Sunday Times

Echo of apartheid strategy in battle over the public purse

The attempt to oust Pravin Gordhan masks an assault on our future, but the outcome of the recent local elections gives SA a chance to start again, writes Mamphela Ramphele

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CITIZENS would be unwise to view the SARS wars as simply symptoms of factional conflict within the ANC. The war being waged is part of a titanic struggle to control the public purse, the lifeblood of our society, for the enrichment of a few loyalists of those in the highest office of our land.

The war has all the familiar elements of the use of state organs to silence and dispatch political opponents. The key component of the war is to sow enough doubt in the minds of ordinary citizens to isolate the target of attack. Criminalis­ing opponents is an important part of the strategy to discredit them. Minister Pravin Gordhan is the perfect fit.

He stands like a rock at the door of our National Treasury, obstructin­g those desperate to gain access to the goodies inside. His predecesso­r, Nhlanhla Nene, was shown the door for refusing to hand over the keys. The reaction of the internatio­nal financial system, combined with the reawakenin­g of local private sector players, disrupted the feast of access to the Treasury that Nene’s shortlived replacemen­t, David van Rooyen, announced as his mission. It is that feast that is the desired end game of the SARS wars.

Apartheid operatives perfected this type of war during the antiaparth­eid struggle for freedom.

The more vulnerable the regime became, the more they intensifie­d their efforts to discredit and undermine their opponents. The likes of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu became designated as sworn terrorists and communist supporters in the 1980s. Human rights activists became enemies of the state — some died under bizarre circumstan­ces, others were charged with crimes they could not have committed. Every effort was made to create uncertaint­y and fear of the unknown.

Good citizens stood by then and remained silent. Many muttered that there could be no smoke without fire. The law should take its course, others said. Many refused to believe people were disappeari­ng without a trace even as the evidence piled up.

They argued it was impossible that “disappeara­nces” could happen without the police being able to track the missing persons. Their faith in the police remained unshaken despite the many deaths in detention. The Truth and Reconcilia­tion Commission showed us just how wrong the doubting Thomases were.

There is an uncanny coincidenc­e in having a man who was found to lack integrity leading the charge in the SARS wars. In a judgment in March last year, Judge Elias Matojane of the High Court in Pretoria said Major-General Berning Ntlemeza had lied repeatedly in his bid to oppose a ruling in favour of Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya. “In my view, the conduct of the third respondent [Ntlemeza] shows that he is biased and dishonest. To further show that the third respondent is dishonest and lacks integrity and honour, he made false statements under oath,” he said.

Appointing dishonoura­ble public servants in key positions in the state security organs is also a familiar strategy. Ntlemeza became Hawks chief after the ousting of Anwar Dramat and his colleagues on similarly manufactur­ed charges that put together fragments of facts and fiction to create a suspicion in the public mind that there may be a case to answer. True to form, Ntlemeza is not fazed by the contradict­ion between his letter assuring Gordhan that there was no investigat­ion against him as recently as May, and the Hawks’ demand for Gordhan to present himself for investigat­ions.

There are enough among us who were activists in the struggle to recognise this pattern. We have no reason to doubt the urgency of calls by brave, ethical leaders within the ANC for a total overhaul of the leadership of the party of Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela before it takes down the country, just as Samson did in biblical times. The bravery of people like Sipho Pityana and Trevor Manuel is a statement of their willingnes­s to risk all for the country. We can no longer afford to stand aside and watch the fight for our country’s lifeblood.

The recent local elections spoke clearly to the loss of confidence in this great party of liberation. Ordinary people spoke loudly by refusing to give a mandate to leaders who have repeatedly betrayed them. They said clearly that 22 years was long enough for a complement mitted party to learn to govern effectivel­y. Citizens demand a more accountabl­e, clean government system that delivers on the promises of quality basic services for all.

We now have a golden opportunit­y as citizens to come together across party lines and reimagine and rebuild a country of which those who fought and died for freedom would be proud. We now need to acknowledg­e that the political settlement Mandela and his colleagues enabled is not enough.

We urgently need emotional and socioecono­mic settlement­s to com- our political settlement. We cannot build a society united in its diversity while still divided by the wounds and pains of the legacy and continuing practices of racism, sexism and exploitati­ve economic relations.

We can no longer ignore the cries of those living on the peripherie­s of our apartheid-engineered cities that continue to impoverish and humiliate the majority.

We can no longer ignore the millions of young people robbed of hope by poor quality education and training. Spiralling violence, drug and alcohol abuse are their realities. We can no longer ignore the fact that many young black profession­als are assumed to be incompeten­t and are undermined in our still white, male-dominated corporate sector.

We need urgent national conversati­ons in our homes, schools, streets, villages, workplaces and faith-based organisati­ons to heal the wounds of racism and sexism and of our failure to live the values of ubuntu. We cannot have unity in diversity without acknowledg­ing the “I am because you are”, which is what ubuntu is all about. We need to acknowledg­e that we have yet to learn to celebrate the diversity that makes us such an exciting African country.

Open and honest conversati­ons would free us to unleash the enormous talent needed to drive our political, social and economic systems and become the prosperous democracy we have the potential to be. Each one of us should rise from such conversati­ons committed to a shared vision of our reimagined society. Such a vision would need a commitment by each of us to do our bit every day to rebuild our society and to realise its reimagined self.

The public and private sectors would develop newfound trust to work together to promote a just, prosperous society. The productivi­ty of our private and public sectors would also be greatly enhanced by drawing on the talents of all.

Economic growth would rise sharply and sustainabl­y as all citizens co-govern and co-create.

Those bent on underminin­g our institutio­ns and fuelling conflict would find no space in a society committed to healing itself. The soul of our nation would find safe harbour. We would then be able to bequeath to our children and grandchild­ren a country of which we can be proud.

Ramphele is an active citizen

The more vulnerable they became, the more they intensifie­d efforts to discredit their opponents

 ?? Picture: PIERRE OOSTHUYSEN ?? MORE OF THE SAME: The strategy now being used against people like Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is the same as that used by apartheid agents against activists such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, seen here in a 1981 file picture, the author says
Picture: PIERRE OOSTHUYSEN MORE OF THE SAME: The strategy now being used against people like Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is the same as that used by apartheid agents against activists such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, seen here in a 1981 file picture, the author says

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