Who will rescue ANC and SA from downward spiral

By: Xolile Kompela

If there is one issue most Africans and South Africans agree on, it is the quality of leadership. Ignited by the Provincial Chairperson of the ANCWL in Freestate, Cde Olly Mlamleli publicly provoked the debate on women leadership, where she said, “the ANC is not a patriarchal organisation”. The central theme of her article was about Lindiwe Sisulu. Cde Olly says Lindiwe Sisulu’s name must be openly appreciated and discussed. I agree with this view.

Africa as a continent has gone through the trauma of leaders who are largely perceived to have enriched themselves by selling their country and people down the drain, often in cahoots with foreign interests. In 1933, the great African- American scholar, Carter Woodson, dubbed the father of Black History, aptly put it like this “If you control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions.” His seminal book The Miseducation of The Negro is an eternal classic.

Africans on the continent often wistfully invoke selfless, ethical, leadership from bygone years at independence. South Africa has been no exception, except that South Africa never learnt the lessons of other African countries at independence. Now, South Africa is paying a hefty price, perhaps hoodwinked into believing it was cool to be second-class Europeans, rather than first-class Africans.

As the election season hots up once again the question remains amongst a weary populace, wary of stomach politicians, who will save the ANC and South Africa? Will the mothers of the continent and South Africa come to the rescue of a declining quality of male leadership? After all the well-known saying goes that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The ruling party, the ANC, is replete with high-profile female leadership. There is Nkosazana Zuma and Zingiswa Losi to name a few, but of great interest and ability is a woman with leadership pedigree, stamina, qualification, and experience; Lindiwe Sisulu, daughter of struggle icons Walter Sisulu and Albertina Sisulu – your quintessential examples of selfless leadership comes to mind. After all the fruit does not fall far from the tree.

Her biography is very impressive. Apart from her considerable education up to a master’s level in history, she has served in various portfolios under different administrations, perhaps more than any other. That is experience. Minister of Intelligence, International Relations, Public Services, Human Settlement/Water/Sanitation, Tourism, Housing, Defence; Member of Parliament and National Executive Committee Member (ANC), etc.

If there is one person who knows how things work, it must be her, as she understands the evolution of this government from 1994. In all these portfolios she has acquitted herself well, and most impressively, never been personally touched by a whiff of scandal. It is inevitable that if she were to contest for the presidency of the ruling party, the dirty tricks department of smear politics will be hard at work, of course, motivated by jealousy that we can’t hide.

She comes into mind because, she did throw her hat into the ring in 2017 for the Presidency of the ruling party, but in the face of contestation of another able woman, Nkosazana Zuma, she withdrew her candidacy and opted for the Deputy Presidency, which she lost to David Mabuza, as a consequence of male betrayal. “The night of the long knives”.

On that note Tokyo Sexwale also tells us that the conference was bought, ironically this is not entertained by the ANC leadership. Maybe that’s what will explain the devoid of the quality we have from seasoned cdes like Lindiwe Sisulu, because I doubt if she is involved in politics for both money and the stomach, hence she stood no chance in Nasrec.

This time, will she or won’t she?

ANC and South Africa are at the crossroads, an inflection point. In a time of crises, Africa has drawn from the inspiration of female warrior queens like Mmantatisi, Nandi, and further afield, Nehanda of Zimbabwe, Nzinga of Angola, and Yaa Asantewaa of Ghana, who famously said, “If you the men will not go forward, we the women will”. She then fired a shot and riled up the hesitant males to battle the might of the British Empire and defend a symbol of the soul of the Ashanti Kingdom – the golden stool. Those are our heroines too.

The winter of discontent and scandal-ridden gloom that pervades the nation is such that someone has to persuade Sisulu to fire that shot and say,” We the women will.”

There are a myriad uniquely African issues to tackle, which she would have seen at close quarters, though she would not have been the final decision maker. However, she has the benefit of hindsight and experience. Those who are in the know are whispering that already the African Union is eyeing her for the position of Chairperson for African Tourism because of her intellectual dexterity. Why would she be seen from afar, yet we continue to under-utilize her?

There is the fundamental and vexing land and resources question which has been kicked down the road since 1994. Sisulu’s bravery could be the panacea to this, as others continue to evade it.

Ali Mazrui, the late great African historian from Kenya put it like this: At independence in South Africa, the departing regime told the Africans “You can have the crown, but we will keep the jewels.” If you don’t have land, you don’t have a country. Over 80% of Dispossessed Africans still own less than 20% of the very land taken from them through skulduggery and let’s admit great determination. After all, over 90% of all wars in history have been fought over territory – land. Even trees grow on land. The preceding governments have talked the talk, but not walked the walk. Sisulu walked it in the implementation of the ANC resolution on Israel. That’s also how history will remember her. She is very brave and smart. These are intimidating human hallmarks to the less endowed.

Stomach politicians have led the charge, fronting as insurers of the status quo. Of course, Capital and interest groups have been losing no sleep over their actions. Many voluminous development plans have been written in tomes and debated ad nauseum, but the only constant is that the more things change the more they remain the same. And who writes these theses anyway?

There have been your GEARS, your ASGISAS, and your NDP with the architects and frontmen walking into the sunset with bulging bank balances, while the populace scrapes for leftovers in waste bins. There is an urgent need to bring back our wealth from rogue vaults, but as we all know, it will be the sardines that will get caught in the net, not the sharks. When there is sufficient uproar that threatens the vote, a few sharks will be thrown in for good measure to assuage the hapless public, like Panadol.

More recently the tiny country of Rwanda has shown real grit by showing up to be counted in Mozambique to deal with a terrorism crisis, while big neighbours, South Africa watched from the sidelines, perhaps looking to former colonial powers to come to the party. And one may ask, why have we not been having Pan African or Pan Southern African military exercises, to bond and solve common security problems, again Sisulu’s security experience can come in handy here.

It still seems we have not been learning, or is it a lack of vision? The eye is useless when the mind is blind. On the crucial questions of land reform and educational reform as a bedrock of economic development and Black empowerment, the beat goes on, and all we are left with is the smell of smoke and many mirrors.

The African child, despite the myriad hoops, both physical and psychological, that they must go through to succeed, still wakes up to more obstacles to overcome. Brilliant pupils who have made it through school, have had to fall by the wayside because of a small amount of money as registration fees, since 1994. What a waste. And it seems the only ones getting empowered are your black political insurers of monopoly capital, who are kept quiet with cash and shares in companies they did not build. We find 19 – year-old University students on-air, in the streets, screaming for fees to fall and the decolonization of education, but who are our education policymakers and curriculum developers? It is like a dialogue with the deaf. The crucial issue Africa and South Africa face has always been ownership. It is a no-brainer.

This is where African children need their mothers more than ever. Those who can feel their pain, having carried them in their bellies for months and gone through the pain of bringing them into this world and this country that still calls itself South Africa.

In December 2022, at the ANC elective conference, will Lindiwe Sisulu heed a call of history? Hopefully, she does. The country, more than ever, needs those with the will to fight, and the will to win. And as a sage once noted, if it is your calling, it will keep calling.

*Xolile Kompela is the Speaker of O.R Tambo Municipality, and an ANC leader in O.R Tambo Region. He writes in his personal