Last year was a grim one for the country, although South Africa’s irrepressibly genial president appeared not to notice. So for the government to view the Soccer World Cup as 2010′s miracle cure-for-all national ills is a little naive.
President Jacob Zuma hopes that the World Cup will somehow deliver the magical bonanza that will curb growing national fractiousness and simultaneously overcome the state’s incapacity to function effectively.
The Soccer World Cup is not merely a sports tournament. The African National Congress (ANC) is counting on it delivering jobs, economic growth, unity, peace, national glory and international esteem. It’s like a gambler placing his entire depleted stake on one number for a final spin of the wheel.
This is not to gainsay the considerable benefits that the World Cup will bring. The Cup is not, however, the panacea that the government is pining for — a slow-motion rerun of the divinely scripted 1995 Rugby World Cup, which saw Nelson Mandela unite a fearful and divided nation, albeit to have his gains squandered by his successor Thabo Mbeki.
Zuma has more than once said that he would like to follow in the footsteps of Mandela, “to lead the country towards the realisation of Madiba’s vision of a truly non-sexist, non-racial SA, united in its diversity”, as he put it in his presidential acceptance speech last year. He wants that Invictus moment, with him usurping Morgan Freeman as the iconic Mandela.
In his New Year message Zuma called on the nation to “revive the unity and patriotism” of the Rugby World Cup, and to “renew our commitment to national unity and nation building”, putting a “culture of negativity” behind us. These are admirable objectives, but the Madiba moment is long gone and the Soccer World Cup is probably not enough to put back the fizz of optimism into what is now very flat champagne.
The “culture of negativity” is in 2010 no longer the preserve of the white community as it was 15 years ago. It is widespread across all ethnic groups and results directly from a government that puts the ANC ahead of the national interest.
Every state institution has been bent to serve the ANC through the deployment of party cadres who have often proved to be incompetent and corrupt. The conflation of state and party is so complete that no one in the ANC finds it chilling or even incongruous when the new head of the National Prosecuting Authority says that he will take his cue directly from the office of the president.
No ANC Cabinet minister or head of a parastatal has yet been booted out for poor performance. All that is required in a top job is loyalty to the ANC faction that made the appointment.
Glorious moments are important for national morale but in the arduous task of building a nation there’s no substitute for hard graft. Nor can they make up for a vacillating leadership or the lack of moral courage.
Zuma cannot definitively be dismissed as a poor leader, for no other reason than he has been no leader at all. If his laissez-faire approach works and he manages to hold both party and nation together, one might yet admire his notional presidency.
But in the interim he presides over an alliance that is creaking with strain because he will not spell out unambiguously what ideological course his administration will follow. And he presides over a nation that is faltering, divided, and poisoned by race hate which is openly fanned by favoured functionaries in the ANC.
Disappointingly for Zuma, and SA, there is no Invictus moment looming.
There’s the small matter of individual obligations that you seem to miss given that your focus is largely on an Invictus ‘moment’. That’s exactly what they are, ‘moments’ – great for a boost of morale – but certainly no substitute for a maturing citizenry who exercise their responsibilities in their stride.
I’m sure its not your intention – you’re far too seasoned for that – but your subtext does seem to suggest that individuals have no agency. That we hand our lives over to politicians to act; and the media to analyse, opine and spin us into a frenzy. All this while we wait for the next nailbiting episode on how things are falling apart!
Nobody notices green shoots when their eyes are relentlessly focused on what is considered to be a dead/dying tree. But then again, you are paid to be jaundiced, while some of us ordinary folk prefer to notice and nurture the green shoots that represent life against all odds.
Agree with your: ‘[g]lorious moments are important for national morale but in the arduous task of building a nation there’s no substitute for hard graft.’ Do us a favour, in this nation of equals – treat us like that! Balance you focus and tell us what you are doing to build and what exactly we can do to overcome this doom and gloom mentality! Or is that too much to ask of the ‘objective’ media?
It is an admirable vision of President Zuma to lead a united, non-sexist and non-racial SA. I admire his inclusivity, and I admire his willingness to listen and consult, a very welcome change from our leadership.
Let me reword more correctly: It is an admirable vision of President Zuma to lead a united, non-sexist and non-racial SA. I admire his inclusivity, and I admire his willingness to listen and consult, a very welcome development within our leadership’s ethos.
Another boldfaced lie! President Zuma never said that that the WC was “miracle cure-for-all national ills”. The culture of negativity that President Zuma speaks about emanates mainly from the cowardly previously privileged and ther cohorts in the media who are trying their utmost to make the the black government look like buffoons and bungling idiots to satisfy their sense of superiority and assuage their guilt. This culture of negativity (“whinging”) is delivered under the guise of “constructive criticism”.
The popularity of the president has steadily increased across the spectrum, locally and internationally and this pisses of these apartheid apologists. C’mon the WC is a once in a lifetime for a generation in SA who have known nothing but living under the apartheid regime, cheering for ANY foreign team to defeat the hated Springboks…the “enemy of my enemy, is my friend” mindset. Mandela admirable attempt at reconciliation was beautifully captured by the movie Invictus and President Zuma simply hopes to continue down that path of reconciliation. The question really is, will the whites rise above their indoctrination and support the Bafana in the same way?
It’s a cynical “try to copy Mandela” moment. “Listen and consult” means talk all the time, be all things to all men, and don’t actually DO anything — Zuma’s hallmark.
The ANC Credo is
“A promise we make is a promise we break”!!
Never a truer word written. Being forced to work with government departments opens one’s eyes to the reality of political approval to each and every decision.
It never ceases to amaze how one system / product or method can be approved but another is refused on the grounds that the government cannot be seen to approve one system/ product. How few, non-cadre owned businesses are getting government tenders.
Zuma’s brother is making a KZN killing right now with fingers in every pie.
I agree with author:
This IS the state of our national psyche.
” he presides over a nation that is faltering, divided, and poisoned by race hate which is openly fanned by favoured functionaries in the ANC.”
Mark Robertson
“I admire his willingness to listen and consult, a very welcome change”
OBAMA vs BUSH
did this for a year; his popularity decline, the nation is bankrupt and in chaos.
Voters vote with their head and not their heart as our sheeple do blindly.
“Balance you focus and tell us what you are doing to build and what exactly we can do to overcome this doom and gloom mentality!”
It is medias job to inform NOT how to change the country’s psyche.
Everyone has a vote to voice their discontent.
EXCEPT in Africa where deliberate illiteracy and tribalism/racism, determine the vote !
EXCEPT for the apathy of Saffers who abstain, when angry, instead of voting !
@Dave, at the risk of being labelled pompous again, I have to tell you that your message gets lost because your delivery offends. Defend, deny, attack – then you get attacked and from there its a race to the bottom and every one else gets dragged down and start using their points as missiles to throw at the ‘other side’.
I’m not sure what your intention is in this space, but I have to tell you mine: I’m interested in an exchange here – not a fight.
I’m sure this author is quite capable of speaking for himself, but to call him an apartheid apologist reflects very badly on you.
And before you insult me again, please first consider the message and respond to that, not the sound of blood rushing to your head.
@mv2997 You say ‘It is medias job to inform NOT how to change the country’s psyche’. So it does not occur to you to question the orthodoxy of ‘the faith’ in a conflictual context? That sounds a lot like a cult with immutable rules.
Just to be clear, what you are saying is that even if a journalist is in and reporting on a sinking boat – that it is more important to give a blow by blow account or how the water is rising; instead of helping others get the water out of the boat? I get it – they don’t have agency.
@ Sarah Henkeman, Mark Robertson and Dave Harris BIG UP’s. Not that you need my validation.
What is wrong with Msholozi angling for a World Cup starring role hum William, how would you have it?
This country of ours is held back by people like yourself William, where you see negative in everything. It really must be a depressing world that you live in.
Like Dave says, never in a our generation will we experience such a spectacle again. Now is not the time to be pointing fingers, what we need now, as the blacks of this country did back in ’95, is to work together to make this a South African World Cup and the best that the world has ever seen.
It’s sad indeed that I almost always expect whites to be negative, even the ones in Europe that we have to resort to bringing in Hollywood people just to assure the world that South Africa is not a jungle and it is safe.
Yes we have our problems like crime, housing shortages, etc. but common this is the World Cup that we are talking about and it will be at our door steps. The intention of which I believe is to uplift this nation racially, economically, and in many other ways.
Whether you like it or not, World cup 2010 is a great opportunity for us to re-ignite the flame of unity. *[underline]Opportunity* this is for us to lose.
I attended most of CONFED CUP games, I could sense that if only our National team can do well in the world cup, we will re-ignite the flame.
I forgive you for your lack of imagination and understanding of South African citizens, we may be divided by wealth, colour, etc,, but we are actually more similar than you can ever imagine
Just leave Zuma out of this, he is setting the tone, all we have to do is to work together as a Nation!
We who comment are such a lot of nit-pickers!
The point is surely that Mandela worked tirelessly to make of many people, one nation? His ‘invictus’ moment happened more by chance than sheer design. Had we not all been focussed by mandela on our desire to come together, there would still have been people sniggering in the background.
We were carried along by momentum. A generation or so ago, the very thought of a non-player wearing a team shirt would have been horrendous to some cultures.
These moments can’t be orchestrated too thoroughly; it seems some are trying too hard. Others, like Zuma, perhaps, have missed the point entirely. Without some effort from him, without tireless leadership, ‘it’ might not happen.
More to the point, without an SA win, ‘it’ may not happen. Both rugby WC wins were what made SA-ns rejoice in being a winning nation, not the fact that either was held here.
English league soccer and EU league soccer are much admired by many who don’t give a fig for SA soccer. It also seems that strikes may be rolled out all over the country before June. AIB/SAB could just have begun the process. Mucipalities, I’m told, have booked two weeks before the WC to go in for the kill. If so, good luck to us!
@Sarah
” NOT how to change the country’s psyche” paste from my comments. I do not equate my statement with your analogy with a sinking boat.
Do you expect a war correspondent to try and stop a battle being reported ? Get real.
If the media try to change a nations’ psyche – it would be termed “propaganda” or in Africa’s context, it is always used as brainwashing.
SABC is going that route as did the Nats.
That is another contentious subject that should be addressed.
Sarah, I have no quarrel with you.
We obviously see the world slightly differently, so lets just accept and celebrate our differences.
btw. Do you seriously think William Saunderson-Meyer, is going to deviate from his agenda to “debate” honestly with us?
Good luck Sarah
I have never doubted our ability to host a successful WC this year. I support bafana, but I have no illusions about their chances, just as I didn’t in 1995 for the Springboks. I also doubt it is the kind of springboard to economic well being and unity it is portrayed as by many different people, not just the president.
I think the comments re cadre deployment and corruption are well made. Until we have accountability at all levels of government, merit based employment policies and good basic education we are doomed to mediocrity and a decline to an economic and political wasteland.
@mv2997 – lets stick with the actual blog – we are confusing each other with analogies. I assert that the author (who is part of this society – not an external correspondent), in his attempt to compare presidents and moments, conveys the worst possible assessment of ordinary citizens in the subtext. Society is made up of individuals with agency – who make up employees of the state, business, media etc. It is wrong to give the impression that we are simply one single blob able to lose its collective fizz like champagne.
Of course political parties have contributed to dividing us. Some in the ruling party have exacerbated the situation as he rightly points out. However, the need to include individual responsibility for making unity work is completely ignored and obscured – because we are led to believe that one man (be it Madiba, Mbeki or Zuma) has the power to unite us. Makes us all sound like sheep instead of sentient human beings who can DECIDE to pursue constitutional goals in daily practice or not. Journalists are not above these ordinary pursuits – in the course of analysing our society. That’s the balance I’m asking for – I don’t know why you are talking about propaganda.
@Dave Harris,
“…the media who are trying their utmost to make the the black government look like buffoons and bungling idiots…”
No Dave, the black government are doing that for themselves. The media are only pointing out the obvious.
As for the world cup, I couldn’t care less, I’ll be following the rugby.
@ Sarah Henkeman
I can’t disagree with your emphasis on agency. SA’s transition from apartheid regime to a democracy is a textbook example of the power of the individual to change the apparently unchangeable. Certainly it was not my intention to suggest that South African have suddenly become sheeplike, though I do think that political interest and involvement waxes and wanes according to perceived threat and it is easy to be lulled into disengaging from daily politics, which for most people is a faintly unpleasant pre-occupation.
Its about exercising voice – putting another perspective out there. If nothing else, to start reflecting to people in the media that they too have blind spots – and that it has consequences given the platform they have. God bless the person who thought up blogs – media effect can now work both ways! When democracy works, its wonderful!
Oops – that was for Dave, M&G’s chief blog facilitator
) Lol
Zuma won’t need a Soccer World Cup if he is prepared to throw out the dead wood, the corrupt and the thieves.
@WSM – thanks for engaging. I am sur it will restore Dave & other’s faith in the media somewhat. It does restore mine – we are, after all, in this together.