By Nco Dube
Our national flag is supposed to instil in us, the citizenry, a sense of pride in our country and our national being. Mostly, it is supposed to instil and inculcate a sense of patriotism in us.
When it comes to the Flag we are supposed to put our differences aside and pull together for the unity and advancement of our flag. That is how you put the Flag first. Country first in all you do.
Many western democracies, which so many look up to, have citizens practicing the Flag First philosophy. You will hardly hear American opposition parties and media externally criticising policies of the sitting government. They will vehemently oppose this at home but put up a united front externally.
In our country you actually find some opposition parties and our media actually going abroad and mobilising the international community against policies of the sitting government regardless of whether such actions are going to hurt the country, its economy and its citizens. Who puts the Flag first?
Our politicians, including the ruling party, seem to put party politics ahead of national and public interest. The futile no-confidence motion against President Zuma in Parliament is one such case in point.
This is nothing but an exercise in trying to destabilise the ANC ahead of their Mangaung conference. Don’t get me wrong, the opposition parties are within their rights to move for such a motion as they see fit, but to do it in order to influence internal processes in another political party or even to prove a point is a perversion of our hard fought democracy and a slap in the face for the public of this country.
After failing to convince Parliament’s programming committee, they took the matter to court and lost and are now taking the matter to the Constitutional Court. All this cost burden for what?
Interesting part is how the DA while saying the ANC can’t block their motion based on the premise that there was no consensus in the programming committee but they themselves are trying to block the e-tolls bill from being debated and voted on in parliament this week by using the very same reason? This show how opposition politics is based, not on principles but on oppose-at-every-step wild west cowboy gimmicks.
The opposition parties have a serious duty to make the ruling party account and to drive an activist parliament that provides effective oversight roles on other state arms. But our opposition political parties seem to want to rule from opposition benches for their own benefit and not in the public interest. Who puts the Flag first?
Another case in point is the recent Tlokwe Municipality debacle where, due to the Mangaung-linked infighting within the ANC, a DA councillor was elected Mayor after an ANC sponsored vote of no confidence in their own Mayor because he belongs to a faction aligned to North West ANC Chairperson Supra Mahumapelo (Mahumapelo is aligned to the Jacob Zuma camp).
Now the Municipality has a new Mayor and will spend money effecting the transition but in a few weeks, the ANC will crack a whip on its Councillors and they will again vote together to reinstate the old Mayor or even install a new ANC Mayor. All this, at a cost to the taxpayer.
The opposition parties, to fuel their own political grand standing become willing participants, even cheerleaders to this criminal spectacle instead of holding the ruling party to account.
This provides a glimpse into how the state machinery has been paralysed by ANC internal contestations. This can’t be in the public interest. Who is putting the Flag first?
The South African media is the worst of the lot. They will pursue any story regardless of its impact on pour national life or whether it’s true or not. Our media has shown itself to be loyal only to sensationalism that will yield the most profits.
There is absolutely no care for the Flag and public interest as far as our media is concerned. In doing so they are in derelict of their duty as the Fourth Estate. Instead of providing the public with neutral and balanced account of what is happening in the country, the media go out of its way to try and influence discourse in favour of opposition and/or white interest. Who puts the Flag first?
Is it not about time that we all put the Flag first? That we all engage in our duties based on the principled convictions? That we oppose, report and govern, not for our narrow partisan interest, but for the nation, the Flag?