Tony Hall writes: on the eve of Jacob Zuma's next court appearance, here is a selection of writings and raves back to 2003, mostly my own, on how victimising and villainising the man has damaged our body politic, which can now be healed only through the Tripartite Alliance
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This email to friends and debaters, in late August 2003, was one of the earlier warnings after leading ANC figures Jacob Zuma and Mac Maharaj came under a media spotlight beamed on “corruption”. We sent it to the ANC website itself, in a critical but loyal approach…
We sing out a warning
We are circulating this because we really do note there is a dangerous campaign going on. Whatever the real or apparent levels of corruption, we must keep alive to the political agenda of those knowingly doing this – and how much we are being diverted from focussing on where the real corruption liesIn the face of the present all-out media attack on leading figures, the latest attempt to subvert and bring down ANC leaders, it is time for even the most critical of us to rally round our party, to defend and strengthen our movement, as a tripartite alliance. Let's look at what the real game is, and just who is undermining prospects for proper governance.We are no loyal party claque. We – that's everyone from me, to scores of older strugglers and stalwarts and young activists we know, to thousands we know of – are not happy with the way our leadership has chosen, or been intimidated into the corporate capital road, so that our country is dotted with casinos instead of public job projects; our Africa policy is an embarrassing combination of Nepad and turning liberation solidarity into keeping quiet about terrible oppression in Zimbabwe; and we cannot muster a social democratic vision and programme even as mild as France or Germany, or show the fiscal policy backbone of even a Malaysia or a Chile.But it is nonetheless our leadership, still on balance the best bunch we could hope for; and in its mix of commitment, ability and intention, if not performance, potentially one of the most decent governing teams in the world.It is The Star front page of yesterday which spurred us to write. The attempt to smear Vice President Zuma all over the page, with a six-column photo of a spread of rondavels as his "palatial retreat" is ludicrous. It would be laughable if it were not the latest stage in a dangerous campaign. The smear strategists must be feeling that things are moving so fast their way that they can get away with such a blatant and silly ploy. The newspaper owners, who must have quite a few thatched rondavels to their names, have let their minions go too far this time, to expect sustained credibility.We gave a hoot of laughter, actually, because it reminded us of two media moments during one of our periods in exile, in Kenya in the mid-Sixties and early Seventies. It was well after Kenyatta had abandoned any attempt at progressive unity, and, to pursue his agenda of enriching not just the Kikuyu tribe, but his own section of it -- chased Odinga and other relatively progressive strugglers into opposition. One of these was Bildad Kaggia, MP and former Minister, a fellow-Kikuyu and stalwart of freedom fighter days alongside Kenyatta and others in the 1950s and early Sixties. He was annoying the new establishment by his radical stance, and by shouting the odds in favour of the freedom fighters who had lost out since the independence they fought for.How to smear this sober, strong and popular figure? One Kenyatta Day, an annual commemoration, when the leading dozen surviving freedom fighters donned their old 'detainee' leather jackets for a public rally, President Kenyatta embarked on a litany of how well each of them had done "for themselves" since independence: this one had a big farm, that one had a business, the other had a big bus company, and so on. But Kaggia, he'd done nothing to make the best of his advantages, what kind of a leader was he?Whoops... somebody must have told the old man that this wasn't the cleverest way to undermine Kaggia's support base. So, on the front page of Nairobi's leading daily a couple of weeks later appears a photograph of a modern, plain three-bedroomed house, with a proper roof but no frills, in a village not far from the capital. This, says the headline and caption, is Kagggia's luxury house, built at the cost of XX million shillings -- where did he get the money?Now, as any South African over 30 should know, and younger people should easily find out, if our history teachers are doing their work, Jacob Zuma has been a most dedicated man, at the political coalface for years, playing a major part in ensuring that KwaZulu Natal has not become the focus for a Unita style rebellion, with Buthelezi as the Savimbi.Another of the most critical role-players in the pre and early years of majority rule in South Africa, a dedicated and hugely able and intelligent man, was Mac Maharaj. If you didn't know already, you only have to read Allister Sparks to realise how much he did in two of the most critical junctures: keeping exile and internal leadership in communication towards a movement consensus about the way to proceed in the late 80s and early 90s; and that dramatic moment when he stopped the apartheid leaders from furtively restoring another potential Savimbi, the overthrown Bop leader Lucas Mangope.Interesting, that leaders like these, who should be honoured for their vital contributions, are being hung out to dry at the behest of the very corporates who funked off with vast sums of South African money to get quoted on the international stock exchange, answerable to their foreign shareholders and who knows -- maybe as we speak, some are inflating invoices, illicitly to transfer-price more of the taxpayers money out of the country. And then shout about how badly we need Foreign Direct Investment. What a sick joke.Nobody can say that some leading political figures have thought carefully enough over the last ten years, before accepting unlimited credit cards, easy loans or free flights or junkets or discounts. After all, it's what the corporate executives give each other every week -- and then make it a tax write-off! We won't even go into the gruesomely high salaries they pay each other in the corporate world.That's not greed, goes the new language of the grabbers, that's just reward. There are new mantras of what is good and what is bad: Private is efficient, Private is god. Public is inefficient. Bureaucracy is evil. It must be true, because that's what the media owners and business reporters tell us, or imply in passing, a thousand times through a thousand programmes, every day.It's not a matter of excusing corruption, it's a matter of knowing what game is being played, and how high the stakes are.And please, ANC leadership, get your act together about proper government regulation, a brake on privatisation and socially committed policy and practice.
Thank you.
Toney Hall
_______________________________
This email to friends and debaters, in late August 2003, was one of the earlier warnings after leading ANC figures Jacob Zuma and Mac Maharaj came under a media spotlight beamed on “corruption”. We sent it to the ANC website itself, in a critical but loyal approach…
We sing out a warning
We are circulating this because we really do note there is a dangerous campaign going on. Whatever the real or apparent levels of corruption, we must keep alive to the political agenda of those knowingly doing this – and how much we are being diverted from focussing on where the real corruption liesIn the face of the present all-out media attack on leading figures, the latest attempt to subvert and bring down ANC leaders, it is time for even the most critical of us to rally round our party, to defend and strengthen our movement, as a tripartite alliance. Let's look at what the real game is, and just who is undermining prospects for proper governance.We are no loyal party claque. We – that's everyone from me, to scores of older strugglers and stalwarts and young activists we know, to thousands we know of – are not happy with the way our leadership has chosen, or been intimidated into the corporate capital road, so that our country is dotted with casinos instead of public job projects; our Africa policy is an embarrassing combination of Nepad and turning liberation solidarity into keeping quiet about terrible oppression in Zimbabwe; and we cannot muster a social democratic vision and programme even as mild as France or Germany, or show the fiscal policy backbone of even a Malaysia or a Chile.But it is nonetheless our leadership, still on balance the best bunch we could hope for; and in its mix of commitment, ability and intention, if not performance, potentially one of the most decent governing teams in the world.It is The Star front page of yesterday which spurred us to write. The attempt to smear Vice President Zuma all over the page, with a six-column photo of a spread of rondavels as his "palatial retreat" is ludicrous. It would be laughable if it were not the latest stage in a dangerous campaign. The smear strategists must be feeling that things are moving so fast their way that they can get away with such a blatant and silly ploy. The newspaper owners, who must have quite a few thatched rondavels to their names, have let their minions go too far this time, to expect sustained credibility.We gave a hoot of laughter, actually, because it reminded us of two media moments during one of our periods in exile, in Kenya in the mid-Sixties and early Seventies. It was well after Kenyatta had abandoned any attempt at progressive unity, and, to pursue his agenda of enriching not just the Kikuyu tribe, but his own section of it -- chased Odinga and other relatively progressive strugglers into opposition. One of these was Bildad Kaggia, MP and former Minister, a fellow-Kikuyu and stalwart of freedom fighter days alongside Kenyatta and others in the 1950s and early Sixties. He was annoying the new establishment by his radical stance, and by shouting the odds in favour of the freedom fighters who had lost out since the independence they fought for.How to smear this sober, strong and popular figure? One Kenyatta Day, an annual commemoration, when the leading dozen surviving freedom fighters donned their old 'detainee' leather jackets for a public rally, President Kenyatta embarked on a litany of how well each of them had done "for themselves" since independence: this one had a big farm, that one had a business, the other had a big bus company, and so on. But Kaggia, he'd done nothing to make the best of his advantages, what kind of a leader was he?Whoops... somebody must have told the old man that this wasn't the cleverest way to undermine Kaggia's support base. So, on the front page of Nairobi's leading daily a couple of weeks later appears a photograph of a modern, plain three-bedroomed house, with a proper roof but no frills, in a village not far from the capital. This, says the headline and caption, is Kagggia's luxury house, built at the cost of XX million shillings -- where did he get the money?Now, as any South African over 30 should know, and younger people should easily find out, if our history teachers are doing their work, Jacob Zuma has been a most dedicated man, at the political coalface for years, playing a major part in ensuring that KwaZulu Natal has not become the focus for a Unita style rebellion, with Buthelezi as the Savimbi.Another of the most critical role-players in the pre and early years of majority rule in South Africa, a dedicated and hugely able and intelligent man, was Mac Maharaj. If you didn't know already, you only have to read Allister Sparks to realise how much he did in two of the most critical junctures: keeping exile and internal leadership in communication towards a movement consensus about the way to proceed in the late 80s and early 90s; and that dramatic moment when he stopped the apartheid leaders from furtively restoring another potential Savimbi, the overthrown Bop leader Lucas Mangope.Interesting, that leaders like these, who should be honoured for their vital contributions, are being hung out to dry at the behest of the very corporates who funked off with vast sums of South African money to get quoted on the international stock exchange, answerable to their foreign shareholders and who knows -- maybe as we speak, some are inflating invoices, illicitly to transfer-price more of the taxpayers money out of the country. And then shout about how badly we need Foreign Direct Investment. What a sick joke.Nobody can say that some leading political figures have thought carefully enough over the last ten years, before accepting unlimited credit cards, easy loans or free flights or junkets or discounts. After all, it's what the corporate executives give each other every week -- and then make it a tax write-off! We won't even go into the gruesomely high salaries they pay each other in the corporate world.That's not greed, goes the new language of the grabbers, that's just reward. There are new mantras of what is good and what is bad: Private is efficient, Private is god. Public is inefficient. Bureaucracy is evil. It must be true, because that's what the media owners and business reporters tell us, or imply in passing, a thousand times through a thousand programmes, every day.It's not a matter of excusing corruption, it's a matter of knowing what game is being played, and how high the stakes are.And please, ANC leadership, get your act together about proper government regulation, a brake on privatisation and socially committed policy and practice.
Thank you.
Toney Hall
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