#ZumaMustFall: A case of the politics of deception

17 December 2015

Noam Chomsky in a lecture to The New School in New York sketched how the United States of America and its primary ally in the Middle East, Israel, were the real threats to world peace and not Iran. Delivered in September this year, the lecture concludes that if Iran wanted to build a nuclear weapon the reason for building the weapon would be one of a deterrent nature rather than to be used in an act of aggression.

In the face of the “Clinton doctrine”, among others, Iran had every right to seek a weapon as a deterrent, said Chomsky, but rather the goal of the US and Israel was to cast Iran in a negative - an aggressor - light. In other words, the US and Israel have been using what we, in the ANC in the Western Cape, have termed in the past: the politics of deception. Where a party or government deflects, deceives and designs division.

True to his racist self, Allister “I-love-Verwoed” Sparks added his supportto the #ZumaMustFall debate by likening Cde Des van Rooyen to Caligula’s horse! If Caligula’s horse was the worse appointment in history, Sparks' comparison must be the most racist in recent times.

Never mind that he does not know Cde van Rooyen, with his two Masters degrees, one in Finance from a university in the United Kingdom, Sparks would rather raise his outrage at what he perceives to be an ill-informed appointment than to condemn, for example, the racist incidentthat took place at the Cape Town Stadium where Seabelo Senatla was called a “baboon” by a spectator. Yet Sparks, through the politics of deception, makes us to believe that he has South Africa’s best interest at heart.

Sparks symbolises and represents a group within the #ZumaMustFall discourse which do not have the best interests of all of South Africans at heart but only their own. He symbolises that which is wrong with a particular group within the discourse which really do not see President Zuma falling as their end game but who rather believe that the ANC must fall – as so many have indicated on social media and beyond. Why else would people like Sparks be given a prime spot to address a conference of an opposition party? This group is partisan; they are anti-ANC, anti-majoritarian rule, anti-democratic. Politics of deception par excellence.

One example. When Hout Bay, Noordhoek and Tokai mountains burn, this group, with all its allies in the media and private sector, rally resources to rescue belongings; stuff that are heavily insured. When Masiphumele, Imizamo Yethu, just down the road or Agste Laan near Athlone burns it becomes the responsibility of the City of Cape Town, Province or, at worse, national government to respond.

Refusing to join people, who lack the most basic service delivery such as sanitation, in marching, this group of gripers would rather pull up their noses and make a stink. That the biggest crowd drawn to the protest against President Zuma should happen in the Mother City comes as no surprise.

Yet the ANC is well aware that there exists within this “broad movement” a group which do not necessarily believe #ZumaMustFall to be the silver bullet antidote to the country’s corruption cancer. This crop of citizens is much more appreciative of the nuances and complexities of our current situation. Yes, these are concerned that what has happened in the last week has only contributed to the seriousness of the situation. Some of these citizens can be found in the ANC. They are patriotic, non-partisan; they are black and white, rich and poor. Instead of condemning, they want to construct.

Niël Barnard in his book, Secret Revolution, describes how the late Tata Madiba was over cautious in ensuring that the Apartheid government never drove a wedge between him and the rest of his comrades, especially those in exile. Even more so, Madiba always ensured that the President of the ANC at the time, Cde Oliver Tambo, was never undermined and if any negotiations were to occur, especially with exiles, that it had to happen with or through Cde O.R. and not anyone else in the ANC.

Madiba knew, as many of his comrades then knew, that the Apartheid regime were experts at the politics of deception and specialists in the divide-and-rule strategy.

The children of racist Apartheid live on. Through the politics of deception and like Allister Sparks, in his article, they attempt to drive a wedge between the national officials of the ANC and among ANC members themselves. The group who have the fall of the ANC as their primary aim try to capture those comrades and citizens who have legitimate concerns and who simply want to build a better South Africa and not condemn the country.

Despite the relatively low numbers at these marches, the ANC, as a leader in society, will not succumb to the pressures of today’s doomsayers but rather, as it did during the years of transition, will work with those who wish to build a non-racist, non-sexist, free and democratic society. A South Africa - where people will march not for markets or a currency that falls, but for principles like the dignity of each and every South African.

Marius Fransman is Chairperson of ANC Western Cape