So here we are Eugene Terre Blanche is no longer with us. Much has been said about the relationship that this murder has with the provocative, racially charged rhetoric that has been bandied around by the likes of Julius Malema and subsequently rather vehemently defended by some senior ANC leaders. So is South Africa teetering on the brink of yet another potentially explosive situation? The prophets of doom seem to think so.
So here are the facts; South Africa has got a history based on decades of institutionalised racial discrimination and segregation. Sixteen years into our democracy, some politicians continue to exploit these historical racial tensions in order to further their own political interests while some members of the media continue to fan the flames in order to sell more papers and increase ratings. The important distinction that needs to be made here is to differentiate between the views and experiences of everyday citizens living in South Africa and those of the politicians and those portrayed by the media. Now it would be highly irresponsible of me to suggest that South Africa is somehow some misunderstood Utopia in which all of us black, white and otherwise hold hands and sing kumbaya. We certainly have more than our fair share of ugly issues that need to be dealt with. However that being said, the solution for South Africa is an urgent need for a balanced all inclusive discussion regarding the myriad of complex issues that face us as a society, a discussion that is driven by the citizens of this country and not by politicians and the media.
I’m reminded of last year when I was studying politics at the University of Cape Town. Our lecturer walked in for our one of our very first lectures. There we all were, starry eyes, pens in hand waiting to record whatever words of wisdom he was about to share with us. He puts his things down, welcomes us to his class, introduces himself and then proceeds to inform us that if we learn nothing else from his class, we must remember this one thing, politics is nothing but bull$h!t (I kid you not, these were his words). As I’m sure you can imagine the lecture theatre was filled with a collective sense of concern, did we all just choose the wrong course? We all waited in anticipation for him to qualify this rather earth shattering statement. Politics, he said, was nothing more than politicians using all manner of rhetoric to manipulate the masses into supporting them at election time while they primarily spent the rest of their tenure in government looking after the interests of the economic elite that financed their election campaigns and lavish lifestyles, as well as using their positions to feather their own retirement nests. Which is why, incidentally, our lecturer considers himself to be a bit of an anarchist.
Now as depressing as this view may seem, and it certainly is a generalisation at best, it does however ring true in many instances whether in South Africa or abroad. We have witnessed it here in South Africa with the numerous scandals that have involved politicians and a new class of business person aptly called the tenderpreneur. It was witnessed in the UK with the recent expenses scandal involving a number of Labour MP’s and of course the biggest rip off of all time, the $700 billion tarp rescue package that was given to the “too big to fail” banks in the US by the US government at the expense of the US taxpayer, (though some will say that it was a necessary step in helping to avert a financial crisis of epic proportions, that’s a subject for another day).
Personally, I tend to view politicians as being akin to illusionists with the sleight of hand being their favorite trick of the trade as it were. Allow me to explain. ”Sleight, meaning dexterity or deceptiveness, comes from the Old Norse slœgð, meaning cleverness, cunning, slyness[1]” is used by illusionists when attempting to misdirect the attention of their audience from something the illusionist doesn’t want them to see. Misdirection is perhaps the most important component of the art of sleight of hand as it allows the illusionist the opportunity to distract his audience thus allowing him to convince you that his illusion is real. In the same vein, politicians will use this trick to misdirect our attention onto less relevant issues attempting to create the impression that they are pivotal issues. These are usually very emotive issues that inevitably result in very public slinging matches between various members of the public with some politicians cheering the slinging matches on, while behind the scenes the real trick takes place while we are all distracted by their ever so skillful sleight of hand. That, ladies and gentlemen is the modern game of politics.
The very emotive existing racial tensions that exist in South Africa have been one form of rhetoric that has been very successfully utilised by some people in South Africa in an effort to advance their own political futures and seem to be willing to continue using this situation to further inflame these tensions. This will inevitably cause many people in South Africa some possibly undue fear about their security and future in South Africa.
The reason I have gone off on this seemingly irrelevant tangent is two simple things. Over the next couple of days I imagine there will be many people asking themselves what this weekend’s events means for us as a country. As previously mentioned, South Africa has some very complex issues that need to be constructively dealt with and debated in the public domain, with the keyword being public. The first issue is that we the South African public have to take ownership of this discussion and not allow it to be hijacked by politicians whose only interest is using these hot buttons create further divisions and keep people in a state of constant fear and suspicion of one another.
The second is of course the media. Bottom line with the media is this they are trying to increase viewership, readership, and newspaper sales and creating a storm in a tea cup does that. So the odds on this one are that over the next few days, the media will attempt to create the aforementioned storm in the proverbial tea cup.
So what’s the conclusion, what can be done about this dilemma that we face as a society? Well to be rather honest, it’s quite simple, get involved. Yes that’s all there is to it, get involved in the poitical process. Know what is going on around you, get informed about what the politicians that represent you in Parliament are up to, know what kind of legislation is being voted on and what deals are being signed behind the scenes and who is benefitting from such deals and how it will affect you as a citizen. That ladies and gents is democracy. It demands action on the part of ordinary citizens in order for it to work effectively. Political will comes not from the edge of a sword, but from the collective action of a country’s citizens. The sum total of that action does not take place around the braai or at dinner parties.
In ancient Greece, the birth place of modern democracy, it was considered a citizens duty to take part in government. (Of course in Ancient Greece, that class of citizens was highly exclusive, but the idea holds true none the less). Plato put it most succinctly when he said, “the punishment which the wise suffer for refusing to take part in government is to live under the government of worse men
