/ 15 May 2009

We can do better than this

Several events this week showed that despite the alleged maturity of our democracy race and sex still define who we are and how we see ourselves.

After last week’s inauguration we thought for a moment that we could start with a clean slate and witness a new era unfold under President Jacob Zuma. But we quickly sank back into our combative and reckless ways.

For a radio correspondent to say that a woman minister (Maite Nkoane-Mashabane) is unfit for her post because she spent too much time making babies is nothing short of archaic.

For the ANC Youth League to call a 58-year-old woman, Helen Zille, a “girl” whose ministers are her “boyfriends and concubines” is about the lowest point to which our politics could sink.

In the background this week was another reminder that male ­chauvinism is alive and well among South Africa’s politicos — the challenge to youth league leader Julius Malema in the Equality Court over his notorious statement that the complainant in Jacob Zuma’s rape case enjoyed the encounter.

The spark for the week’s major fireworks display was Zille’s misguided appointment of an all-male and mostly white cabinet in the Western Cape.

She might have won the premiership of the province, but it is still part of South Africa. Given the national consensus on transformation and gender empowerment, the cabinet is, frankly, embarrassing. In a context where both the government and the private sector embrace equality and ­empowerment she was naïve in the extreme to think she could get away with the appointments, which she insists are on merit.

The Mail & Guardian also does not buy into the argument that all criticism should be suspended now that we have a new president. No democratic leader can enjoy that kind of immunity.

But Zille was ill advised to try to deflect attention from herself by ­picking on the emotional subject of HIV and Zuma’s rape trial, when all she had to do was explain her appointments. By adopting this tactic she descended to the level of those who want to judge her by her skin colour and cannot countenance the idea of a robust opposition.

The ANC Youth League’s wild name-calling in response to Zille has served to bracket the two sides of the controversy in the public mind. The ANC has commendably distanced itself from its pathetic younger counterparts. But overall the undertone that came through this week from all the rhetoric is that there are no capable women leaders and the few who make it through can thank quotas and sexual favours.

Is that the best we can muster?

No business no cry
The 62 members of the new executive and their spouses weren’t the only ­people smiling when they were sworn in by Chief Justice Pius Langa on Tuesday.

If you looked closely, as we did this week, you might have concluded that hundreds of business people are celebrating the choice of the men and women who will lead our country for the next five years.

They were happy because somewhere in the past few months or years they sat around a boardroom table with a minister-to-be, drinking tea and making business decisions.

Their fellow board members have now acquired more power, and they have every reason to want to cement their ties with them.

Some call it shrewd networking. We say: enough is enough.

Too often in the past decade we have seen politicians torn between their private and public interests. Nobody lives in a vacuum, but the least we can expect from our newly elected executive is to sever all ties with the business world.

After being confronted with their private interests this week a number of ministers and deputies indicated that they would immediately step down from the boards they serve. This should be applauded.

Leading by example was Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale, who resigned as chairperson of the Mvelaphanda Group he founded. Sexwale’s lawyers and advisers were still working out what to do with his equity.

Others, including Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, said they would resign from their companies. But not all; Nyanda insisted a risk advisory firm to which he belongs poses no conflict of interest.

This cannot be true. Nyanda knows that the life blood of risk analysts is sensitive and exclusive information to which he would be privy by virtue of his Cabinet position. We are not implying that he will act improperly. We are merely highlighting the inherent risk of conflicting interests.

That’s why we are urging the complete divorce of politics and business. Politicians, and particularly members of the executive with the power to shape policy, should not serve on any company boards or own any shares while they are serving the South African people.

MPs earns R60 000 a month, deputy ministers R110 000 a month and ministers R134 000 a month — so they definitely don’t need the money.