KHUMO KUMALO | The failure was never black leadership — it was bad leadership

Reading through Songezo Zibi’s On Jim Collins and the Failure of Black Leadership, it became increasingly harder not to recognise that the failure of Johannesburg, and much of the country, was at the hands of bad politicians who were unable to lead — not race.

The most evident response to this piece is the reality that Johannesburg has not been governed by a single party since 2016. It has seen both the DA and the ANC make attempts at fixing a crumbling city, and yet neither, independent of their base nor their supporters, has been able to change the tide in Johannesburg.

Though the face of the politician may be black, there is an inability to highlight the powers that influence them and their decisions. The same reasoning and logic applied to the cull of black leadership with Herman Mashaba and then party leader Mmusi Maimane — that the party was accused of being unwilling and unable to transform.

More importantly, it is extremely important to highlight that corruption of any kind is an individual act. There has been no tribunal, no court case, or commission that has explored, or needed to, the failure of black people as a whole. The reality is that politicians act self-interestedly; they engage in acts of corruption for self-betterment.

The reason why corruption is so frowned upon is due to the lack of presence and impact that capital has on those communities that are black — the ones that have been disenfranchised by politicians’ unwillingness to see their own suffering and pain.

Further, the Zibi article fails to engage with the reality of places where white leadership has governed. Where his desire for better engagement — “land justice as a historical grievance, or a matter of spatial planning and justice” — is most visible, Cape Town, is known as a city that does not cater for the local populace.

According to the Daily Maverick, research has already shown that short-term rental listings in Cape Town are densest in areas near the ocean and close to tourist draw cards such as Table Mountain. Many of these neighbourhoods are predominantly white and affluent — along the Atlantic Seaboard, and in and around the CBD.

Their skewed demographics are shaped by racialised apartheid-era forced removals — epitomised by District Six — and a contemporary discriminatory housing market dominated by private developers and exclusive residential developments, displacing the same communities that Zibi cared so much for.

Accompanied by one of the most violent areas in the country, the Cape Flats communities sleep without peace, security and the guarantee of their own safety every night in white leadership areas, yet this escapes criticism. There is an apparent bias to ascribe this only to black leaders.

However, Zibi clarifies: “So that I am not misunderstood, in this section I am NOT suggesting that black people are incapable of governing. They are. The first decade of democracy clearly demonstrates so, but if we are to hail the successes, we must also own the failures.” It still becomes extremely unclear why race ought to be the central thrust.

As the article progresses, he clarifies that as black people aim to develop their economy, they “hang on to the coattails of ANC politicians in the hopes of getting deals, but lack the commitment to develop and drive a modern version of progressive politics that does the same”, showing that actually it has nothing to do with race but more to do with politics.

It is a culture that allows convicted individuals to return to parliament and benefit from taxpayers they had failed abysmally the previous time they occupied a role of governor. The willingness to accept anyone to lead the people has brought the country to this moment.

The reality for many South Africans, especially those who are disenfranchised and forced into spaces where their only hope of social mobility is through the political elites and those who are politically connected, is that they are the people who hold the levers to the economy and determine who gets to live a good life.

The ANC is a non-racial party that cannot be put at the helm of all black leadership. For all of its history, it continues to be rejected and denounced electorally and socially for the culture that allowed corruption and criminality to go unchecked — not black leaders.

Black people, black leaders, are simply not monolithic. There is a danger in ascribing the failure of a few powerful individuals to an entire race — to the entirety of the population. It is then that black leadership is discredited when the belief that black people are ill-fit to govern festers because articles like these simplify very nuanced problems.

Zibi is right to point out that the failure of democracy is due to the “degradation of the intellectual and ethical capacity of those who occupy the centre of political thought and power”.

The culture that once lay with the politicians of the past, that placed the integrity of the people and the party before themselves, has fallen away from the ANC — the unwillingness to take decisive action against those who have wronged the party and the people.

It is a culture that allows convicted individuals to return to parliament and benefit from taxpayers they had failed abysmally the previous time they occupied a role of governor. The willingness to accept anyone to lead the people has brought the country to this moment.

There is no denying that it has been far from perfect. There has been failure upon failure that has led many people to opt out electorally and internally.

But statements such as these — “Black people govern — we fail to build new institutions, sustainably transform existing ones and to strengthen them. It also says we steal, steal and steal again with little or no care for millions of fellow Africans who continue to suffer” undercut and undervalue the same populace who are fighting to be heard and seen.

Honest reflection would consider that black leaders have been at the forefront of #FeesMustFall, at the forefront of service delivery protests, community shutdowns, and in every single street that fills South Africa.

Leadership is not about race — it has never been about race. It is about people and how leaders help people live better, be better and find better ways to turn around what many are coming to believe is a “doomed” city.

The next leader, wherever they may be, from whichever community they come from and however they may appear, may they be a leader who leads for the people and dictates success and failure with the people. For race will further allow us to be lost without a solution and without a clear way forward.

South Africa’s liberation was at the hands of millions of all races and all kinds. It was our collective unwillingness to succeed that led us to liberation so we could find success with each other — together.

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