TEBOGO KHAAS | Dear president, don't bring okapi to a gunfight

Dear ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa,

I’m glad to learn that you have arrived safely in the Free State and are criss-crossing the province incident-free en route to Mangaung, the host city of your organisation’s 111th anniversary shindig. A little factoid: The Free State not only invented potholes (Kimberley’s Big Hole), but prides itself of having some provincial roads on which it is safer to drive on the side of the official road surfaces rather than on sparse tar surface riddled with deep potholes.

But I digress, the poor quality road and rail infrastructure bequeathed us by your newly minted secretary-general and MVP (most valuable politician) is not the reason for this missive. I seek to write about your ANC presidency and what your past record portends.

I appreciate that running a geriatric organisation as big, hobbled and complicated as yours is not an easy peasy job. But I still surmise that the last few weeks must have felt a lot less stressful than before the moment your duel with disgraced former minister of health Zweli Mkhize for the position of ANC makhulu baas was declared over. 

It is common cause that you had earlier wanted out of the gig but was persuaded (coerced, maybe?) to ride on the back of, inter alia, your comrade colloquially referred to as The Tiger (Gwede Mantashe) for survival.

While you should be grateful to The Tiger (himself ensnared in serious allegations of corruption) for the appetite to fight the asymmetrical war that you are forced to engage in, please do take cognisance of the words by former US president John F Kennedy, who once said: “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.” No pun intended!

Your deep Christian background notwithstanding, it is fair to posit that running a country is not for the faint-hearted, nor it is for the turn-the-other-cheek type either. This much I hope that you have learnt over the recent years. Your infatuation with the cupcake of “ANC unity at all cost” could be your undoing. 

It is an indisputable fact that throughout its history the ANC has never been united. From the Zaccheus Mahabane, Joe Gumede, Pixley ka Seme, AB Xuma, to Pixley ka Seme, the ANC has always had to battle internecine strife and disunity. This much I expect you to know though you may fail to admit publicly. Your political nemeses abuse your good natured character and the unity mantra as a blunt tool against your pursuit of ANC renewal and anti-corruption.

History teaches us that even during Oliver Tambo’s tenure, exile life was riddled with reports of rampant abuses especially rapes of fellow women comrades. If you think that I’m making this up, just read the Motsuenyane Commission report whose key recommendations the ANC is yet to implement.

While it may have been expedient and self-serving for your predecessors, Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki - to not seek justice for the sins of the ANC’s past egregious conduct and complicity by omission or commission, you have a moral obligation to offer redress.

Mr President, I don’t see how violated comrades would feel any sense of agency to unite with those who raped and sexually abused them absent any efforts at seeking justice and reparations for them.

In the same vein, I do not see wisdom in seeking reconciliation with those in the crosshairs of the criminal justice who plot daily for your ouster so that they could protect and/or pursue their rapacious self-interests.

Something remarkably striking is that you are still able to maintain decorum in spite of the open, scurrilous attacks on your person.

Mr President, it is clear you are confronted by a war with battles waged on many asymmetrical battle fronts. And fight you must!

It may be prudent for you to invoke late British PM Churchill’s words thus: “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, We shall never surrender.”

Do not for a moment think that your political nemesis Jacob Zuma, or any other politician, would have spared you the wrath of state power and the political apparatchiks were you to be in his shoes. They’re all a spiteful and vengeful lot.

Zuma, who continues to requite your goodwill with unbridled malevolence and disdain, is undeserving of your patience, courtesy, and goodwill. Even the most urbane leader, Barack Obama, had this to say about recalcitrant, belligerent detractors: “We will outstretch the hand if you unclench your fist.”

Be a Churchill for crying out loud and fight Zuma in the courts, in the ANC NEC, and everywhere else it may be necessary to do so. By any means necessary! Just don’t bring an Okapi knife to a gun battle.

You have long outstretched your weary hand while Zuma’s middle finger stands firmly upright and in your face.

Meanwhile, it is befuddling that the NPA hasn’t yet withdrawn the “apparently defective” nolle prosequi certificate currently the subject of abuse by Zuma and his lawyers.

I do not wish to rain on your “glorious” party’s parade. However, as you entertain bo-mabina-go-tsholwa (those who sing for their supper) in Mangaung, herewith some of the issues that I believe you may find worthy of considering and addressing publicly:

• How does the ANC intend to reconcile with its past human rights abuses in exile particularly in the context of endemic gender based violence scourge women currently endure;
• What about the atrocities perpetrated in exile by the ANC in, inter alia, Quattro internment camps;
• Is the ANC inclined to ameliorate the deaths of and wrongdoings committed against  Azapo and other Black Consciousness formation in the ‘80s by those organised under the “mass democratic movement”;
• Is strategic ambiguity an official tenet of ANC’s foreign policy doctrine?;
• How do you think the ANC should vanquish the horsemen of tribalism, ethnicity, and race that continue to bedevil it?;
• Will the ANC consider codifying  an internal Whistleblower policy?; and
• What, if any, is the ANC position on ameliorating the plight of whistleblowers including those who helped expose state capture?

As current ANC president you have a moral obligation to address even the most inconvenient issues lest history judge you unfairly.

I implore you that you mustn’t repeat the mistake of having as cabinet ministers individuals who have publicly advocated for your ouster. These are the tigers on whose back you must never ride.

• Khaas is a political commentator and chair of Public Interest SA (NPC).