would be reassuring the world of high finance, how expropriation of land without compensation would be managed “responsibly”.
For better or for worse, Ramaphosa knows far better than the masses at Moses Mabhida Stadium that you cannot fight money without money. Ask one Emmerson Mnangangwa north of the great Limpopo river.
The official opposition, Democratic Alliance (DA) has also thrown its hat into the ring, running with an election campaign bordering on Donald Trump’s eye winking towards Mexico.
Let me tell you something, if not carefully articulated, the DA’s noises about border security may come across as a call to arms, especially against refugees and downright economic migrants from up-north Africa.
One is awaiting to hear more from Cope leader, Mosiuoa Lekota, with regards to his rejection of the expropriation of land without compensation narrative.
The former Robben Island convict has drawn massive interest from formations such as AfriForum, for his views over the land issue.
Analysts from across the spectrum seem to agree that Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters continue to be outsmarted by the urbane Ramaphosa.
For instance, the ANC has moved swiftly to nudge out a total of seven mayors implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, while the EFF continues to dither on the alleged links of the party’s deputy president Floyd Shivambu.
On a sad note, the Masilelas gathered in numbers to lay my elderly mother to rest over the festive season.
Sifting through her belongings, I stumbled onto my mother’s membership card of the “economic freedom in our lifetime” firebrands of the EFF!
