September 26 to October 2 2008

ANC’s High School Musical

In theatrical terms we are witnessing the professional National Theatre Company (the ANC) — which gave us triumphs like 1994!; The Long Walk to Houghton, BEE or Bust and the experimental musical, Polokwane High — dissolving into a gaggle of vengeful, bitchy amateurs and backstabbers.

The company’s leading actor (Thabo Mbeki), internationally acclaimed for his performance in the last seven years, will retire and his understudy (Jacob Zuma) will take over the leading role. Of late the untrained and inexperienced members of the chorus (Julius Malema’s ANC Youth League), have ganged up with troublesome members of the backstage staff (Zwelinzima Vavi and Cosatu) to take over the production, by force if need be. The leading actor has been fired, even though his understudy is not ready to take over. He does not know his lines yet and bursts into song and dance to compensate.

The result is clear. This production will be a commercial and critical disaster and will be forced to close within a few days. — Pieter-Dirk Uys, Darling

In the final analysis, when the media-created hyped-up dust has settled, the ANC will be a stronger and better organisation with Mbeki out of sight. The NEC needs team players, not outstanding individuals.

As ANC members we will work hard to ensure the majority of South Africans vote for the ANC. So-called analysts believe the ‘current” will result in votes for the opposition. Wishful thinking! They can gang up in universities and call themselves think tanks; their views don’t matter.

Mbeki’s legacy has diamonds and rust. We will marvel at the diamonds and never fear to talk about the rust — with the aim of finding solutions to these wrongs. Zuma is leadership personified, a team player and he will make us all proud. — Mabalane Mfundisi, former chairperson of the Freedom of Expression Institute and treasurer of the ANC’s Mzala branch

Once again we have witnessed an African brother turning against another African brother — a common feature of post-colonial African politics. Jacob Zuma operates behind the scenes while letting his dogs (Julius Malema, Zwelinzima Vavi and Blade Nzimande) loose on Mbeki. Zuma has behaved like a latter-day Mobutu, who betrayed his comrade-in-arms Patrice Lumumba.

With Mbeki gone we have also kissed goodbye our economic stability; we have lost the fight against corruption and building a moral society. Mbeki instilled a sense of pride among Africans. I therefore join millions of South Africans in bidding Mbeki farewell. Farewell Zizi! We miss you already. —Nhlanhla Ndwandwe, Richards Bay

Can the power hungry not endure the remaining few months before the 2009 elections? If it comes to a choice for all South Africans, I urge them to choose liberty, not individuals. Our liberty lies not in any person or political party; it lies within us, in our strength to stand up, mobilise and fight for what we believe in.

I once believed in the ideologies of the ANC, but I feel they have been diluted — or the ANC has been invaded by forces of destruction. It is not a struggle about African people but one for personal gain. South Africa, wake up! Political parties need to be reminded that without our membership and support they are just another fancy acronym. — Phumla Khanyile, Soshanguve

Now that Mbeki has resigned, what is remarkable is that our so-called sovereign Parliament played no part whatever. If the crisis has demonstrated one thing, it is that sovereignty lies not in Parliament but in Luthuli House (a fact that would cause Chief Albert Luthuli to turn in his grave).

The electoral-list system means that voters have no influence on the political system, apart from giving what is virtually a blank cheque to the majority party. Power is concentrated in the hands of party bosses.
In effect our democracy is very limited. The political culture established by nearly half a century of Afrikaner nationalist rule continues. — Emeritus Professor Terence Beard, Grahamstown

After the mean and shabby treatment meted out to Mbeki, their own leader, by the ANC, it is chilling to ponder what treatment they would inflict on an ‘enemy”. One would have expected that after Mbeki’s lifelong service to the party, and his 10-year term as president of South Africa, the ANC would at least give him a dignified farewell, even if they lacked the decency to give him a vote of thanks. But, in current ANC lingo, they ‘were burying a dead snake”. One is tempted to respond, also in ANC lingo and warn all South Africans to beware the venomous snakes now on the prowl.

The rallying call of the pro-Zuma camp has been to attack the judiciary. Then came the Nicholson judgement. Suddenly we find latter-day converts supporting the judiciary — or at least selective extracts from that judgement. Using it as a pretext, the NEC moved with indecent haste to charge, convict and sentence Mbeki in absentia. We say to them: ‘Shame on you!” — Mda Mda, Viedgesville

The actions of the ANC Youth League and NEC are signs of power-hungry people no different to their counterparts in Zimbabwe. The noise they make about having Zuma as the country’s president is to secure high-ranking positions in government. It saddens us as ordinary citizens that our leaders are not passionate about bettering our lives or developing our country. We have lost confidence in the ruling party. — Ohentse Mokae, Cape Town

As an old, tired, debauched, poor, ostensibly ‘white” Boer, I am enthralled and frightened by the present state of South African politics. After nearly 15 years’ democracy (apart from the crude Malema-Vavi aberration) is alive and well. I have only once before, in the African context, witnessed such a dignified, controlled release of political power as I saw on TV last Sunday night while listening to Mbeki. What an example! Mandela and Mbeki: two African giants, years ahead of their time. I hope that in four or eight years’ time we will witness the same dignity and self-control. — Noek van Biljon, Yzerfontein

Nicholson’s Zuma judgement is a profile in judicial courage. He stood for all that is respected and admired in a great judge: patience, courtesy, wisdom, and above all, courage. — Farouk Araie, Benoni

Ranjeni Munusamy’s elegant, if bitter, attack on Mbeki and the media (September 19) failed to mention the unmentionable: are we destined to have an allegedly corrupt president? — Colin Anthony

It is ironic that the same week brought the collapse of Wall Street and the fall of Mbeki. The two events are linked. The fundamental cause of South Africa’s crisis is the neo-liberal macroeconomic agenda that my country (the US) and its European allies have foisted on the developing world. Mbeki and South Africa are now paying the price for the failure of the trickle-down economics he embraced. — Stephen Karakashian, Portland, Oregon

Review devoid of nuance

Adriaan Basson’s review of Deon Opperman’s Anglo-Boer War musical Ons vir Jou (‘Unspectacular spectacle”, Friday, September 19) is devoid of nuance. It was not the show that he was reviewing, but the principle behind it. Basson objects to the fact that a playwright deems it necessary, in 2008, to portray the history of the Afrikaner people.

I suppose the same could be asked about Biko: Where the Soul Resides, recently produced at the State Theatre. Why bother to dig up black consciousness issues now? Could it not be said that such a production is divisive and detrimental to national unity?

Basson objects to the fact that not a single black person attended the opening night of Ons vir Jou. How many white people would attend the opening night of a show depicting black history? Surely this is natural, to be mainly interested in the history of your own cultural group? He is unhappy that the only black person on stage is depicted as an agterryer. He fails to point out how he would have preferred Opperman to change this historical fact.

Basson is obviously not interested in checking his facts. The billboard in Centurion had two flags flying: the Vierkleur and the Union Jack, not two Vierkleurs. Also, Zelda la Grange has made it quite clear since the showing of the Carte Blanche programme that she objected to the marketing campaign of Ons vir Jou, not the play itself. She actually congratulated Sean Else on the production!

Basson considers the production ‘average”. He fails to mention that the actors received a standing ovation on opening night.

Basson’s judgement of Ons vir Jou is typical of certain Afrikaners, who feel that trampling on their own past and forgetting their identity will make them more acceptable in the new South Africa. He misses the point that if you do not respect your roots you cannot possibly expect respect from the people around you. — ML van Eeden, Faerie Glen

Off side

In ‘A transition stage for Bafana Bafana” (September 12), Zelim Nell misrepresents the facts. Marc Batchelor is not a former Bafana Bafana striker; he never represented South Africa at any level. Steven Pienaar did not play in the game against Nigeria; he was not even on the bench.

Nell quotes Batchelor to say that the standard of PSL teams has dropped since his days. But the game has improved in leaps and bounds since those days. Even strikers and middle-fielders are now required to have a defensive game in them. What about the possibility that the dearth of goals in the PSL is not a slur on strikers but a credit to defenders? — Sindiso Malaku, Pretoria

Ram’s rant

How can your publication allow racist rantings against a whole community, such as Rams Mabote’s column ‘No Mo-China, not now, not ever” (September 5)?

What is wrong with editors in this country? Do they not learn from one another that racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of prejudice are not acceptable?

It is fine to disagree with the BEE ruling on Chinese people. It is not okay to take one Chinese person and to extrapolate his failings to an entire population.

I would like to know if the Mail & Guardian understands the difference between hate speech and freedom of speech. — Eugene Engelbrecht

No more abuse

As the founder of the South African Mass Animal Sterilisation Trust (SA Mast) and an avid animal-rights advocator, I can assure Shane Brody of Amatwina (Letters, September 5) that I will do whatever is required to prevent the legalisation of greyhound racing, just as I would do if the application was for the legalisation of dog fighting.

Our country does not have the capacity to monitor or intervene in current animal abuses taking place, let alone a whole new industry that will bring about even more abuses. We are euthanasing tens of thousands of dogs every month because supply outweighs demand — and you want to add to this enormous problem? — Tamsin Nel

In brief

John Matshikiza was the best thing that ever happened to the M&G. His voice disappeared; we lost some of the finest pieces of journalism I’ve seen in my lifetime. They played an important role in helping South Africans understand the rest of Africa — like your current series ‘Voices of Africa”. I mourn the loss of his voice. Is anyone setting up a scholarship fund on cultural studies in his honour? — Ross Kidd, Gaborone

I must disagree with Yunus Shaik (Letters, September 19). JZ would be incomplete without Zapiro’s designer showerhead. I for one would miss it (especially the occasional salivating drip). That novel headdress is not primarily a reminder of immorality: it signals the culpable ignorance that believes showers prevent Aids. — TJ Ruthenberg, Mafikeng

Please tell Zapiro: truth hurts! And keep up the good work! The ‘judicial rape” cartoon will be analysed for many years to come as a discussion point on the socio-political status of South Africa. — Gary, Dallas

Isidingo started out as one of the best soapies on South African TV. Now we are being bombarded with a dragged-out version of the behaviour of the Scorpions and unfair jail terms and trials. Is this a coincidence or propaganda? — Cilla Webster, Scottburgh