ANC must learn to tolerate criticism

The wise words of former chief justice Pius Langa at a Press Freedom Day function last Monday highlighted the importance of freedom of expression. There are many in our society who do not understand this freedom and its responsibility. There is a need to be patient and tirelessly remind them of the dark days when people were jailed, maimed or killed for speaking their mind.

Today the new jailers and maimers take the form of insulters and jesters who use their positions of authority to intimidate independent thinkers to shut up and tow the line. The new emergency regulations are party discipline, employment strictures and so on. Labels such as terrorist and so on have been replaced by “raving lunatic” as in the latest insult by young Mbalula to elder statesman Kader Asmal — an icon of the struggle.

Other labels such as “baboon” and “dog” are reserved for those who dare point out the rot in the ruling party in particular. Today blacks who are critical are called “coconuts” and in the ANC those that dare raise any matter are labelled as Cope supporters. In the recent Caster Semenya saga the media was even threatened by none other than Winnie Mandela: “We gave you this freedom of the press and we can take it away from you.” This must rank as one of the most arrogant yet ignorant statements from someone who is a hero of the liberation struggle.

It behoves all leaders who are responsible to stem this tendency but quite frankly it seems to me that underlying all these incidents is an intellectual intolerance that is taking root in our body politic and a new celebration for those who are, for lack of a better word, brain dead.

Let’s examine a few incidents that demonstrate this:

Pallo Jordan: A fountain of intellectual depth

During the height of the election campaign, Jordan, the then minister of arts and culture, spoke out against the lack of debate within the ANC. His strongest analogy to demonstrate this terrible situation was to say that to try and debate in the ANC is like a “conversation among the deaf”. This citizen, one of few remaining intellectuals in the ANC, could not have uttered this statement lightly. We all know what has happened to his high office of minister. I believe it is not by accident that he has been placed outside the country where he is obliged to say only nice things about the country and his voice of reason will probably fall silent in national discourse.

Trevor Manuel: Minister par excellence

One of Manuel’s sins was to say the unpopular. Earlier this year, when it would have been seen as “coping” to do so, Manuel had harsh words for the deployment system of the ANC. A song now sung by ANC high-ups. He was quoted by a Sunday newspaper as saying that the trouble with the municipalities is that the ANC insists on deploying cadres who have no clue about running municipalities. We now know what has happened to him since. Arguably Manuel is simply one of the best ministers this country has ever produced. But on the altar of political expediency and what can only be described as a phobia for ideas and excellence, Cosatu has ensured that he is excluded from the economic cluster. As the head of the planning commission, which Cosatu itself argued for, the Zuma administration has demonstrated the height of small-mindedness and alliance sycophancy by excluding Manuel from a place where he has demonstrated excellence. How on earth he will be able to do any sensible planning without being privy to the development of economic planning must boggle any mind.

Joel Netshitenze: A bastion of thought leadership

The ANC’s policy guru for the past decade has jumped ship and it cannot be spun. Let’s cut through the pleasantries, he has more intellectual gravitas than the NEC of the SACP, Cosatu and ANC put together. We know that the most sensible documents and speeches that emerged since Polokwane were under his pen. We know that he was responsible as a key architect of the ANC manifesto as well as a few sensible papers including the Green Paper on planning. This is what has earned him a bowl full of insults from the young communist league which can hardly read or write in serious intellectual terms. How on earth they can blame him for the disastrous failures of the ANC government as a whole is beyond me. Their recent revelation that his departure will allow the ANC to change policy is an indictment of the entire leadership — that they could not out-argue one fellow for all these years, that they wait for him to quit before they can see their arguments win any ground. With this banal attack on him they have demonstrated intolerance for excellence and an empty intellectual culture taking root within an alliance.

Fikile Mbalula

Mbalula contradicted Zuma at the BMF forum two weeks ago about the so called “succession battle 2012” but was annoyed when someone else showed the same conviction. So to get them “back in ANC line” he decided to insult one of the finest minds of the ANC — Kader Asmal. This is a shame. Mbalula who pulled a hat trick last week by getting the Sakhile mayor fired, setting the terrible precedence of mob rule, is clearly better suited for mobilising the party faithful than the boring work of protecting citizens’ rights under the Constitution. If he has his way the police must open fire at random and Asmal must be dismissed as mad and any mayor could be removed if I organise a few friends of mine to march against her down the street. As if this intellectual lunacy is not enough, the MKVA have moved on from threatening the Western Cape government with ungovernability to wishing death upon those who differ with them. A total shame. And what are we to make of Gwede Mantashe’s foolish statement further making light of the use of death as intimidation?

Enough said. It seems to be in with the biggies in the ruling party that you must be what we used to call … well … a dunderhead. Dare switch on your brain and you will be in the exit lounge.