Developments around the presidential succession
debate in South Africa have brought to the fore, at least on the
analytical plain, two main contending forces. These forces are
symbolically represented in the persons of President
Thabo Mbeki on the one hand and his former Deputy Jacob
Zuma on the other. For lack of a useful coinage, these forces
can be characterized as a Market Taliban versus a Populist Taliban,
however at the base, they are just two side of the same coin,
really. It is in unmasking what these forces represent that we
can hopefully get a glimpse of the future, and see if we can perhaps
influence the outcomes; after all, politics is the art of the
possible.
The rise of the Market Taliban can be more clearly
linked to the 1996 adoption of the GEAR
policy without consultation, not only with the broader society,
but with the ruling alliance as well. Gear was based on the acceptance
of the supremacy of market logic and the aggressive implementation
of the Washington Consensus ideology. In the specific situation
of South Africa, this mean that the structure of society, as inherited
from colonialism and apartheid, could not be transformed, but
representation would be sought by the representatives of those
formerly excluded in the economy, and yet still geared towards
the satisfaction of white settler interests. At the base of it,
the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
policy seeks to achieve this integration without disintegrating
the political economic structures build on Black dispossession,
exclusion and exploitation. In terms of this schema, the majority
of Blacks are bound to remain servants, as a tiny, new but subordinated,
bourgeois enters the boardrooms of the established white capitalists.
The predictable result of it all was the stabilization
of the macro-economics, super profits for corporations and increased
hardships for the masses in whose name the policy was implemented.
When President Mbeki says business has never had it so nice in
SA, he is talking to the outcomes of the market Taliban processes.
This same logic ensures that the South African foreign policy
is closely linked to the interest of the corporations. Hence,
the big four companies have had the liberty to leave the shores
of this country, while at the same time, the African continent
has been pried open for further penetration by capitalists. It
is a process akin to the second colonization. The woes of the
continent, according to this logic, would be solved by the trickle-down
miracle.
The Market Taliban process reduces everything
into a commodity to be traded in the market. Basic necessities
for life such as water, electricity, health care, education, land,
love and even justice, to mention a few, have not escaped the
all-encompassing power of the market. All of sudden, your family
home in Soweto has a monetary value, and if you like, you can
place it on the market and money would come out on the other end
of the deal. Literally nothing is untouched or beyond the reach
of the hegemonic logic of money and profits. We must brace ourselves
for the body bag count, in the form of a new wave of homelessness
bred by the property market boom in the townships. In accordance
with this thinking, only those with money can enjoy full citizenship
rights.
It also true that under the era of Market Taliban,
there emerged a precarious, highly indebted, but consuming and
bubbly, Black middle class and also a tiny, real monied Black
capitalist class, whose market value has now reached billions
of rands. These are the new high priestesses of the Market Talibanism.
Their accumulation of capital is justified and fought for in the
name of the whole formerly oppressed people. The painful history
of exclusion is mobilized to line the pocket of individuals, whilst
those who benefit from this extension of the historical robbery
are standing on the heads of the majority who remain excluded.
What is removed from the naked eye is the fact
that all has been done in the interest of the patriarchal, racist
white capitalist structure inherited from colonialism and apartheid.
On the other hand, the lot of the Black poor majority has only
been marginally improved by this market success. The insult of
poverty, the bucket system, squatter camps, floods and fires,
schooling under trees, RDP houses or dog kernels in the middle
of nowhere, and treatment of people as fodder for the ballot box,
ensues unabated. Only 4% of the land has been returned during
the first decade of democracy, at the same time about one million
farm dwellers have been evicted from white-owned farms. The Red
Ants administer their cruel medicine of forced removals during
winter. Unemployment and poverty are the daily bread of the multitudes.
But the most important outcome of the Market Talibanism is the
expulsion of ordinary people from making history. Only the state
experts and spin doctors have been allowed in the house of history.
Their job in the main is to defend the indefensible, and if necessary,
to beat up the statistics until they speak the language of power.
We have now entered the neo-colonial hell hole Frantz Fanon warned
against.
The Populist Taliban project emerges as a direct
consequence of the failures of the Market Taliban. The masses
who have been expelled from meaningful participation in the life
of the nation, now place their hopes on the new man. This is the
birth of populism without popular politics. When Jacob Zuma, after
his acquittal for rape, said to the expectant plebeian crowds,
“I love you as much as you love me,” then “I’m
prepared to die for you,” it was not a mere mortal speaking.
Those are the words of a messiah on the cross. What connects the
expelled crowds to Zuma is not a political program different from
that of the Market Taliban force, it is a sense of collective
marginalization and persecution. It is a pain, not clarity of
purpose. Emotion eclipses politics and thought. The novelty of
Zuma’s stance is his stony silence on any major policy issue.
Where does Zuma stand on:
- On reclamation of the economy by the people
and not thorough the castrated notions of Black Economic Empowerment?
- On the expropriation of land?
- On the moratorium on evictions?
From the silence, the plebeians create castles
in the air and place their man in the middle of it to deliver
their manna from thin air. Zuma, on the other hand, sells nothing
for which he can be held accountable, except that he is prepared
to perish for the plebs. What we have in the end is not a program
to change society, but collective victimhood, which could and
may turn to desire for revenge. This is not a political battle
but a family feud, for the family silverware. Poverty of progressive
ideas is the umbilical cord joining both sides.
The route to the Union Buildings for the Populist
Taliban is not going to be easy. One can speculate that capitalists,
both national and international, would do all in their power to
thwart the ascension of the populists to the throne of power.
This response is based on the misdiagnosis of Zuma as a revolutionary
popular lefty leader in the mould of Hugo Chavez or Evo Morales.
This misdiagnosis has been fueled by the unreflecting South African
media. It is important to draw a clear distinction between a populist
politician and a popular leader. As the Tanzanian scholar,
Issa Shivji argues, “A populist focuses on power... A populist
is demagogic, that is, he would say and sloganize whatever he
thinks people want to hear, even if it means playing on primitive
prejudices of race, religion, gender or age.”
Secondly, the unpredictability of the Populist
Taliban in power is unsettling for capitalists. It must be remembered
that whoever inherits the presidency would take hold of the dangerously
powerful machinery of policy making, spin doctoring, dispensing
patronage, punishment and reward. Think of the Soviet system inherited
by Stalin, created by Trotsky and Lenin, in the name of the revolution.
The unraveling of the house of cards, whose foundation
was created by the Market Taliban, occurs on the morrow of the
victory of the Populist Taliban. Brussels, Number 10 Downing Street,
and the White House, would call and seek guarantees for the programs
pursued by the Market Taliban. Subduing the Zuma presidency would
not take too much effort. A Zuma presidency, with the SACP (South
African Communist Party) in the background, does not and would
not present a threat to the interest of capitalism.
But there would still be other hurdles to jump
and scores to settle. The media would likely be first, for supporting
the opponents of the Populist Taliban in the name of independence
of the media. Next would be the intellectual class, for whom little
or no distinction is likely to have been made between the pro
Market Taliban segment, the “independents” and those
located squarely in the corner of the plebs, and yet maintaining
a critical stance in relation to the factional war between the
two Talibans. We can expect a section of the media to change horses
and sing for its supper. The SABC would effortlessly serve the
new master; it has now become adept at it.
It can be expected that the masses would be in
the forefront of the “cultural revolution” against
“counter revolutionaries.” However, once the residual
forces from the now defeated Market Taliban, media and the intellectual
class have been dealt with, the sword of the victorious Populist
Taliban would have to land on the restless and impatient plebs.
Patience would be demanded and enforced. The truth of just how
similar these Talibans are becomes apparent at that moment. The
Populist Taliban would display the same disdain for the expectant
masses as was displayed by its predecessor; its might against
the masses is as strong as it is impotent against the internal
and national corporate power. Those who do not toe the line would
have to face the wrath of the Populist Taliban, which of course
by now would be firmly settled in its belief that it is carrying
out its God-given revolutionary duty that was betrayed by the
Market Taliban. The irony of it all is that both pray to the same
God of profit.
The point about these lines is to raise a warning
and to invite a serious debate about the future of South Africa.
It is clear that neither Mbekis' Market Talibanism nor Zuma’s
Populist Talibanism is the solution. Mbeki’s belated and
somewhat cynical invitation to the people, to play a part in the
debate about who will become the next president, must be taken
with the caution it deserves. This move looks more like a call
for confirmation of his leadership than to genuinely participate
in decision-making. The track record speaks for itself; his presidency
by-passes not only the people but parliament itself. In the short
term, Zuma must be asked to show his hand, only because he threatens
the future. Cosatu and the SACP must be implored to state on what
political and socio-economic program they base their support for
Zuma. Alternatively, they must bring the nation into their confidence
about what they have been promised. The opportunism of both must
be exposed; their newfound zeal for uttering left-sounding critiques
must fool no one.
Now, is the time for presenting real alternatives
to the two Talibans. In the immediate term, such alternatives
may not seem political viable, given the hegemony of the ANC over
electoral political sphere. But the narrowing of politics to elections
denies us the opportunity to see the ample possibilities for a
return to the politics of liberation. We can now again raise the
question of what it is to be free. We must have hope in the plebs;
after all, true liberation can only emerge from within the masses
and with them. Whilst the middle classes, the media and sections
of capitalists are at sixes and sevens, it is to those who have
been expelled from history that we need to direct our analysis,
conversations and warnings. The chickens hatched by the Market
Taliban are fast coming home to roost. We dare not to fail to
dream again.
Andile Mngxitama is a land activist and a Pan
Africanist from South Africa. He is co-editor of a forthcoming
volume entitled, Biko Lives - Conversations and Contestations.
Click
here to contact Mr. Mngxitama. |