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Ideals vs Reality
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Quote:
| Stakker wrote on 17-10-2016 05:45 PM
Why is she speaking English, wearing glasses, shoes and western clothing whilst sitting on plastic tables and steel and plastic chairs? 
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Indeed. Saw this article and it resonates with what you say:
THE INDUNA SYSTEM! - From a different perspective.
SA finally African, all thanks to Zuma
By Prince Mashele | May 09, 2016 SOWETAN
In the midst of the political confusion that has gripped our country
many people are wondering if we have come to the end of South Africa.
The answer is simple: the thing called an "end" does not exist, not in
relation to a country. SA will be there long after Jacob Zuma is gone.
What Zuma has done is to make us come to the realisation that ours is
just another African country, not some exceptional country on the
southern tip of the African continent.
During the presidency of benncMandela and Thabo Mbeki, some among us
used to believe that the black people of SA are better than those of
other African countries.
We must all thank Zuma for revealing our true African character; that
the idea of rule of law is not part of who we are, and that
constitutionalism is a concept far ahead of us as a people.
How else are we to explain the thousands of people who flock to
stadiums to clap hands for a president who has violated their
country's constitution? Such people have no idea of constitutionalism.
Now that we have reclaimed our place as another African country, we
must reflect on and come to terms with our real character, and imagine
what our future portends.
In a typical African country, ordinary people don't expect much of
politicians, because people get tired of repeated empty promises.
In a typical African country, people have no illusions about the unity
of morality and governance. People know that those who have power have
it for themselves and their friends and families.
The idea that the state is an instrument for people's development is a
Western concept, and has been copied by pockets of Asian countries.
Africans and their leaders don't like to copy from the West. They are
happy to remain African, and do things "the African way".
The African way is rule by kings, chiefs and indunas in a setting of
unwritten rules. Is there anyone who has seen a book of African
customary laws?
The idea that a commoner can raise questions about public money spent
on the residence of a king is not African. The ANC MPs who have been
defending Zuma are true Africans.
Asking a ruler to be accountable is a foreign - Western - idea. In a
situation where there is conflict between a ruler and laws, Africans
simply change the laws to protect the ruler. This is why no single
white person has called for King Dalindyebo to be released from jail.
The problem with clever blacks is that they think they live in Europe,
where ideas of democracy have been refined over centuries.
What we need to do is to come back to reality, and accept that ours is
a typical African country. Such a return to reality will give us a
fairly good idea of what SA's future might look like.
This country will not look like Denmark. It might look like Nigeria,
where anti-corruption crusaders are an oddity.
Being an African country, ours will not look like Germany. SA might
look like Kenya, where tribalism drives politics.
People must not entertain the illusion that a day is coming when SA
will look like the US. Our future is more on the side of Zimbabwe,
where one ruler is more powerful than the rest of the population. Even
if Julius Malema were to become president, it would still be the same.
African leaders don't like the idea of an educated populace, for
clever people are difficult to govern. Mandela and Mbeki were
themselves corrupted by Western education. (Admission: this columnist
is also corrupted by such education.)
Zuma remains African. His mentality is in line with Boko Haram. He is
suspicious of educated people; what he calls "clever blacks". Remember
that Boko Haram means "Against Western Education".
The people who think we have come to the end of SA don't realise that
we have actually come to the beginning of a real African country, away
from the Western illusions of exceptionalism. Those who are unsettled
by this true African character need help. The best we can do for them
is to ask them to look north of the Limpopo River, to learn more about
governance in Africa.
What makes most people restless about the future of SA is that they
have Western models in mind, forgetting that ours is an Africa
country.
The idea that a president can resign simply because a court of law has
delivered an adverse judgment is Western. Only the Prime Minister of
Iceland does that; African rulers will never do that.
Analysed carefully, the notion of SA coming to an "end" is an
expression of a Western value system - of accountability, political
morality, reason, and so on. All these are lofty ideas of Socrates,
Kant, Hegel, and so on. They are not African.
All of us must thank Jacob Zuma for introducing us to the real African
Republic of South Africa, not some outpost of European values.
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