Dear honourable President Cyril Ramaphosa,
In these days of constant rhetoric and broken promises, persistence in what is good for the people of this nation is like a pipe dream, whose fulfilment is an impossible reality. I would like to offer you free advice on how you can rally people behind you and your government.
It is the right of our people to determine their own destiny and to carve a path for themselves - a freedom that is not measured by nepotism, racism, sexism, sectarianism, class oppression and corruption. It is sacred right of a people to determine the national agenda of their country that reflects their deepest aspirations and highest hopes.
Mr President, service is not an option, but an imperative, which your government is definitely failing to realise. Your government can be different from other governments before it, only if it can implement its policies and programmes. As a commander-in-chief, you have to listen to the voices of the poor people. It is the poor who, when organised, can lead the country into a standstill. It is not the capitalists, with huge purses, that can collapse the economy. If you have doubts go and read the history of liberation in this country.
The streets all over the country are on fire. You do not seem to be perturbed by their expression of frustration and anger at your government. The people are frustrated because they invested their hope in your ability, as a liberation movement, to change their lives. But, now, you seem to be stuck in the abyss of political freedom - which is meaningless in terms of bringing about total liberation. The promises you made in the 1990s are failing us all, ANC included.
If you, your government and the ANC are dragging your feet, the community is ready to disturb peace in the beehive. When the bees are scattered all over and provoked by some vagabonds or amateurs, everybody knows that hell has broken loose.
The fire of suffering, despair and desperate cry to be heard is loud in Soweto, Sharpeville, Marikana, Harrismith, Mother Well, Langa, Khutsong, Phomolong, Bothaville, Alexandra, Viljoenskroon, Soshanguve, Tshwane, Delmas, Mbizana, Mdantsane, Khayelitsha, Hout Bay, Paarl, Phillipi, Nyanga, Delft, Dutywa, Mthatha, Ngcobo, Gcuwa, Cala, Lusikisiki, Centane, Cofimvaba, Tsomo, Ngqamakwe, Gatyane, KwaNongoma, KwaMashu, Elundini, and other places, where the poorest of the poor reside. These people are crying for help and the government is treating this as a joke.
The biggest problem facing the people, in many poor areas, is land. Service delivery, land and economy are the biggest problems. In places where people own land, there is no support from your self-serving government officials.
People are not interested in your empty promises, Mr President. They want basic social services such as houses, sanitation, water, electricity, healthcare, employment, welfare, tar roads, clinics, hospitals, schools, community halls, playgrounds, etc. In fact, after 25 years of democracy, the people should not be striving to have their basic social services met. We should be talking a different language - the language quality in what we are doing.
The land question is a ticking time-bomb. The PAC says “land first, all shall follow”. The PAC believes that political freedom without economic power is no freedom at all. Land is economy and economy is land.
President Ramaphosa, it is important to adopt the strategy of imbizo, to ensure participatory democracy. The people’s parliament would ensure that everyday people contribute to the development of their own communities and the country. Mr President, you and your Cabinet need to come down from the ivory towers to engage with the people - listen to their cry for freedom and economic emancipation.