Epoch+of+incredulity+and+season+of+darkness,+Sipho+Seepe,+B+Day



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 * An epoch of incredulity and a season of darkness


 * Sipho Seepe, Business Day, Johannesburg, 13 February 2008**

Piqued by the public humiliation of her son at the recent African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Polokwane, Epainette Mbeki did what all mothers would do: she came to his defence. She blamed Mbeki’s woes on the lack of sophistication of the masses, who could not rise to his intellectual level. In short, the masses are the problem, while Mbeki is not.

She conveniently overlooked the fact that her son’s tenure has coincided with the collapse of the health, education and criminal justice systems. During this period we have also seen the undermining of the independence of institutions that are supposed to support democracy.

Delivering his state of the nation last Friday, Mbeki returned his appreciation. “What she expects as her birthday present,” he said, “is the truth.” But, in characteristic fashion, Mbeki evaded the truth. He spoke lyrically about the need to respond to “the unexpected disruptions in the supply of electricity”. Unexpected! This despite documentary evidence and expert advice that the electricity crisis was long looming and warning bells had been sounded.

The same can be said of other challenges; the health crisis, crime, and the skills shortage. Those who warned of the brain drain and the attendant skills crisis were routinely dismissed as prophets of doom.

Mbeki’s appeal that the situation “demands that we inspire and organise all our people to act together as one” is commendable. This, however, does not remove the fact that his reign has been one of great divisiveness within and outside his own party. It was during Mbeki’s reign that the attacks on the media and the judiciary were spawned. He was accountable to no one: not to the people who elected him, not to Parliament, not even to his own party.

In spite of this, we always look forward to the state of the nation address. We are a desperate nation that has become so accustomed to nonsense. Some analysts have opined that, in his address, Mbeki sought to restore his legacy. What legacy? We have become victims of catch phrases and words— the African renaissance, Nepad, the Age of Hope.

“Business unusual” is the latest catch phrase. But business has largely been unusual in government. Mbeki’s government rewards incompetence, celebrates mediocrity, and denigrates expertise and scholarship. It is uncaring and unresponsive. Accountability is a foreign concept.

“Business unusual” means sidestepping the issues. It is faith-based management response that hopes for a miracle. “Business unusual” means plunging the country into darkness and undermining the economy with nobody being called to account. It means naming and shaming the victims of incompetence and rewarding the real culprits.

In this regard, Mbeki’s appeal to Charles Dickens is probably apt. An assessment of Mbeki’s presidency reveals a reign in the age of foolishness, the epoch of belief and of incredulity, and a season of darkness, both literally and figuratively.

Despite the media’s attempt to find something redeeming in his speech, a careful analysis shows that it is simply a continuation of Mbeki’s denialism. He wants us to believe that after 10 years of his presidency, with the same incompetent individuals around him, at his weakest, darkest hour, he can turn failure around. This would require a suspension of common sense on the part of the masses to which Mbeki tries to appeal.

One cannot fault the intentions, but it would be foolish to expect that mere declaration will suddenly transform incompetence to competence; that the uncaring will be galvanised to action, that those without knowledge will become knowledgeable. Nowhere in the speech did Mbeki say that he had failed the nation. The fault is never his.

But, the enemies of progress are not out there. They are within.

We have become prisoners of hope. The sooner we disabuse ourselves of the notion that changes will occur miraculously, the better. Also, the sooner we move from being held hostage to views of one individual the better. Fortunately, Mbeki is destined to become an irrelevance in South African politics.


 * Prof Seepe is president of the South African Institute of Race Relations


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A704859**

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