When the going gets tough the tough get going. Well that, or they spin some bogus nonsense and try pull the wool over the eyes of our country’s voters.

The ANC has a storied history of blaming outside forces for many of their failings, and whilst there may be truth to some of what they say, other claims have not stood up so well against the test of time.

The team at Business Day have compiled a top 10 list, but we’ll choose our five favourites for your consideration below:

1. The CIA’s agenda to suggest HIV causes AIDS

At the height of his HIV/AIDS dissidence, it was reported former president Thabo Mbeki had addressed an ANC caucus meeting in October 2000 to declare, among other things, that the US’s CIA was part of a conspiracy to promote the view that HIV causes AIDS.

…Mbeki had claimed “the CIA is working covertly alongside the big US pharmaceutical manufacturers to undermine him because, by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, he is thought to pose a risk to the profits of drug companies making antiretroviral treatments”.

Mbeki wasn’t alone in this kind of paranoia. One of his favourite surrogates, the late ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Peter Mokaba, had claimed the link between HIV and AIDS was part of an “international western plot” to kill black Africans. No evidence for their claims was ever provided by either of them.

2. “The West” is plotting to assassinate Jacob Zuma

Such is the size of Zuma’s security detail you’d be forgiven for thinking every second person was planning to assassinate him. But, for ANCYL KwaZulu-Natal secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo, the real threat is The West.

“I want you comrades to know that we have uncovered such a plot (to assassinate Zuma).… We must start to build the capabilities of the (defence force) to the capacity and capabilities of a world superpower. We must have one million well-trained young soldiers,” he said after a provincial executive meeting in April this year…

A world superpower? Perhaps just focus on providing electrical power first. It’s remarkable that a provincial youth branch uncovered a plot that has evaded all our national security forces. Not just the champion of education, then, but the champion of international foreign intelligence too. As ever, we await the details.

3. The public protector is a CIA spy

“These Chapter 9 institutions were created by the ANC but are now being used against us, and if you ask why, it’s an agenda of the CIA. Ama (the) Americans want their own CEO in SA and we must not allow that.”

So said Defence and Military Veterans Deputy Minister Kebby Maphatsoe at a funeral in September 2014 …Pressed on the accusation, he would later respond, “We do not have such details. I am going to give full details about the comments I made at the tombstone, including why we believe she is an agent of the CIA.”

No details yet — surprise, surprise. And none have been forthcoming since.

4. The opposition are CIA agents

“If they (the DA and EFF) want to mobilise the people (against Zuma), it will confirm they are part of CIA agents,” said ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala in April this year…

But even he was forced to backtrack a little bit when pushed. “I am saying they are part of the (push for) regime change. I am not saying they are CIA. They are working closely with the CIA. They are working with the regime change forces,” he tried to explain. So just working with the CIA on a voluntary basis. Kind of like charity work. A hobby they do on the side.

That the DA and the EFF are openly campaigning to oust the ANC-led government is hardly a revelation. They are opposition parties. In a democracy, that’s what opposition parties do. But if, like the ANC, you believe you are ordained by God to govern until the end of days, well, any opposition is illegitimate. As for Zikalala’s accusation — there’s zero proof.

5. Service delivery protests are driven by a “third force”

Whether it’s 24 schools being razed in Vuwani, which Zuma suggested recently was influenced by a “third force”, or general discontent across the country, the ANC government’s first port of call is almost always a conspiracy of some sort of another.

When protesters rampaged through Sebokeng, Gauteng, in February 2014, for example, community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko ordered the police to investigate the “invisible hand” of a suspected “third force”…

Even as far back as 2010, when protests erupted in the same province, it was reported the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was investigating them.

“It seems there is a systematic pattern and that the protests are co-ordinated with a clear objective to destabilise government,” ANC Gauteng spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said at the time.

But there’s never any evidence, and it is never proven that a third force is behind any of it.

The final word to columnist Gareth van Onselen on this one:

The ANC has deliberately manufactured an environment in which everything that runs against the party or threatens its legitimacy is blamed on some outside agency. It is a form of behaviour that has become addictive, with many individuals excusing their own abhorrent attitudes and actions in much the same fashion…

There’s always a third force. Responsibility left SA a long time ago, and with it, accountability.

Nail on head.

[source:bdlive]

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