White males should also get a chance to mess it all up
What a cracking time it has been recently for ageing white guys. Just when we thought we’d never see the inside of a cigar bar again, the tide of misfortune and neglect that has submerged us these past few years has receded, reversed even, and no more is the voyage of our lives “bound in shallows and in miseries”. Are we witnessing the rehabilitation of the white male, usually referred to in unflattering terms as a “pale male”?
How else does one explain the elevation of packaging boss Andre de Ruyter as CEO of Eskom, and John Steenhuisen’s unlikely rise to power as the face of the DA, as the party attempts to reset the threadbare beat of “classical liberalism” to a more popular rhythm? Is this an encore for white males? Or is De Ruyter’s anointing part of something more sinister, as the EFF asserts, perhaps “a racist plan to undermine Africans”?
Maybe, but perhaps more prosaically, these appointments (election, in Steenhuisen’s case) are signs that the long-awaited normalisation of society in SA may be upon us. And who hasn’t noticed that the planet does not stop rotating on its axis when a white male assumes a leadership role, especially in a post usually, and mostly disastrously, occupied by a deployed cadre?
Consider Eskom: apparently it has had 10 CEOs over the past decade, none of them white, and most of them black Africans. In that numerical context, is a white CEO really that unusual? Would nonracialism not be entirely without real meaning and content if white males in particular never, ever, have a chance at the top jobs?
No, says the EFF, unfurling the banner of racial grandstanding that is its trademark contribution to the great South African discourse. This is proof of hopeless backsliding, “anti-transformation and racist”. De Ruyter’s elevation constitutes a “deliberate intent to collapse Eskom”, according to the EFF. It blames Pravin Gordhan — who else? — for this shocking, left-field attempt to rescue Eskom, R450bn in debt, 66% overstaffed and unable to keep the lights on with any degree of certainty. Gordhan is apparently intent on the “obliteration of Africans at SOEs”, says the EFF, conveniently forgetting that it is the SOEs themselves that have been obliterated by years of looting and state capture, including by one of the former CEOs it lionises, Brian Molefe. Enough said.
A whiter shade of pale or not, the markets don’t think De Ruyter can make any serious dent at Eskom, so investors are less taken by the colour of his skin than the EFF is. The fearless fighters probably needn’t worry too much that “Ryter”, as they called him in their statement, will emerge as a shining light of “white excellence”. But what if he does turn Eskom around, and the economy again grows jobs as confidence returns? Oh, of course, no more EFF then, and no more high living for this intrepid Gucci rabble. And if he fails, but puts in a sincere stint, should he not be lauded as a loyal citizen, rather than denigrated as a hapless cypher caught up in a proxy racial war?
In the spirit of trying to reintegrate the white male into the mainstream — and let’s not exclude those without academic qualifications — take a bow, Steenhuisen. He’s the new DA interim leader, after the party axed Mmusi Maimane. Steenhuisen shouldn’t worry too much about being white: after all, even Maimane was frequently roasted for not being black enough!
Steenhuisen is the DA’s former chief whip in parliament, and made a big impression during the push against former president Jacob Zuma. So he’s got the right stuff, presumably, even if he’s only got a matric.
Alongside the degrees dressed up in red overalls, Steenhuisen, also from KwaZuluNatal, by contrast continues that province’s proud tradition of the under-schooled politician. I once heard Zuma tell an enthralled white audience, ironically at the then South African Institute of Race Relations in 1993, that “no teacher can claim to have seen this forehead in her classroom”. And didn’t it show?
Steenhuisen is also proudly untutored, saying he’s “not ashamed” of dropping out of his undergraduate politics degree because of the pressures to make a living.
Steenhuisen’s foes in the DA tried to introduce a qualifications criterion to halt his rise to power, and the EFF’s nouveau-educated Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has scoffed at his academic shortcomings. Steenhuisen, in turn, has accused Ndlozi of wanting a qualified franchise. When Ndlozi refused to congratulate the Springboks, excluding Siya Kolisi, Steenhuisen called him “the Grinch who stole Christmas”. Not erudite, but you get the idea.
These are desperate times in SA, let’s face it. Instead of lining up patriots in some degrading virtual Nazi-style race ID line-up, we should be marshalling all the human resources we can. And isn’t it about time a white man was also allowed to make a fool of himself in one of our top jobs?