SUNDAY MAIL EDITORIAL COMMENT: We exported toyi-toyi, Cde Mantashe
Saturday, 24 September 2011 21:37 Opinion
In the aftermath of last week’s assertions by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe that Zanu-PF is influencing the thinking and actions of ANC youth leader Julius Malema, it may be useful to respond this way: that’s nothing new.
Consider this: Joshua Nkomo’s Zipra guerillas invented the toyi-toyi. An enchanting stomp-and-chant dance, the toyi-toyi originated in Zimbabwe. South Africa’s ANC then took the toyi-toyi and perfected it. The protest dance came from Zimbabwe, even though it later came to define South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. Surely, Cde Mantashe is aware of this significant piece of history.
Cde Mantashe should ask himself how Zimbabweans successfully exported the toyi-toyi to South Africa. The answer will fascinate him.
The Zipra-Umkhonto WeSizwe alliance which facilitated the exportation of the toyi-toyi to South Africa was anchored on our people’s shared aspiration for total freedom and democracy.
If indeed it is true that Zanu-PF is currently exporting revolutionary ideas to South African youth, it is because the ideas are inspirational and have struck a cord. Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come. The toyi-toyi taught us that.
Today we should ask ourselves whether the black masses of South Africa and Zimbabwe have tasted total liberation.
To the people of Zimbabwe, political freedom was achieved in 1980 but economic freedom is yet to be fully won. While the Third Chimurenga agrarian revolution has delivered a huge measure of economic freedom — much to the chagrin of racist Western politicians — it is really the Last Chimurenga, through the ongoing indigenisation and economic empowerment programme, that will finally lead us to a totally free Zimbabwe.
To the people of South Africa, freedom remains a painful mirage — 17 years after the first multi-party elections. Even the political freedom attained in 1994 is now under serious threat from a privileged white minority which is audacious enough to campaign for the banning of struggle songs. As for economic freedom, South Africa is a ticking time bomb.
Poverty and inequality have actually worsened in South Africa, making a mockery of the much-vaunted “Rainbow Nation”. This is the reason why Malema’s radical message has struck a cord with the poverty-stricken masses. There is a growing realisation that the current senior leadership of the ANC will not deliver economic freedom. Nice-guy Mandela failed dismally, Mbeki flopped spectacularly and now Zuma is utterly clueless, compromised by his close ties with a greedy capitalist class that is refusing to share the cake.
Cde Mantashe and President Zuma cannot afford to ridicule Malema’s gospel of economic emancipation. Any leader of the ANC who chooses to ignore the enormity of South Africa’s racial inequalities is playing with fire. The pauper-poor citizens of South Africa are growing restless by the day, and very soon the threshold of patience will FGGTYbe breached. Clearly, one does not need the intelligence of a Zanu-PF spin-doctor to make this obvious point. Cde Mantashe should know this.
The politics of economic empowerment is shaping the future of Southern Africa in ways that are yet to be fully revealed.
Ask yourself how Mr Michael Chilufya Sata won Zambia’s presidential election last week. No mystery there.
After 20 years of being fed on Western-sponsored hot air, the people of Zambia have now taken matters into their own hands by showing the red card to the politics of deception. Lest we forget, Zambia was a bastion of African liberation, before Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s diminishing returns enabled a motley gang of Western proxies, regime-change upstarts and snake oil salesmen to topple him in 1991.
Those who thought Zambia’s nationalist politics was dead and buried are gasping in utter shock as the magnitude of Sata’s feat hits home. Today, wherever you go in Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe or Livingstone, Zambians of every political persuasion are quick to tell you that their nation paid dearly for the embarrassing blunder that swept Mr Frederick Chiluba to power in 1991.
After 20 long years of unmitigated mismanagement, corruption and Western appeasement by the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, more than 70 percent of Zambians are living in abject poverty. The euphoric “change” that was promised by the MMD and its Western partners 20 years ago rings hollow today.
The people of Zambia have finally realised that they were sold a dummy in 1991. Sata’s resource-nationalism is expected to restore the dignity of the Zambian people.
Sata’s victory is sweeter when you factor in the decisive factor: a surge in new young voters who boosted the numbers for the Patriotic Front leader. And here is the clincher: the message of economic liberation, anchored on a nationalist ethos, can still strike a cord with the youth. This is imperialism’s worst nightmare.
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