A Call to Legs

There is never a need for violence, so this is not a call to arms.  But there is a huge need for activism and engagement - so this is a call to legs!

Engaging the Powers

The Bible says that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.  So while this bulletin reviews current events, its analysis goes deeper into the moral and spiritual issues that underpin actions and reactions in the visible sphere.  Because as the creeds say, we do believe in all things – visible and invisible.

Sometimes the best way to get involved is “remote” - like prayer or policy analysis.  Other times the best way to get involved is activism.  Both can apply to either realm.  In other words, praying for peace is important, and so is exorcism (one is remote, one is engagement – in the realm of principalities and powers).  At the flesh-and-blood level, policy analysis is the “remote” side of advocacy for justice, but lobbying is the active side.  The time has come to move beyond remoteness into outright involvement.  Legs are needed not just to walk the talk but to take a stand.

Pogroms & Purges

At street level, in recent months, there have been some ugly scenes.  These were not isolated events.  There are still gangs that go on weekly rampages to harass foreigners.  It is intentional and it is unacceptable.  Last week, a group called South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) held a 3-day conference in Alexandra, precisely where the pogroms erupted in May.  The theme was that neither poverty, unemployment or lack of service delivery is a valid reason for xenophobic violence and tension.  Good for them!  They are walking the talk.

Meanwhile, in the corridors of power, there are also ugly scenes.  Purges are the order of the day.  Worse than that, the new owners of the ruling party are asserting themselves and talking dirty.  Leaders of key organs with the ruling party are using vocabulary that is so inflammatory that the Human Rights Commission is having trouble keeping up!

At the bottom of this is a deep moral and spiritual malaise.  Speaking of corruption is now so commonplace that stronger words like kleptocracy are coming into use.  The ruling party's president is going to court next week on charges of corruption.  His defense is basically that he is no different from anyone else – all leaders do the same thing.  Imagine arguing with a traffic cop that you should not get a speeding ticket because everyone else on the road is speeding too!  What is the morality of that defense?  Where is the sense of responsible citizenship in that?!

To validate this excuse, a conspiracy theory has been introduced.  This is a blame game.  Even when the pogroms were still raging, government turned to the default drive that it invokes when ever things go wrong – a Third Force.  Investigations since have verified that there was no such thing.  It is just like Mugabe saying that Tsvangiriai is a stooge of Britain and the USA.  This is insulting to Africans – as if they cannot make up their own minds how to vote, and as if they all have to hold the same views and vote uniformly.  That is not a renaissance, that is a regression.

It has become clear that Zuma can produce no evidence of a conspiracy, and that this line of defense is shaky.  Therefore there is a push to introduce a larger amnesty, based on the assumption that many senior leaders up to the highest office may be tainted.  While there is no evidence of that, it might be one way to get those who have been caught off the hook.  But once again, one can only wonder at the ethics of basing amnesty – forgiveness – on an assumption, not on evidence.

On the other hand, forgiveness is sacred.  But it can only happen after confession.  These are very spiritual matters, and it is for that reason that the top people trying to shape such an exit strategy for its top party leaders are saying that this would have to involve non-state actors and more especially a faith-based organization.  If only their logic on whether an amnesty is needed at all was as sound as their logic is that these are deeply spiritual issues that require a mini-TRC.

Sadly, this reflects the fact that the ruling party has lost all the high moral ground that it used to stand on in the days of Luthuli, Sisulu and Mandela.  Even the HRC is too close to government to have any teeth, so a former cabinet minister is now forming a non-state civil liberties organization.

Courts are Private, Hearings are Public

So much of the background to the current crisis has unfolded in the courts.  We have seen party president Zuma in Mauritius, unsuccessfully trying to block evidence from reaching his trial in Durban.  We have just seen Judge Hlophe challenging the Constitutional Court's right to discipline him, in another high court.  We have seen the Gingala Commission trying to sort out related issues, and await the trial of the former Police Commissioner.  It is quite literally, breathtaking.

One of the most sacred democratic principles is the separation of powers.  Judiciary, legislature and executive branches are not supposed to interfere in one another's affairs.  But Judge Hlophe was allegedly trying to lobby Constitutional Court judges about Zuma's case, and some senior party leaders have even threatened the courts.  The future of Democracy in South Africa rests on the ability of the courts to be independent, not subservient to the executive branch or the ruling party – as they have become in Zimbabwe.  The best strategy in this regard is “hands off”.  Every one including other courts, other branches of government and parties should back off.  Prayer is enough.

But prayer is not enough when it comes to the closing of the Scorpions.  A Sowetan newspaper poll  shows 79% support for its retention.  An on-line poll by Carte Blanche indicates 97% support.  An Ipsos-Markinor poll suggest 67% of people trust the Scorpions versus 31% who trust the police.  Only 24% thought it was a good idea to disband the unit.  Another survey by TNS Research reveals that 59% of urban people believe that the Scorpions, or an equivalent unit, should remain separate from the SAPS.  Democracy is fundamentally about letting the people reign.

There is another allegation that cannot be proved – that the ANC decided to shut down the Scorpions to protect its senior cadres from prosecution.  It was, however, a case of shooting the messenger.  With or without evidence, the point is that the people want to keep the Scorpions.

Public hearing are to be held about this issue in all provinces during the week of August 11 – 15^th.  This is a call to legs.  The ruling party will certainly try to mobilize support for its position, even though it is a house divided against itself.  The state President himself is not opposing the case being brought to the Constitutional Court by Hugh Glenister the following week, that this infringes on his constitutional rights to safety and security.  He is backed by all opposition parties, and the case will be heard one day after Parliament is scheduled to start debating the closing of the Scorpions.  This is a call to legs.  South Africans need to get out to these hearings to be heard!

Parliament itself is being bullied.  This used to be by the executive branch.  Lately it has been by the ruling party.  Which raises another key issue that is at stake.  Who runs the country – a party or a government?  In a Democracy, the electorate chooses from among a slate of parties, who will govern for a stipulated period.  If they do not govern well, then the people can remove them at the next elections.  Can a party remove them in the interim?  Does the state president give account to the electorate or to the party?  Precedents are being set.  In Marxist-Leninism, the party is called a “vanguard”.  It goes ahead, it blazes the trail.  Government follows along behind.  That is what the new owners of the ruling party are peddling.  Constitutional democracies do not work like that.  They elect a majority, which forms a government – until the next elections.