Lack of political leadership with maturity of character and conviction

Addressing the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) conference, secretary general of Cosatu made a very refreshing admission. He said “Only unscrupulous politicians hell-bent to use our divisions in order to use us against one another for their selfish political ends stand to benefit from our disunity.”

For a long time the ANC and its alliance hanger-ons have been slow to admit that there are conspicuous fractures within the movement, even in the face of the exodus of long serving members. An admission of the problem is a first step. What is required and expected is for the ANC and its parasites to make a concerted effort to heal the rifts that threaten their continued dominance and our constitutional democracy.

Our politics just prior and subsequent to Polokwane have been characterised by an embarrassing level of immaturity on the part of those who are entrusted with the task of leadership. The infantile and shebeen-type politics that we have been subjected to did nothing to move the country forward and address the plight of millions of our people who are still languishing in abject conditions of poverty.

The immaturity that affected our politics led to despondency and apathy of the majority of people who otherwise should have been enthused by cheerful prospects that new leadership promises. Even more disturbing is the extent to which this immaturity of leaders, their lack of conviction and weakness of character has resulted in distressing political disengagement by the youth; the very people who are future leaders of this country. The youth need leadership that inspires confidence and represents their reality, their hopes and dreams. But all they have had are uninspiring ANC Youth League imbeciles who make us cringe each time they open their mouths without engaging their brains, if any.

The majority of people are clamouring for inspirational leadership which will widen their consciousness about infinite possibilities that lie ahead and motivate them to take charge of their destiny and redefine their own reality. What we need is political leadership with maturity of character and conviction; leadership that promotes the interests and welfare of the multitude they are elected to serve and pursue the entrenchment and sustenance of political hegemony. We should by all means refuse to be held ransom to historical sentiments of the liberation struggle by politicians in order that they can advance political hegemony, which breeds careerism and opportunism.

The need to exercise reason as demanded by social and economic imperatives has become more urgent. Reason demands of the mature individuals that they respect and defend the civil liberties of others, but recent political shenanigans fomented by the ANC suggest that our politicians lack the competence of their mental faculties and that frightens the socks off me! Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but I believe it is justified. The prospect of Cabinet Minister Malema can lead a person of feeble constitution into a drunken stupor.

Edmund Burke asks an important question: “But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.” While recognising that not all things are equally distributed among all of us, even a less endowed man should rather strive towards attainment of pragmatic competence and faculty of judgment. Our less fortunate politicians appear to have found disturbing consolation in the comfort of their mental incompetence; hence their party is disintegrating before their eyes. The hopes and dreams of the poor whom these politicians pretend to represent are gradually being altered into probable nightmares.

Our politicians have consistently violated the trust that we have afforded them to establish and maintain prudential institutions that can effectively and efficiently provide safety, security and the ever-elusive better life for all; than to promote patronage among a closed circle of “comrades” whose common purpose is self-enrichment. Historical sentiments were enough to bring about this democracy, but remain inadequate to transform the lives of millions of our people who are subjected to a vile and ignoble existence. We cannot change our country based on sentiment alone! We owe it to ourselves to define the future as it should be and transform our present age into what we envisioned it to be during the liberation struggle.

We had Nelson Mandela and the United States has Barack Obama. What is preventing us from sustaining the calibre of leadership of the person of Mandela — leadership shaped by fortitude and maturity of character and conviction? Surely we deserve better.