/ 12 July 2013

Mngxitama: Juju’s party offers hope of a new dawn

Mngxitama: Juju's Party Offers Hope Of A New Dawn

Over the past few weeks I have been battling to understand where our nation is politically. There is little arguing that things are falling apart – and the signs go beyond the shocking reports on the secret classification of the Nkandla report, which means the country's president can take our money to build his own private home and then declare it a secret!

The politicians are losing their heads in this vulgar looting frenzy. I'd use the Zulu word bayasidelela – they are undermining us.

The political rot is best exemplified by developments in my hometown, Tlokwe [Potchefstroom]. There, ANC councillors have again donated the mayoral position to the Democratic Alliance, proving the point I have made previously that there is no difference between the DA and ANC in terms of policy.

Neither care for black people. Talk in Tlokwe is no longer about all roads leading to Luthuli House but rather to Pukke, which is what the local university is called, and where the new DA mayor is stationed.

The media underplays the fact that the business class is also stealing from the nation without fear or restraint. The construction sector has admitted to robbing the nation of development opportunities. They have been fined a meagre R1.4-billion by the Competition Commission and basically let off the hook.

This is a crime and a scandal in a country dying for decent houses and related infrastructure. As in the bread scandal, construction businesses make people suffer for ­profits. The politicians are corrupt and ­violent towards the people. The business class is corrupt and exploitative. The alliance between the two sets of crooks has reached unacceptable levels.

The question has been: What must be done? The truth is that there is no solution outside changing things politically, either by elections or mass action, as in Brazil, or a combination of both.

Underwhelmed
Our nation is crying out for leadership, a new morality and vision. I have seen the announcement of the incomplete, even reluctant, unification of the Azanian People's Organisation and the Socialist Party of Azania, and the emergence of Agang SA. I'm not moved by these two developments – in fact, I'm underwhelmed. I don't see anything new and exciting in them.

Some say that after 20 years of democracy we are now at a crossroads. We need something new, bold, youthful, radical, brave and inspiring. We are in the interregnum. This is a big and difficult word; please reach for your dictionaries. In this interregnum, the old is dying – but not yet dead – and the new is being born but has not yet fully emerged.

By all indications, the ANC is dying but not dead yet. The DA is stillborn and part of the same problem, so it doesn't count. The big question is: Can the new be born free of the poison of both the DA and the ANC?

At this stage Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) presents the most exciting development. It's not irrelevant that 26% of the South African youth are said to be in favour of Juju.

But we must ask: Are they going to build an ANC outside the ANC? In other words, will they "do a Cope" on the nation? Or will they abandon the bad culture of the ANC and help to engender a new spirit of service?

An exciting possibility now exists that a new politics based on public service, a radically redistributive economic policy and substantive democracy, may be on the cards. The September National Imbizo, a black consciousness, pan-African movement to which I belong, has decided to engage with the EFF on the basis of agreement on a programme, the "People's Manifesto" (see below).

The manifesto demands that politicians and public servants be compelled by law to use public ­services. Should the EFF adopt this programme, a new politics may arise that would end all privileges for ­politicians, pegging their salaries at reasonable levels.

Thomas Sankara would smile from his unmarked grave in Burkina Faso at this suggestion, for it was he who, in Africa, lived and died for a political class that would serve the people.

Can we march to that new dawn?

Andile Mngxitama is a political commentator and a member of the September National Imbizo