We blacks are failing our own people

Reflecting on his own contribution to the Russian Revolution, the Realist writer, Nikolai Ostrovsky, wrote thus:

‘Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world- the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.’

At the time of writing these immortal words, I doubt Ostrovsky was thinking about our people’s struggle for liberation in South Africa and even though this may not have been one of the things on his mind at the time, there is, however, a sense in which his words aptly describe the kind of consciousness that drove those who gave their all for our liberation.

Our people's quest for liberation was essentially a struggle to restore the dignity of the oppressed (black people) and from there to build a society in which all citizens lived a life of dignity. In pursuit of this vision, our people, individually and collectively, engaged in various forms of struggles, and at various times, formed a number of organisations, all of which were intended to become instruments through which they would attain their liberation.

One of the things that gave these various organisations their prestige and honour in the eyes of our people was not just the intuitive belief that they existed to serve a higher cause but also the understanding that those who led them like Oliver Tambo, Mangaliso Sobukwe and Steve Biko were imbued with a special quality – selflessness.

Consistent with this conception, one of the organisations that was also part of our people’s liberatory efforts, the African National Congress, recently celebrated its centenary. As part of this historic celebration the ANC selected ‘selflessness’ as one of the themes to mark this milestone. This was perhaps a fitting theme, particularly considering some of the grotesque tendencies that have come to characterise our national politics.

Both in the run-up and after the main celebration, held recently in Mangaung, many of the senior leaders of the ANC who addressed various gatherings indicated that this celebration was not just for members of the ANC and that all South Africans should share in these celebrations. Given the fact that a liberation struggle is actually a collective effort by an oppressed people, this was an appropriate message to convey, except that it is now debatable whether, of late, the ANC is truly guided by this kind of collectivism in what it does.

Naturally, as part of its centenary celebrations, one of the obvious questions that the ANC has had to grapple with is whether those who hold leadership positions within its ranks are still true to the founding vision and values of those who founded this organisation of our people, in particular the value of selflessness.

To help answer this potentially vexing question, I wish to reflect on some of the worrying developments that have come to shape our national politics, which in my view raise serious questions about the commitment of some who lead our country to the values of selflessness and service.

Sometime last year, we read in the newspapers that, in the settlement of Verdwaal situated 25 kilometres from Lichtenberg in North West province four young black children, Onkarabile, Nkune,Sebengu and Mapule, aged two, six, seven and nine, left their home and undertook a fatal 18 kilometre journey in the sweltering heat in search of their mother and food. They never reached their destination and, a couple of days later, their tiny, lifeless bodies were found in the veld, badly dehydrated and with hardly any food in their stomachs.

It was later established that they had died of hunger and dehydration and this was exacerbated by the extreme heat on that day. It took the police and the community about two weeks to find all the bodies and when the last two were discovered by a farmer who was ploughing his fields, the policeman who came to scene described what he saw as follows:

‘They were so badly decomposed they were nothing more than skin and bones. They lay on the ground facing each other, as if they were plotting their next line of action.’

Given their age, Onkarabile, Nkune, Sebengu and Mapule were supposed to be part of that fortunate section of our youth who were born into freedom, but unfortunately they also died in the era freedom. It is scandalous for children, who are so young, to die of hunger in a wealthy country like South Africa.

Interestingly, the name Verdwaal means to get or be lost in Afrikaans and in a sense perfectly describes the fate of the Mmupele children, a tragedy that is the face of the daily hardships faced by thousands other black children across our country.

Then, towards the end of last year, our television screens were awash with disturbing stories of how the education system in the Eastern Cape was on the brink of collapse and the negative impact that this was having on the schooling of children from poor areas who were hopelessly dependent on these schools not only for their education but also for the daily meals they were getting as part of the education department’s school feeding scheme.

Although it was a bit late, through the President and the Minister of Basic Education, national government intervened and not surprisingly, their efforts were met with all kinds of resistance from those who were supposed to be their comrades in SADTU.

As if this was not enough then earlier this year, desperate to study, hundreds of young black young people, some accompanied by their parents, stormed the main gate at the University of Johannesburg. This resulted not just in many of them sustaining serious injuries but one parent, Gloria Sekwena, actually lost her life as a result of the stampede that ensued. Regardless of whom we want to blame, this kind of thing should not be happening at a time when we as blacks are in charge of higher education.

To add to this national depression, this past week, through the media, the reports of the Minister of Finance and Auditor-General brought us face to face with the horrific details of the financial rot in some of our provinces and how these have brought basic services to a complete halt. These reports also revealed, in great detail, how some of our provincial governments were failing to do basic things like keeping receipts for purchases.

In a number of instances, financial regulations were deliberately flouted to enable serving politicians and those connected to them to benefit from lucrative state tenders. As a result of this, the Hawks, SARS and Public Protector are now involved in laborious investigations across the country.

Interestingly, just like in the Eastern Cape, in Limpopo when national government intervened they were met with fierce resistance. This was very ironic because those opposing them were not just their own comrades but their counterparts at provincial level. So, logically, one would have expected the ANC leaders in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo to support the intervention by national government and not resist it because this is one government and the rules are supposed to be applied consistently at all levels.

In fact, there have even been suggestions that some people have deliberately sabotaged service delivery in the affected provinces, with the intention of discrediting the intervention by national government. If this is not the highest manifestation of counter-revolutionary activity, then I don’t know what is. This kind of conduct is not just inhuman, but also fundamentally contradicts key ANC documents like ‘Through The Eye of The Needle’, which states that a leader of the ANC:

‘..should lead by example. He or she should be above reproach in his/her political and social conduct as defined by our revolutionary morality. He/she should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike… (This includes) not only being free of corrupt practices; it also means actively fighting against corruption.’

It becomes even more paradoxical if one considers the fact that some of the ANC leaders who engage in these acts that are calculated to undermine service delivery are affectionately called ‘cadres’. This is very odd because one of the distinguishing qualities of a true cadre is not just his/her unconditional love for the masses but also his/her selfless commitment to serving the people with no intention of personal gain or recognition. The kinds of ‘cadres’ we have today are indeed a strange breed.

There is, however, something else that all of this says about us blacks: that in our quest to enrich ourselves, we are more than willing to jeopardise the welfare of the very people who have given us the privilege of leading them. There is definitely something wrong with the psyche of some of our leaders.

These potholes in our nation’s politics are a manifestation of a bigger historical and sociological problem. First, with the transfer of state power from the white minority to the black majority it became increasingly easy for blacks, especially those in the middle class, to amass material wealth. And it does also seem that, in an effort to entrench its hegemony, the ANC progressively lowered its membership admission requirements and as a result attracted individuals from all social backgrounds who brought with them all kinds of tendencies.

This perhaps explains why it is no longer shocking that, at some of the exclusive social gatherings, after a couple drinks, some of our country’s instant millionaires are not shy to declare that they got their ANC membership cards purely to advance their personal interests.

Second, because of the quality (moral and intellectual) of some of the people who have been appointed to manage our public institutions since 1994, a perception has developed amongst some of our people, both within and outside government that, when we look at the state, all we must see is a cow that must be milked by all who wish to do so and this must not just be done with impunity but also by all means possible.

This perception is also reinforced by the uncritical support that we blacks sometimes give to those high-profile leaders who are accused of high-level corruption. And because of the growing political obesity amongst some within our country’s ruling elite and our political timidity as citizens, we now live in what is referred to by some as the ‘age of looting’.

Third, as in most of post-colonial Africa in our own country there is also a perception amongst some of our leaders that they can’t be held accountable and that, if they are held accountable, it should be done on terms designed by them and not according to the applicable laws. This is very ironic because in our political system mayors, premiers and ministers are actually the ones who make the laws that govern the public sector and it is strange that it should be them who behave as though these laws apply to everybody else except them.

Fourth, all this has been worsened by the practice of appointing individuals to key positions in the state with little or no regard for their ability to do the job. Instead, their political loyalty at the time is considered. This partly explains why the Constitutional Court recently invalidated some of the key appointments that were made by the state president. In fact, both the Auditor-General and Association of Accounting Technicians SA cited this as one of the reasons why billions of rands are wasted in the public sector.

Our politics have now become a deadly game of character assassination, rapacious self-enrichment and factionalism. The situation is so terrible that those who seek to uphold the principles of accountability and transparency risk losing their reputations, their jobs or a legitimate business opportunity.

Whichever way we choose to look at it, our fate as a nation is now firmly in the hands of the leaders of the various ANC factions that are currently busy throttling each other for state resources. And because of the cancer of factionalism, some who call themselves the leaders of our people are busy eroding everything that people like Mangaliso Sobukwe, Chris Hani, Steve Biko and many others lived and died for.

If truth be told, we blacks are failing our own people and are desperately in need of a radical mindset shift that will enable us to realise that, to achieve the kind of South Africa many of our people dream of, we must first rid ourselves of the greed, mediocrity, narrow-mindedness and arrogance that is throttling our ability to build a better country. If we fail to do this, then we must perhaps prepare ourselves to deal with the kind of upheaval that Tunisia was dealing with twelve months ago.

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* Veli Mbele is a writer and social commentator.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.