With respect Cyril, it’s time

It’s about time we realise that respect and punctuality belong together.

If you keep someone waiting, you are signalling that their time is less important than yours. That’s disrespectful. Of course, there are a variety of situations where people are kept waiting. You may, for example, not mind when your doctor or lawyer is running late, even if you are paying them top-dollar.

Some poor people show resilience by queuing most of the day for medical attention, which they should not have to do in a caring society. Then there are the civil service queues for licences, IDs, passports etc. Do you sometimes get the feeling that the people on duty might not respect you?

Yet, there is something different about politicians being habitually late for meetings, conferences, dinners, etc, as has been an ANC trademark under Jacob Zuma. For example, last month’s national conference got off to a slow start – about seven hours late.

A recent Free State provincial meeting was delayed by 10 hours, and so on. Zuma and company couldn’t give a damn. Arrive late, laugh, giggle, sing and dance. Never mind that many people could have put the time to better use. So it was refreshing to see new ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa arrive early for Saturday’s 106th anniversary celebrations.

He made a point of starting his speech exactly on time, and telling everyone that the party’s national executive committee meeting had also started on time. Good luck to him in his efforts to create a new culture of “being on time”.

If he succeeds, this will make a difference not only to the party, but to the country. If we want South Africa to work, improved punctuality is essential. However, it could take an eternity to change that aspect of ANC culture.

Former president Nelson Mandela was notoriously strict about punctuality, a penchant shared by his super-efficient personal assistant, Zelda la Grange. Mandela lectured ministers and senior ANC officials on punctuality. Yet, if any lessons were learned, the effects wore off during the Zuma years.

By calling for punctuality, Ramaphosa is showing respect for others, whoever they may be. This focus on respect is consistent with Ramaphosa’s response to the booing of Zuma at Saturday’s rally. It also fits with his reply during Sunday’s eNCA interview with Dan Moyane.

If Zuma has to leave before his term ends, this should be done “with the proper decorum”. Zuma should not be humiliated, Ramaphosa said.

Compare that with the way Zuma described his predecessor Thabo Mbeki as a “dead snake” before removing him from office in 2008. In last month’s contest, Zuma believed that his candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, would prevail.

According to Peter Bruce in the Sunday Times, Zuma “was determined that after Dlamini-Zuma had won the ANC leadership election, Ramaphosa would never hold a position in the party again. They don’t merely hate him, they despise him”.

We can assume that respect from Ramaphosa would not have been reciprocated by those who despise him, Zuma’s disrespectful, unpunctual acolytes.

With respect, it’s time for the Zuma crew to leave. Now.

Martin Williams.

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