Johannesburg- “I am an African, and I set my pride in my race over a hostile public opinion”.
These are the words by one of the best minds to have emerged from this country and the continent of Afrika as a whole, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, in 1906.
This is the man who founded the ANC as a 30 year old on January 8, 1912.
He had taken a truly unapologetic Pan Afrikan stance to powerfully dispel the white supremacist view that condemned Afrikan people as essentially sub-human or unable to contribute anything meaningful to humanity.
He strongly challenged this bigoted racial view, and extolled Afrikan people and the continent of Afrika as an “awakening giant”.
Exactly 90 years later, then president of the ANC, Thabo Mbeki, on the same positive view of Afrika, spoke about the renewal of Afrika in terms of which he also emphasised the positive contribution of Afrika to humanity.
“Now is the time, I believe, for Africa to send its continental ships across the waters, not to conquer, but to proclaim that Africa has found its will, that Africa has found its way and that Africa has earned its right to lead”, said Mbeki in 1996.
He boldly emphasised the point that it’s time for Afrika “to show the world what we hold in store for tomorrow”.
These crystal-clear ideals, attributed to the intellectual acumen of Seme, are enviable values upon which the true ANC was founded. What a favour!
I refer to these points in the context of the labyrinthine events that entangled the people of this country, in the past week.
These were a sequel sparked by the criminal complaint lodged by Arthur Fraser against the president of the ANC and the country, Cyril Ramaphosa last Wednesday.
At the centre, is the allegation that millions in foreign currency (US dollar bills) were stolen from Ramaphosa’s farm in Limpopo. This crime was allegedly not reported to the police. The complaint, as per Fraser’s affidavit, entailed further allegations of kidnapping, torture and bribe attributed to the president’s security teams.
The allegations caused a ruckus in the country in a week which saw parties such as the EFF taking a hardline position against the president.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) lodged a complaint with the public protector’s office, essentially asking the public protector to investigate Ramapahosa on this matter.
Funnily, the president suspended the public protector on Thursday, just a day after she had confirmed that she had indeed received the complaint and that she was going to investigate Ramaphosa.
It’s quite intriguing that the suspension of Busisiwe Mkhwebane happened on the eve of the Western Cape High Court verdict on the same matter (on whether, in the specific circumstances, the president could suspend Mkhwebane). It’s now history that the Western Cape High Court found against Mkhwebane, essentially confirming Ramaphosa’s action.
These developments have raised eyebrows.
These are some of the issues that irk many people and shine the spotlight on our criminal justice system.
Too many people think the judiciary is infallible and beyond reproach and are therefore too reticent to criticise.
The truth, however, is that the political tapestry in the recent history of post-1994 South Africa, has put the justice system, including the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the judiciary, under a severe strain. My view is that these institutions of the state are cancerously compromised at a slow, but steady pace.
It’s not easy to say, but it’s evident that the germ of capture has covered some distance in the body of this patient, our criminal justice system. It’s trite that the strain has emanated from the internal fractious political contestations within the ruling party, ANC.
It’s disappointing that the ANC has now been subsumed under electoral politics of the rainbow nation to a point where the politics of principled servant leadership have been dwarfed by the politics of the stomach and individual aggrandisement.
At the centre lies the business of “eating” or sharing the proverbial crumbs from the table of white people, in whose hands real power still remains. In electoral politics (as opposed to politics of liberation), principle becomes irrelevant. Thus, the best place to be at this stage is certainly to not be in the ANC.
Sadly, this fracas happened on the week the ANC should be commemorating the death of Pixley ka Isaka Seme.
He died on June 7, 1951. This is the man who gifted Afrika with its first liberation movement. However, I note that the ANC government will be celebrating the tragic event of June 16 Soweto Uprising as “Youth Day '' on Thursday.
In respect of Seme, it’s not surprising that the organisation he founded has all but forgotten him. Some within his own organisation have even been influenced to vilify him and deliberately distort his gigantic contribution to the anti-colonial struggle because he vehemently rejected the infiltration by other races, who were hellbent to take over the ANC.
Their mission was ultimately consummated four years after his death with the adoption (or imposition) of the Freedom Charter, incidentally in the Month of June. Seme inspired other powerful Pan Afrikanist leaders, such as Anton Lembede, Ashby Peter Mda and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. All these political giants followed Seme’s example, and studied law after their qualifications in education.
It’s Seme’s sagacious words in that historic oratorial piece, “Regeneration of Africa Speech'', rendered in Columbia University, New York, in 1906 that inspired the likes of Kwame Nkrumah towards the idea of forming a continental organisation to unite the peoples of Afrika in order to strike a telling blow to white supremacy, colonialism and imperialism.
Alas, recent ANC leaders have, by far, proven to be a total antithesis of the founder of the movement in terms of the quality of leadership and commitment to the total liberation of black people.
In interpreting the recent developments, methinks it’s all about hypocrisy in the (in)application of the law. In the end, it casts a spell on the ill-conceived and controversial step-aside rule of the ANC in terms of which criminally-charged members are required to step aside from their positions in the party and government.
I have, since 2020, consistently said this rule is going to explode in their faces as it will be weaponised by the dominant faction, in this instance the one said to be controlled by white monopoly capital (WMC), to purge the other faction, framed around radical economic transformation (RET).
I argue that it’s ill-advised to use the pronouncements of prosecutors to determine matters of integrity. The least standard to be used would be the conviction, given the constitutional presumption of innocence until proven guilty (by a court of law, of course).
Given the uninspiring history of the NPA, especially when it comes to political entanglements in this country, the current situation is going to serve as a test case for the NPA as to whether it will charge Ramaphosa or not.
After all, there are already individuals with serious allegations of criminality levelled against them that are yet to be charged.
The step-aside rule is thus triggered by the pronouncements of the NPA.
It’s a pity that our legal discourse in this country has reached the nadir of intellectual superficiality whereby our engagement on legal issues is looked at uncritically through the prism of ANC factional camps and contestations.
But the law should objectively be approached based on facts. Instead of engaging Arthur Fraser’s complaint on its merit, many commentators, interested politicians and so-called political analysts, obviously sympathetic to the cause of WMC immediately came with a silly reaction, questioning the motive behind the complaint and asking, “why now?”
The complaint is almost reduced to the political developments relating to the ANC’s 55th National (Elective) Conference in December.
But the issue is simply to adjudge whether crime was committed at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm or not. That’s the crux.
By the way, concealment of crime, on its own, is also a crime. This, for me, begs further questions: what is the right or acceptable time to charge Ramaphosa? Can Ramaphosa be charged during the ANC elective conference year? Or how many months before the conference can he be charged? Or simply, can Ramaphosa be charged at all?
However, it appears the “why now?” question is never asked when criminal complaints are brought against others, or when they are even charged.
Obviously, when the so-called RET-inclined individuals, like Ace Magashule, are charged, this question suddenly evaporates.
When Ramaphosa suddenly suspends Mkhwebane, the same people become meek and the “why now?” question supersonically vanishes.
This is a textbook demonstration of forked-tongue-approach to issues.
I have always found Section 179 of the Constitution very interesting and, as I have already hinted, it lies at the core of the ANC’s factional power contestations and, in particular, its controversial step-aside rule. This is the section dealing with the NPA.
According to this section, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) is the head of the prosecuting authority and is “appointed by the president, as head of the executive”.
The NPA has the “power to institute criminal proceedings on behalf of the state”.
This is a powerful mandate which gives the NDPP a huge discretion when it comes to criminal matters and/or proceedings. In this regard, the NDPP has the discretion to “review a decision to prosecute or not to prosecute” in terms of this section and the NPA Act 32 of 1998.
Although both the Constitution and the Act enjoin the prosecuting authority to exercise its functions “without fear, favour or prejudice”, the history of this Office has been sullied by failure to live up to this expectation.
Given this context, and of course wary of political cacophonies and biases of so-called political analysts, we’ll see how the NPA will handle this hot potato.
By the way, it’s almost eleven days since Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa at the Rosebank Police Station.
That’s how the wheels of (criminal) justice roll in South Africa. I guess that’s how criminal matters pertaining to ordinary citizens are attended to. Indeed, as per Section 9(1) of the hallowed rainbow Constitution, “everyone is equal before the law”.
Unfortunately, that’s where the ANC and the people of South Africa have ultimately found themselves, 28 years into the so-called democracy.
This is the society which, then ANC president Nelson Mandela was optimistic about on his inauguration as president of the country on 10 May 1994: “Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud”. Of course, his clarion call of: “Let there be justice for all.”
Let’s talk about the image of a mattress. It’s just odd that the quintessence of visionary leadership associated with the ANC of Ka Isaka Seme and many other leaders in the life of this movement cannot be associated with what has been happening recently.
The “creativity” of stuffing cash (stolen or not) under mattresses is an old practice which I had thought evaporated with the old folks of that famous rural village of Lephepane decades ago. I wouldn’t have, in my wildest dreams, ever imagined that in this, the 21st century, an ANC president linked with this “matress” episode.
It’s just incredible, and I really hope that what has been shown on TV screens and social media platforms is a lie. Otherwise, all this obnoxious drama amounts to a signifier of people peeing on Seme’s proverbial mattress.
Such indiscretions do not only scandalise the ANC, but black people in general. It’s an indictment on black leadership to the extent that they seem to feed or fortify the racial stereotypes that other races have had about us: blacks can’t lead or govern, blacks are corrupt, blacks can’t think in the long term and so forth.
These are the kind of things that propped white supremacy. The agenda of the renewal or regeneration of Afrika is about pushing these things back. This is what Seme’s powerful statement in 1906 was about: “taking pride in my race over and against a hostile public opinion”.
In the same vein (of Afrika’s renewal), Mbeki says: “Let us err today and say- nothing can stop us now”. But there is so much that can stop us, including the curse of poor leadership, factional battles within the ANC, neo-liberalism and white monopoly capitalism, corruption, hypocrisy and the captured criminal (in) justice system.
Indeed, is it the “mattress” that we will show the world as that which we hold for tomorrow? How does this circus help the case that Afrika has earned its right to lead? We have drastically regressed!
If indeed Seme and all those who sacrificed for the total liberation of this country are watching this circus starring ANC politicians, they are surely groaning in pain and crying over their peed “mattress”.
And their Chinese curse?
“May you live in interesting times!” As for the oppressed, landless, poor, hungry and marginalised natives of this country, their Chinese curse to the dramatic ANC: “May the gods give you everything you ask for.”
David Letsoalo is a Sankarist, an activist and Law academic