Any university student has a sad story to tell about the death of student politics, the inefficiency of modern day SRCs and the general mediocrity of South Africa’s youth politics.
They also harbour strong views about one Julius Malema who is fast becoming a loose cannon. Most urban youths agree that, after watching gallons of bile coming out of the mouths of youth leaders in recent months, it is perhaps high time these yuppie politicians are reigned in.
In the absence of real leadership qualities from youth league leaders, black diamonds are giving Anele Mda of the Congress of the People an ear. Her tongue is more refined but she is far from being a messiah for the country’s flock of youth in search of a shepherd.
Since the mid-90s, the behavior of some of the ANC Youth League motor-mouths did not attract public disgust – at least until the late Peter Mokaba revived the “Kill the boer, kill the farmer” slogan at a time when Madiba was laying the foundation of our democracy.
But it was the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) under the leadership of one Kenny Motshegoa that took the cake with its disrespect of emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2006.
Believe it not, Cosas summoned the entire country’s media to a press conference when the organisation demanded Tutu to provide it with his sexual history before speaking as an expert on Jacob Zuma’s sexual behavior.
This was in defence of JZ’s dumbest moment so far — during which he had sex with an HIV-positive woman without using a condom. Motshegoa said his organisation will not “allow Tutu to undermine decisions that are taken within constitutional structures of the ANC on the support to be given to Zuma.”
He continued – “His malicious statements to declare that comrade Zuma should withdraw from the race for presidency are illusions without significance or impact to sober South Africans.”
And labelled Tutu an “empty populist who just utters statements to score minor political points, not caring whether they are disgraceful to his offices”.
“We are now not sure of his mental status as it leaves much to taste.
“His public behaviour is reckless and he is a scandalous man who cannot impose his moral views.”
“Howling voices like Tutu, which are not founded on principles, cannot mislead us.
“Does Tutu think he is higher than the court that cleared Zuma, or does he think he has a better moral base than others?”
It was the lowest point in student politics when a boy young enough to be Tutu’s grandson demands Tutu’s sexual history.
The nation was stunned.
No one could do anything to call these misguided empty vessels to order without being accused of being a sell-out, if not labelled a former apartheid spy.
For a short reminder of who Tutu is, apart from being a Nobel Prize Laureate, consider the following;
Financial Mail editor Barney Mthombothi, shocked by former president Thabo Mbeki’s denunciation of the archbishop’s critic of his leadership style, wrote: “Many ANC members understand the wisdom of Tutu’s words, and will disagree with their president.
“They share Tutu’s values because they marched with him against mass removals; they were with him when he threw himself into an angry mob in Duduza to prevent the necklacing of a woman suspected of being a police informer.
“They were with him when he was vilified and hounded by the apartheid state.”
What made Mr Motshegoa think he has a right to disrespect Tutu like that?
Some thought the standards of youth politics had hit rock bottom and would never go lower than that.
They did!
Youth leaders led by former Youth League president Fikile Mbalula orchestrated what amounted to a hijacking of an ANC elective conference in Limpopo, turning the highest decision-making forum in the country into a rowdy circus.
It was in that circus that the real election of the head of state happened.
Standards plummeted further at the ANC Youth League’s last elective conference in Mangaung in Bloemfontein this year.
Fisticuffs erupted and youth leaders stripped to expose their bums in front of media cameras.
That conference elected Julius Malema to the league’s top job.
South Africans – both young and old – are again shocked by the loose-cannon that speaks on behalf of Mzansi’s biggest and most influential youth organisation.
His statement that he will lead the league to shoot to kill in support of JZ and in defence of the liberation movement is so far the most misguided statement by a youth leader in liberated South Africa.
Firstly, there is no one to shoot and kill. Most South Africans love this democratic order and would be prepared to die in its defence.
Institutions like the judiciary, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate of Special Operations aka the Scorpions, whose eight-year-long persecution of Zuma boggles the mind, are in fact democratic institutions brought to life by the ANC government.
So, who is Malema going to shoot and kill? Who should be the recipient of this empty threat?
How did these youth leaders get to be so powerful?
Blame it on the ANC culture that discourages ambition for political office. The so-called ANC culture that discourages open campaigning and political ambition as careerism has, in fact, given rise to the influence of the bulldogs.
The power of the youth organisations comes from the fact that leadership contests in the ANC have become vicious in recent times, leading to the contenders grooming what analysts now refer to as vicious political bulldogs.
Mbeki can be credited with starting this culture during fierce leadership tussles with the late SACP secretary general Chris Hani and Cyril Ramaphosa. Mbeki’s bulldogs were legendary. They had a vicious bite. They played a major role in dismantling the Ramaphosa camp.
Their viciousness saw the late safety and security minister Steve Tshwete accusing Ramaphosa, former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa of plotting to unseat president Mbeki.
With Madikizela-Mandela, JZ, Tshwete, the late ANC Youth League and firebrand Peter Mokaba, the late KwaZulu-Natal MEC and ANC ideologue scholar Dumisani Makhaye, former defence minister Mosioua Lekota, premier of KZN Sbu Ndebele and former Transkei leader Bantu Holomisa, Mbeki commanded a vicious pack indeed.
Most of Mbeki’s bulldogs, including those who were still puppies at the time, made it into various government positions while others became multi-millionaires over night.
Zuma, “having learned at the feet of the master”, is using the same strategy. It was his bulldogs that tried to undo the legacy of Archbishop Tutu.
Ironically, JZ’s bulldogs, at the height of their paranoia, also claimed someone had placed a R1-million bounty on JZ’s head. While Zuma has a collection of really big and vicious bulldogs, his successful strategy has been to unleash puppies.
Most of them are in the youth league, trade federation Cosatu and the South African Communist Party – all being autonomous organisations within the ruling tripartite alliance.
It is already becoming clear that it pays to hunt with the right pack. Hunting with the wrong pack on the other hand will see a lot of Mbeki’s backers being hounded out of office.
Former Youth League president Fikile Mbalula is now lording at Luthuli House as the ANC’s chief of campaigns. He is a member of the ANC national executive committee, a member of its prestigious national working committee and is on a one-way street to greater and finer things.
Zizi Kodwa, the former youth league spokesman is now polishing shoes in the office of the ANC president. It was he who instructed youth league members to beat Zuma critics and intellectual dogs like Professor Njabula Ndebele until their masters and handlers come out in the open.
Nathi Mthethwa, the new safety and security minister went to parliament on a youth league ticket, sat on important parliamentary committees, and recently emerged as the ANC chief whip.
The safety of all of us as citizens is now in his hands – a huge achievement at an early age. It is said it was Mthethwa who stood up during a 2005 national general council – set to decide Zuma’s fate as an ANC deputy president following TM’s decision to boot him out of government – and proposed that Zuma should not resign from his position.
Zuma had volunteered to step down from some of his responsibilities to concentrate on his legal challenges. Some say Mthethwa’s courage saved Zuma from the lions. So, it is clear for all to see that being a poodle that yaps at the feet of the master has its advantages.
The new ANC Youth League leader has already graduated from rural obscurity to living in a northern Jo’burg suburb home and rides the latest Mercedes Benz.
If he keeps this up, chances are that he will end up a member of cabinet one day – one can only hope the ANC we know and love will return political education for young cadres and improve the circulation of Umrhabulo before Malema starts his ascendance.
*This blog first appeared on the Nov/Dec issue of Y Mag
* Checkout my other blogs on Destiny Magazine online – http://blogs.destinyconnect.com/zukile/Default.aspx?2=1
Zukile
I just hope for the sake of sanity you are not a member of Cope.Which university student are you referring to,for I happen to know many who understand the crudeness of JM’s rhetoric. You claim black diamonds(whatever this delusion means) are giving Anele Mda of Cope an ear,cause she is more refined-is that factual? how did you come to that conclusion?-this is the same Anele who said if JZ were to become the country’s president rape will be legalised-is that refined? I just hope you are not a university graduate,cause if you are,there is something fundamentaly wrong with our education system.
Please do not bad mouth brother and fellow Pastor JZ. Respect begets respect. What did that former high priest-biskop of British Imperialism do for South Africans mmmmmm? Yea you may mention that first and foremost he gave absolution to his OWN son ( Motor mouth Trevor) and a couple of Apartheids thugs and murderers!
“Firstly, there is no one to shoot and kill. Most South Africans love this democratic order and would be prepared to die in its defence.”
Fantastic
Thanks, this is a great piece.
Good writing. I will add my usual cynicism with the comment -
“Beware when Rabies affects these poodles by not getting their share of the loot -
THEY WILL become Rabid and extremely dangerous -
in that they can turn on their “owner.”
It will not be pretty but in reality a continuum of the internecine fighting we witness daily.
It is the nature of politics.
An “empty populist who just utters statements to score minor political points, not caring whether they are disgraceful to his offices”? Wait, was Kenny ‘South Park’ Motshegoa referring to Tutu or Jacob Zuma there?
Pirates of Polokwane indeed.
Can’t agree more with most of your comments but about the political classes you are so right.
Thanks for your insightful piece.
I was rather surprised to see that you label Bantu Holamisa as a Mbeki bulldog. Although I don’t claim any particular insight into his character, he has always struck me as a rather honourable man. If memory serves me correctly, he was booted out of the ANC for exposing corruption—something he had done even in Apartheid days.
this is a lovely article and it is with great sadness that I see the likes of sizwe (who claims he is a university graduate)speak badly of it. In order to be an academic sizwe one needs to look at the facts rationally and come to a logical conclusion. Your remarks are more policitally orientated (in other words full of hot air and bias). A good writer tells the truth. if you can’t handle the fact that the ANC have gone from being part of the black intelligencia to a bunch of unruly mentally delayed individuals then you should check your IQ score because I bet you understand Malema and his violent overtones from a more underdeveloped point of view then an academic one.
we need to understand politics, words are very powerful in this field. many things are said to build or to braek whom soever the recipient maybe. if you choose to stand in public and express you views, chances are someone will stand against you. this is not done to show disrespect to you, but it is just that we all came from different sectors and represent different views. it never personal, it all about the goal ahead. thing will be said to advance the current position not that it will be done, after all this is politics.
Although I appreciate and take to heart every comment posted on my blogs, I never respond to criticism or questions raised.
I merely try to do better next time.
But this time I think I must.
Zukile Majova – has never been a member of any political organisation in South Africa or anywhere else in the globe.
I don’t even remember being a member of an organisation of any kind – including a church organisation or a social club – except those related to journalism and and perhaps a rugby team.
I am not about to be a member of any organisation in South Africa or anywhere else in the world.
My views are purely my own and I am not apologetic about what I write!!!! Merry Christmas everybody – Thanks for reading!!!
Zukile Majova
Zukile,you mentioned but did not equate Malema’s rhetoric with that of Mbeki’s response to Tutu.Is there a reason?Tutu is used to this from home by the way.Youth is youth.They need direction.What Mda said is also not being questioned in your article:Is your focust on those ANC aligned formations?I am not saying you are COPE-ing though they are like IFP in KZN founded, and COPE is from home Eastern Cape.Formed by our black diamonds after one of our own was removed unceremoniuosly.I know I felt the pain too like you did hence we all do not see the ills on our side, but find it our duty to ‘fight’ ‘them’. (I like your yappies, dogs references. You are in the same league with Mda hence she is pulled aside I am not sure for how long.Remember that COPE is still ‘sucking’ from the ANC.They forgot to steal Policies to polish and present to the electorate). I must also ask:If an adult is committing a crime or even misleading, how do you expect the youth to respect the elder person.I am not talking about Melama per se.Kenny and team might have been vicious but not that some of the very respected people are agents of certain ‘brands of Politics’.They speak as if they are a concience of the nation but having an ‘Agenda’.just like this article.It reflects a one-sided-view against Malema.Is this all he said? Are you sure?
I despise JZ and Melema as much as the next intellectually above average person, but do you think that equating JZ with the great Thabo Mbeki will score you credibility points with Ferial Haffejee? Of course it will. What am i thinking? Rather lick the boot of the irrelevant than grow a spine and seek to protect the integrity of the relevant.
Back in the days, when Former Presidents, Mbeki and Nelson Mandela…together with the Zumas and other leader that are coming from the apartheid regime, politics used to be all about fighting. And I mean physical fighting for what was believed to be right for the nation of SA, specifically us black people
When these leaders got into power, they had a lot responsibility to constitutionalise how SA is run. They did a good job of it I must say.
Now that all of this has been put into place, South Africa is no longer a country which needs all the killing and violence etc. for a voice to be heard. We need leader who instill policies and procedures to keep order, leaders of integrity…leaders who will uplift the economy of SA.
The problem with our emerging leader like Julius Malema is that they are still stuck in the mentality of what could have been ‘perfect’ back in the days when apartheid was still alive. He is aggressive in his approach. He doesn’t talk constitution or economy…he talks ‘fight’ and ‘revenge’. This doesn’t help the youth at all with education, jobs, entrepreneurship…etc.
Leaders of today must always ask themselves “we have freedom, now what’s next???”
Rottweiler sounds too fancy for the ANCYL…their leadership is used as puppets for leaders like Zuma who don’t know what to do with our New SA.
That’s all I have to say for now…
I have two questions regarding these “motor mouths.” Firstly do they really believe in these outrageous outbursts that they make or is it a case of “let me show whatever loyalty I can to my pay masters by saying whatever sounds loyal?” Or is it a case of political immaturity laced with plain stupidity and a dash of insanity? It is indeed a mystery to us mere mortals!
I indeed beleive that South Africa has reached a point whereby the freedom of speech is realised and apreciate how it is being used. It is however sad that pepople would be quick to label youth politics but do not criticise their mediocre writting skills,they are content with feeding us nothing better than mediocrity and think they are intellectuals who are giving the country something to think about,but are just wasting our time with their writting non-sense. As a matter of fact the people we should be blaming for all that is happening in our country should be these so called jounerlists and ask ourselves where have they being schooled to pen such articles and think they are providing us with news. The politicians are not at fault but rather people who are supposed to provide intellectual thoughts but are actually providing mediocrity, nowonder the youth have got nothing to talk about but to lambast the politicians and view them as corrupt. My view is stop feeding us non-sense and start writting something productive that will help towards the building of our country and I wonder what the objective of this ‘article’ is.