The Spear case shows SA’S lack of wisdom

THE project of building a nonracial society is in tatters, and the political settlement which delivered the 1994 democratic breakthrough is unravelling in ways that may work to the advantage the African National Congress (ANC) depending on how we manage racial contradictions in the future.

The ugliness of the debate about The Spear — the portrait of President Jacob Zuma, which is seen by some as a truth about his moral and political bankruptcy and by others as a racist assault on blackness — is an indication of how deep the racial scars of apartheid still are, and has exposed not only a dearth of leadership but also a generalised lack of wisdom on our part. For reasons I will endeavour to understand in the months to come, we seem unable and unwilling to transcend racial cleavages.

It is possible, on the other hand, that I am guilty of the sin of oversimplification. It is quite possible that our material conditions, as a component of our social, political and economic reality, not our inability or unwillingness to create conditions for reconciliation, constitute the higher order challenge we must all confront.

This we cannot do as long as transcendent leadership and wisdom remain as scarce as the social and economic resources over which we continue to fight. While the answer is to provide leadership in a manner that transcends the narrow interests of social partners and adversaries, those who think we should do this without foregrounding the imperative of social justice are busy planting the seeds of future racial and class conflict.

To the extent that The Spear is about the erectile dysfunction of the post-apartheid state, if the truth must be told, all of us are impotent and are in dire need of Viagra. The fact that we are moved more by a work of art and are offended less by the collapse of the public health and education systems in some of our provinces is indicative of how limp our social consciousness and conscience have become.

Very few among us are prepared to act against an education system that, through its underperformance and the callous disregard for the education of the children of this nation by some of our leaders, is responsible for the destruction of our youth. But we are ready to spare neither effort, sinew nor legal avenue to fight over an artwork. This should make us hang our heads in shame. But, I am not surprised. I am not surprised that our leaders sprang into action in opposition to the Zuma painting and prostituted blackness and culture in the most vulgar of ways. Also, it does not help that some of our judges have become as cynical as some of our politicians in their engagement with issues of racial polarisation.

While it is not obvious to me what a judge would gain by positing the puerile argument that there is nothing racial about The Spear because there are black people who have acted in its defence, the narrow political benefits that may accrue to some are pretty obvious.

Because, as I still maintain, the dignity of the president has been injured, The Spear has resuscitated him as a victim who may benefit from the sympathy dividend and has probably given an erection to his presidential campaign.

Before I forget, to argue like the judge in question is to aver that the fact that there are women who support polygamy is evidence that patriarchy has become extinct.

Anyway, the point I am making about the political benefits of The Spear is that the racial solidarity and tension caused by controversies of this nature may cause even those who have lost all faith in our government and the current leadership of the ANC to register their protest against what they see as an assault on black people to the benefit of the ruling party despite its failures and weaknesses.

We must bear in mind that what is a threat to national unity may be a boon to the electoral fortunes of the ANC, notwithstanding the fact that South African politics is fast becoming an anthem for doomed youth.

Matshiqi is research fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation.