AWB's Visagie and SA's urgent need for communication among all parties

So Andre Visagie, secretary-general of the AWB, really lost his cool recently on e.tv to the delight of the international media, especially the BBC. Addressing Visagie in the talk show, campaigner for human rights Lebohang Pheko was passionately asking a string of perfectly legitimate questions about the poverty and oppression of (largely black) farm workers. It appears, according to the video clip here, that Visagie felt he was interrupted and lost his temper. In the video clip, however. Visagie clearly interrupts Pheko first. This is followed by both raising voices and cutting across each other and within seconds Visagie lost his temper, stood up, took out the TV mike in his jacket and muttered something like, “throw away this shit”. He flung it on the floor like a petulant child and began to march out the studio. A moment later he turned round with threatening gestures and words aimed at Pheko. E.tv’s anchor, Chris Maroleng, tried to intervene in a gentlemanly manner.

I would have done the same. Those who have read my blogs know I detest bullies. This fracas escalated into Visagie’s personal bodyguard coming in and trying to separate Maroleng and Visagie. The two men were now having a kindergarten argument about who touched who first. More people piled into the studio with Maroleng insisting that Visagie stop threatening the lady, Pheko. End of clip. Edutainment for God knows how many viewers worldwide.

We are a home of seven ex-Saffers here in New Zealand and most of us found the incident amusing. I was also saddened by the complete lack of communication. The blame for this I put on Visagie’s shoulders. He should have listened carefully to Lebohang Pheko’s impassioned concerns about the welfare of farm workers. If she had felt listened to and understood, she probably would have been more willing to then listen to Visagie’s concerns. Sincere listening is a way of valuing the dignity and worth of others: just listen to their point of view without prejudice, walk a few miles in their shoes and truly imagine yourself in their position. Then, and only then, as the communication gurus like Steven Covey would put it, “seek to be understood” as well.

Just imagine that e.tv talk show ending with some mutual understanding on both sides; both with some empathy about where the other party is coming from and the particular SA group (unprotected black farmers, Afrikaner farmers, marginalised people etc) they wish to stand up for. At the end of the talk show they may still not exactly agree with each other but surely should have learned something from the other. Just imagine them shaking hands, smiling at each other and taking with them the shift in attitude, what they have learned (instead of what they had to preach) and setting the example of how to make a constructive difference for the nation. Just think of it: a TV show like that could have truly had a positive impact.

But that kind of mature listening to another’s viewpoint requires tremendous inner security and a very broad sense of vision that includes all the peoples in South Africa. The listener has to not only have the inner security to openly admit he may be wrong, but even welcome a new learning curve. Mature people acknowledge they still need to grow and not remain stuck in a set of limiting beliefs. But for a person who is insecure, the thought of examining his own beliefs and values, what he stands for, is just too threatening. Hence Visagie’s reaction and Malema’s braying.

I saw the video on BBC on my laptop here in Auckland, New Zealand. The BBC and the UK media are revelling in the latest tensions in SA. Bad news and scandal sells. But just fantasise, briefly, if the video had had the outcome I scripted above. The message sent to the world and those who wish to watch a bit of footie in two months time in South Africa would have been way different. And the ripples of that message both locally and internationally?

Malema, of course, fares no better than Visagie. He verbally assaulted and kicked out of a press conference a British reporter because the reporter’s question was confusing Juju’s mind with the truth. The reporter wanted JM to comment on his remark “you live in Sandton”. In context the aside questioned Malema’s proclamation that he is a crusader for the poor, yet lives in a luxurious home in Sandton. I personally don’t think it is that much of an issue where Malema lives, but he did not exactly engage with the journalist’s remark constructively. There was no communication. There was only Juju’s insecurity, which he covers with the defence mechanism of bullying bluster and a willed inability to respect other viewpoints. Some members of the British press thought they should have boycotted the conference (boy do I agree) but making a meal of Malema’s behaviour sells far, far too well.

I realise it is an obvious point, but it needs to be stated again and again and shouted from the rooftops. South Africa needs real leaders, and leaders are people who can listen respectfully to other groups, regardless of how small the minority group is. Leaders value and uphold the dignity of other people. They consider all stakeholders. It also hardly needs to be stated that the AWB (and its current spokesman), suddenly thrown into a limelight it is not used to and for which it is unprepared, and the likes of Julius Malema, (who is never reined in by the president) do not present the viewpoints of most South Africans. Most citizens, one can confidently say, wish peace, to look after their families and live above the breadline and without fear. Yet these “leaders” get the continual exposure which promotes fear and gloom, and this almost single-minded focus is irresponsible of the media. News should be far more than just edutainment. The reports and broadcasts of the media, the flow of information, needs a complete overhaul. It impacts directly on the future of South Africa, and, indeed, humankind*. I have no doubt most South Africans just want to live peacefully and are tired of the coverage given to these “leaders”.

Sure, many SA ex-pats and non-Saffers snigger at the above nonsense that they see in the media about South Africa. Safety from a distance, as a few of my commentators have rasped. But if I was living in South Africa I think I would be very scared. Nevertheless, I have the faith that this fresh crucible of tensions in South Africa is an opportunity for real leaders to appear, and for the loudmouths and braggarts to be consigned to obscurity. It’s amazing and food for thought how even non-religious people like myself turn to intangible notions like faith when the facts and the exposure of the media assert the opposite.

* See the seasoned journalist Tom Fenton’s in-depth analysis of what news is reported and its negative global impact in his well-researched book, Bad News.