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Today is Thursday the 12th of February 2015. Today I am sad. I am sad because this evening it became undeniably clear that the African National Congress, in my opinion the greatest political phenomenon of the modern era, has lost its way.
When I think of the ANC I think of an organization that single-handedly orchestrated the most peaceful subversion of an oppressive government in history. I think of an institution whose core values, embedded deep within its foundations, led nine of its leaders to stand up in a courtroom in 1964 and volunteer to give their lives for their cause. I think of a beacon of hope that beat all odds and yet managed to maintain its humility and compassion, not only through countless defeats, but most importantly through its ultimate victory as well.
Sadly, today these grand and noble memories seem to be nothing more than just that – memories.
Our country faces an abundance of grave and compelling issues – unemployment, the power crisis, violent crime and rampant corruption - to name a few. These are the facts and they cannot be debated or denied. The cause of these despondent facts however, is an entirely different issue.
Through personal experience I have learned that almost all South Africans have the same default answer when confronted with the question of what should be regarded as the cause of our current predicament: Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma. It is true that President Zuma’s term in office has endured by far the most rapid decline in our country’s political and economic wellbeing since the abolishment of the apartheid government in 1994. I would even agree on the fact that our woes have been caused mainly by a complete lack of leadership from the office of Number One. But is this his fault? I think not.
I watched our “State of the Nation Address” this evening. I did. It was gut-wrenchingly painful. Of all the disturbing and admittedly sometimes comical imagery that was scorched onto my retina during the embarrassing fiasco one snippet caused me to arrive at a revelation: after all the dust had settled and our parliament had sufficiently been “broken” to the extent that there was not a single member of any opposition party left in the chamber, except maybe Chad le Clos, our president took to the podium, and giggled. The leader of our beautiful young democracy stood amongst the flames as the figurative Rome was burning all around him, with the eyes of the world fixed squarely on his next move in anticipation of some sort of assurance that despite the unprecedented chaos that had ensued mere moments before, everything will be alright. And he giggled.
It was this act of monstrous indifference that led me to realize an obvious truth - this man could not be held accountable. Surely if he were to be tried in a hypothetical court of law for all the failures during his reign he would be found not guilty by reason of intellectual incompetence. Everything suddenly fell into place, from his rape allegations to the weapons scandal right through to the countless questionable remarks that not even Mac Maharaj could remedy. These were not the devious workings of some evil and corrupt mastermind, but merely the actions and utterances of a helplessly incompetent person who had been promoted so far above his pay grade that he began to believe that he was indeed qualified to act as a head of state. This scenario can be equated to a primary school kid who dreams of becoming a brain surgeon being handed a sedated patient and a scalpel.
In light of my recent Damascus experience I now believe that even the Nkandla scandal – the latest star act in our parliamentary circus and the root of the SONA debacle – is not JZ’s fault. I honestly think that this was just a case of opportunistic tender-vultures being handed blank cheques that were underwritten by the office of a man who had access to a lot of funds and significantly less brain power. I really don’t think it was JZ’s idea to have a “fire pool” installed but I do believe that it would not have been very hard for some sly “tenderpreneur” to convince him that he needed one. Obviously our president did not possess the intellectual foresight to predict that this grotesque self-enrichment would leave him vulnerable to such a relentless onslaught form opposition parties. I do feel sorry for him in this regard, the man never stood a chance.
Who do we blame then? Not only for Nkandlagate, but for the overall lack of leadership that led to our country’s dismal status quo.
In a democracy it is often easy to blame the voters – after all it was the millions of ordinary South Africans who voted for the ANC that allowed Zuma to come to power. Ordinarily this would hold true – but this is no ordinary situation and South Africa is no ordinary democracy. I do believe that the aftermath of apartheid has impaired greatly upon the majority of South African’s ability to make an objective and informed decision when it comes to casting their precious votes.
The heroics of the pre-democracy ANC and its godlike leaders who fought for and achieved liberation have engraved a (not undeserved) lasting loyalty into the hearts of most South Africans. Combine this fact with the illiteracy and uninformed naivety of the average voter in South Africa and you are left with less of a democracy and more of a monarchy – the royal family (ANC) will be in power no matter what. I am not saying that this is a bad thing – I am however saying that this is dangerous. The danger being the fact that the voters can no longer be held accountable for the leader that they themselves elected as they have no choice but to heed the call of their once-great liberation movement. They don’t know why their power is off every second day or why the price of their groceries keep increasing at an alarming rate – but the ANC gave them this most precious right to vote so it is only logical that they should at least give their vote to the ANC. Who am I to question this most noble of loyalties?
My quarrel therefor lies not with the voters or even with their elected leader. I take issue with the current management of the ANC. These are the people who have repeatedly chosen to put forward an incompetent people-pleaser as their leader in the hope of using the accompanying political anarchy to perhaps secure one more lucrative government tender for some distant cousin or the like. These are highly educated and well-informed individuals who can most definitely not hide behind the ever thinning vale of “it is apartheid’s fault” any longer. They should know better.
I honestly don’t understand how the considerable conglomerate of intelligent and well-respected leaders within the ANC could have allowed the situation to deteriorate to its current levels. I am well aware of the strange and corrupting effect that easy money can have on one’s moral compass, but surely the legacy of something as noble as the monumentally magnanimous events of 1994 should trump simple self-interest every time. Yet instead of acting to protect and uphold the legacies of colossuses such as Mandela, Luthuli and Biko these Ivy League graduates that currently run the ANC choose to rather add a few more millions to their already congested bank accounts – at the expense of the people of South Africa, their own people.
Today I am sad. I am sad for the ANC and I am sad for its people – most notably those loyal millions who still believe in a party whose management have long since forgotten their plight and succumbed to the corrupt entitlement that so often accompanies power. Believe it or not I also feel sad for the deceitful leaders of the ANC - because every time they put their own interests before that of the greater good Mandela’s 27 years, Biko’s torture and Hector Pietersen’s death mean less and less – and they are smart enough to realize this. That guilt is not something that I would wish upon the conscience of any man.
Despite its many flaws and obvious current shortcomings I do however still believe in the institution that is the ANC. I believe that it is bigger than the corrupt few who currently occupy its chambers and I believe that it will once again rise to meet this adversity and provide us with a new generation of leaders who will manage to put the needs of the many before the greed of the few. I am sad, but I will not stop believing.
