Be like Jeff and say sorry

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe apologised unreservedly for exchanging explicit text and email messages with an employee in the government’s communications agency. Radebe told The Star in an exclusive interview that the scandal was a regrettable moment of weakness. Picture: Ntswe Mokoena

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe apologised unreservedly for exchanging explicit text and email messages with an employee in the government’s communications agency. Radebe told The Star in an exclusive interview that the scandal was a regrettable moment of weakness. Picture: Ntswe Mokoena

Published May 28, 2017

Share

When politicians err they should, like Jeff Radebe, learn to humble themselves and say sorry no matter how hard, writes Lebo Keswa.

Elton John was spot on in his classic Sorry seems to be the hardest word. What does it take for a politician to say sorry? Too much it seems in our body politic, if events of the last few years are anything to go by. But all this seems set to change in the build up to the ANC’s succession race. Last week’s newspapers and social media were abuzz with the latest sex scandal to emerge out of the Union Buildings. Social media assumptions were that it is number one at it again.

None of us were, however, prepared that it had to do with the longest-serving cabinet minister of the state Jeff Radebe and more so, how he was going to respond. 

In a manner not typical of our politicians, he admitted his wrongs and said sorry to the nation and his family without the usual obfuscation and denials. His front page apology in The Star on Tuesday meant that within 24 hours of the story breaking he was already on his knees asking the country for forgiveness and acknowledging that he is wrong in what he termed “a moment of weakness”. This meant that the controversy stood a chance of subsiding and people looked at him as “one of our own”. A lot of public sympathy flowed from his action and his career will probably not be affected by this although, due to the dramatic and salacious details that emerged, he is likely to remain a butt of jokes for a long time.

When I saw this unfold I asked myself why is it that politicians find it so hard to say sorry when they have erred? Only a humble enough person admits when they are wrong and an even humbler person does not believe that saying sorry is a sign of weakness.

Look at these recent examples: President Zuma took two years to say sorry about Nkandla. Despite the public outcry and angst that his literal waste of taxpayers’ money cost the public, the president actually made a joke of the whole Nkandla saga ridiculing all those who found something wrong with it and defying the public protector in the process, getting the entire legal machinery to waste millions to force him to admit wrongdoing.

By the time he offered his April Fool apology it was meaningless. His feeble sorry to this day is not taken seriously, not just because it was insincere, but because soon afterwards he was doing something else for which he should be sorry. He is at it again with the State of Capture report, taking it to court only to probably be back to the same sorry place. It took five years for the deputy president to say sorry about Marikana. Although he was not found guilty by the Farlam commission, there is a general belief in society that as a Lonmin shareholder he used his undue influence in government to agitate for tough action against the mine workers - calling their actions criminal and calling for concomitant action to be taken.

This conduct resulted in the tragedy that followed, whether there was a direct link or not. He has now said a terribly belated sorry after spending five years attempting to wash his hands of this tragedy. Herein lies a lesson that saying sorry is often not even an admission of total responsibility, but can easily also be a sign of compassion. Ramaphosa dismally failed to show compassion for the families of those widows whose breadwinners died under his watch. So what has changed after five years? Will those widows not be entitled to believe that he is insincere and he is only doing this because the stench of Marikana is threatening his ascendency to power? It’s hard to see an apology like this through a jaundiced eye. But they say better late than never.

The issue of fidelity (infidelity) of our politicians seems to present us with something that is a reflection of our politics. Who can forget the Sonono Khoza debacle with Zuma, or the Khwezi scandal resulting in a rape trial. It starts from the top so that when an Mbalula is blackmailed by a “makwapeni”, or a Malusi Gigaba is embroiled in an ugly spat with a girlfriend, all of these become normalised in our society. Both of these gentlemen are yet to say sorry to South Africa for conduct that is unbecoming of ministers.

Kebby Maphatsoe, whose naked pictures circulated in the media recently, spent time trying to say - despite one-handed evidence to the contrary - that it was not him in the blue movie picture. I don’t remember at what point he conceded and said sorry. It’s clear that with politicians the first port of call is denial until evidence is shoved down their throats. It’s a new culture that has taken root, a culture of dishonesty.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that a culture of using each others’ weaknesses to fuel the culture of corruption is the new modus operandi of power play. It was no surprise at all when someone as incorrigible as Bathabile pronounced that the reason the NEC has no leg to stand on in removing Zuma is that all of the members of that body have “smaller nyana skeletons” and should they touch Zuma “all hell will break loose”.

With someone who is a convicted Travelgate criminal you can expect such low morals, and so it would have been totally unreasonable to expect a sincere apology in the recent debacle of a social grants fiasco where millions of people’s livelihoods were threatened by her pure incompetence. Sorry would be impossible for someone so openly rude to the South African public.

Politicians are human beings at the service of the public. When they err, they should learn to humble themselves and say sorry no matter how hard. This way, the forgiving public will give them a chance to redeem themselves. Jeff Radebe has led the way and hopefully, as he possibly ascends to the high office, he will keep his desires to himself and lead by example going forward.

It takes no big mind to read that the timing of some of these revelations has everything to do with how high the stakes are in the ongoing battle for high office. His swift action to own up may well be a sign that he does not intend his career to end just yet.

* Keswa is businesswoman and writes in her personal capacity. Follow her on Twitter @lebokeswa

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

The Sunday Independent

Related Topics: