Monday, 29 August 2016 19opinion & analysisTheNewAgeNewspaper @The_New_Age

AnalysisKALIN PASHALIEV

LETTERonline@tnamedia.co.za

AnalysisSANDILE MEMELA

Why ANC can’t fire ZumaWhy do we want the ANC or its leadership to destroy itself? It would be killing the goose that lays golden eggs

IF YOU are, like most people, blinded by emotional political reasoning, you will have expected the ANC to listen to the people and fire its president.

To the sober and rational, this is preposter-ous.

There are many unprecedented things that have happened in the new South Africa, but a liberation movement firing or expelling its president is not one of them. It is something different to what happened to former president Thabo Mbeki being recalled in 2008.

We are talking about firing and expelling here. That is inconceivable.

Let’s be practical. Recently, 86 leaders of the ANC were locked away in a hotel for four days in Irene, Tshwane. They were gathered to take stock of the local government elections.

But the ANC has not lost power. Yes, it is on the decline, but it is not true that the majority party has lost power.

There are two things that cannot be dis-puted. Firstly, parties in power for too long begin to lose power after 20 years. It is absurd to think the ANC would be an exception.

Secondly, as democracies mature, people lose interest and don’t bother to vote. They realise that politicians are only interested in themselves.

It would be interesting to check voting pat-terns in so-called matured democracies. You find that in the US just slightly more than 40% but under 50% of the population turns out to vote.

Political power will be taken and exercised whether people turn out to vote or not. This is democracy.

There is something else that we should be looking at. Whether the ANC is in power or not, the majority of the people will still not be free. They will continue to live in a white supremacist, patriarchal and capitalist eco-nomic system.

This economic system strangles all people. The face of poverty, unemployment and hope-lessness in South Africa is African.

But that is not my point. What I’m driving at is the legacy of colonialism and apartheid on the psyche of all black people, including the so-called leadership.

You see, we are all products of the same colonial and apartheid condition. Colonialism and apartheid may be over or even defeated, whatever that means. But colonialism and apartheid remain strong and intact. It is a powerful state of mind that dominates our psyche, all of us.

What this means, if you will allow me to oversimplify things, is that the current leader-ship of the ANC and all other parties are the product of colonialism and apartheid. They embody promoting and perpetuating struc-tures and systems that entrench economic inequality and injustice.

Now how the hell do you overcome a system that has defeated your mind and dominates your world outlook? It is like a cancer that has taken over and is eating away at your body. There is nothing you can do about it no matter how much you try to wriggle. At some point, you must fall.

So, you choose to live fast and hold on for as long as you can. This is what the ANC leader-ship is doing. This is what you, too, would do.

In fact, this is exactly what we do every day of our lives, especially the chattering classes. It is about our selfishness, greed and self-interest.

Yes, we will not say or do anything that will undermine or destroy our cosy lives. Nobody would, not even the poor. There are millions of people, black and white, who benefit a lot from the way things are in this country.

They are business people, the clergy, gov-ernment technocrats, professionals and all sorts of people. They carry on with their lives in an inherently unjust and unequal society.

Now why do we want or expect the ANC or its leadership to destroy itself? It would be kill-ing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Will anyone who does not want to live a life torn from the pages of a glossy magazine please raise their hands?

Who does not want to lead the life of a movie star, wherever you go eyes are glued on you and people know your name. You are feted as a VVIP. Even in a church, God’s house, people are categorised.

Let us be frank, it is nice to have people rise to their feet when you enter the room. Get them to sing the national anthem before they sit down, shut up and listen to you.

It is nice to have three houses – Cape Town,

Johannesburg and home lavishly furnished with all expenses paid.

Everybody wants that, including the poor. Others work all their lives and play the Lotto every weekend hoping and praying to win mil-lions one day.

Now the leadership of the ANC is also a product of colonialism and apartheid just like the leaders of all other parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the DA.

In fact, when you look at the leaders of the ANC they enjoy the same privileges as mem-bers of the opposition. For example, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane have access to free food that cost more than R12m a year in Parliament.

Now what is the difference between Cape Town and Johannesburg in terms of the inequality? In both provinces, there are filthy rich people who live side by side with the poor.

Perhaps it would make sense if the opposi-tion-controlled Western Cape was the most equal and just society in the country.

As someone who has had the privilege to live in both provinces, in township lingo we say it is the same difference.

But we want ANC leaders who are just like us to resign en masse. Who stands to benefit and be pleased by this? Think about it.

Yes, we want leaders who will build houses, clinics, roads, provide food and free education for our children. We want free medicine and free this and free that. It would seem freeload-ing is our way of life.

But this is impossible. I don’t imagine the ANC national executive committee (NEC) leaving their positions, which includes power-ful and influential strategic posts in national,

provincial and municipal government – with-out being voted out by the branches.

The demand for the entire NEC to step down is impractical and impossible. These are times of blind emotional reason. But we need to be sober if we are to move forward.

This is impossible because it is too much to ask. Worse, it is impossible for the ANC to deliver what the people want with the suprem-acist patriarchal capitalist system intact.

As Malcolm X put it: “You cannot expect a chicken to lay a duck egg.” It does not have it in its system.

The ANC is caught up in an inherently unjust economic system that thrives on exploi-tation, selfishness and greed.

It is the economic system, stupid!Of course, it is not an accident that most

people think if the ANC leadership resigns this will solve the problem. I think they are unsure.

Nobody seems to know what the best way out of this is.

All you can do is to live one day at a time. Even if Jesus Christ has arrived and is here now, this is not the end of the world. Neither the EFF nor the DA will introduce radical economic changes. Not in the next five or 10 years.

So, just try not to be like most people. Asking the ANC leadership to quit or destroy-ing the oldest liberation movement is not the solution.

Think and pray. The Jesus that people think they have seen is a false prophet. The ANC, whether it sees or not, is still in power. We are waiting for the second coming.Sandile Memela is a writer, cultural critic and civil servants. He writes in his personal capacity

Caster ‘debate’ unveils our own prejudices

IF SOUTH Africans thought that the Caster Semenya debacle would miraculously vanish into thin air after the athlete won gold in the 800m in Rio, they would be gravely mistaken.

Right now, as you read this, tons of faeces are flying in slow motion towards the fan; once they hit, a great deal will be revealed about many things that are a little more difficult to recognise than gender regulations in athletics, natural-vs-artificial doping and the future of the Olympic Games. Whether track authorities will reinstate the rules for female athletes to lower their testosterone levels to “normal”, or even create a new category for intersex athletes to compete in, one observation remains worri-some: that South Africa has a problem in enter-ing meaningful international conversations.

Social media is probably the best place to go to if one wants to attain an understanding of the national psyche, which in the local context is akin to analysing a sub-culture compared to the dominant ones that rule the internet. South Africa is arguably the sub-culture in the Semenya dialogue because it seems to be turning a blind eye to valid concerns raised by the rest of the world, and other female run-ners, and by doing so rendering itself incor-rigibly arrogant. We’ve know the extent of our arrogance for a long time – we seldom heed to warnings by dominant trade players concern-ing our economy, for example, and often think that the propaganda that is so readily gulped up by the South African populace is also entertained by the rest of the world. It isn’t.

In strictly biological terms, Caster Semenya is not the average woman. We now know, according to a leaked medical report in 2009, that she has internal testes, no womb and testosterone levels three times higher than the average. For some reason, mentioning these facts on social media will get you the same reaction that Isis reserves for apostates.

Apparently, discussing an individual’s biology is an infringement on the rights to privacy and sexual self-determination. This, of course, would be true if we were dealing with a person who never opted to be in the public eye; in Semenya’s case, we have a duty to engage in a vigorous conversation so that similar scan-dals can be understood better and hopefully slackened in the future. This is how humanity makes progress.

One feeble but popular counter argument against testosterone testing for female ath-letes is that their male counterparts have not been similarly scrutinised for producing high levels of the hormone. And why should they? It is high testosterone levels that define manli-ness and not womanliness. Men who produce high levels of testosterone are regarded as natural leaders, alpha males if you will, and are either revered for protecting the rest of

us from natural or man-made calamities or ridiculed when they fail to do so. It seems that only radical feminists would be happy to reverse the sexes for the sake of women’s empowerment.

Even so, we need to begin acknowledging that Semenya’s socialisation and identity as a woman in a tough world have no place in a dia-logue that must take into account the objective science at hand as well as all concerns raised by other parties. In a purely altruistic fashion, no one should ever be considered superior to another. Many great thinkers and writers such as Canadian author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell, who cites the physiologist Ross Tucker on the obvious advantages of utilising high levels of testosterone and the importance of clear-cut gender categories at Olympic level, agree that Semenya should not have run in Rio. This view is a sore subject for overly zeal-

ous South African patriots who don’t, or don’t want to, understand that Semenya’s participa-tion at the Olympics has done a great disser-vice to all the other women in the field. Yes, Caster is a national treasure. Yes, we love her and support her in the face of vicious derision and adversity. No, she did not champion fair play and neither did Athletics SA.

Take as an example Lynsey Sharp’s senti-ments soon after the 800m final on Saturday. “I’ve tried to avoid the issue all year. We now how each of us feels but it’s out of our control – we’re pretty much relying on the people at the top to sort it (the rule) out. I think the public can see as well how difficult it is with the change of rule (testosterone suppression) but all we can do is give our best.”

Sharp’s tearful declaration was met with unsurpassed vitriol by South Africans, some taking to social media and calling the British runner, who finished sixth in the final and wrote her dissertation in hyperandrogenism while studying law at Napier University, a “sore loser”, a “racist”, a “white bitch” and a representative of a colonialist, murdering cul-ture. It is distressing that a large contingent of South African online commentators por-tray the same prejudiced tendencies as their demonic colonisers. It is as if the supremacist ghosts of yesteryear have magically possessed average South Africans to think that the whole world is out to get them, to enslave them and rob them of their sovereign identity. This kind of thinking is not only birthed in deep apart-heid complexes but is also absurdly paranoid and regressive. It is also mind boggling how a fair amount of gender rights activists will dismiss the concerns of other female athletes just to fit their social justice narrative.

As South Africans of whatever heritage, the onus is on us to enact grace and intelligence. Without such refinements to our culture(s), the rest of the world only gets to see our bit-terness and resentment for all things foreign. It is time that we opened ourselves to outside ridicule and self-criticism. Evidently, we haven’t quite figured everything out just yet. Kalin Pashaliev is a writer and commentator

Lack of recreational facilities hits youth I have always wondered why there’s so much waywardness among the youth.

Boredom and lack of sport recreational facilities is the major problem in townships.

Sport and other mural activities – be it debating club, gym, soccer or dance clubs – will definitely come in handy in shap-ing our children’s futures since all can’t triumph academically.

It will certainly assist us in taking our children off the streets and keeping them out of trouble.

Emphasis on their education must be a top priority and compulsory as it’s the key to success.

l am optimistic and adamant that these social activities will come in handy in reducing and curbing the tendency by our children falling prey to drug and alcohol abuse, and the forever problematic teen pregnancy.

As a society we have a big role to play and be involved in our children’s well- being especially as they happen to be our future leaders.

Let’s do our bit to make a difference in our communities or is that too difficult? Surely not.

McDivett Khumbulani Tshehla, Halfway House

Assad regime crosses red lineACCORDING to reliable intelligence reports, the Bashar Hafez al-Assad regime has used chemical weapons against its population. It has crossed the red line.

The use of chemical weapons is prohibited in international armed conflicts The prohibition of the use of chemical weapons applies in all circumstances.

The certainty of suffering, pain and death is associated with chemical weapons used in Syria.

They are blood agents, choking agents, blister agents and nerve agents. History will condemn us for being bystanders in the face of these monstrous crimes against humanity.

Farouk AraieJohannesburg

@The_New_Age

TWEETS

Analysis: ‘EFF’s flimsy political stance’

Sandile Ngcobo@Paulfuzey: Shame!Tinyiko Mpenyana@tinyiko_tim: You guys are so

childish. I mean everyone can see right through you. Fight your masters battles!

Analysis: Semenya wins on track, but has challenges off it

Bridly @Bri_Hloti: So true about no sponsor

coming up for Caster our golden girl.

Political analyst Sethakgi Kgomo joins #GordhanVsHawks discussion on #ANN7PRIME #Dstv405

Mvelase@Unathimt: Gordhan must face the

music, no one is above the law, we are called to justice

Athlone GB@AthloneGb: Zuma and his cronies

are above the law and constitution!

Captured media assisted Opposi-tion parties: Masina

Lenny Dlakude @EarlR_2011: ANN7 perhaps?Tong Po @En_Jay_Be: W@EarlR_2011 @The_

New_Age lol who captured it?

ANC structures discussing early conference

Malovo@slovolicius: Good luck comrades!

RULING THE ROOST: Amid a chorus of calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down, firing its leader will be an unprecedented move on the part of a liberation organisation with an illustrious history such as the ANC, says the writer. PICTURE: BONGIWE MCHUNU

TWO SIDES TO THE STORY: Lynsey Sharp’s comments about Caster Semenya have been met with jeers and stinging criticism by many South Africans. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES