DR VUSI SHONGWE
“...A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.” - Pope John Paul
“Life is a hospital which each patient believes he will be better if he is moved to another bed.” – French poet, Baudelaire
A story is told about a cross-country airline flight some years ago. One of the engines developed a problem and the pilot shut it off. He turned on the speaker system and informed the passengers there was no cause for concern, the plane could fly very well with three engines. Before long, another motor began to act up. Once again, the pilot turned it off and assured the passengers that the motors could keep the plane aloft. Then a third engine stopped. Silence from the cockpit. Soon the pilot came into the main cabin. He was wearing a parachute. “Don’t anyone panic!” he said, “I’m going for help.” Whereupon he opened an emergency exit and jumped out. The moral of this little anecdote is that help does not help unless it helps. Announcements that help is on the way are nice to hear, but if the facts of the situation contradict the reassurances, a little panic may be in order.
The time has come, I believe, for South Africans to indulge in a little panic. Things are not going well. The glue which used to hold us together has lost its sticking power. The fabric of trust has been shredded. Dishonesty, corruption, crime, deceit, and maliciousness have eaten into almost all aspects of the South African reality. Family decomposition, crime, moral deficit, economic deficit, as well as a host of other pathologies, are incompatible with what we fought for. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think the song “Senzeni na” or “what have we done” would still be relevant almost 40 years into our democracy.
We are beset with problems of our own, problems largely of our own making. We measure questions in terms of political correctness rather than in terms of democratic inquiry. We attempt to trivialise our difficulties rather than focus on correcting our problems. If these things continue, our republic will cease to be. The current trends are dangerous, and they are potentially catastrophic. There is an avalanche of negative self-images which have profoundly changed the way South Africans view their government.
Winston Churchill once said, “It takes courage to stand up and speak, and it takes courage to sit down and listen.”
Sadly, the second type of courage seems to be in scarce supply globally. One wishes that as the ANC braces itself for the December elective conference, may the delegates elect leaders who will have the courage to stand up and speak, as well as the courage to sit down and listen to what the people want. Our leaders need to listen because, as things stand, people view politics like leprosy; they do not want to be around it. Our government does no longer enjoy the overwhelming consent of the governed from which it should derive its only just authority. The lack of sense is a threat to our freedom. It is also the primary reason for the current apathy among the governed. Therefore, freedom will not be secured, apathy will not end, and our government will not regain the moral authority that can only be provided by the consent of the governed. Denial of this reality will not make it any less real. This is something that is staring us in the face – the erosion of the government’s trust among the people.
As Montesquieu pointed out many years ago, dictators fall when people no longer fear them. Monarchs fall when people no longer revere them. And republics fall when citizens no longer respect them. They lose respect because those republics no longer adhere to the human values and common goals on which they were founded. Simply stated, personal integrity and civic responsibility are not options in a free society. They are requirements. These are the hard truths of our time - and I believe they need to be said.
Democracy stands or falls on a mutual trust -- governments’ trust of the people and the people’s trust of the governments they elect. And yet at the same time, democratic culture and politics have always existed in a strange blend of credulity and scepticism. Indeed, a certain degree of enduring scepticism about human nature lies at the foundation of our representative democracy.
Democracy does not mean unity in the body politic. People do have reasonable differences. Human ignorance, pride, and selfishness would always be with us, prompting inevitable divisions and conflicting ambitions. Having five slates, for example, for the December elective conference should not be an issue. Even if they were 10, they would still be acceptable. This is what democracy is all about. There is a notion that should be discouraged which gives the impression that, if there are five candidates contesting for the position of president, this is an indication that there are tensions and differences in the party. The opposite is true. It is a display of healthy and vibrant democracy. The song “ANC iyasetshenzelwa” captures this argument. The day members of the ANC will think alike like cattle going to a dip, will be the day the ANC ceases to be a credible political party.
Similarly, there is a wrong perception that if one avails himself or herself for the position of the ANC president, he or she is perceived to be having the backing of either the RET and is anti-President Cyril Ramaphosa. Again, the opposite is true. The ANC constitution is clear. A president can serve two terms only if he or she is still preferred by members of his party.
If Dr Zweli Mkhize, for example, wants to be the president of the ANC, it is his right and choice, especially if he has the backing of a substantial number of candidates that will be attending the December conference. The same thing applies to Lindiwe Sisulu. So, the narrative that anyone who intends to contest the position of the ANC president has an axe to grind with President Ramaphosa is politically myopic and out of tune. It is my humble take that all this confusion is attributed to the absence of robust political education.
Once elected, our leaders need to be reminded that the freedom we attained in 1994 came with responsibilities and the need to have leaders of ethical and moral qualities.
Martin Luther King put it aptly when he said, “We shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent loyal support to those who merit it.”
In his address “Leadership is about the exercise of judgement” Brian Cowen instructive when he posited that: “a position of leadership can be at times a lonely and isolating place. While the intellectual pursuit.”
If a solution has always interested me, it’s the practical application of the intellectual idea which is supreme in politics: How will it work? The cost to any politician is that when judgements must be made based on the available information there will always be those who second guess subsequently. It just comes with the territory, and we all know what the rules of engagement are. Those in power take the responsibility; those out of power can succumb to expressing the populist soft options, which usually amount to non-options in a real crisis.
Contrary to the view that there is a crisis in our country, I would argue that what we have is not a crisis but a state of affairs. It may be a crisis for now given the ever-skyrocketing prices of basic food items, ever-increasing interest rates, rampant crime, and a legion of other prodigious challenges; otherwise, it has always been the state of affairs. If a crisis drags far longer than normally accepted, it ceases to be a crisis and becomes a state of affairs. A crisis normally has a time frame, but a state of affairs does not.
Am I pessimistic? Do I think we can pull it out of the fire? The answer to both is yes. I am pessimistic; I think things are very serious. But I also think we have men and women who can extricate the country from the quagmire. We faced and overcame enormous challenges before, but this one is completely different. It is about the soul of the country. But yes, I believe we can overcome this challenge too. It is the mindset of our leaders that must change to turn around the situation. If this country is to prevail, if our ideas and ideals are to prevail, it will not be because of some historical and determinant forces. It will be because of the effort of everyone, with our leaders executing the role they have been elected for – to change the lives of the people. US Justice Holmes once said, “The mode in which the inevitable comes to pass is effort. It is through the efforts of trustworthy leaders that will make a difference.”
A few years ago, the Czech leader Vaclav Havel wrote these prescient words:
“They say a nation has the politicians it deserves. In some sense that is true: Politicians are truly a mirror of the society and a kind of embodiment of its potential. At the same time, paradoxically, the opposite is also true. Society is a mirror of its politicians. It is largely up to the politicians which social forces they choose to liberate and which they choose to suppress, whether they choose to rely on the good in each citizen, or on the bad.”
Without meaning to join the debate about the Phala-Phala gate, the furore about this matter reminds one of Chinua Achebe’s proverbial absurd man who leaves his burning house to pursue a rat fleeing from the flames.
This is exactly what South Africans, especially all the political parties, including the ANC, are doing, immersing themselves in inconsequential and meaningless pursuits while the country is burning. The country is in “flames”, and they all are huffing and puffing chasing the rat or the $4 million found at Ramaphosa’s farm.
Must the country be held at ransom for a meagre $4 million which there is no evidence has been stolen? The mood of the country is darker, not by load shedding, but by the absence of credible leadership.
The problems facing South Africa are bigger than Ramaphosa. South Africa’s problems now require a collective of diverse minds and from diverse backgrounds. The African proverb brilliantly captures the idea of collectivity perfectly when it says, “a single hand cannot cover the sky. It takes many hands to cover the sky.” We need eminent and diverse people with great action-giving and thoughtful people to raise the torch and make the pathway of a better life free of load shedding and smooth again.
When the torch of Olympus is lit, and further to be handed from one to another, it creates warmth and brings light in the midst of darkness. Darkness covers the country, as if an archetypal case of a plague of Sophoclean tragedy, and so demands a meeting of bright minds. These are the minds that will ignite the Olympic torch, without political favour or prejudice. These are bright minds that will illuminate the country by taking a stand instead of either a bribe or a profit.
As your compatriots brace themselves for the December conference, they must ask themselves one question: If we were to let freedom slip through our fingers, who will come and pay the price again to restore the democracy to which many paid the supreme price for us to have it? Let leaders with moral integrity be elected to help the people to rise to a new and better level. When that happens, it will be in line with the US president Teddy Roosevelt’s ideals who spoke of the nobility of those in public life - “the man who is actually in the arena”, he called them - the ones who step up and make a difference. As the French poet said, “Life is a hospital, which each patient believes he will be better if he is moved to another bed.” Let the conference elect leaders who will make the downtrodden also believe they will feel better if they are moved from shacks to proper houses, as well as being provided necessities of life that are normally catered for in a democratic state like ours.
Before I conclude, I find the following words said by Pope John Paul II very profound and relevant.
“...We do not live in an irrational or meaningless world. On the contrary, there is a moral logic which is built into human life, and which makes possible dialogue between individuals and peoples.” But a country that falls under the spell of moral relativism puts itself in peril, he continued. He warned that if there exists no ultimate truth to guide and direct political life, ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. “As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”
After it has been said and done, we need to keep hope and faith alive. Interestingly, faith and social justice have long been deeply entwined for the US Reverend Jesse Jackson: Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Politics ask the question, would it work? Can I win? Morality and conscience ask the question, “is it right?” In the end, if it is morally right, politics and popularity have to adjust to the unyielding power of the moral centre - thus, “if an issue is morally right, it will eventually be politically.”
As posited by Chris Hedges in his address “Hope, from Now on” Hope as has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and more potent hope becomes. Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganised, and absurd.... Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope’s power. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees our enemy in our own face. Hope is not for the practical and the sophisticated, the cynics and the complacent, the defeated and the fearful. Hope affirms that which we must affirm.
Every act that imparts hope is a victory in itself:
(From Auden)
“Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out whether the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”
Indeed, hope is not just a source of comfort for the afflicted - it is a wellspring of energy to fight for a better tomorrow, no matter the odds. We hope the elected leadership will have the moral compass deep in their hearts to fight every day for the hope that tomorrow will be better - for all of us, not just some of us. Let them lead with humility and optimism, telling the truth, learning from history, and removing every obstacle to progress for all the people of KwaZulu-Natal and the country at large. Let their moral compass show us the way ahead.
The would-be elected leadership would be advised to take heed of the words US president Thomas Jefferson said, “there are extraordinary capabilities in ordinary people, given the opportunity.” This is true because the idea is not to turn South Africa into a welfare state but a developmental state. Opportunity is the key. To the extent that each one of us can develop our capabilities to the fullest to seize upon the opportunities that arise; to the extent, we will cause the worth and the work ethics to come true in our lives and in the work to which we might be dedicated to.
Despite their follies and foibles, we hope the elected leadership will rise to the occasion to provide a better life for all.
Like the mantra of people of Indian descent during the Vedic period, which is indicative of their work culture, we too, must imbibe the same mantra:
“Sangachchhdhvam
Samvadadhvam sam wo
Manansi jaanataa.” - loosely translated: We walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together and together we shall take our country forward.
In conclusion, allow me to end this short piece by sharing with you the following parable about the turtle and the tortoise and the leopard as told by the celebrated African writer, Chinua Achebe, in one of his novels.
The leopard meets the tortoise on a lonely stretch of road. The leopard has been trying to catch the tortoise for a long time. The tortoise is a trickster, and so obviously has been escaping. And then on this day the leopard finally catches up with him and says, ah-ha. You know, now I’ve got you. Prepare to die.
And the tortoise says to the leopard: Can I ask you one last favour? And the leopard says, yes, why not? And the tortoise says: Give me a short time to prepare myself for death. And the leopard looked around, said: I don’t see why not. Yes, go ahead. But then instead of standing still and thinking, as the leopard had expected, the tortoise began to dig and scatter sand all over the road, you know, throwing sand in all directions with his hands and feet.
And the leopard says: What’s going on? Why are you doing that? And the tortoise says: I’m doing this because after I am dead, I want anyone passing by this spot and seeing all this sign of struggle on the road to say: A man and his match struggled here.
And the moral of this is the importance of struggle, that we cannot - no one is going to guarantee us the outcome. Nobody’s going to say if you struggle, you will succeed. It would be too simple. But even if we are not sure how it is going to end, what success will attend our enterprise, we still have this obligation to struggle.
Let us keep hope alive!!!
What is indeed needed in the ANC is not its renewal but the revival of treasured ANC values that were premised on ethical leadership and not it is our turn to eat era, which was characterised by a conspicuous immersion of its members in crass materialism. In his celebrated book “On War”, Carl von Clausewitz posits that “politics” is a contest of power over control of governance and resources and not necessarily “governance” itself. Politics tends to be about who controls power and not about how the political system operates successfully.
Revival of treasured values and not renewal is the way to go for the ANC.
Dr Vusi Shongwe works for the KZN Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The piece is written in his personal capacity.
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