Dear Arch - I hope you don't mind me calling you Arch? You will remember you once wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the invitation, "Just Call Me Arch."
I am writing to you about the interview you gave to the Sunday Times in which you said you would not vote in next year's general elections unless "there are attempts at healing rifts, and people are not in the business of rubbing people's noses in the dust." Your remarks were discouraging. It is very unlike you to walk away from such a moral challenge.
The elections, due in about May, will be among the most critical in South Africa's history - even maybe the most critical - in the sense that for the first time in the ANC's 96-year history its supporters are seriously adrift, factions are being unleashed who have no clear identity or direction (they are something of a wild card, and a bit scary); and an entirely new party (Thabo Mbeki-orientated) is being formed to challenge Jacob Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe as the custodians of the traditional ANC, its legend and logo.
I presume you supported the ANC in the 1994, 1999 and 2004 general elections? It is implicit in what you say. For you to walk away from them now would be incomprehensible. There are only a few national personalities left in South Africa who still carry real weight with the public, especially among the black South Africans where "rifts" (as you put it) have cut a swathe through reputations. Why then - when you are needed most - do you think of abdicating this unique position? A greater, not a lesser, responsibility rests on you. Is this because you take a gloomy view of the future, or have you just lost patience with politicians? If so, please bear in mind that at critical moments such as these often it is just a few good men and women who make all the difference.
In your interview, you gave examples of what could make you "sufficiently unhappy not to vote": the "brutal" way in which Thabo Mbeki was ousted, and the infighting in the ANC. You admit that South Africa effectively is a one-party state, and you welcome the formation of a new party, provided it is viable and rises phoenix like from what is beginning to look like the ashes of the old "broad church" ANC.
Understandably, you look to the ANC for the answer to your prayers. With 297 of the 400 National Assembly seats, it is the country's political power house. But there are 17 other political parties in the National Assembly, among them the Democratic Alliance (47 seats), Inkatha (23) and the United Democratic Movement (6). You brush them aside as if they are of no consequence, although in total they number a quarter of MPs. In the present, highly centralised context of our times, yes, the role of the opposition is diminished, but by your standards it is also a contradiction. Remember, you coined the phrase "Rainbow Nation". That means ethnic diversity - any one can join any party, and coalitions can emerge as the need arises.
In her (1988) biography of you, Shirley du Boulay wrote: "He (Tutu) is on a tightrope, in his own words, ‘a marginal man between two forces.' It is time to disentangle the strands of this rope and discover how it is that he has not yet lost his balance." Fate, Du Boulay observed, has "placed Tutu in the most polarised situations of recent times."
Well, 20 years have passed, Arch. Isn't it time to "disentangle the ropes" of ethnicity?
"You are saying that if you can't vote for the ANC you won't vote at all. Is this wise, Arch? By saying this you are, in effect, acceding to a one-party state. There are several alternatives to choose from, and if I may be so bold as to say so I think you need to examine the true reasons why you so thoughtlessly dismiss them. Could you be trapped in the ethnic political rut that has not only held Africa back, but has brought so much misery to the continent?"
If you "boycott" next May's elections, Arch, it means you dismiss the 17 opposition parties; you almost ask why they bother to exist if they are not "viable". Sure, some are fairly meaningless politically (I said so in these columns), but it is their constitutional right to exist. If in your opinion the DA is too "white" and the other 16 parties irrelevant, then isn't this the moment to confront the principle, once and for all, that a black man must be able to vote for a "white" party without being "disloyal" to his own ethnicity?
For how long must the concept of ethnicity hold the African continent in its death grip? In imperial history, the phrase "my country right or wrong" became a curse; is "my party right or wrong" any different?
Take the DA. It is viable. In the 1994 elections, when white rule ended, the Democratic Party under Tony Leon polled 1.73% of the national vote; in the 2004 elections he raised it to 12.3%; now the new DA leader Helen Zille is expected to lift it to about 20% in next year's elections. This is achievable, considering the shambles into which the ANC has descended. A new survey shows that the DA is the most diversified political party in South Africa's history. Under Zille, the DA also controls the city of Cape Town, even if with a slender majority.
If you really believe in the Rainbow Nation, Arch, you could support the DA, which in any case might go into a new, coalition mode next year. Failing that President Kgalema Motlanthe might be the next best bet. On some issues (crime, HIV-Aids, unemployment) some of Motlanthe's remarks are little different from Zille's.
Maybe, the ANC under Motlanthe before long will seek coalition partners, although not the kind of partners Thabo Mbeki lured across - detached from their power bases, stripped of all independence and dignity, and then binned - as he did with the National Party under that humiliated man, Kortbroek van Schalkwyk. (Here I must confess I have no idea where the Motlanthe strand in the ANC will lead - I'm just throwing the bones).
Arch, as we all know, politically you are something of an innocent, which is quite endearing. But politics are becoming dangerous. If Motlanthe has failed to call the ANC to order, or tame the feral youth, then calls by clergyman for calm will not be played out over cups of tea or appeals for decent behaviour.
Consider the course of events this year: at the Polokwane conference in December, the super radicals overthrew Thabo Mbeki - "democratically", if unnecessarily ferociously so. Then a "new" ANC took over. But its identity is clouded. So in a way it is back to the "two centres of power" that prevailed under Mbeki and Zuma: now with Zuma as ANC president and Motlanthe as national president. So far, there are at least two factions in the ANC - the Mbeki-ites and the Zuma-ites, and there may be a third faction, the Motlanthe-ites.
Encircling the ANC, too, are groups of predators: Cosatu, the SA Communist Party, the ANC Youth League, the Young Communist League, etc. Each wants power and a spoon in the gravy bowl. Possibly overshadowing the whole scene - if internal ANC arrangements take on a conflict course - is the question mark over Zuma's future. What will his relationship be with Motlanthe?
If Zuma is sidelined, will he be accommodated in other ways, or fall back on his long-prepared position - calling on his Zulu warriors? Also, where will Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party position itself if a Zulu-ANC or Zulu-Xhosa ethnic clash breaks out? [From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s virtually a civil war was waged in KwaZulu-Natal between Inkatha and the ANC]. Seven months lie ahead in which all these (speculative) yeasts can ferment. Meanwhile, Arch, where will the church stand? In moments of crisis, it has not always distinguished itself by its clarity of position.
The ANC, Arch, is a hornets' nest, and with the possible exception of some inner circles none of us have the answers to the myriad of questions that crop up. You at least, Arch, can draw on a lifetime devoted to the pursuit of principle, and this could help to steer you through the present confusion. Otherwise (just a thought), why not cast your mind back to three years ago when a pop concert was held for the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town? If Bob Dylan, a star from the 1960s, had been around, he could have performed and sung his famous song, Blowin' in the Wind. In it he tells us how elusive answers can be:
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Click here to sign up to Politicsweb-by-email
