RED, WHITE & BLUE UNDER EVERY ANC COMRADE'S BED

South Africa under the apartheid government coined the phrase " a red under every bed". Fear of Communism haunted the white minority government. Anti-Communism was inextricably linked to government's foreign policy and much of its domestic policy in furtherance of institutionalized racism and minority rule. The regime's anti-Communist stand found support by most of Western Europe and the US due to their confrontation with the Soviet Union. The ANC has long contended that some Western countries during the Cold War covertly collaborated with the apartheid regime. Such collaboration, according to a recent report, led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela following a tip from a CIA operative. That was some 54 years ago. Nonetheless ANC spokesman ZIzi Kodwa and Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, contend that the CIA is still interfering . . . "to undermine the democratically elected ANC government". The narrative has dramatically and irreversibly changed since Mandela's arrest. The collapse of the Soviet Union altered the political dynamic for the US and South Africa. South Africa no longer has the strategic relevance that previously existed except in the context of the war against terrorism. Kodwa and Mantashe's allegations of US involvement in regime change is a classic example of a red herring - spurious allegations meant to detract from the real and important problems facing the country - unemployment, corruption, crime, dire poverty, wasteful spending and maladministration. No amount of obfuscation by the ruling party will prevent inevitable change taking place within the country. The upcoming local elections will underscore growing disaffection with the ANC. So much for food parcels and free T-shirts.