On the ANC, DA, merit and Stalinism

Neighbours have been debating whether the ANC or DA should run our ward. The DA won comfortably. I thought I would post this response. I hold no brief for the DA or the ANC, but believe merit is the only yardstick.

I wrote:
It is important - if not critical - to note that the DA is the first meaningful, substantial party in South Africa that is not:

* Racist
* Nationalist
* Stalinist

The National Party, which ruled South Africa for so many decades, was utterly racist and nationalist.

The ANC is inherently racist and Stalinist. Merit is subjugated to party loyalty. Dissidence is not tolerated, unless it comes from the unspeakable Malema. Logic flies out of the window. Nursing and teachers' schools are closed down. Roads are allowed to deteriorate. 70% of municipal income is spent on salaries. Budgets are underspent.

Eskom is allowed to run itself into the ground. The Land Bank collapses as competent people (Helena Dolny) are worked out for ANC cronies. Cronyism rules.

Pupils are allowed to pass with 30%. We are in the bottom five of most measures in Africa. We have a 45% unemployed rate. Children die in droves in hospitals. People are sent home for years on full pay. Teachers work *three* months a year.

Merit is punished and excellence penalised. Dr Anthony Turton tells us of the looming water crisis and he is fired. Utter incompetents such as Zuma's nephew can become billionaires overnight. He is allowed to go for over a year without paying his workers and he is shielded. He destroys our water supply and the government first denies it has happened and then invests R200m to fix the problem. The Gupta family is allowed to take over swathes of the South African economy and Eskom is raided for the ANC purse. The ANC was bankrupt in 2005, and today it has over R2bn in the bank. That is our money.

The DA, for all its faults, is a meritocracy. You are rewarded for your skills, not your cadre record. Its municipalities work.

Whatever the ANC once was, it now exists for itself. And this is bad in any country, but people will only be fooled for so long.

There are a number of evils in politics:

* Nationalism
* Socialism
* Communism/Stalinism
* Fascism
* Racism

Three of these manifest in the ANC, and they all deny merit and advance mediocrity and punish excellence.

Let the ANC win our ward back on merit. Chances are zero this will happen in our lifetime.