I won’t vote for ANC: Desmond Tutu
11 May 2013 8:40 AM IST
Desmond Tutu will not vote for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, which brought Nelson Mandela to power exactly 19 years ago, the Nobel Peace laureate said in an article published on Friday.
Massive poverty, inequality and falling standards have cost the ANC the retired archbishop’s support, he said in an opinion piece carried by the Mail & Guardian.
‘I have over the years voted for the ANC, but I would very sadly not be able to vote for them after the way things have gone,’ the 81-year-old wrote.
‘The ANC was very good at leading us in the struggle to be free from oppression,’ Tutu said of the party which won the first all-race elections. That victory saw Nelson Mandela inaugurated as the country’s first black president on 10 May, 1994.
‘But it doesn’t seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can easily make the transition to becoming a political party,’ added Tutu, who was discharged from hospital last week following treatment for an infection.
Under apartheid, Tutu campaigned against white minority rule and was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.
Officially retired but still outspoken on the world’s injustices, he is widely viewed as South Africa’s moral conscience. The witty cleric has been increasingly critical of the ruling party in recent years. He accused the ANC government in 2011 of kowtowing to trade partner China when it delayed a tourist visa for the Dalai Lama.
Massive poverty, inequality and falling standards have cost the ANC the retired archbishop’s support, he said in an opinion piece carried by the Mail & Guardian.
‘I have over the years voted for the ANC, but I would very sadly not be able to vote for them after the way things have gone,’ the 81-year-old wrote.
‘The ANC was very good at leading us in the struggle to be free from oppression,’ Tutu said of the party which won the first all-race elections. That victory saw Nelson Mandela inaugurated as the country’s first black president on 10 May, 1994.
‘But it doesn’t seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can easily make the transition to becoming a political party,’ added Tutu, who was discharged from hospital last week following treatment for an infection.
Under apartheid, Tutu campaigned against white minority rule and was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.
Officially retired but still outspoken on the world’s injustices, he is widely viewed as South Africa’s moral conscience. The witty cleric has been increasingly critical of the ruling party in recent years. He accused the ANC government in 2011 of kowtowing to trade partner China when it delayed a tourist visa for the Dalai Lama.
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