To quote Machiavelli “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”
The deception that we have experienced has disappointed many of us. What is even scarier is the hatred that they feel for the man Thabo Mbeki. Why would they hate him so much? And why would they say all these false things about him?
I guess the Zuma ANC is doing what Machiavelli once said “If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared”
They are trying to ensure that Thabo does not have a chance to avenge the way they have treated him. They have tried discredit anyone who writes positive things about him.
But as Machiavelli once said “Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”
All these things that have been happening since 2005 have proven what Ben Okri says “The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.”
Vavi, Nzimande,Ramaphosa, Phosa etc have really drawn our minds away from the power games they have been playing all this time. And in Polokwane they reached the pinnacle of those games.And after Polokwane they have showed us the real Machiavellis the media has been saying Thabo is them and the shady business men behind them.
But luckily for them “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”
And “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”
And those columnist or analyst have forgotten these words “To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself. Beware of the storytellers who are not fully conscious of the importance of their gifts, and who are irresponsible in the application of their art” They have poisoned our stories to a point that we no longer feel hope for the future! But then from the lessons learned from Mandela,Dr King, Chief Luthuli, Thabo Mbeki and currently Obama, We will rise and lead South Africa to greater heights!
Thabo Mbeki once said "Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now!
Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
However improbable it may sound to the skeptics, Africa will prosper!"
We will continue the revolution to get South Africa and Africa to the top of the world, as envisioned by Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance!
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Kamvelihle Ngonyama wrote on April 23, 2009 at 8:39pm:
ReplyDelete“The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar ...
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.”
My fellow South Africans
In William Shakespeare’s play by the name of Julius Caesar, It was with these words, that Marc Anthony bade farewell to his friend, Julius Caesar, a leader who had done great things for Rome but, for the fear that he would be too powerful and attempt to turn the Roman Republic into a monarchy under his rule, he was mercilessly killed by the conspirators led by Gaius Cassius, one of which was Caesar’s former friend, Brutus. It was on the steps of the Senate, in the Ides of March, that Caesar met his end, having led Rome to a period of great wealth and stability.
Caesar’s demise, at the hands of seven men who had vested self-interests in the matter, ultimately led to a civil war which engulfed the republic and led to the conspirators being killed or taking their own lives, as was the case of Brutus.
Julius Caesar’s demise came from where Marc Anthony claimed it came from; ie, it came from the great projections of Caesar’s apparent threats to the Republicanism of Rome, while clearly, his achievements for his country were conveniently forgotten by those who opposed him and such, is the nature of politics.
The conspirators, having won their victory in killing Caesar, address his funeral gathering and Brutus, the friend who killed his friend, allegedly for Rome, but would have had a personal stake in governing, said, at the same funeral:
If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of
Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar
was no less than his. If then that friend demand
why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:–
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more...
As Caesar loved me, I weep for him;
as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was
valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I
slew him.
It is at this point that you may wonder why I have begun this statement by quoting from the world of English Literature. And I shall explain.
In our society and country, there seem to be many Gaius Cassiuses who have seen to it that they shall, using our print media and digital and electronic media, embark on a campaign to denigrate the image and dignity of the former president of the Republic, the Honourable Thabo Mbeki, in order to achieve their own ends. These Gaius Cassiuses, under the auspices of being self-styled political commentators and pundits, have seen it fit and prudent to insult, at all times, the Hon. Mbeki, using public platforms to spread their message that he did nothing for this Republic while he served as Head of State and Government. As much as these self-styled ‘pundits’ have great access to vaults of information which would counter their opinions, they continue to use their vitriolic pens to sway public opinion against a man who has served his country with great dignity and grace.
Chief among these pious and self-important Gaius Cassiuses, who use their access to media institutions to spread their personal loathing for President Mbeki are Xolela Mangcu, Justice Malala and Mondli Makhanya. This trio has, for a long time, under the false pretext of ‘media independence’ and ‘free speech’, vilified and insulted President Mbeki, calling him all sorts of unsavoury things.
They have taken to attacking him, every opportunity they get, not politically or ideologically, but personally.
In an article Justice Malala wrote (which can be found at http://www.thetimes.co.za/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=876139), a supposed letter ANC president Jacob Zuma should have written, under the title ‘Dear Thabo Mbeki please shut up’, in reply to the letter sent by the Honourable Mbeki, asking the ANC not to use his name in the election campaign, amongst other things, Malala makes unsubstantiated inferences that President Mbeki and COPE deputy president Mbazima Shilowa met to discuss the latter’s impending resignation from the Premiership of Gauteng, despite the fact that both men who were present at the meeting have denied that such a discussion took place. He makes an implicit accusation against Mr Mbeki when he says:
“I accept your explanation that you were not consulted on the matter. I do, however, need to make the point that Comrade Mbhazima Shilowa resigned his position as Gauteng premier on Monday September 29 and went on to spend the whole evening with you until 3am the next day.
Then he spent all of the morning of September 30 with you until he left to appear on the Jenny Crwys-Williams show on 702 Talk Radio that day. He was with you until noon.
I will not make so bold as to speculate on your friendship. However, I find it strange that you spent so much time together without once discussing so pressing a matter as Comrade Mbhazima’s contemplating launching a new party.”
I stress again, that the aforementioned letter was an article that came off the mind of Justice Malala, and had nothing to do with the President of the ANC. I incorporate it in this statement, particularly because it is one of many which betray Malala’s personal dislike for Thabo Mbeki, the man, not Thabo Mbeki the public representative. And this dislike, went on to be aired under the auspices of ‘free speech’ and ‘media indepedence’ as an opinon which is far from having an ounce of truth, much to the delight of his fellow ‘klipgooiers’.
But Malala is not the only one with an agenda against the former President. Another, is his colleague, Dr Xolela Mangcu who allocates much of his time to using the print media to make destructive comments and generally disparaging President Mbeki in his articles. I shall not dwell much on him but I shall turn my attention to the editor of the Sunday times, Mondli Makhanya.
Ever since taking over as editor in chief of the Sunday Times, Makhanya has used his newspaper to further his agenda against President Mbeki, even going as far as concocting trumped up lies about President Mbeki’s alleged arms deal involvement. In a front page article, Makhanya’s Sunday Times wrote that President Mbeki had accepted a R30 million bribe from the British Aerospace Systems arms company. The newspaper went on to allege that he had given R28 million to the ANC and t R2 million to Mr Jacob Zuma, which naturally, defied all logic. When the general public did not buy this story instead, calling for proof to be provided that their President is corrupt, the Sunday Times, with Makhanya’s full knowledge, came up with unnamed ‘sources’ from ‘British intelligence’ and excerpts from an unknown document which could possibly have been the work of a Sunday Times staffer, to further try and legitimise their story infested with ill-truths. That story’s trail has since run cold.
Due to constraints on this platform, I shall at this point, depart from the Gaius Cassiuses whose pens have been used as weapons against Mbeki and before I turn to other matters, I wish to touch on a matter I read of.
In 2008, the New York Post withdrew from the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, a dinner where the President of the United States shares supper with the White House Press Corps who are members of the White House Correspondents’ Association because they felt that it “undercut the credibility of the media”. I find it funny they would say this of the WHCD primarily because Mondli Makhanya and his publication do a pretty good job at it. But I digress.
When he wrote to the ANC President in 2008, asking the party not to use his name and image for partisan reasons in the upcoming election, President Mbeki stated:
“I have taken note of the campaign that some in our ranks, supported by some in our media, have waged for many years focused on discrediting me in particular, given the senior positions I have occupied in the ANC, and the ANC in general.
I have constantly been acutely aware of the fact that this campaign has been based on outright lies and deliberate and malicious distortions.
For many years I have refused to stoop to a public debate driven by these fabrications, which would demean and destroy the dignity of the ANC, its leadership and me personally.
I must admit that this posture might have produced results we never intended, specifically as it might have suggested that we could not contest the lies that have been told.
I know that now there are some in our country and elsewhere in the world who appear on television programmes or contribute newspaper opinion columns as "experts" or "analysts", simply on the basis of their readiness to abandon all ethical considerations and self-respect, to propagate entirely fabricated and negative notions about what our national democratic revolution means to our country and people”.
This then leads me to the next point of my statement. Throughout his presidency and even after his presidency, President Mbeki has been publicly denigrated by many within his own party, the party to which he has dedicated over half a century of service to. Chief among these have been former ANCYL president and NEC member, Fikile Mbalula, ANCYL president Julius Malema, ANC president Jacob Zuma, COSATU Secretary-General Zwelinzima Vavi and SACP Secretary-General Blade Nzimande.
When he was arguing that the Mbeki Administration should continue serving until the end of its’ term, Mr Zuma famously or infamously stated that, “There is no need to beat a dead snake”, thus equating Mbeki and his Cabinet colleagues to dead snakes. And indeed Mbeki has not been the only person to face the wrath of Jacob Zuma and his insults. People who have exercised their democratic right to leave the ANC in order to form their own political groupings have been called ‘charlatans’, ‘snakes’ and have been labelled many other things. But once again, I digress.
Now in all that I have said, I have on my mind, the words Marc Anthony used when he bid farewell to his friend, Julius Caesar when he said:
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason….
And similarly, I too write not to disprove what has been said of Mbeki, but rather, of what I do know. He has served this country and this continent as well as he could. Through his efforts:
• More people have had access to the mainstream economy than at any time in our history as a country.
• More people have jobs and access to water, electricity and housing, than at any time in our history as a country.
The economy of this country has enjoyed leaps and bounds of improvement
• Africa herself has had significantly less conflict, than years past, due to his interventions or his delegating authority to others.
• At a time where Zimbabwe was tearing herself apart in a ugly and painful political civil war, he mediated the Government of National Unity that now exists
• South Africa has begun to be a leader not only in regional and continental affairs, but global affairs as well
• He was instrumental in the formation of NEPAD and the AU
• South Africa currently sits on the G13 and recently stepped down from the presidency of the Security Council.
However, true to the Latin saying ‘errare humanum est (to err is human), President Mbeki has made his mistakes as well. He failed to heed calls for the expansion of ESKOM, resulting in the power outages and the Aids issue shall always cast a negative light on his presidency but above all else, he did what he could for his country and people before being unceremoniously and undemocratically removed from the Presidency by a cabal in the ANC who were hell-bent on destroying him. They, like the noble Brutus claimed they loved him no less, but South Africa more. Meanwhile we know that they loved Zuma more, not perhaps, South Africa less.
But regardless of the fact that President Mbeki no longer serves as Head of State and Government, he continues to inspire many of us by his quiet dignity, charming grace and polished manners. The fact that he has refused at all times to be drawn into a public spat which would make him look like a fool shows that he is a man greater than many.
His response was eloquently portrayed by the cartoonist Zapiro a few years ago, when he depicted Mbeki as a postman going about doing his job and two dogs bearing the faces of Nzimande and Vavi barking at him while being restrained by Zuma. Two domestic workers looking on are in conversation when one asks “hayibo, why is he so quiet?”, and her friend replies, “because the postman does not bark back at dogs”.
Had it been, that the will of the people had been respected by the ANC, we would now be preparing to say, ndlelantle Zizi! Imizamo yakho iyabonakala kuthi babonayo! However, we know that internal party politics spilled over into the running of the state due to the ANC’s ill-informed judgement, when it comes to separating party from state.
Despite the ills that have been said of Mbeki, the good that he has done lives on to this day, for our country.
May he continue to be blessed with many years ahead, and may he never tire of serving this country and continent
Bro, I agree with you comments fully. South Africans have been hoodwinked by the gang around Zima. I wish that like minded people, who have an insight to this matter, must start a website recording the mechanisations of those who have taken over the state. What say you?
ReplyDeleteNokwindla I am for that movement! And I believe it would be critical thing in our history! They have already started changing history, they are omitting some names in all that South Africa has been able to achieve in the past ten years!!
ReplyDeleteWe have a role to play by documenting the facts about our beautiful country.