Will our President please stand up

No one will dispute that South Africa has come a long way and has set the benchmark for a democratic, peaceful revolution. With great national pride millions went to the ballot box for the first time on the 27th of April 1994. Since then the day has been commemorated as a national day of celebration to remind us of what we have achieved as a nation.

However, this year's celebration was a disgrace.

According to the government's website Freedom Day is celebrated for the following reasons: ... every South African, young and old, to recognise the values and principles enshrined in our constitution and avoid behaviour that may impact negatively on society.
... We celebrate living in a system which guarantees that never again will our human dignity be taken from any South African irrespective of their race, gender, creed or sexual orientation.

None of what the government says we celebrate was expressed at the ceremony this year.

Members of government -from a number of different parties- gathered at the Union Buildings and many were given the opportunity to address the crowd. Whenever a member of an opposition party got to the platform and tried to speak they were heckled, booed and shouted offstage. A lame attempt was made by Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile to calm the crowd but it was to no avail.

This was no political rally, but rather a chance to celebrate our hard fought political freedoms. However, the very thing that was meant to be celebrated was dragged through the mud while our President did nothing.

It is to President Zuma's eternal disgrace that he sat on his chair and watched a national celebration turn into a farce. It seems as if the President is unable to separate his role as President of the Country and President of the ruling party; the two are very distinct. As his role of President of this country it was his duty to defend and protect a national day.

In addition, this was not the first time President Zuma has shown a blatant lack of national leadership. At this year's Human Rights Day celebrations in Cape Town opposition members were booed while the President watched on.

This is totally unacceptable and an embarrassment.

Please Mr President, stand up and lead.

ANC needs to be careful with what it says

Due to a shocking series of administrative errors no ANC candidates in Potchefstroom will be running in the upcoming elections. Quite simply no names were handed in to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) before the deadline closed. The man accused of this error is ANC provincial secretary for North West Kabelo Mataboge.

In response to the allegations Mataboge acknowledged that the ANC will not be contesting seven of the wards in Potchefstroom and then said, "We hope this is due to human error and not political conspiracy by the IEC" (The Mail and Guardian, 21 to 28 April 2011, page 3). This is a very dangerous comment to be making.

In order for our democracy to survive and flourish there needs to be unwavering faith in the institutions that protect our freedom. Democracy lives and dies on holding free and fair elections and thus the independence of an Electoral Committee is paramount.

As long as the ANC accepts comments such as the one made by Mataboge a platform can be laid to question our election results. As we have seen in so many fledgling democracies, when a set of results come out that are unfavourable to the incumbents then the results are questioned. As soon as results can be questioned there will be room for revolution, coup d’état and civil war.

The ANC need to distance themselves from the comments made by Mataboge and be very careful with the language that they use in future.