Whenever black South Africans cry “foreigners” and “leave our country”, I always ask myself: Which South Africa are they referring to? Is it the South Africa that belonged, and still belongs, mainly to whites, where black people are packed in townships with no space for proper human development?
Or perhaps it is the South Africa that placed black people in homelands, under traditional leaders, where they knew no democracy but only everlasting leadership from royalblooded Africans?
I say this because we often complain about poor leadership and the collapse of government institutions, but seldom do we acknowledge that it is the society that produces its own type of leadership and not the other way around.
If that society cannot recognise and accept its own limitations and faults, it should be expected that those in power will benefit from the ignorance of the populace. Yet, even after 30 years of deteriorating social and economic conditions, many black South Africans find comfort in this state.
The unskilled and cunning ANC cadres have recognised this and used it as the best way to deliver public service. There are two things that keep the ANC in power in South Africa: (1) The military theory and residue gained through the struggle for freedom, and (2) the fearful Biblical theology ingrained in citizens through apartheid, which breeds tolerance for mediocrity based on race and a fear of progress/ change.
On the first matter, the failure to actually defeat the military strength of the apartheid regime by the military theory in the ANC has resulted in a residue that positions the very people the ANC claimed it was fighting for as the targets.
On the second matter, it is not possible for any secular government to deal with resultant spiritualities in a society that is mainly religious and anchored on religious and spiritual ethos. Manipulating the ignorance of voters becomes an effective way to remain in power.
Caging religion and demonising churches become tools in the political campaign, touching the soul and definition of a divided and traumatised society. Desperate foreigners are projected at the highest political level as the “problem that has caused the destruction of everything”, which acts as therapy to a society living in the illusion of promises but the reality of separate development.
Load shedding, which seemed impossible to solve for many months, suddenly becomes manageable during winter, portrayed as proof that a black minister can handle it while a white CEO couldn’t. This appeals to a traumatised society, divided on racial grounds but desperate for something that is at least not like racist oppression.
Unfortunately, although this may appear as intelligence and great political manipulation, the actual conditions will eventually overrun the empty hope and unrealisable promises. The July riots that followed after people had been trapped in poverty in the name of a lockdown will be considered a mere warm-up.
* Khotso KD Moleko, Mangaung Bloemfontein.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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