The worst offenders of our democracy are not the ordinary citizens on our streets. They are not the poor and the downtrodden. They are not the marginalised and the have-nots.

They are the people who are supposed to lead us towards a new future.

The worst offenders of our new democracy are those who have to lead our country in our new epoch of non-racialism, non-sexism and freedom of speech and expression.

Our politicians, who have to be the moral compass of our society, are the first to cry racism. This only shows moral bankruptcy and a lack of leadership.

As an artist, I am in favour of freedom of artistic expression. Unfortunately, I cannot condone the painting of our president, whatever the intention was . I t was not what was depicted, but what happened afterwards.

We saw the ANC rally behind the immorality of the picture, but not the moral compass the purported individual directed.

Even worse was our political leaders' moral response: to march against an art gallery; to march against an artist; to march against the expression of our society. Even that I would allow.

The worst was our politicians crying racism. Our country has a bad record when it comes to racial segregation and the evils of apartheid. It would be naive to think the rift of our racist past would be crossed so easily and painlessly. However, when you see the man in the street, how he deals with racism, how he tackles racism from every corner, it makes me proud to be a South African. We don't seem to be afraid when our rights are violated.

However, our politicians are the greatest racists. They will never allow us to forget our racist past. They will never allow us to move beyond race. They will never allow us to move and live freely alongside our countrymen.

We, as South Africans, are ready to move on.

Yes, we are ready as a nation to look beyond our apartheid past. Though the wounds may take time to heal, we are willing to forgive.

Our political leaders, however, will never allow us to forget. They will constantly remind us where we come from because crying racism is the only way they can rally the black masses.

Everything that a white person in this country does wrong, according to our racist compass, will be measured against the race barometer as set up by ANC politicians.

Our politicians should start focus ing on other issues pulling this country apart: farm murders, corruption, plundering of state resources, abuse of farm workers and private sector workers, child rape, and poor productivity in the public sector .

When Cosatu and the ANC march against these issues we will move forward. When we stop protecting unproductive workers and start looking at the unemployed we will be doing a service to our country.

When we march against the weakening education system, we will be marching forward.

Our politicians need to take a hard inward look and assess how they are guiding our people. The people are ready to move beyond our past, but the politicians will not allow them to do so.

Should this happen, the ANC will lose its mandate.

The only reason the ANC got together was to dismantle apartheid. Now that apartheid has been dismantled, it has no legitimate right to speak for the poor and downtrodden.

Maybe Cosatu should take over to champion the working class. The DA should follow suit. It will now depend on who speaks for the poor: the ANC has lost the moral high ground; Cosatu has the working class in mind and the DA looks to assist the unemployed youth with a subsidy. -