Editor
The attitude and political thuggery of South African opposition parties is, and will remain preposterous and questionable for as long as they continue to praise others in order to damn others. This in in fact, always been the tendency of Western cynical capitalists and ‘nervous South African minorities.’
This drags my mind back to what was once said by the iconic South African first democratically elected President, Dr Nelson Mandela in the 1990’s when he said: “Don’t praise me to damn the rest.” Mr Mandela was in fact referring to the persistent and ridiculous notion of the ‘white liberals’ that he has been exclusively responsible for the achievements of the South African people, particularly our smooth transition.
That was ironic because a few years prior to the dawning of democracy, Mandela was labelled as a ‘ruthless communist’ and the number one enemy by the very same dubious praise singers. Meanwhile, when it was already obvious that Mr Thabo Mbeki would be Oliver R Tambo’s and Mandela’s anointed heir to the throne after Mandela, these very same ‘cynical liberal democrats’ pillared Mbeki as someone who projected fear and associated with the angry Africanist wing of our politics.
They would rather prefer Mr Cyril Mathamela Ramaphosa over Mbeki because to them Mbeki’s image was ‘mildly discomforting and manipulative’. They forgot that Ramaphosa was once a ‘radical’ trade unionist representing mine workers and that he too is acutely aware of the need to counterbalance reconciliation with RDP delivery. While their compliment of Mandela was appreciated, it was wrong to present him as ‘superhuman’ and create the impression that the ANC with its thousands of leaders and millions of supporters were mere rubber stamps of his ideas and that the ministers, experts and others were all insignificant under the magic spell of a single individual.
If only these paranoid ‘liberal democrats’ knew that in 1990 Mandela was firstly taken aback when ANC leaders, including Joe Slovo of the Communist Party, partly proposed that they should suspend armed actions. In fact, it took much discussion and Mandela’s soul searching to finally concur and the ANC took that decision at the end.
If only these ‘decisive democrats’ knew that it took a lot of persuasion to convince Madiba that the ANC’s strategic perspectives on an enforced coalition government was the correct option. Should that have made Mandela a devil and other ANC leaders angels? Ironically, these are the same people who now praise Mbeki and damn President Jacob Zuma as a ‘polygamous corrupt dictator’.
When the then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema stuck neck out for Zuma, he was labelled as a threat and a ‘problematic child’, but now they mimic everything he and his EFF are doing because he now has an ‘irreparable and sour relationship’ with Zuma and the ruling party.
If these self-proclaimed ‘people’s democratic watchdogs’ call Zuma a corrupt dictator per se, they mean to say the very same people they claim to fight for their interest (majority voters), ANC leadership under Zuma are all dwarfs, his praise singers and that they can’t think, but only wait for a dictator to give them direction.
Isn’t that an insult to the intelligence of the majority of South Africans who voted for the ANC per se? Meanwhile it wouldn’t be flabbergasting if the very same people become Zuma’s praise singers in the foreseeable future to damn a leader who would be at the helm of power at that time. And, with due respect to the opposition parties, but it seems as if the only way for their survival and relevance is to bastardise the ruling party, rather than giving their voters convincing solutions to the country’s problems.
Philani Radebe
Draycott
