I just love the spirit of Jimmy Manyi

I do not imagine that a courageous and outspoken African man of the calibre of government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi would ever be left alone in this country.

He will always be put under scrutiny and hounded until his handlers or managers drop him like a hot potato, that is, if they are not guided by principled truth.

Not long ago, he told the portfolio committee in Parliament that the department he heads, GCIS, suffers from an over-representation of Indians and Whites, for instance.

These are hard, cold facts that do not in any way suggest that Manyi wants to deprive these minorities employment in government or that there should be a witch-hunt to hound them out.

It is just what it is: over-representation of minorities in top jobs, which leaves Africans in limbo.

You see, if South Africa were a country that protected freedom of conscience, thought and expression, nobody would have a problem with somebody like Manyi telling it like it is.

In fact, freedom of expression is, essentially, about protecting the rights of those we do not agree with, those who tell us things we do not want to hear.

But this society is about nothing else but herd mentality where we all agree or pretend to, that is, if we are not turning a blind eye to the elephant in the house.

For many Africans, Manyi articulates what is considered “black truth” — if there is such a thing — in a manner that is unprecedented in post-apartheid society.

With a little exaggeration, we can say it was last done by the likes of Steve Biko and Robert Sobukwe, to name a few. I am not aware of any living person who tells the truth as it is in the new South Africa. Everybody is trying to be politically correct.

But Sobukwe and Biko were legendary historical figures who told the truth as it is, especially through the prism of an African experience.

As for Manyi, his style of expressing some hard facts is not only boiling with urgency but is articulate, intelligent, insightful and, of course, confrontational and profoundly disturbing to those who live in denial and refuse to transform.

The substance of what he says highlights the chronic marginalisation of African talent and its condemnation to the periphery at a time when it should be first in line to benefit from post-apartheid freedom and democracy.

Of course, it is absurd that Africans continue to suffer economic hardship, poverty, unemployment and corporate discrimination when they are supposedly “free” and liberated.

This is an assault on the very notion of freedom and democracy.

The good thing about Manyi is that he has carved a niche for himself as someone who is profoundly committed to being a self-appointed spokesperson for blacks, particularly Africans.

He has shown tremendous courage to not only point out the hypocrisy of South African corporate double standards but how even the government is not living up to the transformational targets it has set for itself.

Of course, no one can be fooled by Manyi’s arm-chair politics and his upper middle-class status.

But if words are an essential part of intellectual activism, there is no doubt that Manyi is committed to highlight the urgent need to improve the material conditions of African people.

It is time that we realised that “talking truth to power” is activism.

We cannot reduce all men who speak up to just being abstract intellectuals with no action.

If you look at it closely, you soon realise that Manyi directs his “black truth” or rage, if you like, first and foremost to pervasive white power and domination.

He makes it categorically clear that, by monopolising the economy and corporate power, white people are still in control. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he expects them to be agents of transformation and change so that we make this country the great non-racial, humane and equitable society we all want it to be.

Rather than confine his criticism to whites, he broadens his scope to focus on how other black minorities, that is, Indians and coloureds are getting a bigger piece of the cake than they deserve.

This is not meant to arouse envy, jealousy or stoke up racial fires against the rival minorities.

Instead, he wants the country to practise what it preaches, especially in the Constitution. In a nutshell, he wants all of us to commit to implementing the principles of employment equity to reflect the demographics of the country.

Of course, if we seriously committed to the transformational programme, we would have whites, Indians and coloureds affirm the need to put the interests of Africans, first.

But hell, no, they also are human beings who are motivated and driven by selfishness, greed and the desire to be number one – just like the Africans.

However, Manyi views all these dynamics and developments through particular African lenses and thus establishes an intuitive connection with people from his racial background.

We know from contemporary history that in South Africa any African spokesperson who speaks the raw truth will always be identified, isolated, hunted down like a dog and, ultimately, weeded out of the system.

Any proud, self-determining African person who truly believes in the genuine liberation of the oppressed and exploited will not be given space to express himself according to his conscience in this country.

Instead, he is likely to end up as a strange fruit.

So, to many Africans, when someone like Manyi speaks, they applaud and protect him because he exemplifies in his own words an action of courage, self-sacrifice and resilience to put the interests of the majority, first.

By now we should all know that this will always have frightening consequences.

But there will never be any freedom of conscience, thought and expression in this country until a man like Manyi can speak his “black truth” without any fear or favour.

In fact, his right to speak truth to power needs to be protected and upheld by those who claim to love freedom of self-expression and African people.

Essentially what Manyi represents is African self-affirmation, determination, a desire to speak truth freely according to conscience and to shake us out of complacency based on racial injustice.

I know many Africans who love Jimmy Manyi and what he represents.