EQUIP THE NATION WITH A BC-INSPIRED EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY AND SELF-RELIANCE - azapo
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4th Floor Investment Building
97 Commissioner Street
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JOHANNESBURG
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info@azapo.org.za
www.azapo.org.za
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 14 AZAPO WEEKLY ONLINE PUBLICATION
EQUIP THE NATION WITH A BC-INSPIRED EDUCATION
FOR EFFICIENCY AND SELF-RELIANCE
A country’s most valuable asset is its people. If you cation and even to render basic services such as clean
want to change a country, you must educate the people water.
and change their thinking. The people must first believe
that they are worthy. They must believe in themselves. But these commentators quickly add that there is no
They must love themselves. They must embrace the viable alternative; and because of this “reality”, the vot-
truth that they are the masters of their own destiny. ers will return the ruling party to power, albeit with a
reduced majority.
In other words, what the analysts are asking is: What is
AZAPO’s USP (unique selling proposition)? We have
repeatedly said that AZAPO is the only party that is of-
fering the country an authentic remedy to all the mala-
dies that continue to arrest our progress as a people.
And that is Black Consciousness.
If we move from a point of view that accepts as fact the
assertion that a country’s most valuable asset is its peo-
ple, then we should invest in empowering the people
with knowledge and education. For instance, Singapore
The people should know that nobody owes them any- is a small island country without any real natural re-
thing; and that for their lives to change, they are the sources to speak about. They do not even have drinking
ones that can effect the change. They must believe that water; and they have to import water from neighbour-
they are on their own. In a nutshell, the people should ing Malaysia and also make their own water from a
know that they are their own liberators. process of desalination.
As the election hype is getting louder, one fundamental But they are rich because they have a skilled population
question that AZAPO, like all other parties, is often that is able to use science, technology and innovation to
asked is: "What are you going to do that is different address all their human needs. Contrast this with the
from the ruling party?" Various political analysts, in- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC is ex-
cluding some in the ruling party, agree that the ruling tremely rich in mineral resources. But its people are
party has failed to deliver on key issues such as land, extremely poor, because the majority are without skills.
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job creation, improving the quality of health and edu-
1
Back to semi-occupied Azania. Our country has a huge people, it would have to rely on its public servants.
problem of unemployment. 4 out of 10 people who Granted, elected politicians have an important role of
should be working are not working. Many of these providing political leadership and policy guidance,
people are unemployable because they do not have but the actual delivery of service hinges on the quality
skills. AZAPO has rightly identified education as the of the public service. In other words, what AZAPO is
most important thing that can help the country to at- saying, is that the Minister of Police can make all sorts
tain its economic potential. of promises about a possible breakthrough in the ar-
rest of killers of Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, Senzo
There are two aspects of education that an AZAPO Meyiwa. But it is only an effective police force that
government would focus on. The first is BC-inspired can actually arrest the murderers and ensure a suc-
political education. The second is high-tech education cessful prosecution.
that will use science, technology and innovation to
address the needs of the population. The State can build state-of-the-art hospitals and clin-
ics. But if the healthcare professionals do not do their
work, the quality of healthcare in the country would
not improve regardless of the commitments by the
Minister of Health. But nurses who have been bap-
tised in BC; who respect themselves and respect the
lives of other people; would be well positioned to ren-
der quality service in public hospitals.
A Black Conscious public service, which is also patri-
otic, is crucial for delivery of quality service to the
population.
The nation's fate cannot be placed on elected politi-
cians who give bribes to avoid traffic fines; not on
elected politicians who take bribes to ensure the dis-
appearance of case dockets, resulting in bungling of
serious cases against criminals; not on elected politi-
cians who botch operations in hospitals, resulting in
the premature deaths of hundreds of people; not on
elected politicians who take bribes to allow importers
to under-declare their imports, resulting in the loss of
An AZAPO government will launch a massive political billions of rands which should go to the national
education campaign to explode the myth of projecting fiscus.
politicians as the only people who know it all; and
who will single-handedly solve the country’s prob- Yes, many current politicians are failing to provide
lems. ethical leadership because they too are corrupt. But
the real challenge lies with the type and quality of
Currently, people believe that the 400 politicians in public servants that we have. With the right BC-
the National Assembly and the few hundreds who are inspired political education and high levels of patriot-
in the Provincial Legislatures are the ones who can ism, it would be difficult for corrupt politicians to get
stop corruption, transform the economy and render their way, of conspiring with their business associates
quality services. This is placing too much faith and to commit treason, which we euphemistically refer to
power in too few people. as “State capture”.
For any government to deliver quality services to its 2 Appreciating the fact that people are a country’s most
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valuable asset, an AZAPO government will invest in To his credit, Maseko stood his ground and was never
the people, giving them high-tech skills so that they intimidated by the powerful politician who is con-
can actively participate as productive players in the nected to the ruling party. He rationally defended
economy. himself without being rude to a woman who is old
enough to be his grandmother.
Under an AZAPO government, education will be free
and compulsory until matric. Tertiary education will
be free but the education will be geared towards ac-
quisition of practical skills, embracing the fourth in-
dustrial revolution.
Because an average Azanian would be highly skilled,
we would not have to export our minerals such as
gold, diamond and platinum in their raw form at ri-
diculously cheap prices, only to import expensive fin-
ished products. But we would have massive programs
of beneficiating our commodities, thus creating more
Duarte’s tone was full of prejudice and political royal-
employment for our people and getting the best price
ty. How on earth can she attack Maseko of thinking
for our minerals.
he is “the lord of journalism”? Is it not correct that
Maseko should in fact aspire, like all other journalists,
Ignore the sophisticated apologists of the ruling party to be the “lord of journalism”? By all means, he
who argue that you should vote for the ruling party should. That is, if that phrase represents what high-
with all its imperfections and corruption, apparently est accomplishments that a journalist can reach in the
they are the devil you know. Vote AZAPO, the party profession. People like Duarte are so used to medioc-
that has the capacity and principle to unlock our rity in their political circles that they sweep everyone
country’s full potential. under the carpet of mediocrity.
AZAPO STANDS BY SAMKELO MASEKO AZAPO supports Maseko. He must continue to ask
the difficult and embarrassing questions to the cor-
ENCA’s senior political journalist Samkelo Maseko rupt politicians. He must never allow them to rest
came under severe abuse by the ruling party’s top 6 under the false security of their power. Maseko
leader Jessie Duarte on Tuesday. Maseko’s sin was to should know that he is making an invaluable contri-
ask a question when Duarte had decreed that ques- bution to the deepening of democracy by being the
tions unrelated to the statement she read for the me- conscience and voice of the voiceless. The Duartes of
dia conference would have to be directed to the ANC’s this world complain that Maseko ambushes them and
spokespersons at a later stage. forces them to answer questions about which they
were not warned beforehand. Why should Maseko
arm these spoiled politicians?
Duarte lost her cool and ranted about how the young
Maseko thought he was “the lord of journalism”,
Prejudice seems to come naturally from Duarte. She
when he was “just a journalist”. That was naked bul-
sees nothing wrong with chastising somebody doing
lying of a young and dedicated Black journalist by a
his work and pointing him with her fingers. She
leader who was supposed to be impressed by Ma-
seems not to be aware of how undermining it is to the
seko’s hard work and professionalism. She should
profession of journalism to tell a Young, Gifted and
have been the one encouraging the young Maseko to
Black journalist that he is nothing but “just a journal-
grow, instead of shooting him down into an obscure
ist”. That is patronising. She seems to think that be-
corner of fear and invisibility.
ing an ANC Deputy Secretary General that she is, is
3 more than being “just a journalist”. She forgets how
3
dedicated journalists like Maseko are somehow re- pants of the shacks without relocating them to an al-
sponsible for giving them the platform to be the arro- ternative piece of land. And he said that space was not
gant political celebrities they have become. available.
To AZAPO, Maseko is more than “just a journalist”. He
is a Black journalist whose professional forebears
were marginalised by virtue of their Blackness. That
was the reason why his professional forebears estab-
lished the Union of Black Journalists as an organ of the
Black Consciousness Movement., which fermented the
ultimate June 16 Uprisings against white supremacy
and landlessness.
ALEXANDRA SHUTS DOWN AMID
CALLS FOR SERVICE DELIVERY
Mashaba went on to blame the ANC as the one that
Once again, Alexandra is on fire as residents protest promised to build houses for the local people long be-
against lack of service delivery. Black people in South fore he and the DA assumed office in the Metro. He
Africa have come to learn that the best way to get the accused the ANC of vanishing into thin air after such
elusive audience of the government is to engage in promises. Mashaba could not answer claims that the
action. No government will give you hearing if you are EFF, which is the DA’s coalition partner, was the one
civil in your approach. that instigated the people to occupy land and build
shacks.
The second thing that the people have come to learn is
to blackmail the government and politicians on the What is clear is that the political parties and the politi-
eve of elections. The residents become kings and cians are playing a dangerous political game using the
queens to the politicians during elections time. real plight of the people. One political party plunges
the people into a desperate situation and turn around
The Alexandra residents have declared a total shut- to promise the people that they will address the situa-
down as a way of drawing attention to their service tion if they are voted for.
delivery backlog. The shutdown involves blockades at
the entrances and exits of the township such that The Alexandra protest started on Tuesday, following
nothing gets out or comes in. Th burning of tyres and the one that was staged six weeks ago. While the poli-
rocks can be seen at every exit and entrance. This ticians reduce the plight of the people to a political
means that workers are unable to go to work, while game for votes, the Municipal IQ’s data recorded 144
the learners have remained at home as the schools are service delivery protests in 2018 alone. The worst
temporarily closed as a result of the shutdown. affected province was the Eastern Cape, followed by
Gauteng; while there was a slight increase in the
Among other things, the residents are complaining Western Cape and Free State.
about the building of shacks at every available space
by allegedly foreign nationals, and the lack of delivery While AZAPO appreciates the political activism of the
of houses they were promised by politicians. On being citizenry, we however resent the unfortunate fact that
told by Power FM on Tuesday that the Johannesburg such protests tend to deliberately disrupt schooling.
Metro Police Department (JMPD) has said that the sit- The education of Black children, who have for genera-
uation was beyond their control, Mayor Herman tions been denied the right to learn, should never be a
Mashaba conceded that it was difficult to deal with the gambling factor.
situation because the City could not remove occu- 4
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