When Mbeki goes, it will be 'business unusual'

Perhaps someone must warn my country men not to gnash their teeth now that the ANC has asked its … er, former president to return to base.

There has been too much political noise following the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki as president of the continent’s youngest democracy. Look, the man has quit and the African skies have not fallen.

We need to remind ourselves that heroes as great as or less than Nelson Mandela will always come and go. Even right-wingers who condemned Mbeki for being an African racist following his “Two Nations Speech — one white and rich and the other black and poor” have heaped praises on him. They suddenly love him for being “greater than Mandela.” Of course, he was sane enough to protect and preserve white economic privilege and domination for stability. Thus it is not wrong to say the man has done whites more good than bad. After all, the “Two Nations Theory” still holds true after he served 10 years as head of, increasingly, the most unequal society on earth.

Some say the president was a consummate diplomat, a skilled international statesman except that he lacked intuitive connection with the people who made him what he is.
Now he is gone!

In fact, cynics say nobody should shed tears for a man who has fallen on his own sword.
As far as many in The Party are concerned, this is the best thing to have happened to the party itself, government and democracy in the last 10 years. For now, the deal is done and we shall wake up with a new president for the republic before the end of the week.

You see, the people of Mzantsi, like all people in the African continent, must stop putting too much faith in the politics of the individual. If you do that, you create the impression that the African skies will fall when one man leaves office or just dies. You cannot put your hope, faith and love on just one man like he is the only son of God. In fact, too much power in the hands of one man is, always, too dangerous.

The quality of freedom and democracy is strengthened when — sooner than later — every leader is reminded that he is what he is because of the people who have put him into the power. If you forget that, then, the people have every right to “recall” you. That is democracy at its ultimate end.

There are far too many people here, for instance, who want to mislead us to believe that the … er, former President has been humiliated.

If anyone accepts that he would never have been president without the validation and approval of the ANC, then they should accept that it is nobody else but the ANC itself that has the right and power to decide when to terminate his term. But I do not think that it is possible for people blinded by political nostalgia and blind emotional reasoning to respect the democratic culture as practiced a la ANC style.

The ability of the ANC membership to “recall” a sitting president is the expression of the will of the people. Indeed, this is best practice of democracy at work.

What I fear is that we have far too many people who place their hopes on a particular personality in a party or government and think that they will be a messiah. These ordinary folks suffer from blind political faith so much that they forget their personal responsibility to make things happen for themselves — like joining the Party of their choice and or going to vote. This dependency on one man erupts into political hysteria where they think the ending of an individual political career marks the end of the world.

As Ma Mbeki said, “life will simply go on.”

The African skies have not fallen and they will not!

I think the people of Mzansi must free themselves from believing that the demise of Mbeki is a threat to democracy. The political is the personal and the personal is, inevitably, the political.

So it is our responsibility to be active and join structures that influence and make history.
That should be our basic and ultimate concern rather than cry for a beloved country.
I cannot imagine President Mbeki shedding tears now that his own party has reminded him that no man is greater than his organisation.

He is not “fighting back” per se but is allowing democracy to take its course as dictated by constitutional guidelines.

This makes things exciting.

He seemed quite matured and content when he delivered his last State of the Nation address. He has been relinquished of his plum position where he enjoyed super-power unlike any African president before him.

In fact, we should be very happy that the ANC helped him to realise some of the collective goals to not only be a global leader, but to be an example of a democracy that works. If the people of Mzansi do not want to be disappointed, they must forget about placing their hopes on anybody else but themselves.

Most African politicians leave office without having done much to effect economic transformation for their people. But Mbeki has done much more, especially for the African elite, through black economic empowerment that partnered with white economic privilege.

Don’t shed any tears. Life simply goes on!