22 Apr 2014 | Tony Leon | Original
Publication: BDlive
Shrugging off Nkandla and …
often indifferent delivery … the voters apparently intend to keep faith with
the ANC, writes Tony Leon
APPROPRIATELY in the week when both the Jewish Passover and Easter have
been celebrated, we have been much preoccupied with miracles and wonder.
Passover concerns the miracle of the Jewish exodus from bondage in Egypt
and, aside from inflicting 10 plagues on their oppressors, the Lord
miraculously parted the Red Sea to make good their escape. In the New
Testament, we have the record of the agony of the crucifixion on Good Friday
and then the miracle of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. These beliefs have sustained
the Judeo-Christian faiths for thousands of years. Looking at the hundreds of
thousands who gathered in Moria, alongside a gaggle of politicians, on Sunday,
they remain alive for millions of South Africans today.
Appropriately, perhaps, between these two festivals came the
announcement of the death of Colombian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel
Garcia Marquez. Regarded as one of the giants of 20th-century literature, he
popularised, in his exquisite writings, the genre of "magical realism".
As critic Jonathan Kandell notes, this was the form in which the miraculous and
the real converge. Garcia Marquez’s cast list ranged from vicious dictators to
revolutionary romantics and, of course, star-crossed lovers.
Less miraculous than any of the above is the latest opinion poll from
global market researcher Ipsos, published in the Sunday Times at the weekend.
Or perhaps, in its detail that the African National Congress (ANC) is on course
to another overwhelming victory in a fortnight. There is a touch of wonder in
those numbers. Shrugging off Nkandla and the mushroom clouds of corruption and
often indifferent delivery engulfing the state and its officials, the voters
apparently intend to keep faith with the ANC.
Garcia Marquez does provide some clues for this political levitation.
This dialogue in his novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, has some local
application: "You can’t eat hope," the woman said. "You can’t
eat it, but it sustains you," the colonel replied.
And although his first major novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude,
established Garcia Marquez’s reputation, he said that his best work was The
Autumn of the Patriarch. There is, in its story line, something of local
resonance as well. Set in a mythical Latin American state, it describes a
dictator who has ruled for so long that no-one can remember what life was like
before him. In between failed attempts to block Democratic Alliance
advertisements, the state broadcaster provides a vivid celluloid reminder every
night now of just what life was like during the long oppression of apartheid.
Doubtless the celebrations on April 27 will be a further warning of what ANC
deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa cautioned last November: "If you don’t
vote, the Boers will come back."
Cut from the cloth of one of Garcia Marquez’s romantic revolutionaries,
Ronnie Kasrils also re-entered the lists, stage left as it were, last week. He
managed to extend his cabinet shelf-life a decade ago by playing the safe role
of the ANC’s in-house Jewish anti-Zionist. Now, in what the decrepit, indeed
ageing, ANC Youth League (its interim president is apparently north of 40) has
declared a "blasphemy", Kasrils has become, in the holy week, an
apostate. He called for either an anti-ANC vote or a spoilt paper to register
dissatisfaction with the party to which he has dedicated most of his adult
life.
Will it make any significant difference? There will be some vote loss
and some opposition gain in the next poll but, despite the tectonic plates that
might be shifting below the feet of the ANC, on the surface it would appear as
though there is a remarkable continuity in the ecology of the electorate and
the fortunes of the ruling party.
Why? Back to Garcia Marquez: he was also a soccer fanatic and even wrote
a short story about the beautiful game, The Sworn In. While South Africans
might be unfamiliar with the Latin American teams, over here Manchester United
has, as befits its global following, a huge local following. It also happens
that this year, under the more pedestrian management of David Moyes, it is
enduring one of its worst seasons. Of course, the fans would rather the winning
Alex Ferguson was still at the helm, but when the Red Devils play at Old
Trafford and elsewhere, the supporters still root for Manchester United and do
not don Liverpool jerseys. Some might be disaffected and apathetic, but the
power is with the team and the brand. Not forever, perhaps, but for a while to
come. Our political results also follow the team, rather than its leadership,
apparently.
Throw in the fact that one-third of all South Africans in work are
employed by the government at various levels and the further statistic provided
by the South African Institute of Race Relations that the state is the biggest
single source of income for almost a third of all households in South Africa.
Prosaic explanations, not magical realism, could just explain the next election
result.
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