This party needs saving. It needs to be saved from itself. The enemy is not some evil and external force; it has parasites within itself that have so transformed themselves into what seems to be the ANC. The chameleon-like camouflage has so fooled all those within that they have come to believe that this is the real deal. With each passing day we descend into the abyss of the ridiculous. And like gluttons we feed off each reported gradual descent of the ANC vicariously. We cannot afford to see this mammoth rush into the looming quicksand. If it goes down, we go down with it. Let’s not fool ourselves for a moment.
The current ANC is the black sheep in generations past of the ANC. Chief Albert Luthuli, OR Tambo, Walter Sisulu and others must be turning in their graves asking themselves what they did wrong to deserve such descendants. It is very difficult being proud of the ruling party today. And no one is willing to stand up to make us proud. It is all over the place.
The question needs to be asked; when Thabo Mbeki ran for a third term as ANC president, is it possible that he was trying to save the organisation from itself? Is it possible that he could foresee what was going to happen if the ANC was given to the current leadership? Of course if he really thought that he was the only one who could save the ruling party from itself, and then his detractors would say this is precisely the reason he needed to go. Perhaps he was the last ANC man.
When he was president we discussed AsgiSA, the African renaissance, Gear, Aids even when people thought he was wrong, the economy, battling CEOs on his blog. We always knew where he stood. We never discussed his personal life. No one doubted he had control over the ANC. He was far, far from perfect as any man. We always discussed the country when he was president, not him.
In Polokwane, where he was defeated as president of the ANC, when delivering the president’s report he said: “Our collective responsibility in this important gathering is to ask ourselves whether in the recent past our movement has not gravitated away from its moral axis on which have pivoted the leadership of Dube, Makgatho, Mahabane and Luthuli among others?”
Judging by the justifications that the ANC clothes itself today it is fair to say that the ANC has long lost its moral leadership. It is not just the arrogance, nor the disdain it treats the citizens that lend credence to the loss of moral leadership, but it has to do with the quality of leadership too. These questions we pose today about the ANC are not new. It is a pity then that many chose to bathe in denial and blind themselves because of the temptations of tenderpreneurship.
In his president’s report, Mbeki went on to say: “What this emphasises is the need for our movement to distinguish itself by its exemplary behaviour, setting an unquestionable example of what Nelson Mandela meant when he spoke about the RDP of the soul!” I don’t know how anyone can disagree with these sentiments, whether one liked the man or not. What he said is what the organisation needs.
The past few weeks we have seen nothing exemplary about the conduct of one Julius Malema. We need the ANC to take strong and principled action against him; especially since President Zuma himself already said his utterances are alien to the ANC. We can’t continue allowing leaders to get away with everything under the sun, no matter how unacceptable. The more he gets away with, the more the ANC gets away from itself.
Khaya, cant agree with you here. The ANC has lost its way a long time ago, Mbeki was trying to save his ANC for himself not the ANC. The better question for me is what is the moral and ideology of the ANC as a political party of governance and not a revolutionary movement? Does it have an identity or ideology that has been proven and tested in post apartheid SA? uTata, bless his heart focused on sentiment more than building the new governance ethos post 94 or unifying an already divided party, under Mbkei the party divisions grew but were held together by shady deals and now the party still divided is being held together by an image its trying to salvage…which means saying “the right things” to please anyone who will listen, even if the tune changes days later. What I do agree with is that Mbeki may have been wrong but we always knew where we stood as a nation…what we are faced with today is an ANC and government that speak out of different mouths and are indecisive as hell…no locus of power, no clear ideology, no power to act, no vision worth mentioning and way too many smiling at each other in public while hissing in the background.
Lyndall
Your obsession with Mbeki spells out who you are more than you can imagine. Some of us have seen through you and your ilk. Talk about original thought how many present day leaders are able to extrapolate theory and clinically disect the problems of humanity let alone coming up with their own theories. I only see jealousy eating at you. Africa’s thinking leaders are a menace to the greedy and racist strategists of the west who to agree with one participant here sound like Lyndall and Steve Hofmeyer. We know that right wingers do not want bright African leaders not withstanding the fact that Africa has given its genes to the greatest stateman and leaders of the most powerful country in the world, Barak Obama. The racists know that bright leaders will be able to safeguard Africa’s wealth period
Ja, I guess Mbeki must have had some original thoughts when he wrote the dissertation (thesis) for his Masters Degree in Economics – he has had many good original thoughts I have no doubt, but people are very lacking in generosity if they feel negatively about Mbeki – that is sad when one considers that he gave his entire life to RSA – he doesn’t have any children (his only son having disappeared without a trace during the bush war) and just one wife………. all things considered he came with quite a low price tag too really!
Some of the lies and Anti-Mbeki propaganda here reminds me of the Sunday Crimes(and its then Johnnic stable-mates) at the turn of the century when they stopped being newspapers and instead became ideological tools used to influence political events.Mr Mbeki had his flaws but its quite hilarious that the hate-filled bloggers/columnists/editors always missed them in their rush to exhibit their evil hatred.
Indeed Mbeki was trying to save the ANC from itself and unfortunately Kgalema Motlante tried being in between the fence and he landed on the wrong side.
The ANC would have been a better place had if Thabo had remained.Surely he often sits and looks at how the party is heading for distruction.Though the ANC will never admit it,many of its members do regret putting the current leadership into power.
Good article Khaya, open, honest, engaging and non-racist. Keep up the good work. Your new fan, Allan.
I have always voted and identified with he ANC…gone are those days!
Khaya, once again we come to history in order to ponder and understand what is happening today. They say a prophet is never acknowledged during his life time. But I leave that open to be critiqued.
“Quiet diplomacy” is often criticized for the state of Zimbabwe presently. Yet i have not heard a raucous applaud to Zuma’s efforts either. Morgan Tsangarai used to regularly give impromptu news conferences where he derided the efforts of Thabo Mbeki in mediation. Now recently, he is very quiet. Is it that he is starting to realise that Mbeki was effective as a mediator, and that he is now saddled with just an incompetent mediator? I guess time will tell on this one.
Rose Morrow
Mbeki was one of 2 “token blacks” out of about 500 students at a new university not even 2 years old – hardly Oxford or Cambridge (where his results were possibly not good enough to gain admittance).
How do you know they did not push him through to be politically correct – he was Govan Mbeki’s son?
Give me one ORIGINAL intellectual idea he has had?
I think that’s being a bit harsh on Mbeki … he did complete his British “A” levels in 1960 & ’61, he did one year of economics as an external student at the University of London but eventually go his Master of Economics degree at the University of Sussex in 1966. The man studied under dreadful circumstances and, at least, finished it!
He got a couple of honorary degrees as well – one honorary Doctorate from Rand Afrikaans University in 1999 and one honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Glasgow Caledonian University on 19 May 2000 – this last one is a bit astonishing, though.
He wrote a couple of books … as well ….
Lyndall – how do you know he didn’t write a brilliant thesis, packed full of original ideas? How do we know you weren’t pushed through university to obtain your degree (if you have one)? From all accounts he was a brilliant, hard working and highly thought of student and his biographer, whom you have previously quoted, concurred and has continued to do so countless times thereafter – you may be the only person who doesn’t consider him intelligent or worthy of the accolades that come with a Masters in Economics! As for original thoughts – I haven’t read his Masters so I won’t comment – as I said I am sure he has had many, many original thoughts and I certainly found him an inspiring President on many fronts. I don’t know Lyndall – are you by any chance a conspiracy theorist and a cynical one at that? It’s just the picture coming across! Perhaps it’s just me!
Rose what difference would it make to the argument at hand? Whether Thabo Mbeki was a token black student or not, is that really relevant to the facts at hand? We know of course that being expelled in your pen-ultimate year at high school for being politically involved will not be good for your final results! But then again getting a good matric pass by studying through distance learning says a lot about the man. Wouldn’t you say? Your comment just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe you can give us an original intellectual idea on this one?
I met him once …. before he was the president and he’s a brilliant man, no doubt about it. He’s not your average politician and I knew he’d suck at it. He’s just not stupid enough.
Floyd – shouldn’t you have addressed your last comment to Lyndall? I agree with your sentiments!
Yes Rose, my comments were addressed to Lyndall. my mistake. sorry
Jacoba
What are the titles of the books Mbeki wrote?
Rose
I read Mark Gevisser’s biography of Mbeki, which he researched for 9 years. Mbeki’s degrees are from Sussex University – the rest are honourary and therefore not studied for.
And I do have a degree and a diploma from UCT, but who would bother to push me through and why?
@ Lyndall – I have no idea, I could be mistaken. He did write the “I an African speech” and he made one at the United Nations university around ’97 – ’99 (am not sure) – both of which were brilliant and could not have been written by a fool. Didn’t he write “a dream deferred”? When I have more time, I’ll look for you.
I am amazed at your vehemence – most of us have degrees but there are as many of us that worked hard as there are those that breezed through varsity. So what? What does that prove?
I thought this post was brilliant and I believe that Mbeki’s biggest fault was that he expected too much from a nation that he hardly knew. He did, however, not drag the ANC into the quagmire and I didn’t cringe at his inability to string a sentence together each time he opened his mouth. His quiet diplomacy policy didn’t work because Africa is still a violent, brutal place where corruption is the norm and logic is absent.