Why Tito and Cyril won't go to parliament

Depending on how you choose to look at things, prominent people who have declined nomination for the ANC parliamentary list are either snobbish or just hold utter contempt for the people’s choices. The two cases that come to mind are business magnate Cyril Ramaphosa and Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.

It may be difficult for some people to decide what their gesture to decline nomination means. But, for me, this is nothing but utter contempt for the wishes of the people and the party’s “deployment” strategy to decide who will be of service to the nation. Of course, it is easy for their apologists to see this as an expression of the right to self-determination, freedom of choice or even an expression of lack of ambition on their part.

But that view would be a pure self-serving urban legend that can only succeed to fool some of the people, some of the time. You see, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that these men are, indeed, ambitious and have used the political platform provided by the ANC to get ahead in life. Of course they are presumably disciplined and loyal members of the people’s party.

By the time the ANC was unbanned and negotiations started in 1990, they had made inroads into the inner circle and had long positioned themselves for what they considered great things in the party. To a large extent, they have achieved their dreams, which have seen them rise in the ranks to emerge as powerful and influential figures in the business and economic sector.

After tasting economic power and carving a niche among the international elite that has portrayed them as above petty bickering for political office, they now want to distance themselves from serving the people through Parliament. This would be no crime except that they would be among the very elite who are always quick to point out the alleged crisis of leadership in the ANC and the dearth of clear-thinking intellectuals in its ranks.

Of course, there are many people who have shed tears over what they consider the absence of credible men and women in the leadership of today’s ANC. These voices complain that the absence of men like Ramaphosa and Mboweni, for instance, just shows how self-respecting wise men do not want to be corrupted by the power struggles that are under way in the party.

But how can we have a leadership of the calibre of Barack Obama, for instance, when the very people who can restore the credibility and pride of the people of this country arrogantly spurn their appointment? I think the people of this country, especially the members of the ANC, must call these two men to explain why they refuse to use their stature and height to help restore credibility and faith in our political institutions and organisations.

If it were not money and the powerful influence it wields in the running of the world, one would be tempted to agree that they have declined their nomination out of principle. But I want to offer that they have spurned the call of the people simply because they want to pick and choose for themselves positions that they think they deserve.

I am convinced that if Jacob Zuma were to appoint them as the finance minister or deputy president, for that matter, they would be quick to answer in the positive to the “redeployment”. Of course I have not spoken to any of the two men and do not intend to engage them to understand their true motives for refusing to answer the national call of duty. In fact that would serve no purpose as the answers to my questions are written in the sky.

But I think we have to learn to closely examine the motives of some of the people we consider to be some of the few good leaders still available in the country. Whose interests do they want to serve? If you are serious about serving your people and country, you should have no qualms about suspending a five-star lifestyle to provide a calibre of leadership that will, like Nelson Mandela, inspire pride and confidence in this miracle nation.

So, why are our own Obamas not rising to the challenge?