By: Ross Farley
One of South Africa’s proudest and most commendable achievements is the vastly rich and esteemed array of women it has produced. The apartheid years brought us iconic and immensely brave characters such as Ruth First and Albertina Sisulu and our modern democracy has produced brilliant and influential women such as the current editor of the Mail & Guardian, Ferial Hafajee and business powerhouse Gail Kelly, who was recently ranked as the world’s 11th most powerful woman. Our country has ushered in two successive female deputy presidents and, had Mbeki had his way, we may have even had our first female president after the next election. Alas, as with so many of the ruling party’s ostensible principles, there seems a grave disconnect between what our leaders say and do with regard to the advancement of women’s rights.
Our current president in waiting, Jacob Zuma (yes, I’m afraid so) is a good place to start. The fact that the leader of a democracy as advanced and high profile as our own can shamelessly continue to accumulate wives like Cub Scout merit badges is startling. Zuma currently has four wives (with a fifth in the pipeline no doubt). One has to admire Zuma’s daring though. Not many men have the whotsits to take on the four mother’s-in-law. Also, there’s the perpetual fear that you’ll yelp out the wrong wife’s names during sex. Four extra birthdays and anniversaries not to forget. Saturday afternoon rugby games would be continually splintered by not one, but four house generals issuing domestic instructions while refusing to recognise why it’s still important in the grander scheme of the Super 14 to watch the Lions play the Reds. Sheesh!
Even with such a vast array of choice, Zuma still found himself in court during March 2006 defending an allegation of rape. It was common cause that sexual intercourse had occurred between Zuma and his accuser. The question of consent was, however, at issue. The fact that none of his wives left him after he so publicly admitted having not only sex, but unprotected sex is the stuff of hypnotized slave girls in Amish communities, not future first ladies. Perhaps the writer is just an opinionated waspy white boy from the Northern Suburbs who has no understanding of the complexities and inner workings of traditional polygamous African marriages. But, if I was one of Zuma’s wives I would have taken to his best suits with a pair of scissors, mixed his toothpaste with paint stripper and networked a collection of premature ejaculation stories.
Then we have Julias Malema, the man recently coined by Koos Van der Merwe - chief whip for the IFP – as the best thing to ever happen to opposition politics in SA. While recently addressing students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Malema stated that, in reference to Zuma’s rape accuser: “When a woman doesn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. When a woman has had a nice time she will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money ... you can't ask for money from somebody who raped you". While these comments certainly aren’t one of Malema’s grander curdling brain farts, the fact that they are so simplified and so casually childish in a country that is plagued by intensely cruel and pervasive women abuse is unacceptable. Zuma was found not guilty by a court of law and the writer’s believes rightly so. However, for a leader of the youth to politic so smugly about such a sensitive and important issue shows how unfit this buffoon is to be a leader. Moreover, not a peep has been heard from the ANC leadership brass, the most significant omission being the ANC Women’s League. They may argue that by publicly chastising Malema they amplify the influence he wields in the ANC. Malema may be so insignificant within the ANC anatomy that the leadership feels that the sewerage that continually pours from his trap does not warrant a rebuke. However, a vast majority of the South African public (myself included) see the ANC’s silence as a tacit endorsement of Malema’s malevolent rot.
After 1994, like many South Africans, I fell in love with the ANC. Despite its many failings I felt that fundamentally the ANC was a good party who I could believe in. They were also the right party for our country. I also fully support our leadership moving away from the messianic Mandela era to a party of real leaders with real flaws. I challenge any person to find a flawless Western leader. Even Obama soaked up a few joints as a youth. As our democracy grows our leaders will be seen less as demagogues and more as normal people running a (hopefully) normal country. To my mind though, their continued disinterest in properly addressing the issues set out in this article and elsewhere now just form part of the hot steaming pile of hypocrisy that this party seems to have become. As Ferial Hafajee said,” The ANC is a dated, jowly party looking every bit the hundred years it celebrates.” There will have to be an awful lot of courting before I’ll feel love for this party again.
One of South Africa’s proudest and most commendable achievements is the vastly rich and esteemed array of women it has produced. The apartheid years brought us iconic and immensely brave characters such as Ruth First and Albertina Sisulu and our modern democracy has produced brilliant and influential women such as the current editor of the Mail & Guardian, Ferial Hafajee and business powerhouse Gail Kelly, who was recently ranked as the world’s 11th most powerful woman. Our country has ushered in two successive female deputy presidents and, had Mbeki had his way, we may have even had our first female president after the next election. Alas, as with so many of the ruling party’s ostensible principles, there seems a grave disconnect between what our leaders say and do with regard to the advancement of women’s rights.
Our current president in waiting, Jacob Zuma (yes, I’m afraid so) is a good place to start. The fact that the leader of a democracy as advanced and high profile as our own can shamelessly continue to accumulate wives like Cub Scout merit badges is startling. Zuma currently has four wives (with a fifth in the pipeline no doubt). One has to admire Zuma’s daring though. Not many men have the whotsits to take on the four mother’s-in-law. Also, there’s the perpetual fear that you’ll yelp out the wrong wife’s names during sex. Four extra birthdays and anniversaries not to forget. Saturday afternoon rugby games would be continually splintered by not one, but four house generals issuing domestic instructions while refusing to recognise why it’s still important in the grander scheme of the Super 14 to watch the Lions play the Reds. Sheesh!
Even with such a vast array of choice, Zuma still found himself in court during March 2006 defending an allegation of rape. It was common cause that sexual intercourse had occurred between Zuma and his accuser. The question of consent was, however, at issue. The fact that none of his wives left him after he so publicly admitted having not only sex, but unprotected sex is the stuff of hypnotized slave girls in Amish communities, not future first ladies. Perhaps the writer is just an opinionated waspy white boy from the Northern Suburbs who has no understanding of the complexities and inner workings of traditional polygamous African marriages. But, if I was one of Zuma’s wives I would have taken to his best suits with a pair of scissors, mixed his toothpaste with paint stripper and networked a collection of premature ejaculation stories.
Then we have Julias Malema, the man recently coined by Koos Van der Merwe - chief whip for the IFP – as the best thing to ever happen to opposition politics in SA. While recently addressing students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Malema stated that, in reference to Zuma’s rape accuser: “When a woman doesn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. When a woman has had a nice time she will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money ... you can't ask for money from somebody who raped you". While these comments certainly aren’t one of Malema’s grander curdling brain farts, the fact that they are so simplified and so casually childish in a country that is plagued by intensely cruel and pervasive women abuse is unacceptable. Zuma was found not guilty by a court of law and the writer’s believes rightly so. However, for a leader of the youth to politic so smugly about such a sensitive and important issue shows how unfit this buffoon is to be a leader. Moreover, not a peep has been heard from the ANC leadership brass, the most significant omission being the ANC Women’s League. They may argue that by publicly chastising Malema they amplify the influence he wields in the ANC. Malema may be so insignificant within the ANC anatomy that the leadership feels that the sewerage that continually pours from his trap does not warrant a rebuke. However, a vast majority of the South African public (myself included) see the ANC’s silence as a tacit endorsement of Malema’s malevolent rot.
After 1994, like many South Africans, I fell in love with the ANC. Despite its many failings I felt that fundamentally the ANC was a good party who I could believe in. They were also the right party for our country. I also fully support our leadership moving away from the messianic Mandela era to a party of real leaders with real flaws. I challenge any person to find a flawless Western leader. Even Obama soaked up a few joints as a youth. As our democracy grows our leaders will be seen less as demagogues and more as normal people running a (hopefully) normal country. To my mind though, their continued disinterest in properly addressing the issues set out in this article and elsewhere now just form part of the hot steaming pile of hypocrisy that this party seems to have become. As Ferial Hafajee said,” The ANC is a dated, jowly party looking every bit the hundred years it celebrates.” There will have to be an awful lot of courting before I’ll feel love for this party again.
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