Who Will Lead SA?

by Editor · May 6, 2015

South Africa has emerged from a traumatic month which has shaken the nation and damaged the country�s reputation.The xenophobic violence in Durban and elsewhere revived a bigotry that never went away after the pogroms of 2008.

“After the anarchic month of April, and whatever the next months will throw at us, South Africans yearn for stability and hope.” (Image: The Southern Cross)

Much has been said about how the violence is directed not so much at foreign nationals as it is an expression of the frustration at unemployment and poverty.

This may serve to explain the phenomenon, but it cannot justify it � less so when the flames were fanned by King Goodwill Zwelithini, whatever his intentions were in his March 15 speech in Pongola.

It is unconscionable that the government and the king blamed the media for quoting his words. Blaming the media is the mendacious refuge of those who will not shoulder responsibility for their own failings.

The violence has damaged South Africa�s reputation internationally, with attacks against South African interests reported in Nigeria, and Australia and Britain incongruously issuing travel advisories.

The world is wondering what has happened to the country of Mandela, Tutu and Luthuli.

The shattering murders of Precious Blood Sister Stefani Tiefenbacher and Port Elizabeth teacher Jayde Panayiotou further cut into South Africa�s psyche � not only because of their senseless savagery, but also because in some quarters they prompted outrightly racist reactions.

In April we further had the continuing trauma of the statue protest, heightening racial tensions and entrenching racist attitudes on both sides of the debate.

After the anarchic month of April, and whatever the next months will throw at us, South Africans yearn for stability and hope. The large turnout for the marches in protest against the xenophobic violence shows that the majority of our people want peace, justice and stability.

What we need is a new transformation, one that seeks the political, economic and social solutions we have squandered.

South Africa has shown in the past its ability to transform itself � but where are the leaders to bring this about now?

Transformation requires the decisive leadership which presently is provided neither by political nor religious leaders. There is no Nelson Mandela to guide us, no equivalent of exceptional leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu or Archbishop Denis Hurley.

The transformation needed requires above all vision, competence and leadership. The present government provides little of them.

Economic empowerment policies have benefited a few while the masses remain poor. This needs to be transformed.

True transformation does not require the window dressing of racially classifying athletes. The question should not be how many black players are selected in a cricket or rugby team, but how we can ensure that every family has the means to provide their children with sports gear, and that communities have the facilities on which their children can practise these sports.

The decisive issue is not race but poverty � even as race still impacts on economic prospects. It is towards the crisis of poverty that the government ought to apply its energy, not trivialities.

There are many obstacles to the transformation which South Africa needs. At the centre of these is President Jacob Zuma. Instead of being a president who unites, he divides; instead of providing leadership, he has no compass, moral or otherwise.

The president�s pre-term departure would benefit the country � provided that a new government seeks to bring on board the most talented and principled politicians in the deeply divided ANC in place of factional loyalists, unsuitable deployees and careerists.

Mr Zuma may well see expediency in exiting the presidency in exchange for his corruption charges being dropped definitively and the Nkandla Report being buried, rather than perpetuating the turmoil by fighting these as a sitting president.

The departure of a failed president who has provided negligible leadership would, as a final act of service, show great leadership by putting country before self.

And then the leadership must emerge, in various areas, to begin rebuilding this shattered, traumatised country.