Moral dissidents have betrayed the very masses whose struggles freed us and enabled the exiles to return home, writes Michael Weeder.
That which passes all understanding transpired this week as a presidential panga was wielded without any concern for the common good of our republic.
The oblique “I have decided to make changes to the national executive in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness” speaks to the pathology of those who evict themselves from their souls.
Vincent Kolbe, identified by my Moravian confederate, Robbie Krieger as our most “flamboyant librarian” ministered to “those who have been evicted from their souls”.
Kolbe identified this dislocation in the acts of the dispossession of land, curtailing of human rights and the self-doubt this engenders on all who experience past and present injustices.
It is evident in the lives of people who have surrendered to their lot in life. Their acquiescence renders them aloof to any call to rally against the powerful elite. They are marked by an inability to be part of any organised attempt to improve the quality of life, be it a petition for a speed bump in a residential area or mobilisation against neighbourhood crime. Bereft of all sense of agency they live quietly in the valley of the defeated, dead to love and the caring, empathetic ways it leads us to.
On the other hand we witness in these days of reckoning the selfish mission of individuals, who were once part of the organised fist of people’s power. These former paragons of revolutionary commitment now expeditiously and voluntarily self-evict from their souls. They abandon the guiding, motivated aspects of their lives. They do so for profit and the accumulative glory and power of the world, says Jesus of Nazareth, at the cost of losing their souls.
These moral dissidents have reneged on and betrayed the very masses of people whose struggles opened the prison gates that freed us and enabled the exiles to return home.
Instead they align themselves with the cause of Diablo, the father of lies, the deceiver.
“For if you’re not with me” said Jesus in his call to build the kingdom of justice, “then you are against me".
Last year Pravin Gordhan came under sustained attack because of his commitment to uphold the integrity of the fiscus. He repeatedly asked to be allowed to do his job.
Later, other voices similarly called on South Africans to get on with the job we committed to with our first vote as free South Africans, black and white. This revolutionary ensemble included Ronnie Kasrils, Sipho Pityana, Trevor Manuel and Kgalema Motlanthe.
Let me do my job: The Poetry of Recent Days
One day the day will come when, said Kgalema,
the day will not come when justice is fully employed.
So, let me do my job.
When we say to a priest, declared Trevor, “Preach on Sundays
and don’t be a Christian on Monday,” we are exciting a revolution
against the state. Our job and more must be done.
Ronnie added his voice: The ANC are smarting from
the electoral defeat... The electorate have slapped
them across the face very deservingly.
We have a job to do.
And Sipho refrained our heart-felt thoughts: The next battle
cannot be led by a leader that has humiliated
our organisation and undermined everything
that we represent. There is much to do.
Don’t give up comrades. Let's come back
This battle is not over and our job is far from done.
We are called upon to pray for those who govern. They are identified as the shepherds of the people.
This is especially true in a democracy where the outcome of an election expresses the popular choice and will of the electorate.
We pray with Mother Mary, who recognised God as one who liberates, who brings “down the powerful from their thrones, and lifts up the lowly, the divine liberator who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away, empty.
Makube njalo (let it be so).
* The Very Rev Michael Weeder is the Dean of St George's Cathedral.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.