The South African center-right columnist opines about an African National Congress scandal, where textbooks still haven't been delivered to a province seven months into the school year: "We are led by men who are in office but not in power; men who are interested in enjoying the fruits of being in office but misunderstand and squander its opportunities; men who are gripped by a victim mentality and do not know how to become agents of change. They are nothing men. They are men of the stage: rich in talk and rhetoric, but incapable of action. They have achieved nothing and will achieve nothing. Our children are the victims of these men's failure to be agents of change."
Mr. Malala slams the ANC for its statement of condemnation about the issue: "Hello? This is the party that is in charge, and it seems, in its view, issuing a statement of condemnation is just about all it can do. We have an organisation in power that does not understand that power can and has to be used. That is what ordinary South Africans voted for: a party and an executive that would fulfil its mandate. Power has been placed in the ANC's hands but all it has done throughout the textbooks debacle is play victim. [Deputy President Kgalema] Motlanthe, who sits at the apex of power in our country, behaves and speaks as though he is not part of the collective in charge. The national executive committee meeting, which was chaired by President Jacob Zuma, pronounced as though it did not have the captain of the ship in its midst. It should have put him and his ministers on the spot. Instead, a statement long on rhetoric and short on detail was issued. These are symptoms of people who do not believe they have the power to act. Instead, things happen to them. They are victims."
Justice Malala Op-Ed: Day Of The Nothing Men
