-> G21 AFRICA
 BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you.
KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. Rod Amis, publisher of G21: The World's Magazine, once believed one of the best bartenders in New Orleans, tells the story like no one else could. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.
Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now!
 AFRICA FRESH! New Voices from the First Continent
An anthology of African writing only featured on the Internet until now, this book features the collected works of writers for the G21 AFRICA section of G21.net. The eight writers represented here are from around the continent and present an exciting look at cutting-edge fiction and reporting from the first continent today. Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF copy now! |
To read this article in Deutsch, Francaise, Italiano, Portuguese, Espanol, Korean, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese and Russian, copy and paste the complete URL ("http://www.g21.net/africa133.html") and enter it in the box after you click through.
LONE WOLF Ten Years of Truthspeak 1996-2006 G21 AFRICA MPHUTHUMI NTABENI, South Africa G21 AFRICA JOHN KARANGA KARIUKI, Kenya G21 FICTION ROD AMIS, United Stares JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. It contains more jokes than not. ON FILM BRAD BALFOUR, United States SMOKE & MIRRORS ROD AMIS, G21 World HQ THE PREVIOUS EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. Send Page To a Friend We know you're lazy. Here's a button for a quick translation of this page. Just click on the flag for your country. You're welcome! OR TRY THIS GOOGLE TRANSLATION SERVICE. |
G21 AFRICA - FALL OF THE LION: MPHUTHUMI NTABENI presents a pointed opinion piece on the current state of politics in South Africa.East London, SOUTH AFRICA - "Leave me alone," was my unqualified answer to my friend's question when he asked about where I stood on what he called 'the Mbeki-Zuma issue.' I could see the disbelief on his face as he walked away. He has never seen me that angry, especially about a political issue.
Mphuthumi Ntabeni There's no question about the fact that president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has fallen into the trappings of a lame duck presidency because after two terms he's not legally eligible to stand for presidency in our next election. Every Tom, Dick and Harry feels justified in taking a swipe at him. It reminds me of intsomi, the story of a dying lion our mother used to relate to us when we were growing up.
An extremely weak lion from old age lay dying in the sun when those whom he oppressed in his youthful strength came to revenge their past injuries. The boar ripped the flank of the King of the Beast with his tusk saying; "This is for my two piglets you ate in the summer of 'eighty-four and the winter of 'eighty-six."
The buffalo came and gored the lion's side, still angry, and declaring; "This is for my day-old calf you devoured in the winter of 'eighty-nine."
Finally, the ass drew near, and after carefully seeing that there was no danger, let fly his heels in the lion's face.
Then with a dying groan, the once-mighty King of the Beasts exclaimed: "How much worse it is than a thousand deaths to be spurned by so base a creature."
I can almost hear the lion's last words sighing out of President Mbeki.
Definitely, Thabo Mbeki has not become irrelevant to the struggle for 'the soul of the ANC (African National Congress)', which was sold to big business about two decades ago. The question that begs our answering then is why has his authority suddenly colapsed, or it was never there in the first place? What are reasons behind the tripartite recent political wrangling?
My reading of the matter is that the present political contest within the ruling political party alliance in South Africa is devoid of political substance. In fact, it is based on cliques and factions combating over individuals rather than ideologies. To the rest of us, it comes out as dirty manoeuvres for influence and access for careerists and wannabe king-makers for next presidency.
You do not have to be a supporter of Thabo Mbeki to see the tawdry spectacle within the Tripartite Alliance as a cowardly latter-day coup by those who lacked the nerve when such a thing mattered.
For instance, why raise the selling of ANC's soul to big business now instead of about two decades ago, when it mattered most?
Some say the collapse of President Mbeki's authority reflects the exhaustion and pending failure of his project that sought to create a substantial black middle class.
There is also the issue of Mbeki's master design of pseudo-intellectual politics on which the ANC gained credibility in the global arena. The problem with Mbeki's political and economic policies are based on pragmatism and so lack real clear substance. They allow him the privilege of running with hares and hunting with hounds. Most people has seen through it and are no longer impressed.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for him, he has weak opposition, both inside and outside his party alliance. Most of them can't see the trees from the wood. For instance, the best his mumbling mealy-mouthed critics have come up with against his presidency is that he has centralized power within the presidency. As if things were ever any other way in the ANC.
All in all, South Africa has entered an age of politics driven by petty egotism where worthy things in public statesmanship have gone AWOL. The anti-Mbeki politics is an infantile emotional spasm of emptiness trading in stocks of demolishing icons, and trial by attrition without concrete ideas.
Whatever one thinks of Thabo Mbeki as a person, at least as a president of the country, he has been trying to act like a leader on the basis of sound political principles, like firing his deputy when he was seriously implicated in corruption schemes with business men.
The Mbeki-Zuma saga has exposed the dark underbelly of the South African political and media system. There is generally an insidious iconoclastic mentality that distorts everything by pandering to the politics of envy in general. It is focused less on securing justice and liberty than on bringing down the high and mighty. It favors aggressive tactics and the entrenchment of a culture that penalizes success. What the media recently did to Zuma (trial by attrition), the misplaced political enthusiasm within the Tripartite Alliance is doing to Mbeki.
The interesting thing is that both the personalities and leadership qualities of Mbeki and Zuma have suffered tremendously because of this. They've both ended up on the loosing end of the battle, dragging the country at large with them. The sad thing is that, after the battle dust has settled, we'll be in a worse position than we are now.
Looking at Mbeki's waxing star abroad one is compelled to agree that indeed a prophet has no glory in his own town.
It would have been better had the whole thing brought a real discussion of real ideological issues, beyond the personality cults and invidious personal struggle to climb the greasy pole. One would wish to see, for instance, beyond JZ's rip-roaring sabre-rattling baguette and foutté, some political and economic alternatives to the initiatives Mbeki's government has started. But no; there are no signs of a radical change of economic or political principles in the offing, even if Mr. Zuma becomes our next president despite the howling cries of naysayers. The whole spectacle has depicted South Africans as their own worst enemies and first crusaders of their own destruction.
© 2006, GENERATOR 21.
E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your snide remarks to rod@g21.net.