/ 9 April 2010

An overwrought drama

The fortunes of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, led by the late Eugene Terre’Blanche, crashed to Earth during the AWB’s 1994 ill-fated invasion of the then-homeland of Bophuthatswana. Its failure to hold back the course of history — South Africa’s first nonracial, democratic elections — consigned this racist group to the fringe.

And for the past 15 years that was where the AWB and other far-rightwingers operated, at the margins, occasionally loud but generally ignored. Even the Boeremag’s terrorist bombings in and around Soweto in 2002 hardly caused any panic. Former president Thabo Mbeki certainly did not rush to broadcast live an appeal to the nation to stay calm. Instead the Boeremag were rounded up within days and had to answer for their actions in court.

Now Terre’Blanche, the country’s most publicised racist, has been murdered at his farm, apparently following a labour dispute. There is a long history of violence on South African farms — mostly of the kind perpetrated by farm owners against farm workers. And Terre’Blanche was jailed for three years for a brutal assault that left his victim permanently brain damaged. However, murder can never be condoned: suspects have been charged and the courts will rule.

In normal circumstances the murder of Terre’Blanche would have been a simple criminal matter. A statement from the minister of police would have sufficed at an official level and the rest of the country would have got on with its business without a sense of panic.

But this is a time when the ruling party is fragmenting, frightened and apparently unable to deal with the rants and racist overtones of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. Amid the polarising commentary across the political spectrum, President Jacob Zuma’s government has gone into overdrive to appeal for calm, with Zuma referring to Terre’Blanche as “a leader of stature”. Leaders of other political parties have queued up to become bit players in this overwrought drama. Congress of the People president Mosiuoa Lekota is even reported to have laid a wreath outside Terre’Blanche’s home. Sies.

These events have seemingly given Zuma an opportunity to act presidential. But leadership in this case has very little to do with placating the Afrikaner right, which, incidentally, forms part of Zuma’s government in the form of the Freedom Front Plus. It has a lot to do with dealing with the big elephant in Zuma’s room at Luthuli House: Malema.

On the Easter Saturday on which Terre’Blanche was apparently being battered to death Malema was on a “state visit” to Zimbabwe. He was reported to have uttered these words at a Zanu-PF youth rally in reference to white people: “We want the mines. They have been exploiting our minerals for a long time.

“Now it’s our turn to also enjoy from these minerals. They are so bright, they are colourful, we refer to them as white people, maybe their colour came as a result of exploiting our minerals and perhaps if some of us can get opportunities in these minerals we can develop some nice colour like them.”

He went on to sing the struggle song “dubhula ibhunu” (“shoot the boers”) to the crowd.

Any suggestion that Malema’s backward utterances are responsible for the death of Terre’Blanche is pure lunacy. But if no one at Luthuli House is able to see how the youth league president’s drivel provides a rallying cry for right-wing mobilisation in South Africa — or for court judgments that infringe freedom of speech — then the decline in the ­ruling party has indeed reached rock bottom.

Malema is also reported to be heading for Cuba to learn more about nationalisation. It’s a pity that the Cubans, who made a real revolution, have to suffer this individual. Whatever may be said about Cuba, no leader there would ever be heard voicing or condoning such backward statements as those made by the youth league president.

That these racist statements continue to be voiced in the name of the ANC may seem beyond comprehension until one considers that Malema represents a dominant political current in the ruling party — one that thrives on demagogy and slogan-chanting. It is the same shallow populism that worked for Zuma in his campaign to become “Number One”.

Former presidents Nelson Mandela, Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe spoke out clearly against such behaviour. There was no equivocation or confusion of messages. At various times, they all said the same thing: that such songs and sentiments belonged in the past; the country needed to focus on the goals of nonracialism and social cohesion. They had a sense of visionary leadership that is essential to politically disarm the right.

But Zuma is unable to advance the message of his predecessors, because to do so would be akin to condemning the behaviour of some of his own supporters, many of whom sang and danced along as Malema threatened violence, killing and general mayhem in support of Zuma.

So South Africans may have to accept that this administration cannot offer the leadership for which they yearn.

In the meantime, everyone has a responsibility to speak in favour of our Constitution. A cardinal principle is to defend freedom of speech, even for the nonsense spouted by the likes of Malema.

In support of the Constitution we should also challenge the right, which seems to have got a bit of political wind in its sails — ironically a result of the ANC’s degeneration– and continue to rally all South Africans towards a vision of a truly nonracial, nonsexist, democratic nation. We cannot allow misleadership to take this vision irrevocably off the rails.