South Africa

I'm all blogged out so I thought I'd dust-off a previous entry that I really enjoyed writing - so without further ado I give you "Hunting" Moe and Fikile-

 

This post is dedicated to Hunter over at Daily Kos who is a personal inspiration. Paraphrasing heavily from his latest post "The Criminalisation of Politics" I'll remix the article for an angle on our Jay-Z saga :  

 

Icon over country. You can hear it in the exhortations of Zuma apologists; you can read it in articles by the likes of Fikile Majola and Moe Shaik; you could see two weeks ago all around the Durban Magistrates Court. There's something beyond mere politics in all of this. Politics, one would hope is not sufficient reason to damage the country. This is different. This is the cult of power and of corruption that is not just defended but celebrated by pundits and politicians alike. The Zuma spin machinists wail and wag their fingers and are shocked by the investigations, depositions and prosecutions and call them the "criminalization of friendship".

 

Most of the rest of us call it crime, disguised as friendship. Crime, disguised as friendship and defended by crooks, cowards and blowhards.

 

In The M&G Moe Shaik provided the following :

 

The Bill of Rights and our constitutional democracy also provide a useful frame of reference when looking at the past week’s Mail & Guardian editorial headed by another awful line: “Be afraid -- be very afraid”.

This headline reminds one of the racist and backward propaganda that we were subjected to in “an earlier and darker age” of our history, which warned of the dangers of majority and democratic rule in our country. It is also not dissimilar to that used today by the neo-conservative administration of the United States (“Axis of Evil”) to wage war and to impose regime change on those whom it perceives to be against it. Needless to say, this kind of sensationalist propaganda is designed to -“pander to the basest instincts of ordinary people”, and mainly to the human instinct of fear of the other and the fear of the unknown. But what is the basis of this irresponsible sensationalism? Why should South Africans be afraid of an African National Congress-led government under the leadership of Jacob Zuma? We are told that we must fear this because, among other things, he was escorted to and from court protected by the South African Police Service’s VIP protection unit, disrespectfully described by the editorial as “bald-headed toughs”.

 

While Fikile Majola offered this :

 

Behind factions and personalities there are always class politics. And Hartley has brought them to the fore. He and others in the media, right-wing politicians and big business fear that a mass-backed Zuma election victory could shake the foundations of the neo-liberal, capitalist system. The kind of people that Hartley mixes with - big business and, to an extent, the middle class - were happy to live with an ANC government which brought political stability and put an end to the civil and industrial strife of the apartheid years. They were grateful for the pro-market policies which provided business with the opportunity to amass bigger and bigger profits.

 

That is why they warn that the country will face ruin if Zuma gains power. But the workers and the poor will not respond to his clarion call to stand up and be counted because "your country is facing ruin". The reason is that, economically, workers and the poor face ruin now. Our wages have stagnated, more of us are being casualised and 40% are unemployed. The share of wages in the national income has fallen to 45% from around 57% in 1991. In Hartley's world, the wages of the top echelons are on the rise, profits are rising, confidence is at a historic high and inequalities are rising faster than ever. For the millions of poor, however, any prospect of a change to address their economic marginalisation is welcome.

 

From a typical liberal standpoint, Hartley dismisses Zuma as "a populist figure", claims that he "poses a grave risk to this country" and says the campaign in his support "ought to frighten those who cherish... democracy".

 

Oh, boo-friggin-hoo. I've watched Moe Shaik and the hangers-on at COSATU (Fikile is General Secretary of Nehawu and a member of the Friend's of Jacob Zuma Trust) do their wide eyed oh-my-goodness brand of commentary on the Zuma saga for some time. Shaik long ago got his card stamped for membership of that class of people who think that standard operating procedures of the Press and Scorpions are outrageous!, simply outrageous! but are quite content to smear people like Bulelani Nguka by accusing them of being apartheid spies when it suits them. 

 

What's particularly galling is that Shaik and Majola bemoan the breaches of the Bill of Rights or the "persecution" of a "working class hero". However, in Jay-Z we find the antithesis of a working class man who respects due process and the rule of law. Witness his attacks on the judiciary and hints of a vast conspiracy against him after his recent appearance in court in Durban. Do his expensive palaces, top of the range cars, spend-money-like-a-drunken-pirate shopping habits really square with his "working class" connections? Or does "working class" these days simply mean whatever principles COSATU deems convenient during their latest recruitment and publicity drive, to be revised as needed by the latest Zuma spin-doctored talking points?

 

These Zuma Acolytes, who have their talking points set over their cups of coffee in accordance with whatever the Zuma-focused needs of the day prove to be. Give him his day in court, don't give him his day in court. The rule of law is important, except when it's no big deal. Always put the poor first, but never mind. Our constitution is important, except when applied to "Our Boy". Mbeki is the greatest president ever, but that bastard stabbed us in the back! The media can be used to spin our stories, but not their's!

 

Blah, blah, blah. Cult of the personality and ass-kissing with the predictable pattern and spray of automatic lawn sprinklers. If the Arms Deal turned into the much-predicted fiasco most observers expected it would, it's because the media didn't trust enough. If Tony Yengeni was found guilty, it's the fault of the damn South African white opposition which is still dominated by racists!  And if a member of the chosen clique commits a crime, it's Big Business's fault for suckering him into it.

 

No. No dice, pundit and acolyte class. Don't give us vapid, amoral, blastfaxed crap about how horrible it is that everyone-on-the-planet-but-the-involved-Zuma-and Shaik-brothers are responsible for a certain collection of corrupt practices in the Arms Deal. Is this the best face that the "Friends of Jay-Z" can put on? Is this the best defense against scandal after scandal - to ignore the sentenced, defend the indicted, blame the investigators, and howl at the injustice of it all?

 

Honestly, what farce.

Politics in SA whatever it may be is hopefully not this. I may not like everything Tony Leon or Cyril Ramaphosa says, but nor do I fear for the nation if they come to lead the Country. Men of integrity can disagree on the principles of government; men whose sole moral compass is directed by what they can technically get away with, however, aren't political men. They're just crooks.

 

But for every politician of questionable honesty, for every underling there's a hundred desperate Moe Shaiks and Fikile Majola's willing to prostrate themselves and their own morality in exchange for another perceived half an inch towards their own movement's elusive prize: some nebulous faux-worker utopia that always turns to a deficit-riddled, pork-choked, crony-laden hell within the first years their chosen leaders try to implement it. And then, the political cycle repeats.

 

No, Movement "Zumists" are people who not only are willing to overlook advantageous crimes, but celebrate them, if done in service to the of the clique. Successful cheerleaders include Chippy Shaik and Tony Yengeni - people who, in any movement with the integrity of week-old tuna, would have been drummed out not hired on as posterboys for the movement. Only a jackass could write an entire column in response to the scandal after scandal after scandal dogging every single person close to the Shaik brothers, and come to the conclusion that the Press was being too reactionery and biased or that the Bill of Rights was being "trampled" on. 

 

So, to Fikile Majola and with an honorary mention to Moe Shaik :

 

Go to hell.