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Ask not what South Africa can do for you...
I
LEARNT at an early age, long before I became a boxing faithful that
you do not continue to beat a man when he is down.
Thabo Mbeki, erstwhile President of South Africa, is down and much as one may be tempted to berate him and say the man got his comeuppance, I will be faithful to my long held belief.
It is not surprising, however, that some among our number have nothing kind to say about the man, especially regarding his role in Zimbabwe during the tenure of his presidency. Many think he could have done better and, and found a solution much quicker. Most think he was too close to President Mugabe and therefore failed to rein him in as the country slid into the abyss.
Yes, Mbeki made some mistakes, but beyond that there is a nauseating pre-occupation with what Mbeki could have done, instead of what Zimbabweans themselves could have done and indeed, could do going forward.
The Sukuma people of Tanzania have a saying that you do not insult the hunting guide before the sun sets. They know that, sometimes, you could spend all day; endure the heat of the day and still struggle to find game. It is then that you get frustrated and you are tempted to insult your guide for failing in his task. Yet, it is during the twilight when the animals come out to graze and if you wait a little longer, you might just make a catch.
A colleague asked recently, “What do you do when your office-mate has a problem of bad odour; everyone in the office whispers behind his back but the mate is oblivious to this problem and the discomfort that it causes?”
I said to him, “You may need to use some quiet diplomacy. Check his birthday and for his present buy him even the cheapest deodorant. Whether or not he uses it is up to him but he should get the message.”
We Zimbabweans, specifically our leaders, are that office-mate. Mbeki bought us some deodorant. It is a cheap deodorant alright, but we still can’t seem to use it. I do not think we can continue to blame Mbeki when we have big men and women who claim to have the capacity to run the country. It is up to them whether or not they can wear the deodorant and minimise the discomfort our country is causing in the whole region.
The one line of enquiry I have noticed in communications with colleagues and readers is how Mbeki’s departure and the ascendance of the Jacob Zuma group will affect Zimbabwe.
This, to my mind, is a narrow enquiry that characterises the limitations of our approach to our own problem: we have outsourced it to South Africa so much that we overly expect its leaders to do something for us. The appropriate question, in my view, is how the leadership changes might affect South Africa itself.
No matter how self-important we feel, Mbeki has not been ousted because of his handling of the Zimbabwe issue. The principal reasons lie in the internal dynamics of South African politics and it is there that change will be felt the most. This in turn will likely have a huge effect on the region and Africa as a whole.
The risk is that if South Africa itself becomes THE problem, it will undoubtedly overshadow the Zimbabwean crisis, as has been the case in the last few days. Because if whatever is cooked in South Africa goes wrong, the whole of Southern Africa, indeed the whole of Africa, could contract very terrible diarrhoea.
There is an ominous coincidence between the forced departure of Mbeki and the turmoil in the global financial markets, arising from the credit crunch. Some Leftists have been arguing that the global financial turmoil is a clear illustration of the perils of neo-liberal (capitalist) economic policies. The biggest capitalist countries have effectively nationalised large sections of the financial industry – rescuing ailing financial institutions and the financial system as a whole. This enormous rescue, critics have now called, ‘financial socialism’.
Now, during Mbeki’s tenure, South Africa pursued relatively conservative economic policies and achieved good levels of economic growth. He did not pursue radical economic changes in terms of wealth redistribution, hence the growing pool of discontent in the unions and other left-leaning organisations. COSATU and the Communist Party, erstwhile partners, became ever more hostile.
It is, perhaps, a sign of the times that these left-leaning sections played a key role in ousting Mbeki and clearing the way for Jacob Zuma, his political nemesis, to take over. It is interesting that the ascendance of these left-leaning sections in the ANC is coming at a time when the neo-liberal paradigm has suffered some huge set-backs.
What remains to be seen is how Zuma will respond to the demands of his powerful and vocal constituency on whose crest he is riding. In his haste to please a disaffected majority, he actually risks doing ‘a Mugabe’ – the radical policy shift like Zimbabwe’s land reform programme which would likely upset the delicate balance in South Africa’s socio-economic dynamics.
There are genuine concerns and interests to be pursued but he will need to tread carefully. I do not think the vocal constituency of the poor majority will lie low when they have their man at the top. It is those changes in South African economic policy that will affect its economy that will likely have greater impact on Zimbabwe than any direct action on Zimbabwe.
Sterner critics have concluded that Mbeki’s legacy is in tatters; that he has none at all. The HIV-AIDS denial and the blunders that followed will forever haunt the man. He has taken a pasting for his velvet handling of President Mugabe and Zimbabwe.
But if he has no legacy at all, there is at least one great lesson from the ruins, one that he has delivered at his lowest moment.
It is that when you are in power and you are no longer wanted, you do the honourable thing and resign. If you have to fight for your reputation, you do it outside office.
It is that it’s neither necessary nor right to cling to power, against the will of those who voted for you or their representatives. He has done the dignified thing and resigned.
He may disagree with the
motives or the manner of his removal. I have had an opportunity to read
his Constitutional Court application in which he is challenging aspects
of the judgment that precipitated his fall.
Mbeki may well be right, from a legal point of view, since the findings
of fact and law made by the judge in the Zuma application, citing political
interference on his part, were made without affording him the right
of response, itself a critical tenet of natural justice.
But more than most, Mbeki’s resignation should send a loud message to our own leaders; that there is time to be and time not to be. He could not have spoken more eloquently, albeit with his conduct, about the need to put the country first before one’s individual interests.
So we do have the irony here, that a man who has suffered great humiliation and taken it on the chin may have to preside over feuding Zimbabwean politicians, the principal cause of which is the refusal by individual politicians to acknowledge failure and rejection by the people.
I was joking with colleagues before Mbeki’s ouster last week that, since our politicians cannot seem to agree anything without him; and once he left Harare, the feuding over cabinet positions began; and since Thabo is excess to requirements in South Africa, perhaps they could hire him as a permanent mediator. Because frankly, if they have started squabbling over cabinet appointments, what lies in store when it comes to hard policy matters during the operation of the Inclusive Government?
And so it is that, with Mbeki gone, we continue to walk in the valley of the shadow of uncertainty. It would be great if we could say that we shall not want. Sadly, that is not the case. There are neither green pastures nor still waters in Zimbabwe. We are still in need of goodness and mercy for there is too much evil still to fear.
Go well, Thabo. You will find there is more to life outside office. They say you will not be missed. Perhaps. Then again, perhaps not. Only Time, the magician, will tell.
Alex Magaisa
is based at Kent Law School, The University of Kent. He can be contacted
at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
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