Mngxitama a revolutionary, not party politician
I HAVE been fortunate to have had a conversation with him, with lunch that was followed by a good enough amount of the cold fermented beverages at Grahamstown’s infamous The Rat and Parrot. There’s something interesting about Andile Mngxitama and it is also because he is an educated man with a lot to say, especially about the black consciousness movement and the current plight of the black people of South Africa.
But he can irritate the hell out of you too because he also comes across as someone who likes the tone of his own voice. It can be about him and what he has read, be it Karl Marx theories or any other such.
To the wet behind the ears he can be an encyclopaedia of nonsense. I listened to him attentively when we met and we took the conversation further later on that day.
After a few beers we certainly felt comfortable around each other and spoke freely like buddies of many years.
One thing I learnt about him after looking at him closely was that he was never meant for politics, but rather for activism. Mngxitama is an activist who must make a living from attending conferences and giving talks at faraway universities with disgruntled young men who wish they could wake up one day as Thomas Sankara or Steve Biko.
He, himself, is a mini Biko and we know he’ll do anything for us to see him as such.
He can say some really powerful things, but he can also have a problem with listening. From him you get a sense that he doesn’t enjoy listening but rather the talking.
If you have watched him in TV interviews or debate shows you would have seen how he is keen to respond even when others are still articulating their views. Who knows, maybe he is a genius who knows what others are going to say before they finish their thoughts or sentences.
He is well read and can respond with quotes until a two-hour interview finishes. You would swear he had devoured, literally, the works of Fanon et al.
I think I have given you enough background of this guy I repeatedly called “comrade” the day we met, way before the word “fighter” could trend, unless Floyd Mayweather was going to fight The Pac Man.
The reason I have chosen this man as the subject of this column is be- cause of the recent happenings between him and the EFF leadership. He declined nomination at the EFF conference and has been seen in a viral video where he really looks like his “revolutionary conscience” that indeed couldn’t allow him to betray the revolution.
You see, as I have stated, he’s not a politician. If he was, he would have known that the words “democracy” and “principles” are only used comically if used in one sentence by politicians.
Mngxitama would have known that the likes of Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, though younger than him in years, are equivalent of legends to him politically.
I mean, this guy only hijacked the revolution and the real Fighters, as we all know, are a bunch of people who were really humiliated by the ANC when they were still youth leaders. At some stage the humiliation was so big we just waited to see the reports as to what next they were going to take from Malema and his cronies.
After that humiliation they went to regroup, looking forward to coming back even stronger and they formed the EFF – and the rest is history. We all know Mngxitama was never a big fan of Malema and that Malema doesn’t wholly believe in black consciousness ideologies though in actual fact they are not too far from each other.
Mngxitama has written columns in newspapers about Malema and he didn’t have much good to say about the commander-in-chief. Actually, in true Mngxitama style he sought to address him, mock him and leave him bruised and embarrassed.
Enlightened people laughed and Mngxitama felt good about it. I am not in any way trying to say that is the beef between the two.
What I am saying here is that the EFF, led by the Juju clique, are somewhat uncomfortable about the presence of Mngxitama because he comes across as a very ambitious man who saw an opportunity and went all out to get his piece of the cake. I mean, who would Mngxitama be had he not joined the EFF?
He would still be making a living and travelling to places, but that would be about all. By joining the EFF his public profile went up, and he finally got a reliable and decent salary thanks to being an MP of the party.
It must be good to have all the perks. He didn’t have this when he was not a politician.
The likes of Malema are politicians and may never work anywhere else but in politics in all their lives. They have been crooked and they are very paranoid.
They feared that if Mngxitama was to ascend to a position of influence they might have a problem. They don’t trust anyone any more, having learnt the hard way.
Remember they used to be friends with the likes of Fikile Mbalula but today break the internet fighting on social media. Mngxitama, like that Dr Mamphela Ramphele (is she still alive?), were never meant for active politics and their biggest undoing was even to try.
Those are real activists with a sense of self importance and politics is usually not for the well read. What happened in that conference is simple: the Fighters never and will never trust Mngxitama.
To them it was a favour to have him but for him it became something that was also going to be about power, and as the old saying goes, power corrupts and it is not for everyone.
He can now go back to addressing students and academics at posh universities, and possibly write books about the black consciousness movement.