I refuse to believe that the likes of Zuma and Motsoeneng are the best that we can give to this country, writes Malaika wa Azania.
A few months ago, I participated in a panel discussion at the University of Johannesburg where the then-chief operating officer of the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, was also a panellist. Motsoeneng was extremely well received by the audience. Many would clap whenever he opened
his mouth.
Much of his contribution concentrated on attacking education and the educated and, of course, tons of praises heaped on himself and his allegedly visionary leadership at the public broadcaster.
Despite how problematic and irresponsible most of his utterances were, when the discussion was opened to the floor, many audience members agreed with him. Some went as far as to hail him as a hero.
I was not particularly surprised when, following the damning testimonies against him by former SABC employees at the SABC parliamentary inquiry this past Monday, many people still continued to support Motsoeneng and even claimed he was being persecuted by reactionaries who were resistant to transformation.
The ANC Youth League in eThekwini, the biggest region in KwaZulu-Natal, went as far as to release a statement saying it wanted him elected to the ANC national executive committee and then deployed as a cabinet minister.
The “he is a hero being punished by white monopoly capital” card has gained a lot of traction over the past few months and is often played whenever the integrity of a black leader is called into question.
It started with President Jacob Zuma, who some claim is being persecuted by “imperialists and white monopoly capital”, as if he is a radical who is concerned about the fundamental transformation of the country’s economy.
Zuma supporters have often claimed that he is genuinely pro-black and pro-poor. They claim that “imperialists” are behind the instabilities that have become amplified under his leadership and are attempting to undermine his efforts at transforming the country. They present Zuma as a hero of the black race - an Africanist at heart and a defender of the poor. Whatever it is that he has done to demonstrate all this eludes me.
After all, this is the same President Zuma whose administration voted with the same imperialists to destabilise a member state of the AU. It’s the same Zuma whose family members have amassed billions of rand in questionable business deals with even more questionable business people.
This is the same Zuma who has repeatedly lied to the people of South Africa and has used their hard-earned tax money to secure his personal comfort.
This President Zuma, who is supposedly standing up for black people against “imperialists”, happens to be the same man who has proudly declared that apartheid was defeated in 1994 and therefore there is no racism in South Africa but a “few” racists. This is despite the nervous conditions that define the lives of the black poor working class majority; the #RhodesMustFall protests that significantly exposed the depths of institutionalised racism in universities; and despite endless reports by Statistics SA indicating how embedded structural racism is in the labour market and in society in general.
And now Motsoeneng, too, is presented as a victim of persecution. His supporters would have us believe he is being persecuted because of his championing of the 90-percent local content editorial policy. They would have us believe that he is being punished by “imperialists” because he has dared to fight for transformation at the SABC.
But there is the Motsoeneng who lied about his qualifications, who traumatised workers at the SABC - going as far as to suspend journalists whose only crime was to demand to do their work with the integrity that it demands.
It is under Motsoeneng that the SABC has lost almost half-a-billion rand in revenue.
He sought to hide the genuine suffering of our people by wanting the public broadcaster to not show their protests, which served as a critical vehicle of demanding justice from an apathetic government in a society that renders the poor voiceless.
The problem with Motsoeneng’s supporters is that they want us to accept mediocrity and immorality solely on the grounds that he is black and therefore “one of our own”. They argue that many white people hold senior positions without having qualifications and, for that reason, we cannot fault Motsoeneng for lack of qualifications (and for lying about the fact).
Not only does this kind of reasoning imply that white behaviour is the measure of what is right and ethical, but it denies us the opportunity to fashion a higher civilisation.
Contrary to what we have come to believe of ourselves owing to endless reports about the incompetency of some black leaders, there are many black men and women of integrity in this country who can do a better job in our government.
There are many black men and women of integrity who have the capacity to manage state-owned enterprises effectively.
In allowing ourselves to be led by some of the most corrupt in our midst, we are nurturing the racist stereotype that holds that black leadership is inherently incapable.
We are performing to a white racist spectator audience, affirming its long-held belief that black people are a white man’s burden.
I refuse to believe that the likes of Zuma and Motsoeneng are the best that we can give to this country. We have no shortage of ethical individuals who possess the skills, qualifications and passion to make this country better.
Many of them have been hurled to the periphery because they refuse to be corrupted.
And despite the entrenched culture of philistinism that has seen the likes of Motsoeneng and Zuma elevated to “revolutionaries”, many of these men and women of integrity fight hard in the spaces they occupy, for South Africa to be a better country.
A defence of Zuma and Motsoeneng is a defence of many things that are wrong and rotten within our society. We must demand to be led by men and women who are incorruptible.
* Wa Azania is a student at Rhodes University and author of Memoirs of a Born Free: Reflections on the Rainbow Nation.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.