Dear Mmusi Maimane
I must not hog the floor of our free press: This will be the last time I write about this matter before, shortly, the party delegates decide the issue at hand.
I address this writing to you in a spirit not of acrimony, and certainly not of condescension – instead in a spirit of friendship and long-term thinking, with real feeling for your future in leadership (something in which one grows with time). I address you as a son – a grandson in fact.
I suggest you keep this writing (which you will probably at the moment reject as nonsense) in a drawer somewhere, or between the pages of a book – to return to it years from now, and then read it again.
The concept of time that passes, in which one grows, matures, and ripens, is of fundamental importance.
As a writer now almost 80 years old, I bring to you words from a poem of mine from my most recent book of verse. Poets live through and express emotion in varied fashion: Difficult as it may be, do read this writing as words written with hwyl– as it is called in Welsh – that is, with passionate fervour, a presentation like a Richard Burton reading a Dylan Thomas poem.
In my poem, a journeying Odysseus, after all his wandering in the world, at last returns home, to settle himself in a fully meaningful way, “deur die lewe uitgewan, ’n ouer en ’n wyser man” (threshed out by life, an older and a wiser man).
You may not connect with the full impact of the Afrikaans line, but will not miss the gist of the sentiment. In this spirit of wisdom I address you in thoroughly political vein, drenched in societal – including economic – connotation and, because of this, reaching into a realm of understanding beyond (and encircling) party politics.
You are fortunate to be very young still, graced with time ahead for nurturing yourself, and growing, and blossoming into full leadership stature. Do not allow anyone to attempt pre-maturing you: Such “friends” are not friendly to one at all, but will-o’-the-wisps, fastened only on using you for their own purposes and ends.
Again therefore, and in conclusion, the luxury of time is on your side. Embrace it with your whole being: It offers itself, every moment, only once.
Thus, you would show care for others, and great wisdom, should you hold back and bide things that will come to you in far greater measure than any that can be laid at your door right now.
There are any number of images with which the meaning of my words can be illustrated. I return only to the poetry of The Odyssey, and the man who, with faith in his own gradual development, refuses even a goddess, and forges his way to a destiny where, he knows, true happiness with his Penelope is waiting.