Et tu Madiba?

by Marius Redelinghuys

On my way to campus Monday morning I got a bit anxious when I read the Pretoria News posters alluding to some “Madiba magic” injection into the ANC’s election campaign, I pondered the possibilities of what this could really mean, but didn’t think much of it initially. However, as I walked into Oom Gert’s kiosk to return a Coke empty (hey, R2 is already almost half of the next Coke!) I had lying around in the car from the previous week, I caught a glimpse of the front page of the Pretoria News and my heart sank.

There, as if taken from some archive or skilfully crafted in Photoshop, sat former president Nelson Mandela and ANC President Jacob Zuma next to one another at a rally in the Eastern Cape over the weekend. I would have believed that it was archival footage had it not been for the fragile, frail frame of Tata Madiba sitting on the stage — exactly as I remember him from our meeting in December — and so markedly different even from photos taken in March last year. No, it was him, it was the face of the struggle, the face of our democracy, and the father of our nation. It was disappointing, no, it was discouraging.

The sudden re-emergence of Tata Madiba on the political scene and in the election campaign of the ANC almost brought about an existential crisis, not only making me question my tenure, if you will, as a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, but also the motivation for Madiba’s appearance, but more worrying, the state of politics in the ANC, in South Africa as a whole.

Fair enough, it is Madiba’s democratic right — one he gave more than half his life for to obtain — to endorse or support any political party, but I do question his decision to come out of his self-imposed political closet following his retirement. More worrying, to me at least, is his decision to do so at a time that I would consider the most damaging to do so, and as such I — not unjustifiably so — view his appearance as a tacit approval of the current state of the ANC.

Has he perhaps lost touch with reality to such an extent that he can tacitly endorse a party that is being torn apart by an internal power struggle, admission of fraud and other criminal activities by its national spokesperson implicating senior ANC officials in the Gauteng provincial government? Is he not aware of the appalling behaviour and comments by the leader of the ANC Youth League — an organisation Madiba built up and played an instrumental role in — that is not only insulting to women, but indicative of a rampant disrespect for women, elders and which highlights the state of discipline and education in the youth league? What’s more, does he tacitly consent to the silence of the ANC leadership on Malema’s appalling behaviour? Is it also perfectly acceptable for Madiba that the ANC president, next to whom he so comradely sat, has spent — what would seem like — more days in the dock and on the steps of the Pietermaritzburg High Court than he has in Luthuli House and has dragged with him the key bodies of the ANC administrative and policy machine, the national executive committee and national working commitee?

Perhaps I’m being unfairly critical of Tata Madiba, maybe he was coerced by the ANC into making a symbolic appearance, maybe he was deliberately kept uninformed and dragged to a rally in which, as far as I can tell, he hardly said a word to confirm his personal support and acceptance of the ANC’s state or campaign. Instead he had someone speak on his behalf.

No, I think I have been unfairly uncritical of Tata Madiba and have unjustifiably excused his silence on the state of leadership in South Africa, the ANC, the state of service delivery, the state of our democracy and the moral crisis in the public realm. It cannot be brushed off in the name of party loyalty or deep-seated and long-standing historical ties, this has not prevented equally notable ANC members and struggle stalwarts from speaking out against many of the above-mentioned issues, particularly Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Kader Asmal, Mosiuoa Lekota, Barney Pityana and Ma Mbeki.

If anything, Tata Madiba’s tacit consent to the issues within and those facing the ANC at present should serve as a stark reminder that nobody, absolutely nobody in our democracy, is above scrutiny, is perfect, is deserving of hero worship or the development of a personality cult. Yes, I naively revered Tata Madiba and excused his missteps, many naively revere(d) Thabo Mbeki and excuse(d) his missteps and denialism, and many more yet are currently revering and will continue to revere Jacob Zuma and be blind to his missteps, just as they, we, are and were blind to the missteps, faults and issues in the ANC, its leadership and its policies.

I guess it took being forced to resign from the party I grew up in to review it critically and honestly speak out against its failings in the present and the past. What will it take before we — as a people — start reviewing critically the role played by the ANC as a liberation movement, and the performance thereof as a political party in government? Does the current culture in the ANC reflect a mature political party in a multi-party democracy, or is the talk of counter-revolutionaries a reflection of the ANC’s perception of itself as a vanguard party, destined to rule and block “counter-revolutionary” behaviour and discussion?

Perhaps it was just a photoshopped photo of Madiba and Zuma and all this hoo-ha was skilfully manufactured and presented to the media by (former) ANC spin-doctor Carl Niehaus as a parting gift, making my existential crisis and rant useless and uncalled for, perhaps even counter-revolutionary. Maybe I should just go back to drinking my Coke, and without all this critical reflection, life’s good!

Marius Redelinghuys is a fourth-year student at the University of Pretoria currently doing his BA (Hons) Political Science degree as a Mandela Rhodes Scholar. His study of international relations and political science has its roots in an intense interest in these fields, specifically public policy-making and contemporary issues in South African politics. He also enjoys actively engaging in discussion and debate surrounding issues of racial and social transformation in a post-apartheid South Africa, with the hope of collectively building a better future for all.