By Dr Vusi Shongwe
IS IT extreme to surrender and throw in the towel in the ring of intellectual contemplation by conceding that, all things considered, current South African politics and religion are emotional scams?
If my sentiment is deemed extreme, then help me understand the political context of the existing democratic model in South Africa and the explosion of diverse dodgy churches vying for the attention of the same God.
There is one albeit diverse citizenry of South Africa with mostly common basic needs for a needed (not wanted) basic decent living. My take is that political parties purport competitively to have the most prudent strategies for utilising the organs of state in service delivery.
The multiplicity of political parties
If the objective of the existing political model is to better the lives of citizens through government service delivery using the organs of state, then why so many competing operators (political parties) of the government machinery?
How many permutations in political value propositions do citizens need for being promised basic, decent living? Can anyone explain the logic and rationale of so many political parties? Seemingly and profoundly, it is all about political control of the organs of state and their resources. The question is, control them in doing what exactly?
One distinct trait in the membership of civil formations that purport to serve the public is exclusivity, whether consciously or unconsciously by the members. There is always that unavoidable “them (public) and us (members)”. Many people out there can attest to a subtle feeling of being an “outsider” in the workplace, church, political organisation, etc. In some situations it is so intense one feels one can “touch it”. It’s an animal farm situation wherein some colleagues feel more legitimate than others regardless of everyone’s supposedly equal statuses.
Somehow, you gradually lose touch with the fundamental purpose of an organisation. Have you ever sat at a church, observed what is going on and what is being said, then wondered quietly: "What has this got to do with God?” Or sat in a political gathering and observed what is going—the things that are said and done—sloganeering, singing, political prancing, gambolling, etc, then wondered to yourself in quiet despair.
“What the overripe bananas does this have to do with poor communities and public service delivery?”
If a political speech does not have a distinct service delivery “before and after” comparative factor with details articulating how things were before the party took over an organ of state and how things are since taking over, then you should wonder what is going on.
Service delivery failures and corruption
News headlines are fraught with shocking reports of public infrastructure dilapidation, corruption, and maleficence, against reports about town wards or political seats that have been won by political parties. There’s a disturbing pattern in the political landscape of political acquisition of positions then their subsequent distribution among the favoured, or frequent removal of unfavourable incumbents or those guilty of some misconduct.
Material service delivery is often disproportionate, with billions of rand that is known to have been allocated to a municipality or government department in a financial year, with reported cases of money being returned to the Treasury against glaring dilapidation of public infrastructure. The tendency is to engage in high publicity but low-scale service delivery like overhyped one or two house handovers or high publicity opening of a water tap to be used by many family homes.
A water tap?
We yearn for a time when words like food parcels and water tank trucks are read only when there are disaster relief interventions. Not seem to compete with or even replace standard service delivery mandates like sustainable large-scale food security systems and clean drinking water & sanitation systems. Who ever imagined a few decades ago that dependence on bottled water would ever be part of our daily lives because we can no longer trust municipality water?
Politicians are often doing service delivery metaphorically, “shadow boxing” or window-dressing as it were. They are often hyperactive in appearing before cameras with narcissistic look-at-me zeal. But the smart citizens (“clever blacks,” if you will) know better.
Manipulation through leadership idolisation
It is citizens who should be giving testimonies that “yes, indeed” over the decades their living standards have been improved materially. The majority of citizens have become despondent and lost confidence in political parties. The concept of political parties is now viewed by many sceptically as “social club” emotional scams for the benefit of seemingly charlatan exclusive groups.
There’s an interesting and somewhat amusing conceptual commonality between political parties and church organisations. They are all non-profit membership-based entities. They all have multilevel leadership seniorities, at the top of which there is a leading member whose face is often an identity icon of the organisation. In fact, some churches are actually named after the founding member, such as Lekganyane (ZCC), Shembe, Masango, et al.
Depending on what psycho-cultural values your organisation subscribes to predominantly, the leading member is often idolised by the rank-and-file membership with songs bearing his or her name sung in quasi-worshipping style with emotionally touching church-like harmonies.
In some extreme personality-worshipping cases, the leader reaches a level of a mystified demigod status. In such circumstances, allegiance to the organisation begins to compete fiercely with fanatical allegiances to the mystified and subtle “demigodized” personalities of leading members. This is where the question of social class kicks in, for therein lies a psycho-reason for such tendencies.
The psycho-reasons that manifest such dispositions and inclinations to worship leading personalities, sometimes up to robotic proportions where the fundamental founding reasons of the organisation gradually fade away in the minds, are found in social class values.
Social strata with low education levels and consequential non-inquisitive and non-enquiring psyches often form the greater section of poor communities who are easily politically manipulated with survival resources like food and water. Such desperate, non-inquisitive, and non-enquiring classes are the favourite membership recruitment targets of politicians.
The social club or church atmosphere is easily manifested with such members who have a stronger penchant for sloganeering, singing, and dancing than indulging in intellectual debates and inquiry. A politician can slide in and pull out a hand in the cookie jar and even lick fingers without anyone noticing in the midst of such unsophisticated low technocracy members.
For so long as they are served with water tank trucks, receive food parcels, and enjoy the vibe, excitement, hysteria, and magic of togetherness in political gatherings, all is well with their souls.
Exploiting loyalty, silencing critical voices
A glaring and spine-chilling observation is to be found when one contrasts the living standards of majority poor members from houses without clean drinking water and sanitation systems who often walk long distances or are transported by buses or minibuses into large venues willingly.
They are driven by unquestioning loyalty into controversial churches and political party gatherings to listen to speeches about what needs to happen socioeconomically and promises made by politicians who often arrive in expensive limousine vehicles from luxurious mansion homes. Not listen to speeches about what has been achieved in a “before and after” manner that they, the listeners, can attest to materially.
The black intelligentsia is often isolated or “crushed” into obscurity with huge numbers of the hoi poloi (common people) so that they don’t patronise politicians with their “clever black” analytical, inquisitive, and enquiring questions. Their black middle-class and professionals side-lining strategy is often masqueraded as “We are a party of poor people.”
Those poor people dominate our TV screens right now, crying for mercy that Eskom shows empathy to their economic plight. They have to process an upgrade of the electricity meter boxes—a concept that is beyond the depths of the majority of them. Are our policies truly pro-poor?
Political parties and churches have noted this lucrative model of recruiting millions of non-inquisitive and non-enquiring masses. They are then used as springboards to be hoisted into financially lucrative political positions. While church leaders use their innocence and gullibility to induce them with hopes of prosperity in exchange for parting with their merger finances.
In extreme cases, some priests masquerade themselves as prophets of Christ proportions and probably also claim to be on WhatsApp terms with the Lord. There is the political and religious stampede towards recruitment and exploitation of the hoi polloi (common people).
Competitive churches and politics of division
As stated before, there is one South African citizenry. There is also one God, yet there is a stampede vying for the attention of the same God. There’s a frenzy of religious holier-than-thou competition among churches. Yet there is no one with auditable feedback from God that theirs is the most authentic worship. No church can produce a confirmation, a certificate, or even a WhatsApp text message from heaven that theirs is the most legitimate church. Even the Pope cannot produce such. There is only one God.
One understands the diversity of ethnic or tribal churches—Zulu, Shangan, Sotho, Tsonga, et al. That would be a considerable rationale, but that is not the case if one observes the explosion of diverse churches in South Africa. Each one claims to be holier than the other. Hypocrisy 101. What do they multiply for? It’s clearly a worshipping Ponzi scheme and emotional scam.
If citizens could one day wake up sharing the same values and respecting one another’s differences, there are leaders and parties whose political relevance would be nullified immediately. The truth is that there are leaders whose political relevance is hinged on people seeing one another as enemies. They have vested survival interests in people seeing one another as enemies. If, for example, members of political parties can stop seeing one another as enemies, the self-righteous political rhetoric of divisions would end right there.
There are people who thrive on the evil concept of “enemyhood.” To nullify that is to expose the fallacy of many political parties. The DA, for example, must openly admit that it exists for white people. The Freedom Front and Afri-Forum are the most honest and sincere political parties. They do not hide the fact that they represent the mandates of their “Afrikaner Volk” unapologetically.
It is laughable to hear various black political parties shouting on top of their voices, pushing the rhetoric of purported diversity. By flaunting one or two prominent Indian or White members with dubious constituencies, these parties are hasty to shout political diversity. They do not end there. They even reward the token races with leadership positions at the expense of black members with a substantial or sizeable number of constituency members.
Are we ever going to pause and ponder what we mean by the old slogan of “Amandla!” in the post-apartheid South Africa? Surely, we need to review and dissect what we mean in strategic terms by “Amandla!” in the context of our development deficit in the advancement of Western civilisation that we have culturally assimilated to.
Do masses even know what language “Aluta Continua!” is and its real meaning? Do the masses even know what language and meaning “Viva!” is? “Amandla Ngawethu!” (Power is ours!) should be referring to our black collective potential as Africans—the buying power; the labour force power; the voting power; and the population majority power.
The sad reality is that we know “Amandla!” as just a traditional slogan. These are things that need to be dissected. For instance, where do we rate ourselves as a people against the first-world scientific advancement that has culminated in artificial intelligence (AI) lately?
Shouting “Amandla!” out of realistic context is tantamount to a lion roaring in a cage. Its capturers have real power (amandla) over it. We have a peculiar and fallacious tradition of shouting noisy political slogans without conscious meaning. We are living a glorified lie. Our politics and religion are, for all intents and purposes, exciting emotional scams.
* Dr Vusi Shongwe is the former head of the Department of the Royal Household. The contribution is written in his personal capacity. The views expressed here are his own.