SAVAGE NOBELS
I was born in South Africa. My parents are South African. My children are South Africa. We carry no passports other than South African ones. My grandparents were naturalised South Africans being originally from Europe – England, Ireland, Holland and Germany to be specific. They were attracted here, invited here, offered citizenship here, accepted here, employed here and happy here.
At no stage were they part of a foreign marauding tribe that dispossessed anybody. They observed the laws of the land, worked hard, bought land, built houses, paid taxes, educated their children and loved their adopted country South Africa. They fought as South African troops in the two great wars. They absorbed the derision, scorn and sanction meted by the international community in the Apartheid years between 1948 and 1994 even though they voted against the governing party of the day. They never once supported nor condoned the policy of separate development. I am a South African and proud of it.
Why then are certain ANC Parliamentarians telling me to go back where I came from? I came from here, South Africa. I have no other country that I call home. This is the country in which I was born and I still live here.
There are a lot of South Africans in a similar position. We are stuck in a country that we used to call home. Once the domain of the noble savage it has become the enclave of the savage nobles. South Africa has become a typical African Kleptocracy in its decline to third world standards through greedy elitism and black on black suppression. The governing party has surrendered the country’s position as the leading nation on the African Continent to become a mere also-ran.
We expected too much in 1994. With the collapse of communism, we anticipated that the ANC under Mandela South Africa would subscribe to Western Democracy. For a while under him and later Mbeki, we did just that. We applied Western Economic Policies and stepped back from the precipice upon which we were finely balanced.
Under Zuma that all changed. We are now in bed with Indian Gangsters, Russian Oligarchs, Chinese Colonialists, impoverished Brazilians and anyone else who will pay Zuma and his cronies enough money.
Who stole my country?
South Africa is finally African
By Prince Mashele
Prince Mashele is a South African national and has a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Rhodes University; he has lectured in the Dept of Political Science at the University of Pretoria ; he has been Executive Director of the Centre for Politics and Research and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation ; he was speechwriter for President Thabo Mbeki ; he writes regularly for the Mail & Guardian and The Sowetan ; his book of 2014 'The Fall of the ANC : what next' was a best seller.
‘In the midst of the political confusion that has gripped our country many people are wondering if we have finally come to the end of South Africa.
The answer is simple: the thing called an "end" does not exist, not in relation to a country. South Africa will be there long after Jacob Zuma is gone.
What Zuma has done is to make us come to the realisation that ours is just another African country, not some exceptional country on the southern tip of the African continent.
During the presidency of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, some among us used to believe that the black people of South Africa are better than those of other African countries. We must all thank Zuma for revealing our true African character; that the idea of rule of law is not part of who we are, and that constitutionalism is a concept far ahead of us as a people.
How else are we to explain the thousands of people who flock to stadiums to clap hands for a president who has violated their country's constitution? Such people have no idea of constitutionalism.
Now that we have reclaimed our place as another African country, we must reflect on and come to terms with our real character, and imagine what our future portends.
In a typical African country, ordinary people don't expect much of politicians because people get tired of repeated empty promises.
In a typical African country, people have no illusions about the unity of morality and governance. People know that those who have power have it for themselves and their friends and families.
The idea that the state is an instrument for people's development is a Western concept, and has been copied by pockets of Asian countries.
Africans and their leaders don't like to copy from the West. They are happy to remain African and do things "the African way".
The African way is rule by kings, chiefs and indunas in a setting of unwritten rules. Is there anyone who has seen a book of African customary laws?
The idea that a commoner can raise questions about public money spent on the residence of a king is not African. The ANC MPs who have been defending Zuma are true Africans.
Asking a ruler to be accountable is a foreign - Western - idea. In a situation where there is conflict between a ruler and laws, Africans simply change the laws to protect the ruler. This is why no single white person has called for King Dalindyebo to be released from jail.
The problem with clever blacks is that they think they live in Europe, where ideas of democracy have been refined over centuries.
What we need to do is to come back to reality, and accept that ours is a typical African country. Such a return to reality will give us a fairly good idea of what SA's future might look like.....
This country will not look like Denmark. It might look like Nigeria, where anti-corruption crusaders are an oddity. Being an African country, ours will not look like Germany. SA might look like Kenya, where tribalism drives politics.
People must not entertain the illusion that a day is coming when SA will look like the United States. Our future is more on the side of Zimbabwe, where one ruler is more powerful than the rest of the population. Even if Julius Malema were to become president, it would still be the same. African leaders don't like the idea of an educated populace, for clever people are difficult to govern.
Mandela and Mbeki were themselves corrupted by Western education.
Zuma remains African. His mentality is in line with Boko Haram. He is suspicious of educated people; what he calls "clever blacks". Remember that Boko Haram means "Against Western Education".
The people who think we have come to the end of SA don't realise that we have actually come to the beginning of a real African country, away from the Western illusions of exceptionalism. Those who are unsettled by this true African character need help. The best we can do for them is to ask them to look north of the Limpopo River, to learn more about governance in Africa.
What makes most people restless about the future of SA is that they have Western models in mind, forgetting that ours is an African country. The idea that a president can resign simply because a court of law has delivered an adverse judgment is Western. Only the Prime Minister of Iceland does that; African rulers will never do that.
Analysed carefully, the notion of SA coming to an "end" is an expression of a Western value system - of accountability, political morality, reason, and so on.
All these are lofty ideas of Socrates, Kant, Hegel, and so on. They are not African.
All of us must thank Jacob Zuma for introducing us to the real African Republic of South Africa, not some outpost of European values’.
So, I’m thinking, does that mean that as a nation we should accept mediocrity? Should we happily move from the powerhouse of Africa to a lowly also ran? Should we surrender our claim to First World Status to become a more comfortable basket case developing nation?
Should we not aspire to become the best that we can be as a nation?
ANC has been co-opted by capitalism
By Sandile Memela.
NEWS / 3 January 2017
Many have come to appreciate that disunity and conflict has always plagued the ANC and that there have always been two camps in the organisation, such as the negotiators, like Thabo Mbekl and those, like Chris Hani, who believed in a hostile armed struggle. Chris Hani believed in a hostile armed struggle. All camps or factions within the ANC have been captured and are trapped in the racist, capitalist and patriarchal economic system
Over the past year many South African citizens and observers of political developments have been baffled and confused by divisions and conflict in the ANC.
What seemed to deepen the confusion was lack of understanding of what was at the root of this conflict that resulted in an internal fight to the death that saw comrades turn against each other.
But, as the ANC prepares for its 105th anniversary in Soweto on January 8, what seemed uncertain and confusing is sure no longer.
Many who believed the ANC was a solid, united and homogeneous organization has come to appreciate that disunity and conflict has always plagued the party.
It was transmogrified into a ‘broad church’ that accommodated contradictory political schools of thought, with capitalists, moralists and communists all belonging to the party.
The difference and disagreements were ideological and based on principle. But this is seen as a relic of the past now.
For an increasing number of observers and sober activists, the difference that divides or separates what is perceived to be different camps or factions is the same.
What this means is that all camps or factions have been captured and are trapped in the racist, capitalist and patriarchal economic system.
People are increasingly becoming aware that what is certain is that what the different camps or factions are fighting for is control over State resources for themselves, fuelled by a desire to succeed in terms of capitalism.
It is about being the dominant force in the establishment that is based on capitalist greed, selfishness and putting personal interest above all else.
Over the last few years these divisions have become more apparent in what has been dubbed ‘the struggle for the soul of the ANC’.
But what people forget is that when the exiled ANC returned - separate from the ANC in Robben Island or one that was underground in the guise of the UDF - it was fragmented and divided against itself. It could not agree on anything or speak with a coherent voice.
For example, there was lack of clarity or agreement on whether an imprisoned Nelson Mandela should engage in talks with the apartheid regime.
Even before that, there was no unanimity on pursuit of a non-violent agenda or armed struggle.
Worse, as the internal upheavals intensified in the mid-1980s, the ANC could not agree on the route to a new future. Was it going to pursue a negotiated settlement of push harder with the armed struggle?
There have always been two camps or factions in the ANC approach.
First, there was the heir apparent faction led by the erudite and cosmopolitan Thabo Mbeki. He was the leader of the sheep group that believed in negotiations.
This was rivalled and competed with the goats group, associated with Chris Hani and/or Joe Slovo, who were hostile and resented the idea of talks. They believed in pushing the armed struggle to the end.
The frightening realisation is that, with hindsight, both approaches were terrifying and menacing political choices.
The Mbeki sheep route would not and could not deliver return of the land, redistribution of the wealth or eradicate stereotypes and prejudice. It was a step in the right direction, but would need to be settled on the apartheid regime’s terms.
Its detractors believed no genuine liberation could be achieved through big talk.
On the other hand, the Hani-Slovo goat’s approach of fighting to the death would leave the country a wasteland.
There are no winners in war and the apartheid regime had the military might that could be unleashed mercilessly against black people.
Perhaps what needs to be acknowledged is that both the sheep and goats have been defeated by being sucked into the system. In fact, they have become part of a system and history they fought against.
The new culture actually finds that former freedom fighters are all worming their way into the belly of the beastly capitalist system.
What this has produced is the overnight multi-millionaire who is not satisfied with what he has accumulated for himself, his family and his friends. The haves want more.
The original and true image of the ANC - a nationalist organisation that represented indigenous African interests - can no longer be captured in a word, image or phrase.
Over the century it has evolved to be all things to all men.
Worse, what the ANC stands for now cannot be explained or articulated in a revolutionary theory or vision that defines it outside the capitalist economic system. It is completely integrated into the unjust and unequal establishment.
Thus, whatever ideas either faction provides, it is to lead the African majority to the capitalist economic slaughter house that does not discriminate between sheep and goats.
The masses are trapped because the ANC is trapped in being a pillar of the economic status quo. Its duty is to make the country work by protecting and preserving the rapacious economic system.
Any attempt to make sense of the so-called internal divisions literally boils down to who serves the interests of black or white monopoly capital better.
The ANC now functions in a predictable way that its leading political strategist and thinker, Joel Netshitenzhe, said it would.
He used the phrase ‘phuma ngingene,’ which literally means ‘leave office now as it is our turn to eat’.
Everybody wants the same piece of capitalist gain for themselves, friends and family.
Much as the ANC is portrayed as torn into different factions, they are essentially the same.
They are all committed to preserving and protecting the capitalist system for as long as they get what they can.
Instead, they give the gullible masses smoke and mirrors of capturing the public imagination through ideas, models, beliefs and stories that portray one side as the better or lesser of two evils.
Essentially the difference is the same as they are scrambling for the same resources and control over capitalist crumbs.
Thus the public and supporters of the ANC must make peace that the organisation’s true identity is complicated, confusing and elusive.
It does not help much to perpetuate the narrative of internal divisions without pointing out that the different factions are fighting over the same crumbs.
Unfortunately, the biggest stumbling blocks to nation building and social cohesion are economic injustice and spatial divisions created by land dispossession in 1913.
Sadly, these cannot be resolved without clearing up the political confusion in the ANC.
This is the mother of all liberation movements on the continent that has been in the forefront of political strategy for over 100 years.
As long as South Africa buys into the narrative of a deeply divided ANC without a critical examination of the links with the unjust economic system, there is no hope for the maturation of critical thinking.
What is clear today is that the ANC or its elite promote, protect and preserve capitalism and its values because of what they can get for themselves.
Nothing can destroy and threaten capitalism as long as the ANC keeps it alive to feed itself off its crumbs
A reminder from a fallen cadre
For Chris Hani it was never about himself – he was not self-centered, big headed and elitist. He was not preoccupied with material things.
Reacting to the dismay expressed by others who were shocked at his decision to accept the position of general secretary of the SACP instead of angling to be a minister, he had this to say: ‘The perks of a new government are not really appealing to me. Everybody would like to have a good job, a good salary... but for me that is not the all of struggle. What is important is the continuation of the struggle... the real problems of the country are not whether one is in cabinet ... but what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country.
How I wish that those who carry knives and guns to fight for leadership positions in all our organisations could have learnt something from Chris Hani's exemplary modesty, honesty and integrity. After reading his letter to the leadership I really wonder how he would react to the ANC infighting in Mpumalanga and elsewhere, which killed at least 10 comrades in the past two years.