There was a time in the history of our country, when a dominant political party (the National Party) had to navigate the uncharted path of creating an inclusive South African society based on the principles of a non-racial democracy, inclusive nationalism and equality for all.
One of the cardinal beliefs of the party was that it was called by God to preserve the superiority and dominance of white people over the other races. The NP then developed the ideology of white supremacy which resulted in the implementation of the apartheid policy, reinforced by a massive white government-driven social engineering project of creating a society where racial segregation became a way of life.
Many forms of resistance to white domination led to a situation where the NP was faced with a crisis of legitimacy and it became increasingly difficult to sustain its apartheid policy. The crisis was aptly articulated by the legendary liberal author Alan Paton when he said: “A man is caught on the face of a cliff, as he sees it, he cannot go up and he cannot go down; if he stays where he is, he will die. All those who stand watching have pity for him. From their point of view they can see which way we ought to go, but they see us taking some other way which will lead us to our destruction. And the world looks at us in astonishment, wondering what madness has possessed us.”
The words, which were crafted almost 64 years ago, ring true for the current crisis that South Africa faces.
In his book We have now begun our descent: How to stop South Africa losing its way, veteran journalist Justice Malala describes the crisis of legitimacy that the ANC government is faced with in the following terms: South Africa is faced with a crisis of governance and leadership rather than an economic crisis. Malala argues that addressing the leadership crisis is not something that the ANC is responsible for alone. South Africans have a role to play and yet they have simply not done enough to challenge the status quo.
The crisis of governance has resulted in an economic crisis. At the helm of government is a president who is the most unpopular head of state since the end of apartheid.
In 1987, South Africa was on the brink of a civil war and the protracted violent uprisings in the townships were a clear indication that the South African government, under the white NP minority rule, was faced with an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy. At the height of the repression by the NP government, members of civil society from academia, business and sports decided to break ranks with the ruling illegitimate NP and went to Dakar in Senegal in a ground-breaking political initiative that broke the stalemate between the NP government and the ANC and contributed to decisive meetings between Nelson Mandela and PW Botha in 1989, followed by the negotiated settlement that ended apartheid.
Dakar was not just a place for a meeting between the Dakarites and the ANC. The meeting came about as a result of growing disillusionment with government under the NP. The Dakar experience was a major paradigm shift in the political mentality of the Afrikaans civil society and business leaders. They came out of their comfort zones and reached out to the ANC so as to build a united and non-racial society.
Their shared vision of a new, apartheid-free South Africa was beyond the confines of party politics of the NP
era. They did not only speak truth to power but they took bold actions aimed at ending the decay of the South African society under the illegitimate apartheid government. They acted in the face of powerful state machinery which brought about violent repression against those who sought to remove the NP from power.
Thousands of patriotic South Africans lost their lives, but the Dakar experience became a foundation for a free South Africa that we see today.
It came about because of men and women who put the country above self-interest and political party loyalty.
South Africa urgently requires a second Dakar experience. Not by way of going to Senegal again. But ordinary South Africans desperately need to see
a change of political mental attitude among members of the ANC who are in Parliament.
It is encouraging to observe that some leading members of the ANC have joined civil society in the demand for the removal of Jacob Zuma as president for reasons of poor governance, corruption and state capture. The ANC has decided to deal harshly with voices of dissent within its ranks and one of Zuma’s most vocal critics inside the ANC, Dr Makhosi Khoza, has been threatened with death by those who are threatened by her voice of reason.
The ANC has turned her into a sacrificial lamb to show other ANC MPs what will happen to them if they publicly ask the president of the ANC to step down as the president of the Republic.
Zuma and his allies have long started with purging those who don’t support his hold on power in government. Derek Hanekom, Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas have been demoted from the cabinet to backbenchers in the National Assembly.
In the North West, Madoda Sambatha, a provincial MEC, has been fired because he is a senior member of the SACP in the North West and the pro-Zuma North West government could not stand him any longer. The trend will follow in other provinces, if it hasn't already started. The battles lines are drawn. These are experienced politicians whose talent has been lost merely because they dare to challenge Zuma’s presidency.
Some senior ANC members, such as Ngoako Ramatlhodi, have decided to leave Parliament with their dignity intact after they were kicked out of cabinet posts by the beleaguered president.
Now that the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has decided to haul Khoza before a disciplinary hearing for calling for the president to resign, the same action must be taken against ministers Blade Nzimande and Thulas Nxesi who supported the SACP/Cosatu decision not to allow Zuma to speak at their congresses.
All those who opposed the president (including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who publicly said the top six were not consulted on the latest cabinet reshuffle) must equally be charged, like Khoza, for disloyalty to the party and the its president.
This can only be done if fairness is one of the core values of the ANC. But being corrupt to the core, the ANC will let its sacrificial lamb, Khoza, hang out to dry.
On August 8, during a motion of no-confidence in the National Assembly, ANC MPs will once again be presented with two choices - voting for the interests of the people of South Africa or for Zuma’s continued state-captured and corrupt presidency.
The issue of a secret ballot is immaterial. It will require a “Dakar experience” - a paradigm shift of political mentality - on the part of ANC MPs to vote for the removal of their unpopular political leader.
In the evening on the same day, Zuma will be sitting on his comfortable lounge chair in his palatial presidential house. He will have in his hand a DStv remote and will watch a recorded programme of the proceedings of the parliamentary debate on the motion of no-confidence against him.
He will giggle as usual and marvel at how he has warded off attempts by the opposition and civil society to remove him from power and how he has manipulated the ANC to the extent that it had no option but to keep him as the president of both the ANC and the Republic of South Africa.
But that will be just one more victory in the never-ending political battles which have come to characterise his scandal-riddled presidency. The real political war for Zuma is the Battle of Armageddon in the ANC which will be fought at the party’s elective conference in December.
In the true nature of the political chess grandmaster, Zuma has seemingly convinced his party to offer him amnesty for the 783 charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering pending against him, a case which has been ongoing for close to a decade now.
He also proposed at the ANC’s recent policy conference that in the Battle of Armageddon in December the losing presidential candidate should become the deputy president.
So serious is this situation for him that he has offered to leave affairs of the state for some time and mobilise provinces to support “the compromise deal” for the elective conference.
But what if things don’t work out as planned by the political chess grandmaster?
Simple, there is always plan B: a private jet will whisk him to Dubai where he will live in comfort and leave South Africa in a worse economic mess.
With just four days to go to the no-confidence motion in Parliament, South Africa will want another Dakar experience from ANC MPs - that they should break with party tradition and put the interests of the people of South Africa above Zuma.
On August 8, if the ANC MPs choose Zuma above the rest of South African society, then it’s quite possible that he will be the last president of the ANC who was president of the Republic of South Africa.
Dr Tutu Faleni is a DA member of the North West provincial legislature and a visiting professor at the Uganda Technology and Management University in Bogolobi, Uganda