By Saths Cooper
The birthday of the founding president of our democracy, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, will be celebrated across the globe, while our current president, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, will use the occasion to address the joint sitting of the seventh democratic Parliament on July 18, 2024.
Those who attend this event in Cape Town and who will likely party into the next morning may just use the next day, a Friday, to mark the birthday of our third former president, Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, who turns 75 and is still in fine fettle.
It is quite unusual to celebrate the birthdays of two presidents within a day of each other, anywhere. So, it is quite appropriate for us during the 30th anniversary of our fragile democracy, on the southern tip of Africa, to celebrate the birthdays of our first and third presidents this week.
Those who are lucky to be in political power will do their level best to bask in Mandela’s glory, appropriating him for all their worth. Ultimately though, they will fail to live up to the standards of the Mandela government, which set the singular tone for South Africa, never to be seriously emulated since. But which certainly should be surpassed, lest we look backwards, ignore the present and fail our future.
To his credit, President Ramaphosa was at his best when he accepted the election results on June 2: “Our people have spoken … we have heard the voices of our people and we must respect their wishes.”
Then followed a roller-coaster of huge uncertainty and claims of victory flying from all those who failed to win our trust on May 29. Those oft-quoted since then and the eventual announcement of the massively bloated Cabinet, tending to prove that the politicians were once again self-serving, ignoring the wishes of the minority who voted.
When it took so many hours for the patient Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to declare the President on June 14, it became all too clear that our politicians simply cannot learn from the electorate’s lack of faith in them.
Again, on his second inauguration, Ramaphosa revealed statesmanship, putting the wishes of the electorate and the country above those of self and party, “determined that by our deeds we shall heal the divisions of our past and overcome the ongoing inequalities and hardships of the present … that neither discord nor dissent shall cause us to cast aside that which calls us to build a united, free, just, equal and prosperous nation”.
The political jockeying by brash, entitled party leaders who declared themselves as the chosen ones, with social and other media frenzy reaching a crescendo, fuelled by immature leaks of negotiations between the parties. It left most of us wondering who was in charge, and whether the bickering, mistrust and self-gain will stop.
Eventually, on June 30, the Cabinet was announced and the shrill noises from those who should know better, abated somewhat, with the rest of us finally getting some respite to get on with the almost insurmountable battle to live in this country, which has been gouged out by economic and political bandits who have long held us to ransom.
Mandela has been fêted, reviled, blamed for all manner of ill, naiveté, for our current discontent and dismissed by the mean of heart who, when it suits them, are unashamed to trot out a Mandela-ism. What we cannot take away from him is that he led us into this democracy when very few, anywhere, could have done so, diminishing the threats of apartheid-inspired violence and making us the toast of the world – until harsh reality set in.
Sad it is then, that his protégé – the man who held the microphone on the day of his release from 27 years of incarceration on the Grand Parade – like others before him, have had to prove their leadership, bringing people together for the common good, leaving aside their narrow sectarianism and self-aggrandisement in the interests of the country and its people.
On Thursday evening, inside that building where Parliament now sits, most of us hope that he will rise to the occasion, leading a browbeaten, shamed country to rise from the ashes and make us proud of who we really can be. Will he? Or will it become yet another well-crafted address, with little action and accountability, from himself, his caterwauling, hugely expensive executive and the bloated civil service?
Will he demonstrate by deeds that his executive can live up to his promises to “build a more equal and caring society … build a growing and inclusive economy that offers opportunities and livelihoods to all people”? Will they really commit “to the task of democratic renewal and social and economic transformation so that no one is left behind”?
The Mandela generation of leaders showed the way, which is why they are revered globally, despite their flaws. Ramaphosa, and those he has chosen to adorn with the mantle of national leadership, have a huge trust deficit to overcome among the majority of our highly sceptical population, who are fully justified in our refusal to put faith in politicians who have demonstrated time and again that they themselves are the agenda, come what may.
Yes, we need words of assurance, but perish the thought that we can be fooled again. Our people have put up with the worst. We deserve better. We demand total accountability and transparency in ensuring that everyone in the country – not just the rich, the celebrity and the flashy blue-light brigades that dominate our barren wasted landscape – get to live to their fullest potential.
The crumbs of compliance and co-option cannot continue unabated. This fractured society deserves to put the majority – who occupy the peripheries of sheer socio-economic exclusion in the richest country on the African continent, in their learned helplessness and blunted hopelessness – first.
This Government of National Unity is certainly not fashioned of the same heft and weave of the rich tapestry that Mandela and others created 30 years ago. Is it too much to ask that they at least try to emulate the lessons of that era that has rich lessons for us all?
Ramaphosa can, but will he be able to harness his executive to deliver on their constitutional mandate? If they don’t, all hell will break loose, and their patched honeymoon will be over. Constitution or no Constitution!
Unlike Mandela’s prison number – 466/64 – South Africa, as we know it, is unlikely to tolerate 466 days of promises without material change in the lives of those left behind.
Those who are desperate for a more caring and compassionate leadership that pursues “rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth … create(s) a more just society by tackling poverty … safeguard(s) the rights of workers … stabilise(s) government and … build(s) state capacity … invest(s) in South Africa’s people through quality education and healthcare … address(es) crime and corruption … strengthen(s) social cohesion and build(s) a united nation …”.
Keep this inauguration promise to your country Mr President, or we won’t have one!
** Saths Cooper is President of the Pan African Psychology Union, a former leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and a member of the 1970s group of activists.