We must never abuse our constitution to justify injustice
There is a new and disturbing trend in South African politics. It comes from a faction of the ANC that knows the honeymoon is over. They acknowledge the ANC is failing to deliver, but they refuse to acknowledge the reasons: cadre deployment, corruption, and poor policy compounded by weak implementation.
Up until now the ANC has used history as a scapegoat to explain its failures. Whatever goes wrong, blame apartheid. The DA recognises that apartheid's bitter legacy is still very much with us, and will take a long time to overcome. But we believe that efforts to eradicate it are hampered when we hide behind "apartheid" to avoid taking responsibility for our current failures. Recently (and to his credit) Jacob Zuma has said the same thing. He has, on several occasions, made the point that we cannot continue to blame apartheid for everything as we approach the 20th anniversary of democracy.
We hoped this approach would result in a little more introspection, analysis and course correction. Unfortunately, it has not. The ANC's populists have found another scapegoat. It is far more dangerous than merely blaming the past. Indeed, it has deeply disturbing implications. We are now increasingly hearing, from a faction of the ANC linked to Julius Malema, that the government cannot deliver because the constitution prevents it from doing so! A recent speech in Parliament by Malusi Gigaba (one of this group) was an example of this insidious trend.
It is based on fallacious logic which illustrates yet again why ‘liberation movements' usually make such bad democratic governments. They equate "liberation" with the seizure and centralisation of their personal power, which they inevitably abuse to entrench and enrich their inner circle. This group is the embodiment of the well known aphorism: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Because of this ‘iron law' of politics, genuine democracy requires a constitution with various checks and balances to prevent power abuse. A Bill of Rights, an independent judiciary and other independent institutions are essential to ensure that leaders serve the people and not themselves. This is inconvenient and irritating for the ANC's inner circle. They want the freedom to loot, with freedom from accountability. The constitution stands in their way, so they are turning on it. And, inevitably, in order to hide their real motives, they play the race card. The ANC cannot deliver, they say, because the constitution was designed to protect whites.