No surprises and nothing to see here folks . . .

I am no authority on the history of our struggle against apartheid but I am old enough to have collected some fragmented memories of the days of mzabalazo. Thanks to these memories I am not particularly surprised by the recent mud-slinging between the ANC Youth League and the Democratic Alliance.

The Democratic Alliance pursues an agenda that seeks to bring the ANC to its knees, an agenda that seeks to defeat the ANC and to do so at all costs. The ANCYL pursues an agenda that seeks to destroy or crush, as Julius Malema said, those that get in the way of the ANC. The childish and deamening statements from both these organisations bears testimony to their respective agenda.

This is not news. I repeat, this is not news. For the love of the universe I wish e-news channel would get that. But then again maybe my good friend is onto something. He shared an observation with me that suggests that what is going on with the ANCYL may be more deliberate than accidental. He suggested that I look at the growth of tabloid reporting and the growth in circulation of the local tabloid publications in South Africa. I may be wrong but I suspect that The Sun newspaper is a very popular daily newspaper. Anyone who has ever bothered to page through this paper will know the kind of stories that it carries. My friend says that there seems to be a fascination with that which is vulgar and macabre. So, if the ANCYL seeks to endear itself to the tabloid readers (which seem to be a lot of South Africans), then it makes sense that it would walk the walk and talk the talk of the tabloid. I am not sure what to make of this but it has a ring of logic to it.

The militance of the youth is not news either. It is the same militance that in the mid-eighties saw young people terrorise their own communities in the name of the struggle for liberation. Bear with me. In my small township back then, a consumer boycott was called. My recollection is that my family and people I knew supported this campaign and did not buy from the white businesses. Please bear in mind that communicating with the community was not easy back then, you would have ended up in jail or dead for calling on the community to boycott white businesses. It follows therefore that communication was not good and some people may not have known about the boycott. It is also possible that other people may have decided not to support the camapaign. This did not make a difference to those mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who were accosted as they got off the taxis or buses and made to consume what they bought. People were made to eat or drink what they bought as punishment for not heeding the call of the people. They were made to drink fabric softner or cooking oil. They were made to eat soap and other terrible stuff. Back then, the inteded end justified the means employed to achieve that end.

What has not happened is a debrief of our militant youth post 1994 and by all accounts it is business as usual when it comes to matters of the struggle. Needless to say, it is after all aluta continua. Think of the recent taxi strikes, the labour strikes and the campus strikes.

The DA on the other hand has a proud history of support and maintenance of white privilege. They have used all manner of fancy terminology to cloud their true agenda without much success. The debates of access to campuses such as UCT that I was part of were always qualified by the like so Ryan Coetzee (chief strategist of the DA) with "the need to maintain standards". Take this comment to its logical conclusion bearing in mind that at the time, the Honourable Zille worked for the university concerned. Competence has long been used as a barrier to the entry of marginalised. Do not be surprised by Helen Zille being herself. I believe it was a fair call to question the composition of her cabinet. Of all the responses she could have given, she chose a vulgar demonisation of Jacob Zuma, a president under whom she serves. She has stated many times before and after the elections that her government will put the right people in the right positions in order to ensure delivery - whatever that means. These men must be the right people - so why is that not the answer to question posed. What does the president's sex life have to do with any of this?

These are the characters involved in this play and this is who and what they are. Nothing new and nothing to see.

Inaugural Observations . . .

The beauty of writing in a public space is that you can turn and twist words and phrases to your hearts content. Take the heading of this post for instance, it is somewhat catchy wouldn't you say? Even if I have to say so myself.

A previous post stated that the 2009 elections were as, if not more energetic than those of 1994. An amazing political energy criss-crossed our beautiful land with people putting their crosses where their proverbial mouths (and some would say their race and class) where. It was beautiful to behold. People followed the news and debated the newspaper reports in the run-up to the elections.

Similarly, the inauguration ceremony and festivities rivalled those of the inauguration of the first president of a democratic South Africa. A great majority of South Africans displayed ownership of the political process and they braved inclement weather to be part of the celebrations and the pomp of the ceremony. There were the dignitaries, heads of state, captains of industry and your usual socialites. The ceremony was somewhat schizophrenic in its attempt to be "African".

There was no difference between this and the other inaugurations of past presidents including those of De Klerk and Botha. Bear with me, I am not being judgmental and africanist or counter-revolutionary or bourgeois intellectual or whatever other invective may take your fancy. This is an observation. Consider this, the matters of protocol at this and other state functions is in the same hands (and probably the same office) as they were in the pre-1994 governments. I don't know but protocol seems to be determined by some immutable global norms. This reminds me of another but related observation: have you noticed how post-colonial Africa retains all the trappings of state institutions? The uniforms, the ridiculous uniforms (wigs and all), the brass bands (which I sort of like), the motorcades, the medals and gold chains; and of course the rules of protocol.

There was this lady explaining to the country, thanks to e-news channel, that as a matter of protocol, only one of the President's wives may be on the podium for his inauguration. Of course Msholozi the peacemaker and unifier he is reputed to be did not cause no fuss about this. Of course the media made a meal of this whole one man many wives thing; and Deborah Patter had to be obtuse. I take no umbrage with all this, it's tiring and I no longer have my student days communist inspired energy - I simply don't try to change the world no more. However, please allow me the space and a minute to say this: if you are a social commentator or any commentator at all, please make sure that when you comment on or critique many of our cultural and traditional matters, you do so in the discourse of that culture or tradition. Put differently, do not critique the culture and traditions of Amazulu using the English discourse, it simply does not work. I am not knowledgeable of these matters, being all counter-revolutionary and wannabe middle class and detribalised. What I do know is that mine is but one of many world views and not more valid than the next. So, I hope that as we continue to deepen our democracy, we will also seek to develop our own brand of protocol that works for our technicolour nation. Incidentally, there are just about enough ministries now, I am sure one of them will be up to the task.

On the other hand there was just pomp and ceremony. Nothing wrong with that. Apart from the prayers, everything else was done and happened in English. Nothing wrong with that either, I mean to have it in vernacular would simply have been unfair on the guests, the very important guests. For a detribalised native like myself, this augurs well for the future. I will no longer have to endure dirty looks for my english and fake accent. In and among the pomp and the english; and just in case some people may have forgotten what this is all about, there was much singing and dancing by the VIP guests and comrades. The songs were led (or appeared) to be led by Blade Nzimande and Julius Malema. The sound of Umshini Wam must have grinded the eardrums of Terror Lekota to no end. Of course the whole singing, dancing and sweating in a suit would not have worked for me, but hey who asked.

The President had a well structured and conciliatory speech and for that I had to applaud. The speech did not start with a quote from some literary great (this would have pleased Dr Mangcu), but it spoke rather to the people, ordinary and legendary alike. Nelson Mandela looked rather frail while Thabo Mbeki looked out of place yet formal as usual.

All in all, well auguring inaugural observations.

And the ANC shall Govern

Watching Gwede Mantashe or SG for those who know him personally or by affiliation, announcing the Premier nominees I could not help but realise that the ANC is going to govern. No, I don't mean that I doubted that the ANC had won the recent elections. It is just that over the last fifteen years, the ANC was not quite in the your face, you know. You had the benevolent saintly Nelson and he spoke to the change and the future and the manifesto and so on. After him was the napoleonic T-man. Never before did you hear or se the SG.

I could not help but think of those South Africans who did not vote for the ANC in the recent elections. How do they feel now that they will be governed by the ANC? Well, that’s democracy for you. It is not like these folks can pull a Terror Lekota and go establish their own country. But then again, we already have Orania – better not give people ideas. Back to governing:

The Premiers of each of the 8 provinces that the ANC won are hand-picked by the National Executive Committee of the ANC. They are hand-picked from a list of 3 names submitted by the branches to the NEC. The submission we are told, is in one or other order of priority but in the end the movement, the NEC makes the decision. It makes the decision as to who shall be the individuals that the President of the republic shall appoint as Premiers of the relevant provinces.“That is how it works in the ANC” – SG told us that much. Each one of these Premiers is a comrade, a cadre, a leader of the ANC in their respective rights. That much SG assures us.

Can you imagine how this whole talk of comrades and cadres is received in those homes that are neither ANC nor communist? But then again, that is democracy for you, our brand of group based democracy, that is.

So now that the Premiers have been nominated by the ANC SG tells us that, the president of the ANC and President-elect of the Republic will approve them by appointing them as he is empowered to do so by the constitution of the Republic. And from that point on, each one of the eight Premiers must be sure to serve the will of the people - of the ANC. Let us recall that the Premiers were chosen by the branches and sent up all the way to the NEC which then chooses one of the three names presented to it by the grassroots structures. Their terms and conditions of service are clear and come from Luthuli House. If these coincide with the interests of the citizenry of this here republic, then bingo. If not, such is the nature of our brand of democracy, the best we have I might add. Whichever way you look at it this brand of democracy is far better than the one presided over by De Klerk. But then again, that story is old and tired.

The function, duty and responsibility of the Premiers will be to carry out the policies of the ANC and its program of action as outlined in the manifesto of the ANC as stressed by the SG. These however will be for the people, all the people of the Republic. The people of this country, regardless of who they are, regardless of who they voted for, will benefit from the leadership of the Premiers. This of course does not apply to the people of the Western Cape; they will have to make do with the policies of the Democratic Alliance. And that too is the nature of our brand of democracy.

The Premiers must be sure not to cross the will of the people - of the ANC. They will be recalled if they do. They must remember that they are there to serve the movement first and the country second. Service to the country happens only through the movement. There are no individual decisions; decisions are made by the collective for the collective good. The individual Premiers will therefore serve at the convenience of the collective people - of the ANC.

This, SG tells us, is how it works in the ANC and the ANC shall govern.