When I was growing up in the township of Mlungisi in Queenstown we were terrorised by a gang of organised criminals called Ngxola (Noise) Boys. Just going to the shops was a scary thing and sometimes meant your death. People abhorred the Ngxola Boys but were helpless because they were unorganised. The apartheid government, naturally, did care anything happening in the townships so long it was not politically motivated. It came to an extent that people organised vigilante groups—I remember one called Inyosi (Bees) that finally broke the back of Ngxola Boys. But not before the township was thrown into tremendous turmoil, more like a civil war.
The thought of JZ (Jacob Zuma) becoming president, bringing his Ngxola Boys—Vavi, Mbalula and the rest—brought back that feeling and I shuddered to my soul. I’ve never hid from the fact that I’m adverse to Zuma’s presidency; I just think it’d be bad pro job for the country, but more to the point I don’t think his has sufficient suave to understand contemporary politics, especially intercontinental and international.
The popular currency of JZ is the weariness with Thabo Mbeki’s regime. Mbeki in most people’s minds has come to symbolise everything wrong with our country. Black people blame him for delayed economic freedom; that is for economic policies that favour big business (read white business). White people fear his independence of mind and blame him for abandoning the so called Mandela legacy (read maintaining the status quo of white affluence served by black servile class).
In my book Thabo Mbeki is the best president this country—hell this continent—has ever had, and yes I mean even better than Mandela who was mostly just a ceremonial snow haired daddy figure. I’m all for reconciliation, the so called Mandela’s legacy, but fuck it if it must be maintained but the servitude and sacrifices of only one race. The so called Mbeki intransigency and style of government has been his downfall, especially among the vox populi who see him as a distant enigma whose vision does not seem to take them into immediate consideration.
Of course the cynic echo of the gutter that fast racked Mbeki’s demise is the South African chattering class, from which he radically dissents. Mbeki is not intellectually or politically clubbable, something that’s very frustrating to the lazy lot of our chattering class. He does not fit any labels they echo. For instance, most of what is directed against Mbeki as the blight to his leadership is the South African government dithering at a point of Aids crisis. No one cares to point out that this failure started even during Mandela’s era; in actual sense Mandela was in a better position to show some real leadership concerning the issue but deferred it to the background. If anybody should take the brunt of this failure, without excusing Mbeki’s failures, is Mandela. It is unfortunate that our chattering class cloaks its frustrations and hate for Mbeki in this moralistic righteousness manner.
It has become fashionable in the chattering class circles to call Mbeki a tyrant, equating him to a budding Robert Mugabe. None are able to provide you with clear evidence of course of his tyranny except that he happens to have different opinions to their prevailing consensus which is not necessary that of the people on the ground. And lately, making strange birdfellows, they have been in collaboration with those whove been left out of the career wheel with the Tripartite Alliance.
Methinks if we need protection against the tyranny of the president we also need one against the tyranny of prevailing opinion of the chattering class and the empty howlings of careerists. We need a break from the chattering class’ tendency of imposing, by overt scribbling means, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct. Our chattering class, especially the clowns at Johnnic Media, give off too much heat with paeans to sensationalism and thoughtless commentary. They want to fit our minds into their own agendas because they happen to have the weapons of publicity at their disposal. Most of their criticism of Mbeki is more of an empty teapot telling a kettle it’s out of steam.
If Mbeki is perceived as being not in touch with the general gestalt JZ, our Priapus, has fulfilled the role of a messiah with feet of clay, or should that be schlong (penis) of clay. JZ has come with the popular wave against Mbeki, not because of any discernable qualities, but because he happens to be seen as the victim of Mbeki’s vindictiveness since he was fired as a deputy president of the country. The irony is that with all its hate of Mbeki the chattering class has prepared a way for a candidate they fear more—not for originality and independence of mind, but for exactly opposite qualities; clumsiness, gullibility, and too much association with the left. They had been canvassing, to no avail, for the magnate Tokyo Sexwale, who would have been perfect as a teddy bear leader to be pampered with media flattering compliments into submitting to their vision of things. JZ instead comes with the burden of expectations on the ground, and will probably sing from the trade unionist tune to pay his dews.
The crux of the matter is that the people seem to have made their preference in a clear voice during the regional nominations of ANC. JZ is their preferred next president. Whether that will be endorsed at the coming ANC conference where the actual elections will be held between 15-20 December is now an ANC internal matter. As the fifteenth-century philosopher and Roman Catholic cardinal Nicholas of Cusa: “There is in the people a divine seed by virtue of their common birth and equal natural right of all men so that all authority — which comes from God as does man himself — is recognized as divine when it arises from the common consent of the subjects.”
The people’s voice is that of God, if that makes you shudder, perhaps it is time you re-examine your values. Personally I would have preferred Cyril Ramaphosa to be our next president, and Nkosazana Dlamani-Zuma as his deputy; but the people are speaking and I’m listening.
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