Ja, right, and Zuma is a feminist (my Tuesday column) Wait, something is wrong with this picture. A man about to appear on corruption charges who had just lost everything because he cheated on his taxes after living like a billionaire on a meager salary is joined by the country’s crassest materialist to lead a new party for the poor, and we don’t all burst out laughing? Would we even flinch if Jacob Zuma got up tomorrow and declared himself a feminist fighting for the rights of gays and lesbians? If we as a country were a person, a psychoanalyst would certainly have a field day in exploring our condition. But the emergence of Julius Malema and Kenny Kunene’s Economic Freedom Fighters is not necessarily a negative development in South African politics, even if they get a number of seats in parliament at next year’s general elections. In fact, it could have positive spin-offs. When the Conservative Party broke away from the National Party in 1979, many feared that it would mean the end of the early moves to reform apartheid. It had the opposite effect: the ruling party felt liberated without its right wing and the first moves to undo rigid apartheid started soon after, a process that eventually led to the party being open to a negotiated settlement. The CP breakaway had another effect. For many decades the political culture among Afrikaners demanded absolute respect for their leaders. Questioning the wisdom or integrity of a leader led to being labeled a “bad Afrikaner” or even a traitor and in most cases marginalization. But the CP established an alternative home for right-wingers where they felt safe and so the fear of criticizing and mocking the NP’s top leaders disappeared. PW Botha became the most ridiculed Afrikaner leader ever and the old culture of blindly respecting leaders virtually disappeared. This had an unshackling effect on Afrikaner thinking and stimulated a culture of critical thinking and debate. Most comparisons between what happened during the old order and the new are inappropriate, but perhaps this is purely about human behavior and there is something to it. President Jacob Zuma has indeed been ridiculed a lot, but by outsiders; among ANC supporters he is a bit of a cult leader and few stand up to him or other senior ANC leaders. Critics are written off as neo-liberals, racists, clever blacks or ultra-leftists. The Communist Party has repeatedly campaigned for legislation making it a criminal offence to insult the president. Malema, Floyd Shivambu and Co come from inside the heart of the ANC and were once in the frontline of Zuma’s cheering commando when he was under pressure. This also means they can talk with some authority about the nature of the Zuma-ANC and confront other members with what is really going on in the hierarchies of the party. Malema’s accusations against Zuma’s own conduct and leadership style and his version of how he and the rest of Luthuli House literally used the SABC as lapdogs are cases in point. The EFF’s insistence on nationalization – in essence, an orthodox socialist system – could also expose Zuma’s new cheering commando, the Communist Party. Aren’t they’re supposed to be the real socialists? So perhaps having a political party whose official policy is nationalization and land expropriation without compensation could bring some honesty to our politics. If the EFF does become a force in parliament, the SACP and certain Cosatu affiliates like NUMSA that also demand a state-owned economy will find it difficult to stay inside an alliance that opposes it. The EFF could hasten the overdue rearrangement of our party political landscape. The media are in love with Malema and have been so for years. Every criticism of Zuma and the ANC that comes out of his mouth will be broadcast to the entire nation. So now it won’t only be the DA and Cope protesting against Nkandla, the enrichment of the Zuma clan, the criminal neglect of education and health, the corruption and nepotism in the ANC and the bad governance of provinces or local authorities. It will be impossible to dismiss these criticisms as coming from racists and reactionaries. But a strong EFF could also have a very negative effect, besides making people nervous about the future of the economy, that is. There is nothing wrong with its insistence on a new black assertiveness, but its veiled (and not so veiled) threats and insults to whites are dangerous. Race is also the ANC’s weapon of choice for their coming election campaign and if the two groups start competing on who can whip up more racial emotion it could have serious consequences. But Malema is facing very serious charges in October. If he goes to jail, the EFF could well peter out. Like Jonas Savimbi’s Unita, without Malema the EFF will be nothing.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:43:22 +0000
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