Now that the elections are done it is important to consider what was said by some of the players and what this suggests about the quality of thinking in South African politics.
The day before the election I heard President Zuma on television suggest something to the effect that the Nkandla issue only bothered some clever people. I still do not know what he meant. While he was explaining, my 8year old daughter stated that the President was a naughty. Surprised by this remark I asked what she meant, she ran to the television and pointed out that the President was showing everyone the middle finger. During his explanation of the three issues concerning Nkandla, it was his middle figure that was raised first and stayed raised for some time.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and others wrote lengthy articles exhorting the importance of “resetting the moral compass”. At the same time ANC MP Salam Abram, resigned after being “hauled over the coals for being truthful”. He was told to apologise to Minister Joemat after he accused her of lying.
Our national politics was awash with religious overtures as the Zionist federation declared that the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) was the most Zionist friendly. Religious leaders were openly wooed by politicians and even some nefarious was seen in church and Mosque at pray.
The Muslim marriage Bill which had perspired quietly in the corridors of parliament for twenty years was dusted off and paraded across newspapers one week before the election. Those who spent decades on the detail were miffed as they recognized the frivolous opportunism.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie accused Julius Malema (EFF) of hypocrisy. McKenzie accused Malema of shopping at Louis Vuitton and Gucci and basically of being a plastic revolutionary.
Fikile Mbalula Sports Minister, answering a question about sport quotas, reportedly said South Africa would not be like Kenya and send athletes to the Olympics to “drown in the pool”.
In the words of the wise “there is a thin line between politics and theatrics’.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress