Most South Africans don't really understand how healthy democracy functions. This why they are surprised when we in COPE rigorously criticize our leadership when they overstep their authority and fail in their mandate. Passing the blame when failing their responsibilities is a common trait to leaders of the South African political scene. We would like to make sure that this habit does not entrench itself in COPE too.
All party political elective conferences come with their fever due to lobbying, etc. They come with robust debates and lobbying, the natural processes of a democratic dispensation that encourages open discussion and transparency. Of concern, naturally, is when lobbying takes a nasty turn, like tarnishing the reputation of your competitors via character assassination. Lobbying and campaigning that transgresses the bounds of fairplay and decency is unacceptable.
Some of us came to the Congress of the People because we were not happy with the common ethos of South African politics whereby to be regarded as a loyal member of the party you must be a cosseted individual, mortgaging your intelligence to the shenanigans of the party leadership even where it is contrary to your values - and even to the values of the party.
Contrary to the error most people make of judging COPE by the failures of its leadership, or disingenuously describing its association as nothing but breakaway from the ANC, the party is generally made up of previously apolitical individuals who are strong-willed, determined, and selfless. (I know this because I work with them everyday; their hearts are in the movement for the right reasons, and shun leadership posts, preferring instead to give their time and expertise willingly and without the complications and obligations that go with heading an organisation.)
The ultimate goal of such as these is the protection and consolidations of the gains of our freedom. Their ethos is to question everything, make people rethink the past, the present and the future. And their aim is to fill the ideas-shaped hole at the heart of our politics by inducing a more enlightened political culture in our country.
What is becoming clear within the political range of our country is that most people do not understand the depth of the debate we need to engage in before we are able to emerge to where we need to be. As one reader here put it; "without getting to grips with that, we will not map out the futures we deserve, after all the struggles, in all quarters." This is the social malaise of our country that is currently causing a rupture in our collective identity, the inability to forge ourselves into a nation.
Nationhood can only be achieved if we are honest about our past, true to the present and committed to a vision. The problem with the politics of this country, I say again, is the lack of vision. As the prophet saw long ago; "my people perish for lack of vision." Another thing urgently required is to inculturise our political sphere with a civic spirit. The question is how do we achieve all this when it is clear that the majority of us don't value democracy and civil values beyond their stomach.
Another problem is that South Africa, as a country of multiple cultural / racial / ethnic identities, has different social outlooks and habituates on fraying each other's nerves as means of engagement. For historical reasons, it has no common platform to speak from which people from different backgrounds can comfortable claim. This is what made the idea of COPE a brilliant one.
COPE provides a platform for renewal and fresh starts. It's historical calling and responsibility is to mend our traumatised society and provide an authentic platform where we can all be ourselves without fear of undue reprisal. Whilst a lot has happened within COPE to negate this ideal, in my estimation COPE's Weltanschauung has not yet betrayed its calling, thus the damage is not irreparable.
COPE in historic terms is just a baby; its teething problems are something that is understandable, but like all babies it needs its boundaries and strong parenting so that unacceptable tendencies can be mercilessly purged wherever they manifest themselves to keep the party's growth on track. [There is an organisation in this country that is about to hit the one century mark, yet it still has no idea how to implement ideals of real democracy or civic law. Disturbingly, this old timer is showing disturbing evidence that it is not learning from the wisdom of its experience and is, instead, in regressive mode.]
What affects us most as a young democracy is the deepening dearth of vision and bankruptcy of values, moral and otherwise. Hence we see politicians with as much stature as pygmies, yet with bloated egos, standing on giant's shoulders behaving like a bull in a china shop with our proud history political struggle. They've moved in to fill the vacuum, delinquently swinging swords they've no idea the power of for the purpose of selfish enrichment that veils its greed and vacuousness by the angry spirit of disappointment and dissatisfaction feeding on our people. Wrongly referred to as "leaders", they are but mere manifestations of the most worrying factors in our country: the denigration of our democracy into the rule of organised elites and legalised criminals.
The Jewish philosopher, Hannah Arendt, once wrote in her book analysing Nazism and Stalinism, The Origins of Totalitarianism; "The republic which should define the framework and the limits of democracy is being dissolved from within by democracy." This is exactly what is happening in our country. COPE, because it has the historical advantage of universal appeal, is the best platform yet to arrest this process; to counteract "the politics of racial and ethnic chauvinism"; to cultivate and nurture real non racialism and authentic political consciousness.
What is at stake here is not just the political success of one party but a concerted drive to save a nation, especially the youth, that has lost its way in the maze of superficial promises of consumerism and bling culture. The real threat to our country is not Malema's hot air but the fact that it resonates to the majority of our desperate youth. Our is to properly channel in our people the anger that easily exploitable by the invidious tricks of racial / ethnic chauvinism, the usual dying kicks of liberation movement that is has reached a stage of decay and finding itself incapable of adapting to the demands of true democracy.
COPE, even as an ideal if not yet the reality, is the best platform to recruit by political education and cultural enlightenment, because its contemporary birth places it at an advantage to all other parties. It can easily be the distilment of all that is good in other parties. COPE has a task of bringing people of progressive values and civic mindsets under one roof with little historical baggage. And under this roof the politics of racial / ethnic chauvinism should have no room and be a house we all own: African yellow, African white, African coloured, African Indian, and African black. That will be the best way for our country to forge forward towards real political maturity.
Basically the new struggle is against the dearth of values and culture of unaccountability. About arresting regressive tendencies, and establishing cultured politics of real democratic inclusivity and non-racialism. This calls for a heightened level of political engagement, not withdrawal from politics with a vague hope that someone somewhere will accomplish it for you. Without this, our politics will remain off tangent.
Mphuthumi Ntabeni is a manager and researcher for the Cope Western Cape Provincial Parliament Office. He writes on his personal behalf.
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