The death of Margaret Thatcher and the shenanigans surrounding it should come as a preview of events to come in South Africa when the passing away of Nelson Mandela is announced. Paraphrasing Jonathan Freedland of the Mail and Guardian we can also say; “after a life in politics, the politics of death will come. Underneath the envisaged protestations of decorum, the insistence that it will then not be the time for such things, that our thoughts should only be of condolence and tribute, something intensely political will be under way: our society will wrestle over the memory of its most towering figure ever. And, make no mistake, the debate over how to remember Nelson Mandela – whether on the streets, on Twitter or at his funeral – will not about the past. It will be a contest over South Africa’s and without doubt the ANC’s present and future.
The thought of Nelson Mandela passing on has already started to create all manner of politicking with some in society wanting to angle at those that have become an inconvenience to the emerging establishment. The ructions that followed Jonathan Jansen’s comments on the necessity of society to prepare for the inevitable, and thus avoiding a ‘mourning’ period that may be abused for many a purpose is just but one example of the latent interests that will be played when the announcement is made.
The move, politically smart we must agree, by the Democratic Alliance’s national spokesperson Mmusi Maimane that “Chris Hani was an inspirational figure. Whatever his ideological leanings might have been, we can all acknowledge that he was a principled and determined leader. He lived and died for his principles and made an enormous contribution in the struggle against apartheid; for this, he deserves to be honoured”, is another example of what South Africans are to expect of the Nelson Mandela mourning period.
The strategy to claim South African struggle icons, most of whom have historically been ANC members and thus abrogating some form of monopoly on the ANC to pronounce on them, has been mapped out by the ‘opposition establishment’ with the ruling party always falling in the trap of saying ‘some South African heroes can only be celebrated the ANC way’ . The pattern of defining South Africaness outside ANCness has gained traction within the opposition establishment complex to an extent that being ANC may gradually be equated to blackness and not South Africaness. There are a number of events that can be listed where the ANC has actually shot itself in the foot with regards to how the country should deal with national cohesion matters.
• The Solomon Mahlangu square cleansing process that followed a DA celebration of the MK soldier in Mamelodi, where the Deputy Chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng, then Tshwane Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa attended and thus showing tacit support of the rejection of other parties celebrating people that brought about this noble democracy.
• The general street naming process that seems to be loaded on one track of the struggle execution process. The inability to transcend the ideological hostility over some amongst the Apartheid sponsored and/or produced heroes in order to name streets and name places after them. It is still mind boggling how South Africa in its entirety has not yet named a hospital after Chris Barnard and a number of places after the over 10 Nobel laureates that continue to decorate our scientific and peace competitiveness record.
• The reaction that followed the Mmusi Mampane statement on Chris Hani, and many more that do not deserve further mention herein The contest for the Mandela name as witnessed in the last elections when the former president was flown to the Eastern Cape will be heightened when the announcement is made.
If the April 14 Sunday Times headlines are anything to go by, the Mandela family ‘factor’ may exacerbate the contest to levels where commemorations of the icon will factionalised along the emerging family divides templates. Given that the prise of politics will always be the entrenchment of hegemony an interests being the embodiments of active diversities in any socio-political co-existence and system, the Mangaung neutralised factional interests as well as the opposition establishment interest of weakening the Zuma-led concretising establishment will be politically in-organic if they don’t play themselves around an international event of this magnitude.
The planning prowess of media within the ‘oppositional establishment’ to legitimise and delegitimise at will activities of any political establishment will come handy when the announcement is made. The editor’s pact before the election of Jacob Zuma as well as the diffusionary nature of oppositional reporting that has engulfed South Africa will be put on steroids in an attempt to seize the augustness of the political playing field levelling opportunity that may come with the Mandela passing on announcement. In a discussion with colleagues about the impact such an announcement will have on the country’s politics, two interesting responses averaged the discussion;
‘as an ANC member I don’t wish it to happen before the elections because the speeches of Nelson Mandela, some of which were written by people who are gradually assuming a character of being in the oppositional establishment may be compromising in the run up to the election’
‘as a South African I wish it to happen and settle the political claims to the ‘national soul space’ a Nelson Mandela has represented. It will afford the ANC the opportunity to define itself outside the Mandela generational firmament, as well as affording the oppositional establishment to genuinely claim space in the new outside Mandela firmament political space
The memory of Mandela will in such circumstances be redefined. The structural power potential of historicizing his achievements will create a realism of South Africa many within the political coalitions have ever imagined. The concept of Mandela will have an aftermath impact and its utility in politics will gain premium in the definition of oppositional politics to emerge out of the ‘born free generation’. One of the outcomes of a post-Mandela send-off will be the generational shifts that the era brings, particularly the emotional distance from the past and a new flirt with the ‘Obamised’ present politics. The youth mourners will definitely be those that did not grow up in a time of organised battles against what some in the oppositional establishment still represent. The Thatcher funeral should thus be a theatre the ruling elite must study to mitigate the undercurrents related to claims of Mandela; many in his family have ideationally joined the oppositional establishment. Just Thinking
The thought of Nelson Mandela passing on has already started to create all manner of politicking with some in society wanting to angle at those that have become an inconvenience to the emerging establishment. The ructions that followed Jonathan Jansen’s comments on the necessity of society to prepare for the inevitable, and thus avoiding a ‘mourning’ period that may be abused for many a purpose is just but one example of the latent interests that will be played when the announcement is made.
The move, politically smart we must agree, by the Democratic Alliance’s national spokesperson Mmusi Maimane that “Chris Hani was an inspirational figure. Whatever his ideological leanings might have been, we can all acknowledge that he was a principled and determined leader. He lived and died for his principles and made an enormous contribution in the struggle against apartheid; for this, he deserves to be honoured”, is another example of what South Africans are to expect of the Nelson Mandela mourning period.
The strategy to claim South African struggle icons, most of whom have historically been ANC members and thus abrogating some form of monopoly on the ANC to pronounce on them, has been mapped out by the ‘opposition establishment’ with the ruling party always falling in the trap of saying ‘some South African heroes can only be celebrated the ANC way’ . The pattern of defining South Africaness outside ANCness has gained traction within the opposition establishment complex to an extent that being ANC may gradually be equated to blackness and not South Africaness. There are a number of events that can be listed where the ANC has actually shot itself in the foot with regards to how the country should deal with national cohesion matters.
• The Solomon Mahlangu square cleansing process that followed a DA celebration of the MK soldier in Mamelodi, where the Deputy Chairperson of the ANC in Gauteng, then Tshwane Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa attended and thus showing tacit support of the rejection of other parties celebrating people that brought about this noble democracy.
• The general street naming process that seems to be loaded on one track of the struggle execution process. The inability to transcend the ideological hostility over some amongst the Apartheid sponsored and/or produced heroes in order to name streets and name places after them. It is still mind boggling how South Africa in its entirety has not yet named a hospital after Chris Barnard and a number of places after the over 10 Nobel laureates that continue to decorate our scientific and peace competitiveness record.
• The reaction that followed the Mmusi Mampane statement on Chris Hani, and many more that do not deserve further mention herein The contest for the Mandela name as witnessed in the last elections when the former president was flown to the Eastern Cape will be heightened when the announcement is made.
If the April 14 Sunday Times headlines are anything to go by, the Mandela family ‘factor’ may exacerbate the contest to levels where commemorations of the icon will factionalised along the emerging family divides templates. Given that the prise of politics will always be the entrenchment of hegemony an interests being the embodiments of active diversities in any socio-political co-existence and system, the Mangaung neutralised factional interests as well as the opposition establishment interest of weakening the Zuma-led concretising establishment will be politically in-organic if they don’t play themselves around an international event of this magnitude.
The planning prowess of media within the ‘oppositional establishment’ to legitimise and delegitimise at will activities of any political establishment will come handy when the announcement is made. The editor’s pact before the election of Jacob Zuma as well as the diffusionary nature of oppositional reporting that has engulfed South Africa will be put on steroids in an attempt to seize the augustness of the political playing field levelling opportunity that may come with the Mandela passing on announcement. In a discussion with colleagues about the impact such an announcement will have on the country’s politics, two interesting responses averaged the discussion;
‘as an ANC member I don’t wish it to happen before the elections because the speeches of Nelson Mandela, some of which were written by people who are gradually assuming a character of being in the oppositional establishment may be compromising in the run up to the election’
‘as a South African I wish it to happen and settle the political claims to the ‘national soul space’ a Nelson Mandela has represented. It will afford the ANC the opportunity to define itself outside the Mandela generational firmament, as well as affording the oppositional establishment to genuinely claim space in the new outside Mandela firmament political space
The memory of Mandela will in such circumstances be redefined. The structural power potential of historicizing his achievements will create a realism of South Africa many within the political coalitions have ever imagined. The concept of Mandela will have an aftermath impact and its utility in politics will gain premium in the definition of oppositional politics to emerge out of the ‘born free generation’. One of the outcomes of a post-Mandela send-off will be the generational shifts that the era brings, particularly the emotional distance from the past and a new flirt with the ‘Obamised’ present politics. The youth mourners will definitely be those that did not grow up in a time of organised battles against what some in the oppositional establishment still represent. The Thatcher funeral should thus be a theatre the ruling elite must study to mitigate the undercurrents related to claims of Mandela; many in his family have ideationally joined the oppositional establishment. Just Thinking
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