grateful for being tolerated and in fac t dare not c laim their rights. In this regard it is an
inc reasingly c ommon prac tic e to make rac ially driven statements against whites.
The only thing worse than the ANC Youth League leaders' statements, is the ANC's
failure to c all them to order. The ANC has found the party's former youth leader,
Julius Malema, not guilty on a c harge of ac ting in a polarising manner when he
stated, in the presenc e of President Zuma, that 'onc e we agree they [whites] stole
our land, we c an agree that they are c riminals and must be treated as suc h'. Neither
did the ANC utter a single word of protest when the party's deputy youth leader,
Ronald Lamola, made the following threat, namely that Afrikaners' safety c annot be
guaranteed unless they surrender their land without c ompensation.
3.3
Use of re pre se ntivity to pre ve nt minority control of institutions
A c entral aim of the ANC is to ensure that the demography of South Afric a is
replic ated in all institutions, as this will help c reate a National Democ ratic Soc iety.
This means that no institution c ontrolled by minorities will eventually be able to
exist. Communities that do not have their own institutions are partic ularly vulnerable.
4.
The pre se nt state of language , cultural and e ducation rights in South Africa
The ANC's suc c ess in strengthening its own power base and rendering c onstitutional bodies
that are supposed to protec t minorities ineffec tual in terms of its 'balanc e of forc es' mindset
has already affec ted the state of language, c ultural and educ ation rights in South Afric a.
People whose rights are being violated have limited ac c ess to signific ant methods of
rec ourse and are often left at the merc y of the all-embrac ing power of the state.
4.1
Education rights
Sec tion 29 of the Dec laration of Human Rights in the Constitution states that
everyone has a right to educ ation. The fac t that about 80% of the public sc hools in
South
Afric a
are
dysfunc tional-proves-that
the
right
to.educ ation
of
an
overwhelming majority-of-learners-is- being-violated. Should the c urrent state of
affairs persist, less than half of the c hildren who annually enrol in Grade 1 will
eventually write their matric ulation examinations and then only a third of them will
pass, even though the standards and requirements for passing are quite low.
In my opinion, and in the opinion of others, the main reason for this state of affairs
is the stranglehold that the SADTU union has on educ ation. Teac hers who do not do
their work are protec ted at the expense of learners. Where SADTU has no influenc e,
educ ation of a high-standing quality is being provided. Having adopted the aims of
the National Democ ratic Revolution the ruling allianc e now c onsiders itself to be a
movement with lofty aims that ought to spearhead the revolution. This results in the
ANC tolerating the violation of learners' rights, instead of taking ac tion against its
allianc e partner, SADTU.
4