Happy Birthday Tutu

The archbishop emeritus turns 81 today.  It is Thanksgiving Sunday in Canada – so give thanks for his life.

To celebrate, he helped a cancer-related NGO with some fundraising.  This is fitting, as he himself has fought prostate cancer – and won.  Cancer can be beaten!

During his birthday party, he heard that he had received the Mo Ibrahim Foundation award in recognition of his contribution to justice, freedom and democracy.

Tutu said: “I have been very fortunate throughout my life to be surrounded by people of the highest caliber, beginning with my extraordinary wife.  It is these generous people who have guided, prodded, assisted, cajoled – and ultimately allowed – me to take the credit.”

I see that Graca Machel delivered the annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture at the University of the Western Cape.  She is quoted as saying:

“It may sound presumptuous, but I have observed, as a South African and a Mozambican, that we have huge difficulty in communicating in a serene, peaceful, accommodating manner.  We have a lot of anger in our communication.  We are harming one another because we can’t control our pain.”

Food for thought!

In its first few decades in the USA, Democracy took a bit of a different turn from the political parties in England – the Conservatives and Liberals.  The two parties that emerged are still with us – the Democrats and the Republicans.  Each country is a different context and Democracy has to adapt.  So there is not just the Democratization of Africa, but there is the Africanization of Democracy!

In South Africa, although the names have not stuck yet, the distinction could be described as the Constitutionalists and the Triumphalists.

Constitutionalists

These are the citizens from all parties including the ANC that believe the Constitution is paramount.  To quote a recent article by Opposition leader Helen Zille:

• Defending our constitution and securing its promise of equal rights and fair opportunities for all
• Nurturing genuine non-racialism on the basis of reconciliation and redress
• Growing an appropriately regulated, market-driven economy that can achieve the levels of sustainable growth needed to reduce unemployment significantly and lessen inequality
• Building a state that puts competence above party loyalty, values service and punishes self-interest and corruption

Triumphalists

And in the other corner, wearing the red shorts, are the Triumphalists!  A political biography of Deputy President Kgalema Montlanthe was recently released.  The author Ebrahim Harvey mentions some of his concerns:

“Moves within Luthuli House after Polokwane to unseat premiers said to be close to Mbeki worried him most because they were driven by the same factionalist manoeuvring vices the Zuma-ites had accused Mbeki of not long before.  If the period before Polokwane left him very worried about the state of the affairs in the organization he had dedicated his life to, then the period after Polokwane was not much better.

“Many in what was called the Zuma camp did not clearly understand what was really wrong with the previous leadership, because if they really did understand, they would not in fact be repeating many problems committed by the previous leaders.

“Within the earlier leadership, when they manoeuvred and were wrong in this or that, you could invoke the constitution, pull them into line and they would back off, but leadership after Polokwane were extremely triumphalist and did not really listen when you invoked the constitution. Instead they thought you don’t understand power. 

“For them the form and manifestation of the problem was simple: Zuma was victimized and we lined up behind him and removed Mbeki.  But they failed to understand that other than and independent of this problem there were many other accompanying problems.  It reminded me of what Mandela once said: ‘A crisis or chaos can give rise to a leadership which is ill-suited to solve the problems and in fact can worsen them.’

“I was unhappy that after Mbeki resigned he was not kept in the loop and serviced as Mandela was when he retired.  Right up to Polokwane, I briefed Mandela on all important matters, but in the case of Thabo, we were not treating him the same.”

C4L’s Case Study

We are caught in a similar conundrum at C4L.  We entered a Joint Venture earlier this year only to find that our partners are basically “tenderprenuers”.  We do not condone some of their conduct and we have even dared to become “whistle blowers”.  This means, like it or not, that we have taken the Constitutionalist road out.

Meanwhile the Triumphalists are proving ill-suited to solve the partnership problems and as Mandela indicated, actually worsen them!

These are the fault lines in South Africa – no longer black and white but Constitutionalists and Triumphalists.  The erstewhile youth leader Julius Malema comes to mind.  He finally got pushed out by ANC Disciplinary action and he is now getting the heat for corruption.  But he continues to be influential because he is a populist who relates well to young people.  In fact, he has represented his constituency well, but sadly used his contacts in public service to feather his own nest.  Thank God for “The Arch” who remains the role-model par excellence.