South Africans should be outraged at the election of Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as Speaker of the National Assembly – a failed Minister of Defence who could not lead the Security Cluster in ensuring the safety and security of the people of this country and our economy when what appears to be members of her own party launched a violent campaign of violence and looting who has, for all intents and purposes, been demoted upwards.
President Cyril Ramaphosa clearly does not take Parliament and South Africans seriously enough that he would seek to have installed as the person who would be third in the line of succession, someone who so blatantly mislead him and the country regarding the severity of the threat to national security that resulted in the events that brought the KZN economy in particular to its knees.
Mapisa-Nqakula has never failed to disappoint and her tales are legend. More recently, she and her several counterparts at the Department of Home Affairs have continuously failed to secure our borders, so much so that alleged immigration offender, the self-styled miracle worker Sheperd Bushiri and his family were able to contravene their bail conditions and waltz out of the country, thereby evading justice.
Ultimately, South Africans must see this promotion for what it is; President Ramaphosa making good on his commitment to rather be a weak President than to risk an insurrection within the ANC. He, too, never fails to place his own political interests, and those of his party, above those of the country. There is simply no justifiable reason for South Africans to continue to suffer at the hands of ANC power struggles, factionalism, corruption, and, worse yet in this case, dereliction of duty.
Ramaphosa’s promotion of Mapisa-Nqakula must also be understood to be a cycnical confirmation that he has no serious regard for Parliament and is happy to use it as an additional terrain through which he may safeguard his political interests. Someone who has denied that this was an act of treason and insurrection cannot be trusted to head the body that itself seeks to hold this inquiry. She is obviously conflicted and her mere presence in that seat would render Parliament’s findings liable to legal challenge.
At a time when our country’s global standing is at its lowest, the governing party continues to demonstrate its blatant disregard for the people of South Africa through its decisions. There can be no denying that the ANC’s priority remains itself and not the South African people.
ActionSA stands ready to provide an alternative to the broken political system that has failed South Africans. We are assembling a team of South Africans committed to public service and not service of political parties, who have the skills, experience, and knowledge to achieve our vision for a country that works for all its residents.
