Anyone who is a politician in South Africa; everyone who wants our vote today: you’re a desperately sorry bunch, every one of you. You are, to a man and woman, failing us, the voters of South Africa. From the ANC and Cope to the DA, the ID, the little lads in ANCYL and pretty much everything that calls itself a political party, there is precious little to inspire confidence.
We’re talking about politicians here. We’re not choosing clerics. If Tutu were on the list, now HE would have my vote. But we have to choose corruptible politicians from a long list of corruptible politicians. So let’s hear it for not slinging all of the mud at the ANC, which many, particularly white voters, have taken to doing. That’s too easy — and there’s plenty of mud to go around. Let’s hear it for REAL change. Let’s hear it for something that matters. Let’s hear it for the people who sing and dance at Jacob Zuma’s feet. Let’s ask ourselves why they do that. And let’s ask ourselves: if this is not the man we want, who the hell else in the country is promising those people what THEY want? Who else are they expected to believe will give it to them?
I have been reflecting. And I have been rereading my blog post about the juxtaposition between folk in places like Constantia and Sandton, and their indifference to the plight of the poor. And I hope, I so hope, that these people are right in believing Zuma is the man to do it for them. Because the point is that what they want, they must be given, if we are all to have peace among ourselves and with our collective conscience. If you, behind your high walls in Constantia and Bantry Bay and Houghton and Waterkloof, want peace and happiness in your lives and your children’s lives, you really need to stop and think about this. It is the core at the centre of our hopes and dreams. Our country will not thrive without this being addressed.
Of all of my blog posts, the one that resonates most clearly with what I really care about, and which reflects my deepest hopes, and to a degree also my fears, is the post about those people with their hugely disproportionate possessions and wealth and the desperate nothingness in the hands of so many of these people who tomorrow will choose Jacob Zuma as the man to lead them into a more prosperous future. Anyone who has never spared a thought for the plight of those people is a part of the reason they will be choosing him tomorrow. You could think of it as just desserts. They feel ignored, their aspirations sidelined. Which is why, if he does not deliver, they will dump him and choose … well, who knows. Malema, maybe. So let’s give this some serious thought, because, hey, maybe one day we’ll be living under a Julius Malema government and fondly remembering the good old Zuma days.
There is a lot in my personal history and work experiences that influences the way I feel about this. In the Nineties, I had a job which took me much closer to these rich people than I had ever been, for I do not come from that elite world. As editor of a lifestyle rag called Top of the Times in theCape Times, I rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous of the Mother City several times a week for many years, and I came to understand how little most of them cared or even thought about anyone outside of their own gilt cages. How these people spent pretty much all of their professional and creative ability on making themselves even richer, and on narrow self-interest. Yes, there will be exceptions to this rule, as there are to all rules, and God bless those few. But they are the exceptions, let us not kid ourselves.
I remember attending celebrity auctions where it was more about what these frighteningly rich people could win when raffle time came around than about how much could be raised for whatever charity had been chosen. I found it sickening. I appeared to fit in, I guess. I am an odd sort of person — I am well-spoken, because I have taught myself to speak well. I have, if you like, had some self-elocution. People generally presume that I have an academic background. Most white people I know just take that as a given. I learnt the manners that one needs to have in the company of these rich people, the manners to which they are born. I had learnt how to write by practising and observing, not by going to university.
But I am really from working-class stock, with cousins who worked in the mills of West Yorkshire, the kind of people you saw in the movie The Full Monty. Those are the simple, hard-working, struggling people that I call kin, and I am proud as hell of them and being one of them, even though they think I’m posh and love sending me up.
But they are northern English and I am South African born and bred (and not colonial, my parents having been 20th century immigrants). And so I found myself being born South African and unavoidably white, seven years into apartheid. And I’ve been looking at myself lately, and looking at this country I love with all of my heart and soul, and trying to place an eye on the future and just finding a big question mark, and asking myself: what’s important? What do we need, what do South Africans need, what does my country need, right here, right now?
My country, the South Africa I live in, needs something to be done about that terrible disparity. If something is not done about it, and soon, those who have clung to their wealth and cared nothing for the poor will have no case to make. This is no ordinary country, and yet these people carry on as if they were living on the Algarve or in Monte Carlo. It’s so crass, so vulgar. We live in Africa. We live in a country where the majority live in the worst Third World conditions. In all conscience, we have to respond to their needs, and God help us if rich white South Africa does not wake up, right here, right now. Come out of your gilt cages, roll your sleeves up, and do something or surely face consequences of a kind we all wish to avert.
I cannot see who will solve this problem for us all. I hope, I deeply hope, that Jacob Zuma will be the man who can give these people what they want — these people who tomorrow will make him the most powerful man in Africa. It is pretty clear that the man has near fatal flaws. But there are other things that these people see, or think they see — what if they’re right? Could it be?
Jacob Zuma will not come to this position by right, divine or secular. The people do not serve the leader — the leader serves his people. To borrow a line from the Americans, as adapted by Neil Diamond: My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing, proudly I sing today. Proudly I sing of a future which, right now, has a great question mark on it.
Who will I vote for tomorrow? I don’t even know. Smart-arse commentators on my blogs have made presumptuous choices on my behalf. One even calls me a “DA sympathiser”. The parties all have questionable characters in their ranks. There is the potential for corruption in all of them. I just do not believe in politicians.
At least there is the hope that Zuma will be able to do something to improve the lot of these desperate people. And why should they be denied so that the country’s elite can have a squeaky-clean politician who will pretty everything up and put a nice gloss on things and leave the poorest of the damnably poor to rot? Because the people behind those high walls do not care a fig, trust me they do not.
Either way, he’s our man now, this man Zuma. How will I vote? I will only know when I am in that booth, poised to make my cross. And that is one thing we have. The right to choose, to vote, and it is our choice to make, nobody else’s. It will be between me and the ballot box, but if my cross does go next to that man who so frightens many of us right now, I will hold him to account.
Ah yes, sweet land of liberty. I borrowed that from America. If only we could borrow their president.
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30 Responses to “One day, under President Malema, will we fondly remember the good old Zuma days?”
“My country, the South Africa I live in, needs something to be done about that terrible disparity. If something is not done about it, and soon, those who have clung to their wealth and cared nothing for the poor will have no case to make. This is no ordinary country, and yet these people carry on as if they were living on the Algarve or in Monte Carlo. It’s so crass, so vulgar. We live in Africa. We live in a country where the majority live in the worst Third World conditions. In all conscience, we have to respond to their needs, and God help us if rich white South Africa does not wake up, right here, right now. Come out of your gilt cages, roll your sleeves up, and do something or surely face consequences of a kind we all wish to avert.”
And what is that ’something’ that needs to be done exactly? I want details. What must white people do to set things straight? Pay x% of all their wealth to the state - a special white tax?
Give up a job that is providing a good life for you and your family to give somebody else a chance?
Whom do you give to - an individual or the state? Do you get a receipt?
And once you’ve done that is that the end of the issue? Can you then as a white person go out as an equal into the job marketplace or business world?
My experience of this country has apparently been very different from yours, Tony. Every NGO, every small business that has created real sustainable jobs, every adult literacy programme, every mentoring programme in business, education, and human service sectors have been initiated by, invested in and developed by middle class people from all over SA and volunteer and development agencies from around the world.
Volunteers (unpaid) like Habitat International, Aussie experts on eco-housing in desert areas, Swedish experts on perma-culture, small fisheries, and women’s co-operatives, Danish technical advisors for industry, Brit economists with huge experience in 45 countries, Canadian specialists in community development, American volunteers who work with the physically and mentally disabled, and most of all thousands of South African women and men who have created most of the new jobs in this country in their own small businesses, are not filthy rich or self-centred. They come from middle class backgrounds. And they run into resistance and outright abuse from our government ‘deployees’ who fear that these ‘colonialists’ will show them up.
Those fears are well-founded because these people are effective, often against the most obdurate opposition-not from the people they are here to help but from our government.
The anti-Western stance of the ANC has all but alienated the most dedicated of these people. This anti-westernism is self-defeating.
But SA has a penchant for shooting itself in the foot.
That, not white indifference, is the real problem.
Nice article Tony. Many across all races and nations around the world share your fear of Zuma. SA is indeed a unique and special place because of our past.
-Only in SA are we forced to confront our own humanity and grapple with the fundamental issue of this glaring disparity in wealth, education and privilege created by apartheid policies.
-Only in SA do we see the rich diversity but still feel the effects racism from the many generations of apartheid.
-Only in SA do we see levels of crime and violence like nowhere else in the world.
Governments and especially politicians, should never by completely trusted. Its far better to place our faith in the democratic system instead and shore up our nascent democracy with a strong opposition. Collectively this will at least protect our constitution and provide us a means to purge ineffective and corrupt politicians. Remember America too had to suffer through two terms of a president that most Americans now regard as their worst in their history. Maybe SA too, needs to fall further before an Obama-like leader emerges - this is only possible through a vibrant democracy, not a one-party state.
so random is your post. at one stage you talk about zuma, then malema, whilst you’re still on those two you still manage to throw a bit about of your memoirs, then jump back to zuma, finally you talk about voting….ok, let’s pause, what are you on about?
let’s get over with these elections and done, so that this day-to-day election rant can immediately stop;it’s now boring if i may say.
by the way, has anyone thought of the carefully about results?
how long will they take to tally? will we have another zimbabwe, where results are released after 30 days? would the outcomes be accepted by all? how many court cases are we gonna have? what about the zille’s zuma obsession– will it stop after elections?
who’s gonna form partnership with the ruling party? will they releasse their members to form part of the ruling party cabinet (to field one of portfolios), will the azapo, id, udm, ifp still exist in the main stream politics?
so many questions, i guess we have to wait and find out.
There are only two options in closing the wealth disparity: lift the poor up or drag the rich down.
For all their rhetoric if favour of the former, the shabby quality of ANC leadership leaves them only with the latter option as something within reach.
The “rich” WILL be dragged down, just as in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa. It’s a work in progress.
The problem is that meeting expectations requires a cross between a wizard and a saint - and we have no-one of that ilk.
Which means that expectations will not be met. And so : if venal politicians should be elected (God forbid), this will be the opportunity to blame the past whilst sliding $$$ into the back pockets…
Zimbabwe will be our template. Unless the community stands up against corruption. Unless upstanding people like Malema develop the ethos and morality of Mandela.
You lost me at “…we have to choose corruptible politicians from a long list of corruptible politicians.” Helen Zille is NOT corruptible and that’s why she has my vote.
Bit of an odd tirade, but heartfelt at least. If you don’t like any of the politicians we currently have appearing on the ballot sheet…why aren’t you doing something about it? It’s easy to criticise politicians as scum whilst painting everyone else as a hapless victim. We live in a free country where anyone (should they wish to do so) is able to enter into public debates or service to change things for the better.
If there is precious little that our political parties have to offer as inspiration…why was there such a huge voter registration and no doubt (we’ll know for sure tomorrow) vote casting today?
Craig, this train of thought, this train of conscience, is leading somewhere constructive. I do have a clear objective in mind. But it’s not the sort of thing just to blurt out here.
You brought a painful lump to my throat; older you are, further back you recall happy days.
Since birth, I was “abba” on my Xhosa mama’s back for 3 yrs. I loved her warmth. My adored mentor left due to old age, ill, worn out at 50.
” shlala gashle mama -ikosisana haaie thula!”
(I can speak, not write; Wise Mama was unschooled.)
She was a ‘Native.’
I was 4th generation, poor white.
We were both ostracized by Britborn who spoke of “home.” (I hated that word then.)
She said “I am isiXHOSA and you are S.AFRICAN - be not shamed for it.” “ikaya” is our Union of SA.
She mentored me for 10 yrs to be “AFRICAN,” “liberal” “equal” “ubuntu” (except she feared Zulu’s as they hate Xhosa - call them “Hyenas.”)
From:
Inferior colonial, to blerrie rooinek kommie,
- now a pale face told to go “HOME !” Suka Wena.
Fact - I have never been “equal” only proud.
I am different and scorned for it, so what, that is life.
Fact:
I get very angry at being a hated Liberal.
I do not fit in anywhere, so am vociferous in my opinions - that is my freedom !
NO ONE EVER (NB - Sipho) has or will make me shut up.
Mama (not mommy) taught me that I am an EQUAL and a South AFRICAN.
NOW?
I am ashamed of my African ancestry and birthland’s degeneration to lack of freedom of speech, neglect of rural poor.
Haaie kona thula mina!
Old, female, paleface on April 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 am
The function of the South African Revenue Service is to extract 45% of income received by the people you don’t like. With VAT this becomes 59%, ignoring the myriad of other taxes from capital gains, to duties on 10001 products, liquour licences motor vehicle taxes TV licences fishing licences … ad infinitum. What is the result?
The result is a food chain stretching all the way up from the mayors of poverty stricken communities right up to the president, with a comprehensively grotesque official expenditure on high living and self aggrandisement.
Perhaps you could do a bit of a study on, say, the use of executive jet charters by government officials. And I mean like from Potchefstroom to Lanseria. This is what they do with the money.
If you had to quadruple the annual tax take, the beggars on the street corner would still be there. But somehow to you all this is actually the fault of the rich behind their high walls. I assure you I like them even less than you do, Tony, but the money they have belongs to them and most of them did not acquire it through armed robbery.
The money an Eastern Cape minister spent, building a 2nd personal private lift to his 3rd floor office in Bisho while in court for not paying social grants, actually belonged to the destitute. And not one word, not one peep, not even a raised eyebrow from you.
These near fatal flaws you speak of -could one possibly be a lack of understanding of justice and democracy. This could well be your last vote. Don’t worry about Malema, that’s like looking at who was in charge of ZanuPF youth league when mugabe came in. Zuma will never leave once in. he will go to any lengths to protect himself as he has already shown.
As for the elite, that’s just your narrow perception of elite. YOU are the elite with your car and computer to a desperate poor person in Gugulethu… From their perspective you are the unnacceptable face of capitalism, just as the constantia crowd are to you. Where do you draw the line in what should be shared with the poor… to give them all is communism and if that is what you want why don’t you start at home and donate your car and computer and see where we get to in 10 years.
craig - i think the point is that its up to these people to figure out how to contribute.
isn’t it a bit pathetic for them to follow the approach of complaining about government incompetance while also claiming that they cannot help without the government showing them how ?
after all, these are the people with the education and the means …
I’m amazed at how the new wealthy ‘previously disadvantaged’ seem to care very little, perhaps even less, about the poverty of their fellow South Africans.
White people have become an easy target when it comes to indifference to poverty, but its just as pervasive amongst the wealthy black elite.
It is never clear from this sort of piece what is expected of rich people. Are they to give up their fine houses and give all their money away? Is that likely to happen here anymore than anywhere else in the world? And how exactly would it help after the first share-out?
Progressive income tax seems a better idea than that, and very probably steeper rates of CGT.
Another step in the right direction would be clean government. But how likely is that?
Think about the millions embezzled, misspent and stolen as you put your cross today.
What’s the first thing you need to do to start clearing the present mess up?
@Brett - but my point is that even if you contribute and dedicate yourself to upliftment of the poor, you are still viewed as a white with ill-gotten gains - you are on a hiding to nothing. - especially when the mood in government (and lingering racist tendancies of many whites) perpetuates this
@Tony - I am fully behind upliftment of the poor in South Africa for the reasons you lay out. There is an economic inequality in SA’s democracy that holds a huge risk for the future. BUT - there is an inherent assumption that the current wealth base must change hands for all to be forgiven. What does that accomplish other than to impoverish 90% of your current economic contributors?
Co-incidently there is a way for whites to achieve what you set out:
1. Immigrate and vacate your job
2. Contribute to South African charities using foreign currency
3. Visit regularly and boost the SA tourism industry
4. Get labelled as unpatriotic and a deserter in the process (oh well you can’t have everything)
Just my 2 cents worth - what about the gross displays of the blue light brigades. JZ tops the list. This is not flaunting money in the face of the poor? or killing them with arrogant driving?
Given the small minority who are rich, of all colours, how much difference would it make if we all gave it all up and lived in RDP houses? Zilch!
What is needed is an atmosphere where I am NOT AFRAID TO SHARE, to create work. Right now we’re afraid of the future so we’re hoarding.
Being threatened because I’m white and don’t “belong” here doesn’t help. (by the way I’m jobless, my husband’s business is struggling and we have no savings, having spent all on keeping a business going that employed others)
You’re a lover of the controversial aren’t you? Jeez. Some of the bitter and highly defensive responses of the readers speak to one of our greatest sources of the division in this country, SELF-INTEREST. Its sad that we all, because of our vested interests cant just get along!
At the end of the day whether you vote DA or ID or WF, Zuma in all likelihood will become YOUR President, so lets all try to see where we (if possible) our needs can line up to the aspirations of the people he represents.
it’s hilarious. i’m putting things in place that my son will not have to deal with a president malema. while south africa is his some, when there is an abusive parent, sometimes you must leave.
the abuse may not necessarily be at the hands of the parents themselves, but friends of the parents about whom the parents do nothing.
so, no. my son will have the option to leave if the far left gets out of hand. of course, the actions of the far left will be tempered somewhat because of a) his education levels and b) his residence in the western cape.
having lived in liberia and having relatives in bolivia, i’m not particularly looking forward to a country run by zuma. i’m not saying that south africa will degenerate to the levels that liberia and to where bolivia is going, but that’s my counter answer to the whole “hypereducated leaders sending countries to hell”.
btw — people talk about revolutions and independence struggles and want to compare those in the americas to those here. it’s not the case. with the exception of haiti, *every* liberation struggle in the americas was led by the elite, not the oppressed.
outside of the americas, the “liberators” felt that they needed to get rich *first* instead of coming up with the masses. they still do. i mean, since malema isn’t much to look at, how else do you think he got his own cash? not through education.
the countries with the worst income disparities have the worst crime problems. the only countries with the same levels of crime levels of crime as south africa are colombia and brazil, and their policemen shoot first and ask questions later.
[this really needs to come back in south africa. it won’t, given that there are too many ruling party voters among those folks]
to be honest, brazil is much worse than south africa. that said, the poor are coming up faster because of entrepreneurship [including the criminal variety] and because the economy is not so dependent on dirigistic policies from brasilia.
“the government must give us a house, a job, and a pension?” um, no.
there are a lot of lefty policies which sound good, but in the long term, dampen expectations for self-starting which can become horrible. all that said, the ONLY time that it’s good to be in a dirigistic mood is when all of your trading partners are doing it, so that it won’t disadvantage your economy — which completely boggled my mind that trevor manuel is completely against doing something like that at this very exact moment.
Hey, people. Tony didn’t talk about the rich giving more *money*. That’s your own projection
He spoke about thinking and reflecting; about creative and professional ability and about coming out from behind the high walls (real and metaphoric) to see what’s going on and to start showing we care about our country - because unless we do - all of us whatever our financial status - the space is left wide open for the charlatans and crooks and political snake-oil Mugabes who exploit the hopes and fears of ordinary people and then leave them to rot, anyway.
Tony’s piece is a bit odd perhaps, not what I’m used to reading, but I don’t come to Thought Leader for what I’m used to reading. Thank you Tony, your words have touched me. I’m also wondering where these thoughts might lead you (us) in future and will be watching this space!
Meanwhile, in the Western Cape, a lot of us are holding our breath for a change of government and the Cape Times says that they’re packing up in Wale Street where the mood is “tense”. Good. I hope our crappy, patronising, doctor-victimising, big-talking, small-changing death-by-neglect Health Department is packing up their personal coffee mugs in Dorp Street as well.
GREMLINS
My rant about Freedom of Speech - was meant for “MUZZLING NANDO’s.”
I did not comment, as it expresses how I felt decades before Apartheid and have, ever since.
Today - we can choose the high or low road.
Regimes in SA changed since 1930’s - trust me - nothing is new.
The poor are like the poor of those days.
As you say, some of us chose to “educate ourselves.”
We went to libraries for information.
Home study colleges and UNISA - had millions of students burning midnight oil.
We had to find work to survive, education was the tool.
There was no charity for all.
There was no distribution of wealth; so in 2009 we have a prosperous economy - emanating from the capital of the rich, and the labours of ALL poor people of ALL colours over the centuries since 1659.
Try wealth distribution and the hated rich, with their vital capital - fly away and jobs too.
Taxes diminish and so too the whole country.
Look North for proof.
We need the rich - they do not need us.
I speak from experience not myths of good old days.
There have never been good old days for the poor of any country at any time.
The poor have to labour to earn money or starve.
Money and man have to work together to provide for each other.
You really cannot get away with that first sentence, you know.
If Tony is not talking about the rich giving away (some proportion) of their riches then it is not possible to see what he is asking of the rich - since it is only their riches that distinguishes the rich from the rest of us and that they, uniquely, have to offer.
There was an exchange between two American writers (one was Scott Fitzgerald - cannot remember the other one).
Scott observed, ‘The rich are different from us.’
‘Yes,’ his friend agreed. ‘They have more money.’
As a person priveledged enough to provide employment I wish to pose the following questions:
a)How did an eastern country like Japan succeed in overcoming their destruction after WW2?
b)Which class of people posses the ability to effect a turn around policy in Zim if they were permitted to?
c)What would happen if the poor could undergo a mind shift away from an attitude characterised by hatred ,envy , mass industrial action , entitlement etc.Would that not make them more employable and ultimatelly more prosperous ?
Mrs paleface speaks wisely, good to see. But I’m glad the author feels better now he has sufficiently proved, to his own mind, his working class credentials .
Be carefull, our working class hero, that you don’t find yourself sidelined by all classes as you waffle your bourgeoise nonsense.
Toni, great piece. Just a quick note. We rich whites do do something. They work for the National Democratic Revolution for five months of the year. They are taxed and happily pay income plus VAT taxes so are taxed 40+%. They do not burden the state - they pay for private helathcare, security and schooling. Our leadership who have the mandate to lead have chosen to buy guns, private jets, hand out tenders to cronies etc. as opposed to provide clean water for our people, build houses that dont fall over etc. If whites complain they are slandered as racist counter revolutionaries who must go home to europe. Yet white rick elties still do their bit. If they choose to apply for a job within the state they are too pale to help solve the problems at hand. So to suggest the white relatively rich dont care is unsupported by facts - they are providing the means through which the political black elite can uplift our people, but choose not to. No amount of hand wringing will change this fact. Until the masses hold their leadership accountable we are going nowhere. What do you propose people do? Work 100% for the African National Cronies?
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Tony Jackman is a journalist, budding playwright and sometime chef. He's written two plays, An Influence of Ghosts and Blue Train Coming, and back in the day wrote loads of songs. He paints a bit in watercolours when he remembers to, and apart from that he massages words and pushes grammar for a nice little magazine called myweek.
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“My country, the South Africa I live in, needs something to be done about that terrible disparity. If something is not done about it, and soon, those who have clung to their wealth and cared nothing for the poor will have no case to make. This is no ordinary country, and yet these people carry on as if they were living on the Algarve or in Monte Carlo. It’s so crass, so vulgar. We live in Africa. We live in a country where the majority live in the worst Third World conditions. In all conscience, we have to respond to their needs, and God help us if rich white South Africa does not wake up, right here, right now. Come out of your gilt cages, roll your sleeves up, and do something or surely face consequences of a kind we all wish to avert.”
And what is that ’something’ that needs to be done exactly? I want details. What must white people do to set things straight? Pay x% of all their wealth to the state - a special white tax?
Give up a job that is providing a good life for you and your family to give somebody else a chance?
Whom do you give to - an individual or the state? Do you get a receipt?
And once you’ve done that is that the end of the issue? Can you then as a white person go out as an equal into the job marketplace or business world?
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