Kebby Maphatsoe embarrasses not just the government and ANC but all who struggled for freedom, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Pretoria - It is a pity that the ANC has decided to distance itself from deputy minister of Defence and Military Veterans Kebby Maphatsoe’s “Thuli is a CIA spy” embarrassment. It should have thrown the book at the fellow.
Listening to him on radio trying to wriggle out of this statement, he sounded worse with every passing minute.
He spoke about how the CIA hated the ANC and how in 1990 the American intelligence had tried to destroy President Jacob Zuma only for the US spy agency to discover that the ANC would not be holding elections that year.
If you find all this confusing and not making any sense, take heart. It means you are sane.
Whereas the ANC has shrugged its shoulders in private embarrassment, I believe that it must now start speaking out against the likes of Maphatsoe with a louder voice and tougher tone.
People like the deputy minister do not just embarrass the ANC and the government, they bring into disrepute the Struggle against apartheid.
Under the present circumstances, it is potentially worse than creating a diplomatic row.
The US is used to not always being popular, especially among those who spent their lives believing or shouting leftist slogans. It will forget Maphatsoe soon enough.
The question for ANC leaders and followers is whether Maphatsoe and his ilk are worth besmirching their name and the freedom they fought for. The same question applies to anyone who ever risked their lives or endured personal discomfort fighting against apartheid.
As things are, those who fought to defend apartheid are increasingly imagining themselves moral equivalents of those who fought against the system.
Maphatsoe’s buffoonery strengthens their case.
The latest episode, therefore, makes Maphatsoe more than just an ANC or government problem. He is an embarrassment to the Struggle against apartheid.
It calls to question whether Maphatsoe can confidently repeat former president Thabo Mbeki’s words and say that he too is “the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom”.
Another problem with this situation is that it proves opponents of cadre deployment right.
Maphatsoe embodies the system employed by private, public and even sporting institutions of getting those who share their values to be by their side. It is an inherently flawed system that makes being an unthinking acolyte more important than the skills one brings to the table.
For example, new Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has employed a new deputy, while his predecessor Gordon Igesund has taken his former number two, Serame Letsoaka to his new club, SuperSport United.
Put differently, it makes one wonder whether Maphatsoe was the best mind and leader MK could produce and deploy to government.
I can imagine someone who always believed that freedom fighters were nothing but a bunch of terrorists out to “ruin Christian civilisation” looking at Maphatsoe and feeling vindicated.
I imagine those among the apartheid generals who wanted to call the ANC’s bluff arguing that the ANC had neither the guerrilla warfare knowhow nor the sophistication to successfully take on the pre-1994 state, looking at Maphatsoe and telling their colleagues “I told you so”.
I can also imagine how the idiotic statements by Maphatsoe and the relentless pursuit to be first at the feeding trough of some individuals once venerated as freedom fighters, making a mother whose child crossed the border to fight apartheid but was never seen or heard of again, wondering if her child did not die in vain.
Maphatsoe is, in many ways, a symptom of how those who fought for freedom are leading the race to undermine what they themselves sacrificed their lives for.
They have become the first to whenever convenient to happily “dishonour the cause of freedom”.
Nobody is asking Maphatsoe to like the public protector or even agree with her. In two years she will be gone but her office, the ANC and the state will still be around.
As a result of his fixation with Madonsela and the Cold War spy games, Maphatsoe has lost the legitimacy to raise the question of the many genuine freedom fighters still languishing in jail and at least one known to be still in exile.
Who would listen to him if he were to speak about the dire conditions that our uncles and brothers endured who gave up their youth to fight for freedom in foreign lands?
Not all is lost for Maphatsoe though. He can produce the evidence that the public protector is potentially guilty of treason. If he does, my faith in him and the MK might be restored.
If he does not, I will continue asking my friends and relatives who have served MK whether Maphatsoe was the best they could do?
* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is executive editor of the Pretoria News. Follow him on Twitter @fikelelom
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