Polokwane is abuzz with activity this week as shop owners, B&B managers, hoteliers and others, constantly run about trying to take advantage of the ANC conference happening there.
I was meant to be in Polokwane over the weekend myself. Nothing connected to the conference of course, but personal functions. It didn’t happen for various reasons. I got worried as the days drew closer though, about traffic and so on.
It seems a lot is happening at the conference, with voting delayed for about 3 hours when there was a computer problem. That has been solved. Voting continues.
Over the past few weeks I have had countless conversations, as I’m sure you have too, with people about this ANC conference. In particular we speak about issues relating to the new leadership that is proposed for the ANC, including the possibility of President Thabo Mbeki being replaced by his Deputy Jacob Zuma as party president. I’ve heard comments such as:
“Zuma is not an intellectual.”
“I’m worried if Zuma wins, that is the end for Mzansi”
“How can you ask me which side I am on when you know that JZ is our leader?”
“We cannot have a corrupt man in power”
“Thabo is also corrupt. This truth will come out eventually”
And others. I guess this is what one would call grassroots comments. It seems natural to me that each time we have a potential change of leadership a lot of words are exchanged between concerned parties, some pleasant, most probably not. I personally expect it. What I do not expect are adults who behave as children at such points in time, going at each other relentlessly and viciously. Last week I told a friend of mine about the big arms cache at the OR Tambo airport, and joked that I hoped it wasn’t meant for shipping to Polokwane. We have gone through the whole violence thing and going back would be catastrophic.
So we wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment