South Africa communist leader drives a BMW

[David__77]

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa - Speaking recently on Nelson Mandela Day, the chief of South Africa's Communist Party urged citizens to stick to values of equality and selflessness. He sometimes sports a Mao-style cap, and as minister of higher education, he has called for revolutionary content in university schooling.

So why did he choose a $137,000 BMW for his official car, and buy it with government money?

...

At Zuma's last rally before the election this year, Nzimande broke into a song: "My mother was a kitchen girl. My father was a garden boy. That's why I'm a comm - u - nist! I'm a communist! I'm a communist!"

One reader on a popular political website, devastated by Nzimande's BMW splurge, wrote: "I'm in tears. I first heard this at a rally and I heard it from Blade. It struck a chord. . . . NOW THIS???"

Another, under the signature Mgababa, wrote: "I am so disappointed in the minister, first it was red wine and now it is BMW. Is Blade still a true communist?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-communist-bmw10-2009sep10,0,1951320.story

(Why do so many leaders on the left always fall into self-aggrandizement in such a blatant fashion? It raises the question: how should elected leaders be compensated? Can't we expect that they are motivated by moral incentives primarily?)

[tabatha]

1. It is the "keep up with the Jones" meme that pervades the culture of man.

A symbol of success to show others you have made it - are important - are valuable - etc, etc.

[leveymg]

2. No, he doesn't drive a BMW. That is a fascist lie, fabrication, and falsehood . . .

the government pays for a driver. And the Moet.

[Orsino]

3. What's the problem with red wine?

The philosophy of communism probably owes its existence to red wine. :D

[proteus_lives]

4. What's so surprising?

It's the party elite. One of the fatal flaws of humanity and communism.

Stalin and other Soviet leaders lived like a tsars while their people were sent to gulags and waited in lines for toilet paper.

Mao and Chinese elite lived lived like emperors while their famines killed millions.

Jong Il lives in North Korean palace while the people eat grass.

Castro gets the finest brandy and cigars while his people build boats out of garbage to get to America.


It's the same story in every communist country.

[David__77]

5. I do not consider it a flaw of communism.

I consider it a flaw of phony communism. It is a flaw of false leftism, of misleaders who are opportunists abusing a fundamentally sound ideology. My point is, just because some people have abused it doesn't mean that capitalism is the best of all possible worlds for all time.

[proteus_lives]

6. It is because real communism can only exist on paper.

Like the ideal forms of all political ideologies. My POV is that human capitalism(despite it's many flaws) is far better for the average person then human communism, history supports this. The future model is most likely a mixture of capitalism and socialism, the exact mix I can't say. (No one can.)