Before the Donald Trump-Elon Musk straatmeid fight eight days ago, just before the Trump-Musk marriage-in-hell broke open, I penned an anticipatory column on TimesLIVE Premium. Little did I know everything that could go wrong with democracy would go really wrong in the US. It was a real dance to the Kay Invictus instrumental song titled Straatmate. Trump and Musk livened it up with straatmeid lyrics.
In the article I explored chapter 15 of Capital, Vol 1 where Karl Marx discussed machinery, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. In another piece in Business Report I explored how those who manage technology and marry politics could contaminate evidence. I concluded: “That Trump trumps the American institutions of evidence is well described by Davies, who points out that ‘the declining authority of statistics — and the experts who analyse them — is at the heart of the crisis that has become known as ‘post-truth’ politics. And in this uncertain new world, attitudes towards quantitative expertise have become increasingly divided.’”
I would like to, in the context of the song of the tyranny of politics, money and technology, juxtapose Socrates (469-399 BCE) on the subject of “a merchant politician”, with Morena Mohlomi (1723-1813) on the subject of “a responsible leader, and with Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) on his last wishes. The build-up to the second coming of Trump was an escalated antithesis to Socrates, Mohlomi and Alexander the Great. It was harm on its way. Its combination with Musk was always destined for calamity, perhaps a prelude to the collapse of capitalism as explicated by Marx in Capital.
The four wise men advise the world today through a great classic Turkish proverb, “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” Invictus’ Straatmate has borrowed lyrics from this Pretoria homeboy enjoined in power matrimony with the president of the richest country by nominal GDP. Trump and Musk have turned the palace into a circus. Within three days of a marriage that teetered on the brink, there’s no love lost as X is awash with unsavoury jibes, with Musk threatening to spill the beans on what happened on Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch.
On X the Pretoria lad told all about how he helped Trump win the election and that without him this would have not been possible, revealing the serious folly of money, tech and politics.
More than 2,400 years ago Socrates discussed the folly of the merchant politician and the folly of democracy in a society that is illiterate. He argues that an illiterate society, no matter how benevolent leadership may wish to be, fails the test of democracy because of the folly of money. It is said Socrates held a strong view on the ideal separation of politics from commerce, arguing that politicians should not engage in trade or other business pursuits to avoid corruption and maintain focus on civic duties. He believed that a leader should possess specific competencies in economic and military fields, and the ability to gain the trust and obedience of others. He also criticised Athenian democracy, advocating for a more meritocratic system where leaders are chosen based on their knowledge and virtue rather than wealth or popularity.
The private sector claiming false victory over Eskom load-shedding is a serious lie that holds no substance. Fact is, the private sector was hell-bent on destroying Eskom, forcing it to abandon its maintenance and abandon coal.
Socrates said a rigged game cannot be fixed by rigged principles. A vote does not level the playing field. A case in point is our GNU, burdened by unequals of 73% of whites in the fifth wealth quintile against 13.7% of blacks. What equality does democracy usher in in such a materially rigged game? It can only remind you of the 1913 Land Act. The coincidence of disadvantage of 13% of land allocated to blacks against 87% to whites then should awaken us from sleep almost a century later. This statistic should be talking to blacks in no uncertain terms and remove the veneer that is sold by merchant politicians as being the will of an imaginary “god” called The People in the 2024 election. The vote was a rejection of the 1913 land deal and a rejection of grotesque income inequality.
The mirror Mohlomi puts before us through the Musk-Trump marriage and its break-up is to ask whether we recognise ourselves in that marriage. Indeed, we should recognise ourselves in the sealed political-donation envelopes. For one day a Musk will claim how he made a politician. Even if a Musk does not say so, the flow of resources will speak louder than words.
The private sector claiming false victory over Eskom load-shedding is a serious lie that holds no substance. The fact is, the private sector was hell-bent on destroying Eskom, forcing it to abandon its maintenance and abandon coal. There is a lot of the Trump-Musk character in our body politic and it would be unsurprising if the marriage did not follow a straatmeid-like break-up.
Mohlomi advises: “A responsible leader pursues peaceful and productive alliances, accommodates stakeholders and uses new instruments of power to create intergenerational value.” In the three decades of post-apartheid governance have we created intergenerational value? The data points to a destruction instead of creation of intergenerational value and central to these has been the destruction of public assets in favour of privatisation. However, retired justice Albie Sachs affirms that we have secured the country but, he cautions, not the society. There is no doubt as Indlulamithi Scenarios pointed out that we are a Gwara-Gwara nation — a straatmeid society has taken root and will definitely undermine the territorial integrity of South Africa.
It is thus not impossible to conclude that under the Straatmate Song Scenario elevated by the Trump-Musk early marriage break-up, the veneer that played out in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21 was a kiss of death even for Starlink, if the dramatic exchange of insults between Trump and Musk were anything to go by. Our makeshift GNU, the national budget on the ropes and the heightened wedding ceremony of the G20 are ingredients that suggest a Trump-Musk relationship is fomenting in our edifice and true to its linguistic origins — a straatmeid society that would find Alexander the Great’s wishes offensive:
• “Let the best doctors of the empire carry my coffin so that all may see — even the finest physicians are powerless in the face of death.
• Scatter gold coins and precious gems along the road to my grave so that the world understands — the wealth we accumulate in life stays behind when we leave.
• Let my hands dangle outside my coffin, visible to all so that everyone knows — even the Emperor of the world leaves this life with empty hands.”
The unsurprising Trump-Musk break-up amid a cargo of 49 “genocide” fearful Afrikaner victims who lived to witness it must propel a new viral phobia in the genealogy of phobias — TruMuphobia. The TruMuphobia may re-emerge in South Africa and any doubting Thomas may gladly have their fingers go in the wounds of the risen bodies of the 49 “genocided” Afrikaners. Our national dialogue must be informed by the wisdom of Mohlomi, Socrates and Alexander the Great.
South Africa is a nation that has been traumatised and has traumaphobia — fear of trauma. But the Oval Office added a new form of phobia on May 21 that was dramatically followed by a fallout. Sealed envelopes undermine our democracy, so does illiteracy, not to mention corruption.
As Marie Curie says, now is the time to understand more so that we can fear less. Let nothing go unquestioned as the nation weans itself of trauma and TruMu when it engages in the national dialogue, where the standard should be Socrates, Mohlomi, Alexander the Great and Curie. If we pass this ubuntu test, we will be a committed nation on course to heal and thrive.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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