South Africa's post-apartheid far left has always been a figment of our imagination

Lately, I have been spending a considerable amount of time thinking about South Africa's so-called ‘far left’ and whether it exists and I keep circling back to the same verdict and it's that in my country the far left has been killed and obliterated.

The ideology ceased to exist when Steven Bantubonke Biko died, when the oppressive apartheid regime facilitated the assassination of Chris Hani, when Tsietsi Mashinini and the 1976 Soweto uprising cohort risked their lives challenging being taught in Afrikaans in schools, only for police to tear through them with live ammunition.

Perhaps even after these tragic incidents, the pan-Africanist school of thought championed by the likes of Burkina Faso's Thomas Sankara, Ghana's Nkwame Nkrumah and Jamaican Marcus Garvey who urged us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery could have been triaged and thereby resuscitated.

These great minds and many others like them carved a path for Black people like myself to be self-actualised, to realise that there is nothing subhuman about us and that le runa re batho (we are as human as the next person) and we belong and deserve to meaningfully participate in the economical, educational and many other societal systems in the countries we find ourselves planted in.

I have, since I was legally of the right age to vote, decided to withhold my vote and not participate in the electoral processes of this country. Some, whom I have told have chastised me, saying I have no right to complain about the degeneration of our country if I don't vote, because as the slogan goes: “your vote is your voice”.

Therefore, according to them, if I choose not to vote, I remain mute, voiceless and I should not participate in dialogue about incompetent politicians and lagging or non-existent service delivery.

According to these people, my decision not to vote meant that I was part of the problem. I have always been conflicted about voting and participating in politics in a way that would not cause a moral conflict.

By choosing to be affiliated with a particular political formation, this often landed me in a moral dilemma that somewhat haunted me, because as a journalist, how do I meaningfully provide a voice for the voiceless if I exert my emotions and being towards one organisation?

I also decided against casting my ballot as a form of protest, because I had been on the hunt for a political party that would feel like home, in search of a party that was serious about the genuine emancipation of our people. 

For as long as townships exist and there are those who have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, to catch two to three buses, taxis or trains to travel to work so that they get there on time, we still have a lot to fight for and the fact that the so-called liberation movement has never earnestly prioritised bringing the economy to the people is disheartening.

But after numerous debates about the importance of voting, I have decided that I will be on the hunt for a political party that seeks to address my pan-Africanist needs. I now understand that one can be a member of a party, but not necessarily hold positions.

I have toyed with ideas of voting for organisations that seemed to mimic the leftist ideology, but non of them have convinced me to give my vote to them.

The recent public spat between axed MK Party secretary-general Floyd Shivambu and his party as well as his former political home, the EFF, has left me believing without a shadow of a doubt that the existence of a true leftist party in South Africa is a figment of our imagination.

Confronted by Biko's startling quote: “Black man, you are on your own.” These words have never rung truer than they do now.

In South Africa, the black man exists in silos. If you are unemployed, you remain alone until you take yourself out of that ditch and in the event that the odds are against you and you don't find employment, you stay there and wait for the days to go by until your maker calls you by name.

If you are suffering at the hands of a violent man, you will be heard of once your body is found by a passer-by in an open field and you become yet another femicide headline.

I could write about these hopeless situations that are the realities of many black men and women until we all turn blue in the face. If we truly did have a pan-Africanist presence in South Africa, we would not be so helpless and hopeless.

The pan-Africanist leaders here are Gucci-wearing, premium-champagne-drinking, lavish life chasers, German-car-driving, Sandton-hotel-living posers, who enter politics for their own egoistic, self-enriching aspirations.

Biko said at one point that, the most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed and gone are the days when I defend the choices of our so-called communists for living non-communist lives. As for me and my ballot, we won't pledge our allegiance to parties being led by those who are slaves to expensive clothing brands and over-consumerism.

I used to be critical of those who called out the leader of the red berets, Julius Malema, for wearing high-end designer wear and would naively call them “pocket watchers”. But if a leader is claiming to be a voice for the impoverished and marginalised, surely their life should reflect it.

I'm by no means saying Malema and those claiming to be Pan Africanists should live in squalor and squatter camps for their mission to be believable, but you must always choose to live a modest life.

I don't think merely wearing domestic caretaker aprons and overalls makes you a sincere leftist leader, nor do I think being clad in military gear will guarantee my freedoms being fought for, but living a modest life is one of the many requirements for a self-respecting pan-Africanist leader who has pure intentions for his/her people.

I envy the Burkinabes, because while we may disagree with some of the decisions taken by their leader Ibrahim Traoré, he has restored hope in the country. Many who support him have hailed him as the modern-day Sankara. Big deal!

But, I assume until the gods of Che Guavara, Chief Albert Luthuli, Samara Marchel, Biko, Sankara, Garvey, Nkrumah, Fidel Castro and all the other pan-Africanist greats locate the southernmost tip of the African continent, on my part, the search continues for a political home that will help us free our minds from mental slavery.

Aluta Continua!