Mandela's legacy remains topical and controversial: iLIVE

Dear Jacob Zuma

Plato – the Philosopher – gives some insight into what could possibly go wrong in an established “commonwealth” or simply put the state.

He warns, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” This rings true with what Edmund Burke advanced in later years that, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

You took over the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa in the five years lap towards the 20th Anniversary of our Democracy. When we face the next General Elections, our democracy will be 20 years of age.

What shall you be remembered for? What shall your contribution be to this country? What shall your legacy be? And more poignantly, are you capable of identifying and crafting a legacy for yourself?

I wonder whether you will confirm Plato’s words that “The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.” The truth is that, many capable men and women decided to support you instead of growing courage and availing themselves for the top position of ANC President and subsequently President of the Republic.

By virtue of their actions, they summarily subjected themselves and many of us to being ruled by someone inferior to many South Africans.

I am concerned by two things; perhaps appalled and to some degree livid by your – along with Pravin Gordhan and Gill Marcus – action to announce that the face of tata Nelson Mandela will be on all denominations of our bank notes. Secondly, your continued misplaced utterances about the role of the judiciary or the expression of your hatred for the judiciary as a sitting president is rather alarming and must be rejected with much deserved contempt.

You have been taking a free and opportunistic ride on the legacy of Mandela, perhaps hoping that it will cleanse you and give a rebirth of a new you.

If being ordained an honorary priest failed to give a newborn of JZ, I doubt using the legacy of a fellow mortal will even remove an inch of your misdemeanours. Let me remind you of one thing, proximity to principled men and men of excellence who have been showered with accolades in their times, will not turn you into a man of principle and excellence.

At the height of your political challenge in 2008 when COPE was launched, you dragged Madiba to appear in a rally in Idutywa early 2009, so as to try and mitigate the exhilarating insurgence done by COPE in ANC strongholds in the Eastern Cape.

You took an old man out of retirement to try to legitimize yourself and your administration. You finally put a nail to this political opportunism coffin by insisting that the old man appear alongside you in the “Siyanqoba Rally”. Yes, to some people that move gained you their confidence.

It felt to them that Mandela the great has endorsed this man once termed “controversial” and “unfit” for the Presidency. You, as an individual will remain eternally indebted to Nelson Mandela, but do not drag the rest of the nation into your hypnotic state with Mandela’s brand.

The Zuma brand is questionable and forever hangs on a balance as the Zuma brand remains founded on roots of a man who evaded the processes of justice and remains a potential convict as the veracity of the charges preferred against the name of Jacob Zuma were never brought to test.

You never imbibed any of Mandela’s principles, ethics, morals and practices; you are diametrically opposed – in actions – to the very same legacy that you rely on in order to look good. Your figure (personality) has polarized the nation and it continues to do such.

I have concluded that, you are a danger to our society for two reasons, firstly you skew our history and secondly you threaten the integrity and dignity of the judiciary. You have a misplaced belief, if you believe that all South Africans venerate the name of Mandela as you do, without finding fault in the man.

You are on a journey of Historical Revisionism but you fall on the negative side of this practice, which can be described as “the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events [include people] appear in a more or less favourable light”. This revisionism is done because there is an understanding that “history is a tool that contributes to the shaping of national identity, cultures, and memories”.

There has been a concerted effort, generally, by the ANC since 1994 to misconstrue our history. Today, many within us the youth of this country see historic events such as the 1960 Sharperville Massacre and the 1976 Youth Uprising synonymous with historic victories of the ANC. Nothing can be further from the truth.

In any event that commemorates Sharpeville, in what has become known as the Human Rights Day (21 March), the absence of Mangaliso Sobukwe’s name and the lack of praising of the PAC’s role in organizing the march that led to the attack of unarmed natives by the brutal apartheid regime is glaring.

The lack of recognising the role played by the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and its leaders such as Steve Biko, Tsietsi Mashinini and many others sticks out like a sore thumb.

The legacy of Mandela remains a controversial one and I am of the view that it will be easily discussed once he departs from the world. The glorification and elevation that Mandela received from the ANC, has made it a tad bit impossible for anyone to publicly dissent with the legacy of Mandela. 

When Mandela entered Robben Island, he was a militant man of ripe age (46) but inside Robben Island, he evolved into a pacifist who no longer believed in the use of violence. Whilst many praise him for this evolution, many of us still question to date, as to, what happened to the original Madiba.

Mandela launched the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto Wesizwe and yet he single handedly betrayed the relevance of that very same invention.

Mandela tried to come out of prison with some level of vigour for radical policies when he professed that nationalisation of mines was the policy of the ANC, but he was shut because his freedom and his release was not won, it was handed to him by the enemy.

This is what makes Mandela’s legacy controversial; circumstances earned him freedom, not his actions. Mandela is not in the league of men like Mugabe, Machel, Castro and others who were in the barracks defeating agents of imperialism and oppression.

Mandela, unlike revolutionary political leaders such as Nkwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and Julius Nyerere who were seeking self-reliance for their nations and Africa at large, Madiba was more inclined towards reconciliation and compromising the future welfare of the natives.

That spirit of playing puppet and apologist to the very same men that had been responsible for demonizing and incarcerating you has led to a South Africa that faces implosion because of tardiness in land redistribution and economy restructuring.

Mandela’s ‘new’ legacy is based on a genuine need for reconciliation but relying on a false dispensation of reconciliation in a country that had natives not only exploited but also marginalised to the fringes of life because of racism, hatred of our skin colour and cultures as blacks.

Mandela, once labeled a communist and terrorist is a darling of the very same people who labeled him such because he guaranteed them their ill-gotten cake in full, even after the so-called ‘dethroning’ of Apartheid. For you, Jacob Zuma, to embrace Mandela’s legacy and to resuscitate into our lives is to take us back on the transformation question.

The legacy of Mandela, which is accepted to all, besides me, does not vigorously advocate for transformation, it coerce us into a falsehood of common existence with the perpetrators of evil.

There can never be common existence if there has been no significant restitution for the past acrimonious actions of forces led by the likes of DF Malan, H Verwoed, PW Botha and FW De Klerk. The legacy of Mandela endorses the existence of such men amongst us without them giving up the wealth and riches accrued during their years of heinous acts.

The legacy of Mandela and by extension that of the ANC at the negotiation table of CODESA, sacrificed our people and sent them into a further abyss of dependency on the former apartheid masters and architects. You and your fellows failed to heed Frantz Fanon’s call that “decolonization is the veritable creation of new men”.

Instead, here in South Africa we still have the Masters still mastering their apartheid subjects who continue to be subservient to the economy of today. Indeed, we are not free, as Chika Onyeani observed in Capitalist Nigger that political freedom without economic freedom is meaningless.

Nxamalala, as you are fondly known, this move of banknotes is not going to make you a presidential material to that status which Mandela has enjoyed. Yes, many countries across the globe have certain individuals on their banknotes.

A pragmatic approach may have been to open “a conversation” as you like to say and let us discuss as a nation as to who should be the five leaders in each of the five banknotes. Go to Japan and you will find a throng of leaders on their banknotes, go to the USA, you will find more than one figure. You are ambushing us with Mandela and it is nauseating.

The legacy of Mandela has been institutionalized enough, a kid can now grow up in Mandela Park, go cross Nelson Mandela bridge on the way to Mandela drive in Pretoria and find themselves taking a bus to study in Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and when done be granted the Nelson Mandela-Rhodes Scholarship and be invited over for lunch at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on the Nelson Mandela International Day.

 What more must be done? Is the heritage of South Africa now going to be synonymous with the name of Mandela? What about the founders of the ANC that made it possible for a Mandela to have a practical existence in a liberation movement? The face of John Langalibalele Dube would look much more respectable on a banknote than that of Mandela.

Why is there a need to preserve, so sacrosanct the legacy of a man who is still alive? Why is there no effort to invoke names of the fallen that have shaped the transition of South Africa? There are far more deserving men out there.

Even Oliver Reginald Tambo is a more deserving figure, because had ORT failed to keep the ANC alive in exile, there would have been no advocates for the Mandela brand, there would have been no existence of vast networks that ensured some resistance and pressure against the Apartheid Regime.

The face of Steve Biko is deserving, as arguably the best philosopher to ever come out of South Africa. In any case, what is wrong with the Big 5 animals that blessed our banknotes, which captured our Africanness?

You can quote Mandela in every speech that you make, you can even alter our national anthem to sing “Nkosi sikelel’ uMandela….”, it will never make you worthy of the seat you occupy.

Mandela remains an ANC member and former leader, this move is nothing but to impose a totalitarian view that the history of South Africa is only imbued with ANC figures. Contrary to your belief, Mandela is not our heritage, the collective suffering of our ancestors under colonialism and apartheid is our heritage.