Reply to Kaizer Nyatsumba

8 October 2020

For a man with an impressive record in journalism, communications and corporate affairs, Kaizer Nyatsumba’s recent missive from his current desk as CEO of SEIFSA is perplexing (SEIFSA News 01.10.20).

He begins by lamenting the parlous state of Zimbabwe which he says is “fast becoming a Venezuela,” and while I’m uncertain as to which country leads in the race to economic destruction the following is clear: Venezuela’s economy is in its seventh straight year of recession and forecast to shrink another 20% this year due to the coronavirus lockdown and the collapse of oil revenue, with inflation now running at an estimated 2,400% in the past year; and many in Zimbabwe’s are seeing their savings evaporate while struggling to afford basic commodities such as sugar and the staple cornmeal as the country’s annual inflation rate soared to almost 840% in the middle of 2020.

Nyatsumba then turns to South Africa whose economy is set to shrink by 8,3% having been identified as among emerging economies expected to record the biggest shortfall in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021. While the South African government moves to finalising its economic recovery plan and GDP fell by a record annualised 51 percent in the second quarter of the year Nyatsumba balances his praise for President Ramaphosa as having the necessary gravitas and meaning well in his public pronouncements against a call for action and for a principled stance vis á vis Zimbabwe. He recognizes that “our country is in trouble” and laments it being “bereft of leadership”.

The absence of leadership applies, by Nyatsumba’s reckoning, to both the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA). The slack he cuts President Ramaphosa is unfortunately not extended to the DA, whom he accuses of “turning its back on the black majority” in an alleged return to represent the country’s minorities. The economic policies of the DA, recently laid out in its policy conference, are ignored by Nyatsumba and the DA’s clear championing of non-racialism – which has a venerable tradition in the historical and intellectual body politic of our country – are similarly and disingenuously racialised.

The tired mantra of the DA “merciless hounding” of black leaders is trotted out without any real or informed reference as to why Patricia de Lille (who is facing similar corruption woes in her new-found alliance with the ANC) left the DA or why Maimane’s lack of leadership and absence of any clear policy (as presented by the very panel Maimane appointed and whose terms of reference Maimane himself approved) led to the DA losing support for the first time ever in a general election.

Despite the DA’s policies being made clear and that its recent policy conference laid out in detail its position on Non-Racialism, Redress, Federalism and Economic Justice – underpinned by Compassion and Integrity – this warrants no interrogation by Nyatsumba. He is simply content to falsely assert that “the DA has turned its back in the black majority and is intent on battling it out with the right wing FF Plus for the white minority vote”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This represents a thinly veiled attempt bolster the prospects of Mmusi Maimane and Herman Mashaba, notwithstanding their joint attraction of a motley bunch of disaffected and often seriously compromised individuals to their respective organizations – their failures and delinquency intentionally obfuscated by a tired but predictable recourse to race.

I would have expected better from Nyatsumba. He would do well to consider the words of the former editor of Business Day, Songezo Zibi, who identified, in a News 24 article (June 2019), the dangers of a reliance on and a resort to race. Zibi wrote: “when did we, as black people, lose the ability to identify clear principles and stand by them especially when our own violate those principles? Is it the collective trauma of white racism that drives us to a mentality where irrational closing of ranks is a natural instinct even though we end up protecting and helping those who seek to destroy?” Prescient words, sadly lost, it would seem, on Nyatsumba.

Still, Nysatsumba is right when he says, “as a country we deserve much better”. In this regard he could do worse than to heed the words of former DA leader, Tony Leon – whom Nyatsumba vilifies in his article. Leon argued in a Friedrich Nauman Foundation 2019 Liberty Lecture that “renewal is needed – it always has been for the long political journey. And part of that renewal is not to simply hold up a mirror to the government and point out the many things so many of us know it has got wrong. It is even more vital, now that the election dust has settled, for the opposition to hold up a mirror to its own soul”. And that is exactly what the DA has done. I, for one, am pleased with the outcome.