Kader Asmal resigned as an ANC member of parliament when it became plain to all of us that the ANC and the country were going to be led by a person who had never been to school, the son of a domestic worker, nogal. The MA graduate in economics (Sussex my boy) had been out-witted and cast aside. Our future president was going to be a man who saw nothing wrong in appearing in public wearing leopard skins, wielding a cowhide shield and a stick!
Some of us who remembered that the first president of the African National Congress was a Ph.D graduate and that he was followed by other doctors like Moroka etc. felt betrayed. The ANC never stated it as policy, but it had become ‘traditional' that any leader of the ANC would be a graduate. The educated classes, (lawyers and clergymen) had become the accepted leaders of the African National Congress.
It must be remembered that a lot of us in the ANC come from the educated and even monied middle-class, products of mission schools and universities, and that we possess a very deep-seated prejudice in favour of the middle-class. The Oliver Tambos and Nelson Mandelas were barristers, not herd boys from the rural areas who come from working-class homes.
The great Professor Asmal was outraged! He has spent most of his time in the hallowed halls of overseas universities and law courts, and he had made a significant contribution in the crafting of the South African Constitution. He had been Minister of Education, one of these ANC pundits who have made a hash of our education and got away scot-free. A fellow Londoner, Thabo Mbeki had been in charge of affairs in the country until 2008, and now these sans culottes (those without trouserses) had put one of their own in charge of the ANC and national affairs! The professor, along with a lot of us who possess high academic qualifications (Thula Bopela has two MAs!) were outraged. The only way out was to resign from parliament.
Professor Kader Asmal became a member of a group known in the ANC as ‘the walking wounded'. This term refers to ANC leaders who had influential positions during Mbeki's reign, lost these positions after Polokwane, but remained in the ANC. Some of them are very bitter that they lost their power and influence; others would have fled to COPE if COPE had realized its pre-election projections...that they would win 51% of the electoral vote. Some remain in the ANC to do COPE's work among us. How can they be identified?
They were yes-men during Mbeki's reign, questioning nothing, including the expulsion of Jacob Zuma from government. They found their voice when Mbeki was kicked out of power, and are heard only when there is something to say against the ANC government. They are not members of the opposition parties; they are ANC members, and oppose everything the ANC government plans to do. When they are tackled by members of the new government, a great shout of outrage is heard from among the ranks of those who are traditionally anti-ANC. COPE, DA and some self-appointed experts on ANC politics rush to their defence.
President Zuma stated last year that his government would ‘toughen' the police, in order to make them able to cope with the rising tide of crime. Kader Asmal is not ashamed to tell us that he is one of the people who literally tied the hands of the police by giving criminals the edge when confronted with the criminals, in the name of human rights! The laws that were put in place to govern police behaviour in a violent confrontation with criminals placed the police in a seriously tactical disadvantage. It was clear that the laws were crafted by intellectuals, people who knew nothing whatsoever about combat situations.
Kader Asmal is one of those ANC people who left the country and fought Apartheid from university podiums and conference halls. Military activity was OK for the likes of Zuma and other uneducated members of the movement, but they came back to the country to legislate on matters governing armed confrontation. They were bound to create a disaster.
Fikile Mbalula, the Deputy Minister of Police, was targeted by Kader Asmal. The language used against him demonstrated the supreme arrogance of this pundit, and the low opinion he holds regarding Deputy Minister Mbalula. Kader Asmal believes that when he and his ‘London Beat' left government, the level or quality of leadership in the government deteriorated. He was allowed to say that he hoped that when Fikile Mbalula became Secretary-General, he shall have died. Why did Asmal personalize a matter that is in fact government policy, and target Mbalula? Nobody protested.
He said that ‘Mbalula's project would mean that the national police commissioner was going to be generalissimo or Il Duce, a comparison to Benito Mussolini and Generalisssimo Fransisco Franco, Italian and Spanish fascists. Nobody protested.
Paul Trewhela, a journalist says: ‘Asmal's concern here is clearly that he believes government in South Africa is drifting towards a more despotic form of rule. He could not have been more plain.' He accuses the ANC government of failing political memory, showing signs of re-establishing apartheid-era security organisations (see here).
This, coming from an ANC NEC member! He compares Minister Cwele's department to the Bureau of State Security, BOSS. In plain terms, Kader Asmal believes that there is no difference, ideologically, between Zuma's ministers and Apartheid-era security agents. One wonders why he still calls himself an ANC member. Still, nobody protested or called him to order. Then Mbalula hit back, and then the deluge came down! Kader Asmal was suddenly surrounded by a thick cloud of defenders, using everything from age to the fact that he is a former minister, to make Mbalula look like a brute. Trewhela of course puts in his side show about Abahlali baseMjondolo that he manages to pull into this episode, to reach his jaundiced conclusions.
What I cannot understand (maybe I do) is why an ANC NEC member went to the Mail & Guardian to express his concerns about trends he thinks are worrisome in his own organisation. Who is he addressing? Who is his audience? To what gallery is he playing to? He is joining a growing group of former UDF/ANC leaders who distinguish themselves these days by grabbing every opportunity to show how ‘liberal' they are. Bishop Tutu does not miss an opportunity of supporting anything that puts him on a ‘Christian, reconciliatory and forgiving' pedestal. He wasted no time expressing support for Jansen, the UFS professor who forgave white racists who did not apologize, without considering the feelings of the actual victims. That is how these black ‘leaders' get invited to these platforms where they address racists in our name, moderate black leaders!
What these ‘enlightened' blacks like Asmal overlook is that Zuma's government is talking here about how to empower the police to deal effectively with vicious, murderous criminals. People like Asmal will tell you that we should always bear in mind that criminals have rights! Maybe they do, but Asmal et al forget to tell us what rights policemen have. The government is attacked from all sides because of high crime statistics, and when it tries to get its act together, Professors of law talk about Il Duces and Generalissimos. COPE, DA and other hangers-on like Trewhela applaud. When they are told to find themselves a cemetery of their choice and kick the bucket there, the remarks are made to sound like blasphemy.
We identify performers by noticing who applauds their performance.
Thula Bopela, aka John Drinkwater, is a security guard at Parliament, and writes in his personal capacity.
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