TONGUE&

CHEEK Agree to disagree, comrades

SOMETHING is beginning to stink in Durban and this time it has nothing to do with the seasonal increase of human flatulence during winter.

Nor can it be linked to the toxic fumes emanating from that controversial landfill site in the Upper Highway.

It’s got everything to do with the obfuscation by local ANC leaders and city officials over why last week’s heavily publicised and highly anticipated social cohesion conference in Durban had to be cancelled at the last minute.

As the mayor, Zandile Gumede, and her officials run around pointing fingers at each other and muttering “it wasn’t me”, it now seems clear the order to cancel the indaba came from “above the city’s leadership”.

Some oracle, sitting somewhere high up in the ANC ranks, had spoken and a great opportunity to encourage social cohesion, nationbuilding and the promotion of a national identity was lost.

Questions now abound over who had wielded the big stick in this rather untidy and embarrassing affair – and why.

After all, many high-profile speakers, including Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, had been invited to speak and the venue was already full of delegates when they were told about the cancellation.

Although city officials have tried to offer a wide variety of explanations for the cancellation – including poor internal communication, the choice of the venue and the cost factor – they all appear to be lame excuses.

Buthelezi has every right to feel aggrieved. He has made no bones about his belief that the directive came from the ANC who did not want him to speak at the event. If true, the last-minute cancellation is an act of petty politics.

The IFP leader was not there to preach bloody revolution or regime change. He had been invited to give an opening address on history, identity and social cohesion, subjects he is eminently qualified to talk on, given his long career in politics and role in social cohesion and reconciliation over decades.

What is also baffling about this whole episode is that this conference was not a one-off affair, but one of a nationwide series that had its beginnings at the launch of the Social Cohesion Summit in Kliptown, Soweto, five years ago.

It was at this summit that the ANC president Jacob Zuma made it clear this exercise was not one designed solely by the ANC government, but “a national effort that requires the views of many sectors and stakeholders”.

Even if some people may have disapproved of what Buthelezi planned to say, they should defend to the death his right to say it. So let’s agree to disagree.

dennis.pather@telkomsa.net