ANC closes ranks amid the outcry

OEDITOR’S VIEW N TUESDAY night, it appeared that almost every possible institution, organ – indeed individual South African – was against the continued tenure of Jacob Zuma as president.

Yesterday, in the full glare of TV cameras, the ruling party’s secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who had been one of the most senior dissenters, read out the findings of the ANC’s national working committee’s extraordinary meeting at party headquarters in Johannesburg.

Called to discuss the unprecedented disruptions caused by Zuma’s “midnight massacre” of the cabinet, and in particular erstwhile Finance minister Pravin Gordhan, the meeting eventually adjourned to announce its backing of Zuma’s presidency, its support of the new ministers and appreciation of the sacked ones, and to reiterate the government’s commitment to pursuing nuclear power, albeit at a rate the country could afford.

In terms of recovering from death, political rather than actual, this was a triumph of almost Lazarus-like proportions – or was it?

There is a problem the world over, but particularly in South Africa, to ascribe to reality that which is peddled and re-peddled on social media.

Sometimes it’s an issue of fake news masquerading as real news, at others it’s an issue of wishful thinking over projecting.

The truth of the structure of the ANC, particularly in the composition of the 20-member national working committee – which is effectively the top structure of the more unwieldy national executive committee with its 100 members – was that irrespective of the sentiment outside the doors of Luthuli House and beyond, Zuma remains in good standing there.

Any recall of the president as wished by an increasing number of social bodies including, as of yesterday, the National Religious Leaders Forum, will never amount to anything more than hot air because only the ANC – and in this case the national executive committee – can recall the president, as it did so memorably in 2007 with president Thabo Mbeki.

The ANC’s power as an organisation, to close ranks and get dissidents back inside the tent – however humiliating the process might be for the individuals – is remarkable, bettered only by Zuma’s consummate ability as a politician.

Yesterday we saw just that.

ANC will rule, but must jack up its act

THE political instability in South Africa is what we need to correct – no person deserves to wake up in the morning not knowing the future of the country.

Investment and prosperity should be the strategy and we need people in power to drive this. This is the message we need to get across to the nation.

This should become our goal instead of fighting, accusing and insulting the president. To continue with this is heading in the wrong direction.

The ANC will never fall, let’s face that, but why should we want it to? It has a democratic policy and makes no exceptions to cultural differences and races and how people live their lives – what more could one ask for!

Please, ruling party, get your act together, start to focus and convince us and the rest of the world what we as individuals want to hear – stop fighting over power, apologise for any wrongs, learn from mistakes and start to build a positive image that we all can believe and trust in. DAVID SCOTT Durban

Shakespeare has a role to play in SA

FROM Natasha Joseph’s interview with Professor Thurman about the relevance of Shakespeare in schools, it seems we still have a way to go to correct the damage done to English second language teaching by Bantu Education (31/3/17).

Over 100 years ago, journalist and author Sol Plaatje, one of the founders of the ANC, wrote books of priceless historical value, including one on the effects of land deprivation, in English. Largely self-taught, he loved Shakespeare and used quotations from it when courting his wife.

The universality of Shakespearean themes and insight into universals in human behaviour is well illustrated by Zulu-speaking playwright Welcome Msomi’s adaptation of Macbeth to the story of King Shaka in his stunning play uMabatha.

The plays can provide a valuable vehicle for promoting dialogue among people from very different backgrounds.

Decades ago, an anthropologist doing fieldwork in northern Nigeria was persuaded by the locals to tell them the story of Hamlet, when they saw her reading Shakespeare.

Her summary of the play provoked great interest and much lively discussion, with the locals offering their own interpretation (which they were sure was the correct one).

That was hardly surprising given the very different social contexts of the play and a remote rural African society in the mid-twentieth century. However, there were also areas of agreement linked to a shared understanding of human motivation.

Shakespeare has a role to play in South Africa in promoting dialogue about our different backgrounds while affirming the fact that, as one of the elders told the anthropologist, “people are the same everywhere”. MARY DE HAAS Durban

Tanzania can teach us about colonialism

JUSTIN Foxton’s article in Flip Side made me wonder why he was inspired to write an article blaming an under-resourced, inefficient and poorly managed airport on colonialism. What are the odds of a person being at an airport, called Dar es Salaam or “Haven of Peace”, who is the founder of an organisation called “The Peace Agency”? This must be good karma.

Tanzania is a very interesting country and formerly became an independent country when Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged in 1964. Like Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere was instrumental in the merger and became the father of the new nation.

Tanganyika was a UN Trust Territory inherited from the League of Nations, who took this country from Germany in WWII and had mandated the UK to administer it. Zanzibar was colonised by the Omam Sultan Seyyid Said in 1840 and free trade of spices thrived with the US and UK, which also included the then-slave trade.

In 1967, Nyerere’s presidency took a turn to the left after the Arusha Declaration and banks and industries were nationalised, creating an economic environment open to corruption. Arable farmland was controlled by central government which concentrated its efforts on tea and tobacco crops. The ruling party became known as Wabenzi (People of the Benz) for their love of the German cars. Soon, Tanzania became a nation that could not feed itself and many sectors of the economy simply collapsed.

In 1992, its constitution was amended to allow for multiparty political elections. Tanzania’s Fifa ranking is presently 157. Did colonialism put Dar es Salaam airport in the state it is today? Even a struggling Zimbabwe, I dare say, has a functioning airport.

I am not that naive to believe that colonialism leaves no scars and psychological trauma. I have been on the receiving end, but I refuse to wear the hurt as an armour to battle, and to remind myself and to live through the negative emotions.

It is my history which I cannot wish away and will remember, but I can choose to rise above it. We are all fellow travellers on a path we have set for ourselves. WING FONG Durban North