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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 11 2012 01:29 | LAST UPDATED Feb 11 2012 01:29 |
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Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille on Friday lambasted the African National Congress (ANC) for itself being counter-revolutionary, saying the "former oppressed are emulating their erstwhile oppressors". Writing in her weekly newsletter on the DA website, she said it was curiously gratifying to be labelled a "counter-revolutionary" -- along with the Constitutional Court -- by ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe last Friday. "Being on the side of those who uphold the Constitution is exactly where the DA and I should be," she said. The great irony is that it is Mantashe -- along with ANC president Jacob Zuma, Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema -- who are the real counter-revolutionaries. "By consistently undermining our hard-won Constitution and the liberties it enshrines, it is Zuma and his allies who are taking us backwards. They want to return to an era in which a few politicians held all power and decided which rights the rest of us could exercise." The revolutionary change that came to South Africa was a Constitution that guaranteed universal rights and committed the government to uphold and protect them, not to dispense them selectively, Zille said. Zuma and Mantashe's ANC, just like the National Party under apartheid, want to control the media, the judiciary and every independent organ of state. "The former oppressed are emulating their erstwhile oppressors and, when the 'revolutionary vanguard' mimics the regime it replaced, you know that the counter-revolution has begun. It is straight out of George Orwell's Animal Farm," she said. The real counter-revolutionaries are also the "wabenzis" in the ANC Youth League who are more preoccupied with their own enrichment than serving the people.  CONTINUES BELOW "We got a clear idea of what they believe the 'revolution' to be about from the conspicuous consumption on display at the ANC Youth League conference last week," Zille said. The other real counter-revolutionaries are those in the ANC who unashamedly plunder the state's resources for personal gain. The ANC is redefining the "revolution" to mean undermining the Constitution, conspicuous consumption and looting the people's money. "Under these circumstances I am proud to be called a counter-revolutionary," Zille said. -- Sapa TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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