Nelson Mandela,s death on the 5/12/2013 quite correctly led to widespread international mourning from both the general public and the people of South Africa. His courageous battle against the evil apartheid system in that country will be remembered for ever. He is also entitled to receive great credit to a peaceful transfer of government power based on one person one vote which obviously meant an African National Government which is the political party which represents the vast majority of Africans in South Africa.
However one of the strange aspects of the international tributes paid to Nelson Mandela after his death was those paid to him by right wing politicians who used to call the ANC a terrorist organization during the apartheid regime. Amongst the people who paid tribute to Nelson Mandela was our own Prime Minister David Cameron who visited South Africa during apartheid rule. One must obviously ask why are right wing politicians now paying great tributes to Mr Mandela. The answer to this question I feel is to a certain extent controversial and may upset some people. But I feel that once in power the ANC established a typical neo colonialist regime based on the real power still being held by the European South African capitalists in return for ANC representatives being given some representations in these capitalist companies.
After the ANC came to power they and their South African Communist Party allies dropped quickly dropped their support for nationalization of industries and instead supported the privatization of some industries. Nelson Mandela himself spoke in support of privatization and of his opposition to nationalization.
Today in South African European South Africans own 80% of the farming land,90% of the general wealth and 75% of business interests. So clearly the ANC and their SACP allies run the country for the benefit of the European capitalists and the ANC elite.
Based on these statistics I feel that a new political party is needed in South Africa to build a Democratic Socialist South Africa. This party must adopt a programme of public ownership of major corporations, decent housing and health services for all. Such a new Democratic Socialist Party can attract the support of both working class Africans and European middle class people interested in social justice. In conclusion I very much welcome comments from readers on this to a certain extent in controversial blog.
kevinclarion 