The African National Congress’s list of candidates for the next general election looks depressingly familiar — the same names call to mind the same faces, in many cases with eyes closed and dozing blissfully on the back benches of Parliament.
There is little sign of the ANC’s — and South Africa’s — next generation of leaders. We are talking about those who will further build and deepen democracy in South Africa in the tradition of the early youth leaders of the ANC — Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, among others — who came through the ranks and at an early age and began to influence the policies, strategy and direction of the organisation.
It appears that, as with other parties, the ANC has not been able to develop a new generation of political activists — independent of mind, fiercely democratic and willing to defy their leaders in defence of principle. These are the kind of militants who were able to vanquish apartheid and build a culture of democracy. Our concern is not just for the ANC but for the country, seeing that this party is almost certain to run South Africa for at least the next two decades.
Part of the problem is that with the end of apartheid, the ANC’s and South Africa’s youngest and brightest have myriad tantalising options beyond a seemingly dull career in politics — and they have grabbed them with both hands. The ANC, like all our political parties, is being forced to work with the left-overs — the ageing and those without better options.
While we appreciate the party’s need to ensure continuity and stability and grow a generation of professional politicians, without a significant infusion of new blood it is in danger of becoming a fossil. The danger is that it will either cling to political power, in the manner of Robert Mugabe and his cohorts in Zimbabwe, or wither on the vine as the young and talented flee its ranks.
There is a real risk that the “boss-ification” of the ANC, where blind loyalty and the politics of patronage dominate, could pose a threat to a vibrant democracy in South Africa.
At present, the next wave appears only in the depressing form of the ANC Youth League. The league’s leaders have displayed a singular talent for parroting official ideology and the policies of the government, together with a corresponding inability to mobilise young people and excite them about politics and the running of the country.
Instead of activists being forged in struggle, the next generation of leaders are being manufactured like battery hens, fattened into party bureaucrats on a diet of ideology and rhetoric they do not really understand.
Although the anti-apartheid struggle that threw up South Africa’s most capable leaders may be over, there are opportunities for fostering the next wave. While the flow of skills has been from public to private sector, the ANC and other parties must begin to think of ways of reversing it. In time, this may mean more competitive salaries and smaller legislatures.
In addition, South Africa has a mature trade union movement which remains politically active, and nascent social movements whose members — when they grow up and begin to make contact with economic reality — can re-inject the necessary passion into our politics.
Yet Vusi is an honourable man …
We presume former City Press editor Vusi Mona is over the age of 18, of rational mind and a man of significant intellect. We presume so because it would take one of such gifts to make the quick journey from teaching in a rural school to editing one of South Africa’s biggest newspapers.
We presume he has significant skills, for he had to negotiate the tricky tightrope between editing a newspaper — which by its nature strives for the highest degree of truth — and having a stake in a public relations company, whose job it is to manipulate the truth.
We presume Mona is a man of great patience, for it must have taken considerable forbearance to suppress his moral outrage and sit through two hours of malicious “gossip” when National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka briefed editors.
We presume Mona is a man of courage, for only a courageous man can project himself as morally superior to his peers when by breaching the off-the-record rule, he betrays a basic principle of his profession.
We therefore salute Mona, a South African of towering virtue whom future generations will recall with glowing pride.
And it is in this spirit that we condemn the rest of the South African media, who seem to believe that there is something wrong with journalists entering that pristine and pure world of spin doctoring. We also condemn those journalists foolish enough to observe time-tested traditions of maintaining trust between themselves and those to whom they speak in confidence. We decry those who still believe that journalism is a noble profession that regards truth as paramount.
Sadly, Mona is now lost to the journalistic profession. Who will be our conscience now? Who will we turn to when we need guidance on whether to offer our paid services to politicians and government departments who want their marble polished? How will we know when to betray the confidence of those with whom we interact in the execution of our duties? Who will show us the art of lifting information from scurrilous unsigned documents and publishing it in the name of moral conscience?
Farewell, Vusi, we (thought) we knew thee well.