Crimes of the great denialist

I must commend Mr Achmat for a concise and incisive opinion piece. He correctly names Mbeki's major "transgressions". If only his call for proper leadership and action from the new executive would be heeded, all South Africans can enjoy the many benefits of this beautiful country.
henriw

Thank you Mr. Achmat for defining the facts so clearly and truthfully we are all aware of Mbeki's faults and arrogant denialism but when penned to paper the extent is quite shattering. Hopefully
Motlanthe will be everything he appears to be and will steer our ship on course for a long long time never having to hand the Captaincy to the likes of Zuma and Malema.

Zackie -

It is vital that people of your calibre and convictions face at last that what is wrong in SA runs much deeper than the failings of one man, Thabo Mbeki, and I hope you will see this well-meaning reminder of it.

SA is a monocracy: the ANC is the problem, not the solution. While every word of what you say above must have been known to very many thinking citizens for years now, in the absence of credible political competition the ANC cannot any longer achieve the things you ask of it and the broad majority of SAns are robbed of the democratic contribution they could otherwise make. Twist and turn as it may, the party will always flinch from internal reform because reform can only turn its present splits into outright division. It does not serve any interest in the party, 'good' or 'bad', to damage the party, the only certain route to power in SA.

Like many other countries across the world, SA faces a future of barren factional in-fighting in which the general interest comes second to the party's as the way of political life.

Use your talents against the ANC you love and start the fight for the alternative to it that more and more are calling for. Without an alternative, the ANC is without the cause that made it what it once was.

A well written piece, on the money.

If there was any justice in this world, the likes of Mbeki and Mugabe would be brought before the courts and tried. My personal wish list of such people would include the self-righteous 'leaders' in my own country, Blair and Brown (and those others who knowingly supported the wmd lie), who I deem responsible for million deaths in Iraq and the destruction of trust between different social groups here in the UK.

The thing is, nothing is likely to happen until we as an electorate accept the responsibility of holding our governors accountable, instead of giving them carte blanch to to abuse the power we grant them.

Will things change in the UK under Mr Cameron, or in SA under JZ? I somehow doubt it.

Quotable quote: I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. H. L. Mencken, US journalist, essayist and editor (1880 - 1956)

Well done Zackie! And I would add to their misdeeds his on going protection of Mugabe. It required a humble worker, a trade unionist and unsung hero, to blow the whistle on the Chinese arms that landed in Durban for Mugabe! Indirectly Mbeki is also responsible for the deaths of many Zimbabweans.

"The imposed resignation was long overdue. There were valid reasons to impeach Mbeki even before the Chris Nicholson judgement on three particular charges, all of which in their own right provide enough justification for such action."

It then goes without saying that the situation we have today is entirely the fault of the ANC. If they could do this now they could have prevented so much before.

Well written Zackie. I am not so sure about JZ, but I am sure about Mbeki. He did not allow debate. The whole AIDS denial thing was surreal. Like arguing with a member of the Ku Klux Klan or a holocaust denialist. Mbeki was a bitter dissapointment who really orchestrated his own demise. I ma looking forward to Barbara Hogan's tenure as Minister of Health.We still have enough good people around to make our DOH into one of the best in the world.

Zackie, well done. No wonder Manto could not understand you because you are talking sense.

I have not read any of your comments/opinions before and am sorry to have missed them. I was of the opinion that you were only concerned with HIV/AIDS.
You are SPOT-ON, I am currently working overseas and "cry for my beloved country", but people like you give me much needed hope.
Thank you.

I've always found Zackie to be sharp & articulate but i have to say, he's not exactly without self interest here.

Self interest, self interest....

Small wonder who pays the bills for the TAC....