LAST Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Chris Hani. As we have come to expect when such commemorations happen, when African National Congress (ANC stalwarts pass on or when “lectures” are delivered in the name of iconic figures such as Oliver Tambo and Albertina Sisulu, people – inside and outside the ANC – become grave robbers who beat others with the mortal re mains of the dead.
The event at the grave of Hani, which was meant to be a solemn remembrance of his life, times and death was, sadly, not an exception.
What those who lack a sense of occasion tend to do is to create an “other” in contradistinction to the dead icon whose virtues are being extolled. What then follows is the undignified spectacle of political leaders who use the dead as a ventriloquist’s doll to hurl insults at political enemies.
Last Wednesday, the leaders of the alliance did not disappoint.
They too, by the way, believe they did not disappoint us and are blaming the media for the disappointment their conduct caused to many.
It is entirely the fault of the media that Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi insinuated those leaders of the alliance who, unlike Hani, joined the government, did so for reasons of self- aggrandizement instead of furthering the goals of the national democratic revolution.
For some reason, the media made South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande think this was a reference to his becoming a Cabinet minister.
To be fair, though, Nzimande was provoked. If we must blame him, it must be for failing to re member where he was and, there fore, for failing to ignore Vavi’s verbal barb.
Ordinarily, I would be asking ANC president Jacob Zuma to ask his comrades not to invoke the spirits of the dead when political differences become personal. Unfortunately, I cannot do this be cause the media made me and other South Africans think he was responding to Planning Minister Trevor Manuel when he said only a magician could reverse the ravages of apartheid in a period as short as the time the ANC has been in power.
In short, the media have influenced me into thinking the comrades lacked not only a sense of occasion but also betrayed a lack of maturity and leadership. How ever, the media had a more pernicious effect on a friend of mine who had a very high regard for Hani. His anger and disappointment moved him to wish he were a newspaper cartoonist, in which case he would have done a cartoon of alliance leaders with their trousers at ankle level and their naked weapons aiming at Hani ’s grave.
My own view is the ANC, Co satu and the SACP must ask those of their leaders who are taking their political differences beyond the acceptable bounds of decency to either declare a truce or refrain from displaying differences on occasions as solemn as the 20th anniversary of Hani’s killing was supposed to be.
Unfortunately, alliance leaders are not the only ones who dishonour the memory of ANC stalwarts. Some among us pose questions about what such stalwarts would be doing and thinking to show how unlike these stalwarts the ANC has become.
Some point at the gap between the values and principles by which people such as Hani lived, and do so honestly, while others are just part of the pretense that the ANC is to blame for everything that is wrong with our post-apartheid order.
Some in the latter group will have us believe nothing in the present can be blamed on apartheid, and are in partnership with those in the ANC who, in their denial, will have us believe everything that is wrong with our post-apartheid order must be blamed on the legacy of white minority rule.
As I have argued before, the lies we tell about post-apartheid South Africa do not detract from the truth that is spoken eloquently and unambiguously by the lived reality of so-called ordinary people.
When we invoke the spirit of the dead, we must not put in their mouths lies from our own.
Aubrey Matshiqi is a research fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation
Insight: Bad ANC behaviour: the media ‘made them do it’
The event at the grave of Hani, which was meant to be a solemn remembrance of his life, times and death was, sadly, not an exception.
What those who lack a sense of occasion tend to do is to create an “other” in contradistinction to the dead icon whose virtues are being extolled. What then follows is the undignified spectacle of political leaders who use the dead as a ventriloquist’s doll to hurl insults at political enemies.
Last Wednesday, the leaders of the alliance did not disappoint.
They too, by the way, believe they did not disappoint us and are blaming the media for the disappointment their conduct caused to many.
It is entirely the fault of the media that Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi insinuated those leaders of the alliance who, unlike Hani, joined the government, did so for reasons of self- aggrandizement instead of furthering the goals of the national democratic revolution.
For some reason, the media made South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande think this was a reference to his becoming a Cabinet minister.
To be fair, though, Nzimande was provoked. If we must blame him, it must be for failing to re member where he was and, there fore, for failing to ignore Vavi’s verbal barb.
Ordinarily, I would be asking ANC president Jacob Zuma to ask his comrades not to invoke the spirits of the dead when political differences become personal. Unfortunately, I cannot do this be cause the media made me and other South Africans think he was responding to Planning Minister Trevor Manuel when he said only a magician could reverse the ravages of apartheid in a period as short as the time the ANC has been in power.
In short, the media have influenced me into thinking the comrades lacked not only a sense of occasion but also betrayed a lack of maturity and leadership. How ever, the media had a more pernicious effect on a friend of mine who had a very high regard for Hani. His anger and disappointment moved him to wish he were a newspaper cartoonist, in which case he would have done a cartoon of alliance leaders with their trousers at ankle level and their naked weapons aiming at Hani ’s grave.
My own view is the ANC, Co satu and the SACP must ask those of their leaders who are taking their political differences beyond the acceptable bounds of decency to either declare a truce or refrain from displaying differences on occasions as solemn as the 20th anniversary of Hani’s killing was supposed to be.
Unfortunately, alliance leaders are not the only ones who dishonour the memory of ANC stalwarts. Some among us pose questions about what such stalwarts would be doing and thinking to show how unlike these stalwarts the ANC has become.
Some point at the gap between the values and principles by which people such as Hani lived, and do so honestly, while others are just part of the pretense that the ANC is to blame for everything that is wrong with our post-apartheid order.
Some in the latter group will have us believe nothing in the present can be blamed on apartheid, and are in partnership with those in the ANC who, in their denial, will have us believe everything that is wrong with our post-apartheid order must be blamed on the legacy of white minority rule.
As I have argued before, the lies we tell about post-apartheid South Africa do not detract from the truth that is spoken eloquently and unambiguously by the lived reality of so-called ordinary people.
When we invoke the spirit of the dead, we must not put in their mouths lies from our own.
Aubrey Matshiqi is a research fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation
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