Sandile Memela
Dear Mavuso Msimang: the president of the ANC, first, and then the country has expressed regret that you have chosen to leave the organisation after 60 years.
He highlighted that everyone joins the ANC voluntarily, out of choice. And when they wish to leave, they will not be stopped as it is out of choice.
The president emphasised that when others leave the ANC, new members join. Thus, there will be no vacuum in the ANC.
Let us be frank and admit that there is no so-called principled veteran or stalwart in the ANC. None exists.
To understand this, we need to first be clear about the meaning of these words: veteran, stalwart and ... er, hero.
A veteran is someone who has been with the organisation for too long. In your case it is at least 60 years.
That makes you someone with insights into the history of the evolution of the organisation. You have borne witness and experienced its transmogrification.
If we have a problem, now, you have not exactly been part of the solution.
Everything that has happened or has not is a direct result of the choices you made in the last 60 years.
So, you are a custodian of historical insights and wisdom. You know what is wrong or right.
A stalwart is neither a title nor a mark of achievement, when you think about it. It is someone who has been loyal to the organisation, irrespective of the phases it goes through.
A stalwart is someone who is reliable and hard-working. The organisation trusts him. He lives for the latter.
He, like a veteran, will stay focused and committed to the organization. In fact, like a loyal servant, to him the organization comes first.
Thus, both veterans and stalwarts are not heroes. They cannot be heroes.
There will be no heroes in this ANC, especially at this point of our history.
To be a hero, you need to be an independent, critical thinking intellectual, guided by age-old ideals and principles. You must be courageous, bold and willing to sacrifice and lose everything you have.
Some of these ideals and principles may be outdated for these times and systems.
But over the last 100 years, we in the ANC have compromised those ideals and principles: for example, the return of the land and equal sharing of the wealth of the country.
You know it and we all know it.
No single veteran or stalwart is greater than the organisation. We believe in collective responsibility. So, nobody dares to step out of the line, the party line.
And if you dare step out of the line, you know that you will be dealt with, harshly. We don’t want any peace-time heroes, here and now. Not yet.
All of us, in the party, government and corporate are paid very well to keep our opinions and so-called truth to ourselves.
After centuries of struggle, with our individual and familial background in hunger and poverty, we desire and deserve the good life that this country has to offer.
After all, we are free now.
As alluded, every one of us is working within the economic system, now. It dictates that we must all think of number one, put our individual interests first.
These, sadly, must be above those of the people. Selfishness is a human instinct.
And if you have tasted the life of earning, say over R1 million per annum, and your family is secured and comfortable, you will not be so foolish as to risk all that for ideals and principles.
You have to think of your wife, children and family and what they have to lose. Think of the extended family.
Half a loaf is better than no bread.
So, for now, we have to keep the Truth out of the organization. After all, what is Truth? And whose Truth?
Is it true that this land belongs to black people or any other person or race? Have we verified that with God? No man owns the land.
The truth of the truth always requires context and, thus, is subjective. It depends on how you choose to see things.
Well, if you do not do as you are told, and want to be an intellectual hero that speaks Truth to power, you will be thrown out of the ANC. And out of the economic system.
As we all know, it is cold outside of the ANC. Three months would be too long for the economic hurricane to destroy the secured and comfortable life of a family.
It is not like the business of veterans and stalwarts is to destroy or hide the truth, whatever that is.
At the same time, we do not expect loyal, reliable and hard working members to lie outright. Or to justify the indefensible.
There are charges and accusations that the ANC is now perverted, not what it used to be. Thus peace-time heroes find it easy to vilify it. They choose the easy path: criticise and condemn.
Well, what is the point of being a hero when you have almost exhausted your time on earth? People need to take a principled stance between 25 and 45 years, if you like.
Beyond that it is too late.
But it is about survival, here. Our families and children expect us to put bread, cheese and bacon on the table. Or starve to death. And no one can survive or enjoy a good life on R350.
Worse, those who pay us salaries or make donations have clear and direct expectations.
You know it and we know that we all need money to survive, to be secure and comfortable. And that demands shutting up, sitting down to do as you are told. Follow the party line.
Yes, at this point in our history, it will be foolish to risk all what you have accumulated - however little - for what is considered the truth.
I hear those that say this is selling out the people and country. They must go speak to the man or woman in the mirror.
But we have to be practical here. People would rather shut up, in all spheres of life - government, NGOs, public service or corporate - than to lose the little they have.
The fact is: we all are trapped in the belly of the beast, which is the economic system.
As former US president Bill Clinton once said, 'It is the economy, stupid!'
It makes it difficult for anyone to question and challenge it without the risk to lose everything that one has worked for.
Until such time that we get the land back and own and control the economy - not in our lifetime - we have to make the best of the bad.
Those who control the economy control the narrative and how we conduct ourselves.
I have long stopped to argue against the injustice, inequality, and truth-saying or not, that is a way of life in this beautiful country that no man can enjoy.
A man can only live once. To survive he will do anything for himself. Self preservation is a human instinct.
And, as men, we have a right to enjoy the little time we have here on earth.
I thought I should try to put things into perspective, to explain without justifying anything, why we find ourselves where we are.
We have to appreciate the difficult situation we all find ourselves in. It is what it is.
Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic and public servant.
Pretoria News