The ANC – “The Party of the Rich”
by Roy Bard
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
As we have said, we are not tolerating any illegal gatherings
Thus spoke South African police spokesman Captain Dennis Adriao, after announcing that rubber bullets and teargas had been fired at protestors in a squatter camp near the Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) mine in Rustenburg, which had just re-opened after their closure last week in the face of protests.
The incident followed yesterdays announcement that the Marikana miners would return to work tomorrow, after they accepted a 22% pay rise. Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema claims police threatened to kill him at Wonderkop Stadium when he was denied entry on Monday, when attempting to address the strikers.
Such behaviour by South African police mirrors the role they played under the Apartheid regime, and there can be little surprise that strikers now regard the ANC as the party of the rich.
In a recent video published by the The South African Civil Society Information Service Ighsaan Schroeder, Director of the Casual Workers Advice Office provides some insights into why the strikes that have spread from Lonmin to other mines in the Rustenburg region are being smashed by heavy state repression.
Posted by 6 Responses to The ANC – “The Party of the Rich”
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Ariadna Theokopoulos
September 19, 2012 at 2:04 pm
How sad. The South African unions are following the path of unions in the western world, subverted, taken over and turned into a tool against workers.
Roy Bard
September 19, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Indeed – it seems everyone in the ANC/COSATU/SACP leadership has forgotten what ordinary South Africans fought for…….
South Africa at a Crossroads
happeh
September 21, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Hey Ariadna? I have a question.
How do you keep from going insane by telling people you are critical of Israel, and then supporting everything Israel does in the comments on the site?
Maybe you are too young to realize it, but holding two completely different ideas in your head will eventually give you a nervous breakdown and make you go crazy.
This story is not about South Africa’s unions. It is not about subversion of unions.
This story is about the Israelis who own the mines refusing to pay a decent wage so they can buy an extra 10 Ferrari’s, after they get back from the government hearing where they asked the government to bail out the company because the economy is tough.
Roy Bard
September 21, 2012 at 5:45 pm
who_me
September 21, 2012 at 2:02 am
http://johnpilger.com/articles/apartheid-never-died-in-south-africa-it-inspired-a-world-order-upheld-by-force-and-illusion
“This applied to leading figures in the African National Congress, such as Cyril Ramaphosa, head of the National Union of Mineworkers, now a corporate multi-millionaire, who negotiated a power-sharing “deal” with the regime of de F.W. Klerk, and Nelson Mandela himself, whose devotion to an “historic compromise” meant that freedom for the majority from poverty and inequity was a freedom too far. This became clear as early as 1985 when a group of South African industrialists led by Gavin Reilly, chairman of the Anglo-American mining company, met prominent ANC officials in Zambia and both sides agreed, in effect, that racial apartheid would be replaced by economic apartheid, known as the “free market”.”
Roy Bard
September 21, 2012 at 6:06 pm
Yeah – “best known for founding the National Union of Mineworkers”, Ramaphosa is now a MacDonalds tycoon with lots of other eggs in his basket.
Never trust the leaders……
Thanks for the link – good article
Just another Israeli eating a happeh meal?