Media Flaws

After subjecting myself to cheap politicking, I mingled with a sense of disillusionment whilst blankly staring at a glass of blood-red w(h)ine. Suddenly Helen Zille turned towards me, smiling, needless to say a short-lived smile, as I engaged in a bit of tête-à-tête with her - Tête-à-tête which made the wine palatably sweeter in comparison.

The Harold Wolpe Trust once again, outdid itself, by approbatively giving me the pleasure of being in the midst of such good company. Heavyweight political boxers ranging from Helen Zille, Simon Grindrod and Tasneem Essop... The master puppeteer Patricia De Lille sat in the audience – a grand illusion that made it hard to believe she could pull Grinrod’s strings from such a distance.

The debate was chaired by the IDASA’s ever-eloquent, often superfluous Judith February. Okay, enough ad hominem attacks and back to business:

Zille, who described herself as the proverbial dog caught in the tire of a moving bus, began by stating that she was going to sideline the main topic (who dare tell Zille what to do?) and discuss “Politics and Democracy, prospects for the Future of South Africa.” In what seemed like a political campaign she began by stating that South Africa is not yet a consolidated democracy nor a stable democracy. A few strides towards this type of democracy miraculously occurred twice. The first was the democratic election in 1994. The second stride was the DA’s win over the city of Cape Town.

Zille delivered a few left-and-right jabs on the past and how the ANC tried to root her out of office via nefarious measures - “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - obviously addressing the ANC.

Slightly turning towards the topic at hand, Zille stressed the importance of the coalition government in Cape Town. Apparently she never wanted to be mayor or even expected her party to win… how modest. In a bid to state the obvious Zille acknowledged that it is unlikely that one party will beat the ANC, due to the fact that opposition is fractured and it needs to join the bandwagon of colluding, oops I mean coalition. Coalition for Zille is also a means of acknowledging the power of identities: “we need to form a common vehicle for the diverse people of South Africa… If we all fragment to little race parties we will never receive a consolidated democracy.”

Just when I was beginning to like Zille she had to spoil it and touch on cities and towns. She did not hide the fact that these were her/and her parties main targets - citing that cities and towns are more malleable. I think she was trying to say that cities and towns have more malleable white people who can be swayed to the DA. So yes, let’s forget the rurals – they have no say and cannot make an informed decision!?

Essop, Rasool’s close ally, took to the ring and immediately told her opponents that she was going to be frank and would be delivering some below-the-belt blows. Her first punch hit Zille's democracy fantasies and then proceeded to knock out coalition ideologies. Essop, through her own experience, discarded coalitions as bearing a negative impact on stability within governance. To some applause she went further to state that Cape Town’s political dominant culture is filled with remnants of the past, social disintegration, social divisons, clear divides between rich and poor, social exclusions, economic exclusions and spatial exclusion (Hout Bay?) “A consolidated democracy will not be achieved as long as we live in a fractured society… How as Capetonians, do we start addressing the fractures in our society?”

Trying to obliterate Zille’s zeal, Essop further reminded us of South Africa’s constitution that enshrines the principles of co-operative governance. And as for Zille’s pleas for the ANC to accept her win and become good opposition, Essop simply told her government was too big, nationally too, to play around with the sleeping Capetonic fish and bear being called opposition (how demeaning). At this point I felt like another state of the nation address was coming as Essop went on to say that government remains stable and is dealing with fundamental challenges such as unemployment and poverty. “We are still a society in transition!” Clearly opposing Zille, Essop became a victim of repetition as she stressed the strength of our democracy and our strong institutions, ‘independent’ judiciary and constitutional institutions that form basis of protecting and preserving democracy. Essop pleaded for active active citizenship. “How do we grow up in Cape Town? “How do we mature out of the remnants of the past?”

Grinrod, as if outlining De La Ray lyrics or boeremag plans, poetically sang something to the tune of celebrating Cape Town’s diversity. Sad thing about this chap is that he kept on pitching his party and how they could do this and that for us. Terrible. He lost me right there. He did point out some obvious points such as: “Cape Town’s advantaged need to find practical ways of assisting with the prospect of upliftment, whilst our disadvantaged should be encouraged to share in the sense of responsibility of their future rather than focus on their sense of entitlement.”

(still reading? click 'more' for the rest of this story and to see how my toe-to-toe conversation with Zille unravelled.)...

Trying to go below the belt, Grindrod described Cape Town as a city filled with ‘swart gevaar’ (black danger?) and white guilt that continue unabated, and only in Cape Town does this still get used and still work. Cape Town still treats its children as step-children and orphans. On a political note he added that the ID did not step into the Cape coalition to get closer with the DA or further from ANC – it was to help Cape Town thrive towards its goals of democratization.

Grindrod sat down, but out of nowhere, Zille leaped to contest Essop’s knock-out punches. Zille manhandled the mic out of poor-old Judith – who was left mumbling something like '2 minutes madam mayor madam'. Zille who had worked herself up to a fit dictatorially refuted Essop blows. Immediately stating that the problems pointed out by Essop were present in other cities too! (But we aren’t talking about other cities dear mayor – were talking about Cape Town!) In true Tony-Leon-style she said ANC policies need to be challenged. She then hit a childish moment of ‘my-toy-is-better-than-yours’ as she compared party policies… On and on she went campaigning for Leon (or will it be the hallucinatory Seremane?). Eventually, after the reality of her childish actions had settled she calmly ended by saying that other parties need to be given a chance too. Someone please give this lady the joystick before she breaks the playstation with her rage!

I don’t have much tolerance for the Q&A sessions that follow, but they ranged from criticizing the campaigns these guests had embarked on at the expense of the Harold Wolpe Trust, others questionined the beauty of Cape Town which is only applicable if you are a suburbanite and not going to travel towards the airport to see the real shack/loo-less ‘beauty’or reality along the road. Other gripes include the issuing of food parcels during election campaigns, citizen responsibilities and the infamous greenpoint stadium which is still R180 million over budget.

PHEW!

I guess we all missed the point but enjoyed the party nonetheless.

My tête-à-tête with Zille:

In my usual conversational tone I asked Zille how she planned to change this negative perception some black people held against her? And what is going on in Hout Bay and who has to move (R3-million pad or R500 shack)? I was trying to hint on issues of entitlement? I then, maybe through the w(h)ine, told her to stop telling us she went to Khayelitsha and Nyanga or whatever unhabitable black neighnourhood – these are her responsibilities, they are not achievements or applause-deserving endeavours! As for the ability to converse in Xhosa (both her and Athol Trollip), I simply told her I could speak English too, in fact many black political leaders can speak English and you don’t see us throwing parties about it – Speaking Xhosa should be a law.

At this stage – Zille took on her god-complex and addressed me as a young inquistive man who's full of potential (patronising or flattery will never get you anywhere with me!). She first advised me to take off my race blinkers – to which I mumbled I’d upgrade and get a pair of race contact lenses to keep up with Cape Town trends instead. Addressing my first question, by this time we had managed to move towards a corner away from the crowds, she said she was not going to try buy black faces – she would not change for others. On Hout Bay she rubbed this off as a lie perpetuated by the media, but went on to acknowledge that Hout Bay was over-crowed and control measures would be in effect. And certain residents would have to be relocated (probably 200 kilometres from the city). She had caught my entitlement hint and rubbed it off by telling me that Cape Town belongs to no-one, but the Khoi. I'm glad she knows that. Instead of taking my advise on avoiding bragging about going to Khayelitsha she simply went on about how she went to Nonceba and helped x, y and z and how she used to be a journalist and how she spent time fighting for the liberation of blacks in pre-1994.

Overall, I’m impressed with Helen Zille. Apart from my shooting the bull I think this lady has a lot of potential and valuable insite. She exudes the noble characteristics of an ideal Politician. Sadly my loyalties lie elsewhere. She needs a holiday though, as those purple lines and eyebags are a sure sign of sleepless nights and instant ageing. Speaking of ageing, is Dr AnnMarie Wolpe on some anti-ageing programme? – she’s getting younger and younger everytime I see her.

J