Spineless and stupid, or why the ANC is so cross with Solly
THE vehemence with which the ANC has denounced Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga’s visit to Taiwan has the air of a barroom brawl about it. It’s over the top. As the Bard would have put it, it was full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The allusion to the watering hole is perhaps not too far-fetched. It was the festive season after all, and people are usually bored with very little to do and in some cases adult beverages tend to be freely available.
As a result people lose their heads. Their grip on reality becomes a bit tenuous. That would have been understandable if it were the case.
Those foaming at the mouth over a fairly innocent jaunt couldn’t plead drunkenness as a mitigating factor. They weren’t sloshed. They were cross.
The ANC even borrowed a leaf from apartheid’s playbook, calling for Msimanga’s passport to be confiscated. At least we should be thankful they didn’t call for a return to detention without trial. One local worthy insisted Msimanga be charged for treason.
There’s a touch of hypocrisy attached to this fire and brimstone. Government officials have visited Taiwan in the past — and bragged about it. So why such fury now? First, it has a lot to do with politics. The game has changed. The ANC is still smarting over the outcome of the August local elections. The loss to the opposition of Tshwane and Johannesburg, the country’s major centres of political and economic power, has taken a toll on its ego. The ejection of the ANC from such key areas — that includes Nkandla, home to ANC leader Jacob Zuma — shows a trend which, if not arrested, could lead to possible loss of power in 2019.
It is doubtful whether the ANC would be able to regain power if it were to be consigned to the political wilderness. It would simply wither on the vine.
These matters will obviously exercise party members’ minds as they meet for their song and dance at Orlando Stadium in Soweto today to celebrate the 105th anniversary of the founding of the party.
If the concern was that by visiting Taiwan Msimanga was treading on foreign affairs — a preserve of national government — surely a cordial chat over a cup of tea with International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, or even with the president, could have helped to smooth ruffled feathers. Instead they loudly expressed their frustration — and stupidity. And they looked silly.
But what’s more troubling about the whole episode is the spinelessness of what passes for the country’s foreign policy.
We’re deeply in hock to China. We’re behaving like a shameless toady and proud to shout about it.
China has every right to pursue its One China policy if it so wishes, but we shouldn’t be parroting it. It seems as if we’re not just behaving like China’s grateful slaves, but we’re shouting at those who refuse to join us in the noble endeavour of kowtowing to China’s whims.
One can only imagine what the response would be if, say, the US or any other Western country were to impose such prescriptions on us. Emotive charges of Western imperialism and their running dogs, and other such insults, would have been the order of the day.
The ANC often produces reams of papers on many issues, including foreign policy. But what ultimately matters tends to be the whims of the man at the top.
Although Nelson Mandela remained faithful to some of his less than wholesome friends such as Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro, his overall foreign policy was in line with the country’s human rights ethos. He spoke up against abuses in Nigeria, Burma (Myanmar), et cetera, and refused to sell arms to repressive regimes.
Thabo Mbeki elevated his sights, aiming to amplify the voice of the whole of Africa and its diaspora.
Mbeki tried to sort out the world and failed to pay sufficient attention to his own backyard. Like Jan Smuts before him, that was to prove his undoing.
Zuma doesn’t seem to have any galvanising ideology or a set of ideas that he feels strongly about. He’s clueless and directionless and, with his equally illiterate Nkoana-Mashabane in tow, he seems content to just follow the crowd.
Our membership of eclectic bodies such as Brics and even the AU tends to limit our scope if not tie our hands behind our back.
And so we abide by China’s One China policy and we cowardly refuse to allow the Dalai Lama into our country because China tells us not to. We fail to speak up on the atrocities in Syria or Ukraine for fear of annoying our friend Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. The AU says we should get out of the International Criminal Court, and we do so with alacrity. Such loyal members!
A beacon of hope only two decades ago, we’re now marching in step with some of the most repressive regimes on earth. We’re nothing but a client state, with neither voice nor values of our own.
As one writer famously put it: if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.