That’s what anti-Apartheid stalwart Archbishop Desmond says in a opinion piece written for Prospect magazine and reprinted by the Mail&Guardian newspaper.
“I have voted for the ANC, but I would very sadly not be able to vote for them after the way things have gone. I am not a card-carrying member of any political party,” he writes.
Tutu then repeats what many people are saying and agreeing to. The ANC had been good at leading South Africa through the struggle against Apartheid but the moment they gained power they lost the plot.
“They were a good freedom-fighting unit. But it doesn’t seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can easily make the transition to becoming a political party.”
He writes that the “first thing” Parliament had to do was to change the electoral system so one was elected on the basis of the constituency, and would be accountable to the electorate. “Those in Parliament are accountable to their party first rather than the electorate.”
“We can’t hold our heads up with pride when you think of the levels of violence in our country… One can point to so many instances of corruption, of unaccountability. Seeing how standards have dropped is so galling, because it seems to give ammunition to those who would say: ‘we warned you that once you had a black majority government you would see a steady decline in standards’.”
