connecteddale

Update February 2014: Seems I was dead wrong. Original article
published below. It is a few days before president-elect Jacob Zuma is sworn
into office. His journey thus far has been colourful to say the least and
whatever criticism he may attract, you have to give him 10 out of 10 for
tenacity and dogged determination. Much has been written about how the country
is on an irretrievable descent into darkness and oblivion. Similarities have
been drawn between Zuma and Robert Mugabe implying South Africa, with Zuma at
the helm, is on track for a Zimbabwe scenario. Judging by the number of
international movers packing containers in the leafy suburbs of Cape Town, it
seems a lot of white people believe the talk of our imminent demise spoken so
persuasively around the braai on a Saturday afternoon. Helen Zille’s hysteria
around stopping our new president, the incessant SMS messages urging me to
sign up on websites and follow her on Twitter got me thinking that I’ve seen
all of this madness before. It seems some South African white people are
sceptics and cynical by nature and hate the thought of change. David Bullard
wrote in a recent column that these people “wake each morning snarling with
anger, fire off a few spiteful comments on internet sites from behind the
safety of a pseudonym and go about their miserable lives consumed by envy and
hatred”. I think they will change their minds. Change, according to Kurt
Lewin, takes place in three stages. Unfreezing, moving to a new state and
refreezing. Unfreezing is a particularly traumatic experience for some. There
is resistance to embrace the new as it implies that current beliefs need to be
given up as invalid. Often this brings on defensiveness, anger, hostility and
struggle. But we’ve been through all this before. Cast your mind back to 1985.
State of emergency. PW’s wagging finger telling us to “adapt or die”.
Thousands of civilian soldiers in army camps. Unrest at university campuses.
Troops in the townships. Sanctions. A country divided in every way on race.
Tutu Then picture a little black man who in a Ghandi-like way used to walk
in front of throngs of toyi-toying protestors. Giving speeches and handing
over demands for change. Using his position as the Archbishop of Cape Town to
lead and advocate the end of apartheid. Those who spent any time around whites
will remember the venom and hatred poured onto this “monkey”, who was leading
the defiance campaign to the then “whites only” beaches. To intimidate him
somebody hung an ape foetus in the garden of his Bishopscourt home which was
also the target of a graffiti attack stating “I was an Anglican until I put
Tu+Tu together”. Imagine how strongly somebody felt about him that they would
invest time and energy in doing these things. Reconcile that with the love
many of these same white South Africans now pour on “The Arch” as he is
affectionately called. The cynical whites changed. Mandela I remember the
front page of the Cape Times splashing the headline that Nelson Mandela was
going to nationalise the mines and other major industries. Talk amongst whites
was that the country would go like every other African country, it was just a
matter of time. If he even got into power. Word around the white dinner tables
was that Mandela would be killed by tribal factions vying for power. As
Mandela became president and the country generally prospered, the cynical
whites changed once again. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in the
country who doesn’t have a kind word to say about Madiba as he is
affectionately referred to today. In fact, so much so, that there are no
critics. We all loved Madiba and what he stood for. Always. Didn’t we? The
Flag, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and Sport When initially unveiled our new flag
was hardly embraced. Rugby stadiums were still filled with the old flag while
the new took years to be accepted. Stadiums would bellow out the Afrikaans “
Uit die blou …” while the same supporters mumbled their way through Nkosi .
This is now changing as white school children learn Nkosi Sikelel’ and their
white parents feel proud to sing along. Eventually change happens despite the
resistance. Elections 1994 OK own up, did you buy candles and tinned food
for your pantry in case the whole country fell apart around our first
democratic elections? Did you think you should have? Did you at least talk
about it? Remember the hysteria, the predictions about doom and gloom and how
it was the beginning of the end. And then all of a sudden, nothing happened.
Except the political violence subsided and we moved into our mostly peaceful
new era where the economy took off, we won the world cup and the country
generally prospered. Certainly more peaceful and prosperous than the pre-1994
years. Certainly a better outlook than 10 years earlier. So why is it that
some whites are so paranoid and cynical about our new president? I wonder what
could belie the anger and the hatred? I’ve heard people who I regard as very
intelligent and very worldly wise declare that they will leave the country if
Zuma becomes president. Such decisiveness based on what? “He’s corrupt and
he’s a rapist,” they say. Makhaya Ntini and Zuma — both accused of rape. Ntini
was convicted, appealed and then acquitted. Zuma wasn’t even convicted. Why do
we hate the one and love the other, holding him up as a national hero, or at
least when he gets wickets. In 2008 the world’s economic system hit the wall
and there is ample evidence to show that some of the people who have benefited
the most were at best corrupt and in many cases were outright criminals. While
the collapse has actually affected investments in this country and directly
impacted individuals’ pockets, there is relatively little abuse for the
masterminds behind the collapse. Even Arthur Brown, infamous for his Fidentia
scandal, doesn’t attract anywhere near the level of negative attention rained
down on Zuma. When you place Zuma’s corruption allegations, and the fact that
he hasn’t ever been found guilty, against this picture, they pale into
insignificance. Do you have friends who get away with not paying all of their
taxes? Do we get as emotional about the unfairness of that? “But he has to
have a high moral ethic to be the leader of our land,” you say. Really? Since
when did we hold politicians to those standards. Certainly not in the South
African governments pre 1994. Hennie van Vuuren’s report in May 2006 entitled
Apartheid Grand Corruption details in its more than 90 pages just how corrupt
the government was. Internationally, George Bush — jobs for friends — Dick
Cheney — Halliburton. Bill Clinton lying to the country about his sexual
affairs. Colin Powell and Tony Blair lying about weapons of mass destruction
so as to have a reason to kill soldiers and civilians in Iraq and control
their oil. The leaders of the free world? Certainly not moral leaders. In
considering my own view of Zuma, I look at two sources of information. The
first is the reported view in our media, which is the loudest and occupies the
most mindshare. The second, is first-hand accounts of interacting directly
with the man, which, although I haven’t myself had the experience, I have only
heard positive accounts from those that have. Of the two, I trust the second a
lot more than the first for the simple reason that individuals are more
motivated to tell the truth when recounting an experience than a media
organisation, which has shareholders, headlines, sales and subscriptions
sitting higher on the list of priorities than telling a story accurately or
thoroughly. When we look at Mandela, Tutu, the flag, the 1994 elections we as
whites mostly predicted things dead wrong. And I think we’ve got Zuma dead
wrong too. My predication is that JZ will far exceed our expectations, which
for some are admittedly low. We’ll come to love his machine gun song Umshini
Wami, which will become a signature South Africanism like the All Blacks have
the Haka. His engagement with people and real issues will warm our hearts. The
story of his life, from herd boy to president, will become a symbol of hope
for the people who to date have not had role models they could follow. Instead
of defending the current status quo we will defend his Africanism, his
costumes and his traditions — showing instead our finger to the world saying —
this is the way we do it in South Africa — it’s different not wrong. I have
great faith in our ability as a nation to adapt. Unlike PW Botha who proposed
that the only other option was to die, I believe we will just adapt some more.
We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. What you look for you will see. I
believe that we have been influenced to look only at what is wrong with Zuma.
Once he is in power and serving as our president, we will be able to judge him
on what he achieves. This is much more tangible than how he has been judged to
date. I’m hopeful and confident that we will be surprised. Like previous
change, which we have first feared and then accepted, JZ too will eventually
be loved by the cynical whites.