Loose cannon Robert Kirby
There’s an ancient Australian proverb which runs: “By his piss-up mates shall you know your neighbour best.” Attributed to Dunny the Elder, the wisdom of the saying is self-evident.
This appealing fragment of Antipodean social philosophy came rushing to mind when I read in last Sunday’s newspapers that among the host of illustrious guests invited to Mr Thabo Mbeki’s recent R47- million inauguration party, was one of the most sought-after of South Africa’s struggle-veterans, Dr The Very Reverend and Honourable Allan Boesak, Archimandrite and Moderator of The Supreme Church of Christian Self-Enrichment.
Searching painstakingly through my already treasured video-recording of the ceremonies at the Union Buildings, I could find no glimpse of this worthy servant of Jesus, nor for that matter, of his devoted companion in selfless Christian endeavour, his lovely wife, Elna. There were plenty of close-up shots of The Extremely Honourable Mr Justice Arthur Chaskelson and plenty of the Just as Extremely Honourable Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed. There were a few blurry frames of the retiring judicial leviathan, Mr Dullah Omar, and even a sexy profile of Senior Constable George Fivaz. Alas, not a sign of Allan the Dip. It was a bit like watching fox-hunting without the fox.
For that matter the SABC didn’t show much of other esteemed convictees, like Winnie Mandela. It can’t be that the SABC were instructed to keep their nosy cameras off anyone with a criminal record, for then they would have had to avoid quite a lot of latter day politicians. Or perhaps it was just that Father Allan preferred to practice his well-known tactics of messiah- like humility, and ducked out of sight whenever he saw a cameraman approaching.
What was particularly poignant was the stirring inner climax of President Mbeki’s accession speech, where he spoke of a guilt- racked national insomnia, the nocturnal agonies which will persist so long as there are so many open wounds still to be healed in South Africa’s precocious democracy. Runaway crime, the malicious cruelty of violent rape, the horror of rampant disease, the appalling poverty. It was a splendid rhetorical manoeuvre, a shrewd use of poetic technique in which, for added emphasis, mention of the paramount sin was left till last.
“Neither can peace attend our souls as long as the corruption continues to rob the poor of what is theirs and to corrode the value system, which sets humanity apart from the rest of the animal world.”
Thus spake Thabo Mbeki, and what better chance to have had the television screens of the nation blossom into a touching close-up of the darling couple, Allan and Elna. The SABC assiduously ignored this sophisticated opportunity.
There can be several reasons for inviting someone like Dr Boesak along to your internationally prestigious inauguration. The first of these is, of course, the obvious if somewhat overplayed one: loyalty to old friends. That’s why international pariahs like Colonel Gadaffi get flown in. It’s also why certain of the new cabinet members have still got any jobs at all.
But another reason might well be that by having Allan Boesak attend your party you are again dispensing a cherished political clich in that you are “sending a message”. In this case the message was quite clear: “No matter what the courts say, what the facts have revealed, in my opinion Allan Boesak is guiltless.”
In Mr Mbeki’s case this opinion is, of course, already well emphasised. You only have to think back a couple of years to that maladroit antic when his legal adviser attempted to exonerate Boesak in two-and-a- half pages of forensic whimsy. By inviting Boesak to the inauguration more or less the same opinion was again expressed.
This time around, though, there was a decidedly insidious subtext. Found guilty in the High Court, Boesak was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and denied appeal against the finding and sentence. His fate now rests in the hands of the Chief Justice to whom he has petitioned for such an appeal.
Having Mr Boesak as one of the select guests at the celebrations yielded, therefore, a regrettable impression. The inference was clear, that the new administration is both able and willing to second-guess not only the imminent decision of the Chief Justice as to Boesak’s petition for appeal, but the further processes of an independent judiciary.
And anyway, when it comes to bolstering his own credibility, Mbeki could not have done much worse. With thieves in his political shrubbery all his fine words about corruption shrivel to trifling double- speak.