WeeklySA_AdminIDEOLOGY: The Western concept of politics or political party has seen its day, argues the writer…
By Rev Paul N Vilakazi
What if this a “New Dawn of all Dawns” the many New and the already atrophied? What if destiny is placing South Africa once more, not just at the centre-stage of African politics, but smack into the most preeminent leadership of governance throughout the whole wide world.
Just as the indigenous animal the Government of National Unity (GNU),shows up one more time to say; ‘Hey this is the only way suited to your climate, many a technicolor textures of skin and your unique-pap-and boerewors-eating inheritance, let alone umqombothi, mompane worms at your most sumptuous table.
Hey, when will you ever acknowledge your singularly bestowed talent and Indigenous wondrous nous to lead the whole world in thought and deed, while you meanwhile waste and trash so much time, baby-sitting your ethno- differences and inherited from the West and East over-aged ideologies that have nevertheless miraculously – like a strong stallion – just bolted from under your balls.
While you have lately toyed with other foreign concepts of governance christened elsewhere, like the mind confounding as much as cheating, especially by the political foxes among yourselves (coalitions or coy legions), you had conveniently – and for the love of power – just forgot the most indigenous wisdom of united governance of all by all, whatever their lusty mien, cunning and psychosis…
Right now, do wake up to fact that, not for the next 30 years ,but to eternity your “Sankofa Moment” is, but just ultimately being yourself, not the international language you speak, how and how oft you dine with the likes of Barack Obama, but in reality how you are simply anointed to lead the world for this millennium.
That even as you attend the national dialogue (Makhulu Indaba), know that providence has already anointed the GNU as your total panacea to all you political ills, in the future and forever. That it is the only way, not only for us, but for also the whole world So quit the ‘ grand western thinking’ of opposition politics as the one-size-fits-all, even in the Motherland, that gave the world Timbuktu and Mapungubwe.
You will always, in your governance forms, have leading movements and pertinent wisdom to form in our house of law-making, majorities even by way of the ballot box and these then would just like today, have a major say by sheer numbers.
If this does not pre-empt a significant part of the Makhulu Indaba/National Dialogue, nothing will.
The concept of politics or political party has seen its day. Deny it at your own and posterity’s peril…ea khaola ea ea.
* The writer of the article, Paul Njabulo Vilakazi, is an opinion former, activist and theologian
FUN GALORE
By Sy Makaringe
GIVE TO UMKHONTO WHAT
BELONGS TO MKHONDO
Mpumalanga strongman Mandla Ndlovu is a happy but worried man. Ndlovu spent two years on the sidelines after his election as the ANC’s provincial chairperson while his political junior, Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, warmed his seat in government. He finally took over the reins as premier on Tuesday, albeit on a considerably weaker mandate.
The ANC narrowly retained power when it received only 51.15% of the vote in last month’s general elections, significantly lower than the 70% the party achieved in 2019. In his first TV interview since his inauguration, Ndlovu singled out the more than 70 000 voters in the Mkhondo Local Municipality for his party’s massive electoral slump.
This was because, following the emergence on the political scene of former president Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto we Sizwe party, only 26% of Mkhondo voters cast their ballots in favour of the ANC.
As a result of this mass exodus, Umkhonto we Sizwe party achieved 16,9% of the provincial election results, beating the EFF, the erstwhile official opposition in Mpumalanga, into third place.
Ndlovu should not have been surprised by Mkhondo voters’ behaviour. In true Shakespearean style, they were just simply giving to Umkhonto what belongs to Mkhondo.
BHEKI CELE GOES HOME
After spending five years meddling in other people’s affairs, the former Police Minister Bheki Cele will – at last – be going back home to KwaZulu-Natal to mind his own business.
In the five years that he served as police minister, Cele hardly spent a weekend with his wife and kids. Instead, he flew from city to city to attend to a crime or deliver a speech at a slain police officer’s funeral. If he was not speaking ill of people who hang around taverns, he would be smoking the zama-zamas out of their hellholes.
But, when he did not make the cut on the ANC’s list of candidates earmarked for seats in parliament, Bheki Cele suddenly remembered that the actual name that his mother gave him when he was born 72 years ago was Bhekokwakhe.
Now, for the uninitiated, Bhekokwakhe in isiZulu means “the one who minds his own business”. Many people will finally be relieved that Cele has taken to heart his mother’s wish for him in life, albeit more than seven decades later.
AN ANIMAL CALLED GNU
In the run-up to this year’s highly contested general elections, almost all our political parties, except the ANC, called on the electorate to vote for change. But no one really painted us a picture of how that change would look like, except to say it would come only when the ANC was dragged down below 50% of the vote.
Now, both their wishes have been realised: the ANC obtained 40% of the ballots and the outcome has given birth to a GNU, which stands for Government of National Unity. But the website www.vocabulary.com describes a gnu (the “g” is silent) as “a big animal with hooves that’s found in the southernmost part of Africa (NB: That’s where we are). You can see gnus in zoos – A gnu is the same as a wildebeest.”
The opposition political parties were all midwives of this giant baby, but many are terrified of it, while a few have embraced it, some with trepidation. As they say, you must be careful what you wish for because it might just happen.
LARGEST SMALL PARTY
The Patriotic Alliance (PA), which forms part of the GNU, is often referred to as the sixth-largest political party represented in the country’s seventh parliament. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word large means “exceeding most other things of the like kind especially in quantity and size”.
However, with only 2,06% electoral support, the PA can hardly be described as large. With such a measly following, the party is evidently not in the same league as two of its partners in the GNU, the ANC (with about 40.18% of electoral support) and the DA (with 21,81%). It also does not come close to the third-largest party, Umkhonto we Sizwe Party, at 14,58% and the EFF at 9,52%.
Here at Weekly SA Mirror we have been patiently waiting for the party’s leaders, Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, to dispute that characterisation out of hand. Here’s hoping that the PA does not, because of its lack of substantial support, eventually serve as anyone’s PA in the GNU.
* Sy Makaringe’s new bi-weekly column is going to be a regular feature on this page from today.
