View from the Gallery
South Africa’s Acting President, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, could not restrain himself. He had spent two hours watching a string of politicians do the Masakhane, with speeches full of pledges and snipes. By then, most of the Cabinet ministers had skulked off, leaving a lonely Minister of Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Valli Moosa to give the Cabinet’s imprimatur to Masakhane Focus Week.
“Do you have any information where the other ministers are?” the acting president beamed. “I will need to give a complete report to the president.”
Moosa replied that many of his colleagues were in Lausanne, Switzerland, supporting Cape Town’s Olympic bid. “And the rest who were here earlier?” inquired Buthelezi. Moosa suggested several other ministers were bound for the Southern African Development Community conference in Blantyre.
“With respect, those going to Malawi left this morning,” countered the acting president. Moosa’s quiver was empty, but he conceded graciously: “Other members who are neither in Malawi nor Switzerland are not here because, I am convinced, of their commitment to implementing Masakhane.”
Earlier that afternoon, the Masakhane Focus Week festivities had started off with a low-key photo opportunity for Moosa and other MPs. They had all signed glossy Masakhane pledge forms which were circulated through Parliament and which even committed parliamentarians to paying their traffic fines. Most of the fun ended there.
Local government guru Pravin Gordhan fired the starting pistol for political point- scoring. He lashed out at the Democratic Party and the National Party for failing to encourage their affluent constituents to pay up. “Opposition parties have become a euphemism for undermining the RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme],” he suggested, before asking all parties to stand together in support of Masakhane.
The DP’s Douglas Gibson said the DP fully supported the campaign. “The culture of entitlement is the saboteur of efforts to build our economy.” He gave a quick rsum of South Africa’s dazzling service arrears figures, which leapt from R439-million to R5,5-billion between 1994 and 1996. This, he said, had been attributed to better record-keeping in local governments across the country, adding: “I can only hope that record-keeping doesn’t improve further.”
The Pan African Congress was a touch more controversial. After blaming the ANC for nurturing a culture of non-payment while it was a liberation movement, Mike Muendane triggered a small riot when he said of the majority party: “Coming to the crime levels, is it not the same liberation movement that is now in power that used hijackers and drug traffickers in their logistics during the struggle days?”
One of the few cabinet ministers present, Tito Mboweni, leapt from his seat for the nearest microphone. He interrupted Muendane’s scathing prcis of the ANC’s tactics in the constitutional negotiations to invite the PAC MP to name these drug traffickers.
Muendane’s retorted: “Why should I name them when you know them?” This triggered a raucous exchange which was cut short by the deputy speaker.
The African Christian Democratic Party did not take a snipe at any of its political opponents, but could not resist a plug for the Bible and its teaching that “when you die you leave everything behind”.