SA: Wimps, political correctness and what it means to be a member of the ANC

Original Post Date: 2007-12-02 Time: 00:00:00  Posted By: Jan

By: Charlene Smith

[This article is from a blog related to the Daily Mail & Guardian. Jan]

Recently a fellow blogger wrote an excellent column criticising South Africa's shameful decisions with regard to rape, Burma and Zimbabwe at the United Nations Security Council.

But, he diluted his fine comments by limply saying toward the end that his comments came “as an ANC supporter”. What did he mean by that? That criticism only has value if it comes from those that normally support an institution or individual? Should we only heed critiques from friends and ignore the comments of others? Or was he saying, “I'm critical, but still cool”? Isn't that a fundamentally anti-democratic stance? The essence of any democracy is freedom of expression and as such can never, should never, be qualified.

Why, I wonder do those who criticise Democratic Alliance mayor Helen Zille never qualify it with the words “as a supporter/member of the DA”? Should George Bush only heed those who couch their dismay at his actions with the words “as a supporter of the Republicans”?

What wishy-washy political correctness is this?

It's a lot like saying, “some of my best friends are …” Jews, Catholics, women, black people, men, gays, Muslims, insurance salesmen … before one launches into a vitriolic attack of the group in which one claims to have friends. It's a term that when used is usually a sure indicator that the user probably has no friends in that group, but uses it as a shield because he or she believes it is considered “not nice” to criticise a certain group.

Such qualifications are the provenance of wimps (151)— if you mean it, say it; if popularity is important to you, then you should never be a public commentator.

But most of all I want to interrogate what it means to be a member of the African National Congress (151)— does anyone know any more? If you say Freedom Charter to most nowadays they either think it's a BEE code or a new clothing label.

I'm a charterist, so I'm part of those (probably the most depressed group in the country at present) who believed in a preamble that said: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white … together equals … The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex.” Under the section “There shall be houses, security and comfort”, it read, as an example, “no one shall go hungry; a preventive health scheme shall be run by the state”.

I loved the closing words: “These freedoms we will fight for side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.”

They were an echo of Albert Camus's words as a French resistance fighter in World War II when he wrote in a 1943 “Letter to a German friend” (later published in Resistance, Rebellion and Death): “This country is worthy of the difficult and demanding love that is mine. And I believe she is decidedly worth fighting for since she is worthy of a higher love. And I say that your nation has received from its sons only the love it deserved, which was blind. And you who were already conquered in your greatest victories, what will you be in the approaching defeat?”

Read those words again and reflect on them.

We may have the vote, but we're still not free.

When I look at the carefully polished German vehicles of some I used to call comrades, who lack even the manners to thank a waiter who places something before them, when I read of the billions they have accumulated or hear their scornful dismissal of striking workers or endorse the arrest of people demonstrating because they don't have clean running water or have night buckets spilling over with uncollected sewage, then I wonder precisely how they interpreted the Freedom Charter.

Renewal is now the rallying cry in political fora (151)— what does it mean? I suspect it is an indicator of regression. This is a country that has become preoccupied with its Rs (151)— we began with reactionaries and that led to revolution, reform, reflection, rebirth and renaissance (151)— and retarded progress in attaining the values of the Freedom Charter. This is not the non-racial, non-sexist South Africa for which the Freedom Charter and those who visionaries who rejected racial narrowness in 1956 called.

Some of the charterist economic principles would not work in a globalised world (151)— but they underscore a powerful call for social justice. Ignoring that call has seen the poor humiliate President Thabo Mbeki at regional ANC conferences.

It is surprising too that some commentators have expressed shock at the ANC Women's League endorsement of Jacob Zuma over Mbeki. While Zuma may have faced a rape charge, it is Mbeki who has consistently failed to do anything to combat the high rates of rape in South Africa; he has allowed hundreds of thousands of rapists to go free over his two terms as president. Less than 2% of reported rapes result in convictions and Mbeki ensured that those conviction rates will fall by disbanding the specialised sexual offence units last year. So which man is worse when it comes to rape?

Two-thirds more women are infected with HIV than men. Who is that had to be forced by the courts and the disgust of the world before allowing medication to prevent the transmission of HIV to babies? Who still prevaricates on giving post-exposure prophylaxis to rape survivors to ensure they can't get HIV? Who is failing to address the problems of children orphaned by HIV? Mbeki's government is to blame.

It is women who face the brunt of poverty and of violence in this society, Mbeki has not only been an Aids denialist; he has also refused to act to end poverty and violence in our country. The vote this December is not for a president; it is against the president (151)— it is an angry vote and those who could have served us better were too arrogant or wimpish to step forward in a timely manner. In times of such crisis, being politically correct is wrong.

The man who wanted to be Africa's next Nkrumah and who thought he could do it on the international stage has returned home to find he is despised.

Retarded progress in social justice has seen more than 6 000 demonstrations a year, a figure quoted by political economist Professor Patrick Bond from police sources. Most of those demonstrations are about failures in the delivery of water, education, healthcare and the vision the Freedom Charter promised.

Mbeki condoned police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi allowing police to open fire with rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas on those with legitimate protests against the failure of political promises. Television news again looked like we were living through the 1980s.

Mbeki has succeeded in creating a more powerful elite than even the Afrikaner Broederbond; Zuma will attempt to create greater social justice, but in the process he needs to ensure that he doesn't bring the house down on our heads.

Let's look at Mbeki's South Africa: the Sunday Times reported early this year that South Africa is the world's fourth-largest creator of new dollar millionaires with close to 50 000 in the country.

Since 1994, according to the BusinessMap Foundation, there have been R225-billion-worth of BEE transactions, with 173 empowerment deals, worth R75-billion, in 2006 alone. The recent University of Cape Town/Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing and TNS Research Survey estimates the buying power of the country's 2,6-million black diamonds at about R180-billion.

Not bad (151)— but this in a country that added a million more unemployed in the past 10 years. We have 40% of our nation unemployed, according to Stats SA. The Human Sciences Research Council tells us that 54% of our people live in poverty. Many HIV antiretroviral roll-outs and tuberculosis medication schemes fail because those drugs need to be taken with food; if taken without food they make the patient ill (151)— and because so many of our people are without food, they give up the drugs. How can we turn our face to such poverty?

Alexis de Tocqueville writing of democracy in America almost 160 years ago discussed 18th-century England allowing the aristocracy always to prevail and “manage public affairs as it wished”. He said this was a “mistake, due to those who, constantly seeing the interests of the great in conflict with those of the people, have thought only about the struggle and have not paid attention to the result thereof. When a society really does have a mixed government, that is to say, one equally shared between contrary principles, either a revolution breaks out or that society breaks up.”

The Freedom Charter called for unity: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white… together equals … The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex.” We have not only failed to attain that vision, but we're also moving backwards to a society that again wants to be defined by race and colour and where the only gender that is respected is male.

So what does it mean when we talk of the African National Congress? Is it the old ANC, the one that believed in social justice, non-racialism, non-sexism and a unified South Africa, one where our constitution reminds us diversity is celebrated?

Or do we support the new ANC that presents itself as race-obsessed and pre-1955 pan-Africanist? Do we support an ANC that seems to be largely composed of self-interested opportunists and corrupt nepotists?

Do we pack for foreign shores or do we stay, exhausted because 13 years after the struggle ended, we now realise another needs to begin (151)— one for social justice twinned with a growing economy sensitive to globalised needs? Do we work to implement the dream of a nation that is non-racial, non-sexist, a place where we feel safe and are proud to call home? Or do we sit back and criticise and immediately apologise?

This country is worthy of my demanding love and in return it demands that I don't just write, don't just talk (151)— that I act to make this, my home, a place of safety, that I act to protect the interests of the 42-million others just like me who want opportunity for their children. It's begging the same of you.

READER’S COMMENTS:-
14 Responses to “Wimps, political correctness and what it means to be a member of the ANC”
Not just 100% correct. Much more than that.
I agree that the government has sorely let down its people. Yes it has enriched a percentage of the population with its BEE story. But it has neglected the man in the street.
Superb article.
Anja Merret on November 30th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
This is a great piece of writing, much better than the daily commentary of our newspapers. Charlene, I agree with you entirely. I am fully behind you on the Freedom Charter. Many of us, in our youth, threw ourselves in a struggle motivated by the vision of the Freedom Charter. If the ANC had pronounced its programme then as BEE, “willing buyer, willing seller” land policy, pay-as-you education policy, Bantu “low-cost housing” for more township development, etc., then I'm sure there would be no ANC to talk of today. None. The Freedom Charter became the ANC's most powerful weapon against apartheid capitalism because it painted a picture of a new society, one that restored the dignity of Africans to overcome past colonial sins. But today, the FC is all but an icon of struggle nicely packaged in glossy brochures of the Holiday Inn in Kliptown, Soweto. I say nothing of the comrades who now belong to the BEE oligarchy – these people went into government to serve us and once they got there, they then found an opportunity to retail the struggle to the white minority capitalists and have turned over some R225 billion in BEE transactions – if your account is correct. It is interesting to note that this amount is the total raised to finance their superficial wealth, an idling black directocracy in white companies, and the lifestyles of their families, wives, and mistresses. The so called buying power of the “Black Diamonds” is nothing but the extent of their indebtedness too, leading to a life of stress and depression for most of them. The black man is unique in his inability to save money in investments. He consumes, consumes, consumes. So far so bad for this lot – these men and women who have truly benefited from the end of apartheid only to reconstitute white privilege. But what is to be done, Lenin would have said.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the what you think are the practical measures that are called for today in favour of the Freedom Charter. You seem to have given this some thought and have concluded that “Some of the charterist economic principles would not work in a globalised world (151)— but they underscore a powerful call for social justice.” Which economic principles would not work? And why? Which ones do you think would work? And why? I'm very interested to hear your views.

Let us take the discussion forward.

Best wishes.
Nobhala Phesheya on November 30th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Being an ANC member means striving for a better life for all through restoration of human dignity. All is inclusive of all humnaity irresepective of colour, gender, sexality etc. These translate into many other principles and values that I belieive are contemporary.

The identify of the ANC can be misconstrued by the changing interrim positions that had to be taken while trying to change the dynamics of power to compensate for the situation of being in government but not being in power.

Your diagnosis of the issues gives the impression that you expect, like many south africans do, that in 13 years of democracy all effects of years of colonialism and apartheid could have been reversed. Is this ideology practical or is it necessary to appease the consciences of those who benefits while masses were impoverished?

Perhaps the crux of the problem is the lack of honesty about the enormity of the task and the complexities of changing a society with so many institutionalised prejucdices.

The identity challenge certainly exists for the ANC. If Jacob Zuma gets the top job it will be very difficult for me to retain ANC identity. Assuming a DA identity will also not be easy to assume. The populist vacuous positions assumed by the DA are necessary but not strategic enough to lead South Africa to the type of solutions that are sustainable.

Retaining ANC principles is fundamental, the most natural thing if you respect restoration of human dignity. Admittedly, this will be very difficult to articulate if JZ is president. With all Mr Mbekis failings I do not think we have had a better president. Recent research certainly is showing the position of aids dissidence is a credible one.

I am not an ANC official member but instead I am intrigued with the challenges of the new South Africa.
Kosheek on November 30th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Oh well, at least they're sitting on the boards of banks. Didn't the Freedom Charter talk about nationalising them? [At least Standard is being taken over – slowly – by the communists, Chinese ones, that is. So much for the Yellow Peril.]
Colin on December 1st, 2007 at 12:07 am
Last week Zuma's lead was (177)± 800 votes. If, in a country with more than 40 million people, a few hundred votes can decide who will be the next president the word ‘democracy' should not be used.
Mbeki likes ‘Coriolanus' I read in Gevisser's book. The president should read act iv, scene 1 of his favourite tragedy; That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Shewed mastership in floating.
Nicholas Dekker, Gansbaai.
Nicholas DEKKER on December 1st, 2007 at 9:02 am
My my! All this frothing, and for what? You speak very good English, but you make very little sense. What is it that Zuma is going to do differently from Mbeki? Oh I forget, you say he “will attempt to create greater social justice”. How exactly? By bringing back the death penalty? You would like that, wouldn't you?
Monde Nkasawe on December 1st, 2007 at 10:04 am
[…] In a nutshell, we are now all citizens in South Africa (Proprietary) Limited. The problem is that the majority shareholder (the ANC) doesn't play nicely with the minority shareholders (the millions of poor people in this country and those of us not card carrying members of the majority shareholder). South Africa (Proprietary) Limited has become a sad mixture of cliche and missed opportunities. Before I get into that, here are some interesting statistics from a recent post on Thought Leader by Charlene Smith titled “Wimps, political correctness and what it means to be a member of the ANC”: […]
South Africa (Proprietary) Limited (124)| Wired Gecko on December 1st, 2007 at 10:43 am
I have not read an article recently that comes as close to what I feel as this one has. Although India has been my place of residence for the past 20 years, South Africa is still my home. Living as I do in the world's largest democracy whenever I visit South Africa it seems that very little has changed in the past 10 years for the man on the street. The disparity between the have's and the have nots appears to be still as wide as ever. The recent striking workers takes one back to the early 1980's. So what's changed? A larger black middle class has emerged, but at the expense of the poor? Education and Health care are in a shambles. And as someone recently said, the country is falling apart. We need to relook at the Freedom Charter. Reevaluate its principles and instead of mindlessly apeing the west, find a unique formula that will work for South Africa. A form of democractic socialism perhaps with priority on health care and education, shelter and employment. With a mere population of 42 million this can't be impossible. And if after 10 years we are still way off the mark, we need to realise that the difference between now and then is that we have the vote. So if the government of the day does not perform in accordance with the mandate we have given them to provide for and to protect us, then its time for them to go. We need to become more aware of the power we have as citizens. The power that allows us to vote for change, and hopefully a better quality of life.
Anusham Ray on December 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am
As far as I know, in South Africa people with full-blown Aids are entitled to a social grant, which they can only get on the basis of a doctors recommendation. And I presume it would not make much sense for a doctor to prescribe antiretroviral drugs to an indigent HIV/Aids patient with a high viral load and low CD4(43)+ count without recommending her for a social grant.
Francois Venter writes in the South African Medical Journal that the Department of Health actually implemetented what he describes as “international best practice HIV/Aids prevention programmes”, which have failed dismally in the light of our catastrophically high, and rising, infection rates. Researchers are currently grappling with factors that contribute to driving the epidemic in South Africa, which is nowhere near plateauing. Helen Epstein, for example, attributes the problem to the prevalence of “concurrency” in African settings, unlike serial monogamy elsewher. The HSRC on the other hand highlights the phenomenon of transactional sex or, “sugar daddies”, which makes sense in the light of our huge inequalities in South Africa. Some researchers focus on sexual networks and concomitant peer pressure and sexual coercion as the reason for our intractable infection rates. So the problem seems to me rather complex, and it is not helpful to individualize it as the media is wont to do.
It is very interesting that there has hardly been any agitation over the inordinate delays in passing the Sexual Offences Bill, which seems to me a more efficacious means of ensuring that the criminal justice system is responsive to the scourge of rape in South Africa, than simply holding Thabo Mbeki responsible, even if he is a head of state.
The suggestion that somehow the ANC has degenerated to racial nationalism does not bear srutiny. Charlene Smith would never as a white person have become a member of the ANC before the 1985 Kabwe conference.
In fact Mandela, Tambo and other Youth League members in the 1940s were staunch Africanists, and only subsequently developed an orientation towards the Communist Party for various complex reasons, including the successful inroads of the latter into the black working class, which showed remarkable miltancy after the Second world War, for example the African Mineworkers Union strike of 1946.
Well, South Africa sure belongs to all who live in it. Only I wish somebody could tell white and coloured Capetonians whose faces contort with hatred at the mere fact that I, an African, sully places in the Cape of Good Hope such as Goodwood, Kraaifontein, Stellenbosch, etc with my mere ontological existence. It is not African people who have issues with race. Granted, very few Africans write to the media to rant about racism, all they do is vote for other despised Africans.
If Charlene Smith and many whites in general are so convinced that the affirmative action policy is racist and unjust, one would think that they would expect it not to pass muster in the Constitutional Court, so why are they coy about challenging its constitutionality.
Wella Patrick Msimanga on December 1st, 2007 at 11:48 am
It is good to read your article and indeed you make a lot of bold claims about how bad the situation is in this country and how Mbeki governmnet has let down many poor peoplle. However you must be careful of picking up an easy route just because it makes you on time to where you are going. Your criticism is based on the same criticism we here everyday from the Anti-Mbeki's and Anti-National Democratic Revolution, it is not well thought and ignores the big role that the Mbeki government has played. I want to remind you that as much as you try to speak for South African poor people but they voted Mbeki and gave him an unprecedented support for two elections. Many ARV's have been rolled out and many houses indeed have been built. As much as unemployment is still a problem you do not mention the fact that thousands of jobs have been created. At not time has the government said it has done enough, and believe me ANC assumed a country that was in brinks of economic collapse and turned it to what you today have. It worked day and night to win you the freedom you have today to critice without checking the facts first. I agree thta you have a right to criticise but if you care enough you criticism would be chanelled towards constructing a better South Africa than turning a blind eye on all the government achievements. It is strange enough because at the moment it does not seem like there is anyt political party that can challenge the ANC to rule. What this means therefore is that we all as South Africans to be careful of undermining the good things that came with ANC at a time when the country had been raped by the racist white minority who never had the interest of the majority of South Africans. To undermine this hardwork by our comrades is a sign of ungreatfulness and lack of appreciating what a black man in particular can do, it wrong and removes the sense of pride we should be having. Under apartheid this country belonged to a few who benefited, today when the scales are being equalised some few people who never bother to be critical lambast because now a blacks are also driving the same flashy cars there were reserved for whites. In order to appear legitimate in their criticism they always use the poor as the yardstick or a weapon when in reality they suffer from change.It would be very stupid to think that ANC is not aware of all the challeges it faces, and it would also be senseless to think that the party has given up in addressing them. All the we can do is to cricise those spect that need serious consideration or more practicality while we at same time recognise that we have achieved so much in a very short space of time with no experience in governance and with limited resorces. Our criticism should be embraced by love our contry and pride on what we can do.
Loyiso Phantshwa on December 1st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Charlene, what a thoughtful, honest and well-reasoned post. You have expressed your indignation and disappointment so well, and without a hint of vitriol. There is a thread of sadness that runs through your post that I find heart-breaking, not least because I know that your disillusionment is shared by so many good people.
Juno on December 1st, 2007 at 8:39 pm
YOU GO GIRL THANK YOU FOR YOUR PIECE,I ALWAYS BELIEVED WHITE COULD NOT KNOW BLACKS HARDSHIP EXPERINCE EVERYDAY.EX PRESDENT TM HAS GUTS TO TELL US THAT “TODAY IS BETTER THEN YESTERDAY” WHAT HOGWASH,THANK YOU FOR OPENING MY EYES I BELIEVE IN BOB MARLEY WHEN HE SAYS THAT THOSE WHO FEELS KNOWS IT
sabelo njoko on December 1st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Hi there Charlene

Yes, over the past 13 years, the ANC has had quite a mixed record. Much of this has already been commented on, so I won't repeat it here.

I won't try to answer your main question because I'm not a member of the ANC, (though I have always been FC, for change, that is).

But, I do have some suggestions that, hopefully, will take your comments further.

Fact is, even taking into acccount the huge
problems that existed when they assumed power, I believe that, had the ANC appointed the right people in positions of influence, they not only could have achieved better results, but the future outlook for this country could have been ever so much brighter.

Question is, where do we go from here, bearing in mind that Mr Zuma could be our next President?

Well, first of all, he needs to surround himself with the right people in the right jobs.

Then, he needs to make sure that government, labour, civil society and business work more closely together to implement wide-ranging interventionist projects to expand the economy.

These would include massive solar power, water desalination and tunnel farming projects. 3 of the ANC's key policies, BEE, affirmative action and transfer of land would have to be an integral part of these projects.

This way, professionals, emergent entrepreneurs and their employees will be afforded ample opportunity, without the downsides presently being experienced with these policies.

Charlene, I believe that, without projects like these, this country will have great difficulty weathering the global warming storm.

My final question is, what can you and I do to help bring about the positive changes we would all like to see?

I have some ideas, but I'll leave that for another time, (assuming my comments are approved by the editors).
Brian Rothwell on December 2nd, 2007 at 1:49 am
this must be that agony aunt e-column that everyone is raving about. now can anyone direct me to the blog where people discuss effective ways to organise and mobilise communities? a blog where elitist academics and psychologists are not viewed as political gurus.anyone please!
Lenin on December 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 am

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