Run-away Triumphalism

With due respect to all those who sacrificed so much for equality, democracy and non-racialism…

C4L has become a staunch proponent of Constitutionalism, not just from watching current events, but from its first-hand experience of losses and damages at the hands of Triumphalists in 2012.  Those events are now reaching both the criminal and civil courts, two years later.  It could take another 2 years to wrestle the perpetrators to the ground, so to speak.  This reminded is stated first just so that what follows is not seen as detached arm-chair intrusion.  We want triumphalism to be brought under control, for it has been running amuk for far too long.

Today the United States ambassador has raised diplomatic objections to comments made by the vice-minister of defense, not just implying but stating that the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is a CIA agent.  The ambassador, an African American, is right that South Africans can see through smoke screens and are not likely to believe such a fairy tale.

What the vice-minister said at a public event on Saturday is: “We can't allow people to hijack the ANC. We'll fight and defend the African National Congress. uThuliumele asitshele ukuthi ubani ihandler yakhe [Thuli must tell us who her handler is].”  He reportedly went on to say: "They are even using our institution now.... These Chapter Nine institutions were created by the ANC but are now being used against us, and if you ask why it is the Central Intelligence Agency. Ama [the] Americans want their own CEO in South Africa and we must not allow that.”

Madonsela has already taking appropriate action.  The short statement issued by her office says: “The public protector has decided not to fully comment for now, except to say that a letter is being prepared to ask Mr Kebby Maphatsoe to retract his accusation in 72 hours and apologise or provide incontrovertible evidence on his accusations.  Failing which, the public protector will be left with no choice but to invoke contempt of the public protector powers. The letter has already been sent.”

The Act that created Madonsela’s office makes provision for criminal charges of contempt to be brought for any insult to her or her deputy, or for actions that inhibit her ability to conduct investigations, with jail time or a fine stipulated as punishment. Madonsela has never invoked those powers, saying she prefers not to take matters of her office to the courts.

All the opposition parties have also protested. 

Now some of you know that I concur with Professor Sampie Terreblanche, who has been a Poverty-watcher for decades.  In his book Lost in Transformation, he tracks the linkages between the end of the Cold War and the end of Apartheid.  He makes a convincing case to say that Mandela’s government really had little choice but to accept the path of capitalism, but that in doing so, it took a wrong turn.  The benefits have been felt by only a minority of black people, while the majority have not enjoyed a “democracy dividend”.

He explains how the balance of the Cold War was replaced by a world with one super-power.  He tracks the march of capitalism into Africa and in particular South Africa, its legacy being the triple conundrum of poverty, inequality and unemployment.  Frankly, I can buy into all that he argues, in terms of American hegemony and the rich getting richer while the gap widens between rich and poor – without becoming anti-American.  In fact, this path of capitalism was brought to you by the ANC!

So the vice-minister’s attack is not on America or the CIA, it is a direct hit on the office of Public Protector.  In other words, he is attacking the Constitution.

This is the clearest example yet that I have seen of Triumphalism.

C4L has lived with the same attitudes for a decade:

·         We voiced protest over the delays in rolling out ARVs, only to find our attempts to raise funds to build ARV clinics blocked by SANAC at the Global Fund (Round 5).  At the time, the chair of SA’s country coordinating mechanism was Jacob Zuma

·         We raised concerns about what we called the “Epiphany murders”.  Soon the media was calling the “January murders”.  When the 17^th young leader in 12 years was shot in 2011, C4L organized a poster campaign.  The slogan was simple – 17 reasons to demand transparency.  No government funding has landed at C4L since, even in cases where we have won tenders

·         In October 2011 there was a national “whistle blowing week”, the first and the last.  Convinced that whistle blowing is a virtue in a open society that champions transparency, C4L confronted government over tender irregularities related to the Community Work programme in 2012.  The response was harsh – marginalization of C4L from the CWP

Fortunately now we have a visible triumphalist singing from this same ANC song sheet at the highest levels, in full view.  To him, his party is more important than the Constitution, because of a logic that says, the Constitution was brought to you by the ANC.

To this triumphalist’s way of thinking, Chapter 9 institutions are not for the rule of law but rather to validate the party line.  It is a one-party-state way of thinking.  Not an open society.

He wants Thuli Madonsela to be punished.  Whereas the Opposition parties, and also the ANC’s allies in the ruling alliance – COSATU and the SACP – have all come out in support of Thuli Madonsela standing up to Jacob Zuma over Inkandla.

To the Triumphalist, a government is subordinate to “the party” and the checks-and-balances of Democracy are an inconvenience.  Opposition parties are enemies and any individual or NGO that questions party policies is reactionary.  Innovative thinkers like the EFF are traitors.  The best antidote to this pseudo-democratic way of thinking was expressed today by the Council of Churches:

"It is with deep dismay that we have observed the responses of the president and the African National Congress to the report of the public protector on the Nkandla project, and the degeneration of these responses to a personal level."

"We express our unwavering support for the office of the public protector... and applaud her courage and her integrity."

"We urge those whom we supported in the days of the struggle against the evil monster of apartheid to not disappoint us now and take us into their version of a 'monster state' in which all are afraid to speak their mind and undertake their tasks with courage and integrity."

"Respect the office of the public protector and the person appointed to maintain our integrity as a nation, and deal with those who do not."

God bless Thuli Madonsela and may God protect our Protector!

Three Key Themes Revisited

Earlier this year, C4L launched three blogsites, on three themes that seemed distinct, important, and recurrent in our bulletins and prayer letters over 7 years.  The trilogy includes:

1. Altruism, philanthropy and missions
2. Leadership (which frequently raises related questions around non-racialism)
3. Youth

Well, today’s Sunday Independent just made it too easy for me!  I simply cannot resist sharing with you some tasty and nourishing morsels from it…

On Leadership                                                                       www.trilogy-leaders.blogspot.com

Young Msusi Maimane is the new parliamentary leader of the Loyal Opposition.  He wrote a public response to comments about him, that an ANC stalwart was forced to retract in parliament.  Here are some excerpts:

Sisulu commented that I was nothing more than a “hired native” or “black commodity” who was in Parliament to do “someone else’s bidding”.  These attacks are in line with the ANC’s narrative of racial mobilization and an abandonment of former president Nelson Mandela’s project of non-racialism.

Here I am: a young, black South African who grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, surrounded by the struggle.  In many ways, my life is also a model of everything that the ANC fought for – except one: I am the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance.

The comments made by Sisulu espouse the same attitudes as the former NP (Editorial note: the ruling party during the apartheid era).  It is an attitude that as a free black South African, I owe everything – my background, my education, my freedom – to the ANC.  Therefore, my politics must also be aligned to the ANC.  That is not freedom.  True freedom means that I am free to choose either the ANC or the DA.

My personal choices are not a betrayal of the freedoms which the ANC fought for, but rather the exercising of those freedoms.

Black & White, Rich & Poor

South Africa has historically been divided by race.  The term “rainbow nation” was coined to capture the need for reconciliation and “managing diversity”.  But this is changing, as power and wealth are moving slowly but surely into the hands of the “historically disadvantaged” – and with a rising number of poor whites.  Twenty years after the advent of Democracy, a kind of class system is emerging.  On this note I quote at length an excerpt from a recent article by Yacoob Abba Omar, called Rebuilding the soul of the nation:

“One of the government’s seminal documents, issued by the Presidency earlier this year, titled “Twenty Year Review 1994-2014”, notes there are “varying views about the transparency of the amnesty process, the adequacy of the reparations and the completeness of investigations and prosecutions, as well as the overall impact of the TRC in forging reconciliation”.

“This sense of unfinished business is what pervades a recently concluded Mapungubwe Institute research into Nation Formation and Social Cohesion, due to be released in July. It will also impact on the government’s attempts to rebuild the soul of the nation.

“The Twenty Year Review also talks of the need to address moral decay in society and the need to instil positive values. As long as Zuma remains convinced that he has done no wrong as far as Nkandla is concerned, and in the enrichment of his close family, and the many other things he has been accused of, he will make feisty calls for the level of morality to improve in South Africa.

“Ethics in the public service is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to addressing the soul of the South African nation.

“The Mapungubwe Institute has tabled a proposal to government departments and parts of big business that what we need is a broader, deeper, multi-layered and multi-faceted interrogation of the ethical foundations of the South African nation.

“Such an interrogation must cover politics, business and the government, but also extend to the family, civil society and faith-based organisations, as well as the role of education, sports, entertainment and the media, in shaping the ethical foundation of our nation.

“It will have to address the scourge of crime in every form – domestic, white collar, violent, sexual, petty – which has come to touch every South African.”

I second the emotion!

But how?

Personally I think the seminal phrase in the quote above is “shaping the ethical foundation of our nation”.  Who is doing that?

Surely the churches, mosques and temples are contributing.  But has anyone ever studied the moral and ethical values espoused on the soapies like Scandal, Isidingo, Generation, and 4 de Lann?  South Africans, women in particular, collectively, must spend a lot more time every week in front of the “boob tube” than in a church pew.

In everyday life, work places should be ruled by the King Code on Corporate Governance.  Mervyn King has always included a section in that code on Ethics.  Companies are encouraged to adopt a code of conduct, deriving from an internal, intentional set of core values.  The King Code basically promotes the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It’s a good start, but so many concerns have been expressed globally about the lack of morality of corporations, which don’t have souls.  They exist to make a profit and their directors are bound (by law) to do what is best for their company, that is - for its bottom line.  So the extent to which that profit motive can be balanced by having a double bottom line (financial and social) or even foster a just and developmental corporate culture can be questioned.

One nonprofit in South Africa is tackling this challenge head on.  It is called Unashamedly Ethical, and C4L is a member.  Check out its URL on that name.  It is a good effort.

On President Zuma’s state visit to the UK, the press really roasted him, in particular for polygamy.  In his sixties, he had just fathered a “love child” with a young lady in her twenties.  His reply was cryptic - that we need to hold a Morality Summit.

Yes, I agree.  I echo his thought that we do not even ask the right questions, to say nothing of not having the right answers.

Three Bible stories come to mind.  First the parable told by Nathan the prophet when he confronted King David.  The way the rich and powerful treat the poor and unemployed needs to be exposed.  Second, the parable of Jesus about separating the sheep and the goats.  Clearly, each groups had a distinct ethical foundation.  It was those who expressed their faith by sharing, by engaging with the poor, who were welcomed into the Kingdom.  Finally, the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus.  Guess who ended up in heaven?

One can connect the dots between the Reconciliation emphasis of 20 years ago with the Redistribution emphasis of today.  Not just in South Africa, but in the church, globally.  In one denomination, the Pope is making some good noises about this theme of Inequality.

This week I saw a movie called Heaven is for Real.  Have you seen it?  I really resonated with the Pastor in that movie - whose son gets to go to heaven and come back.  He saw naked truth in his son’s frank honesty and simplicity, he was just too young to be complicated or manipulative.  But his grappling with that issue really divided his flock.

That is where I find myself.  I say repeatedly what I think is clear, obvious and scriptural.  Yet some are skeptical and uncomfortable, and I find myself alienated from some genuine believers.  I can only quote David Bosch, the great South Africa theologian: “Christianity that doesn’t begin with the individual, doesn’t begin; but Christianity that ends with the individual, ends.”  On this ethical foundation let us rebuild the soul of the nation.