GWEDE MANTASHE - A RELIC FROM THE PAST

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe wasn't a happy camper following former president Kgalema Motlanthe's scathing criticism of the ANC, and its alliance partners for betraying the revolution. In an editorial in Business Day, Mantashe responded to the former president's critical remarks by castigating him for seeking celebrityhood through criticism, amongst other didactic mouthfuls. Mantashe is not one of the plain vanilla communist apparatchiks within the party's alliance. His ongoing love affair with materialistic dialectic communism with a dash of Maoism, is embedded in his political makeup. Therein lies a problem - Mantashe's deceptive reliance on Mao's purported democratic teachings to mollify the former president's criticism. History records that Mao, in practice, was never a supporter of democracy. In truth and in fact, he was a communist tyrant who orchestrated the Cultural Revolution resulting in the killing of some 1.5 million people. So much so, for Mantashe's revisionist take on history. If Mantashe decides again to engage in pseudo-intellectual pursuits, he should take the time to select an historical unblemished and heroic character, when firing back at critics. For now, he is shooting blanks.