Dear Mr Mantashe
Ever since you uttered the words below, I have hung onto your every word with the hunger of one who yearns for wisdom, knowledge and understanding:
Gwede Mantashe to Necas board members - reported by City Press.
City Press called it a rant. I call it poetry on a level of the work of Khalil Gibran. It is original, isn't it?
I think that your most recent gem was about not criticizing the ANC if you didn't vote for the Party. It may be a little out of alignment with democratic principle and the free speech ideal. What the heck! Still brilliant. I grow every time you open your mouth. That other stuff is colonial pop philosophy and this is post-colonial South Africa. Where the lion sleeps tonight - on a full belly - while the other animals...
The other teeny problem with this is that you and the comrades are at the helm of Ship SA. Regardless of who voted for whom, no-one aboard is spared the shocks and aftershocks every time you scrape the keel. Or encounter rocks. Some say that we are on course, like that other great vessel, for our own personal iceberg. No doubt the band will still play Jerusalema and other classics, as we gently slip beneath the waves. Comforting.
This reminded me of a previous ray of molten wisdom that you once shone on us, back in 2017. It had to do with a vote of no-confidence. There is no notion of voting with conscience in the ANC, you were reported to have said.
"What do you think the ANC is, Father Christmas? I don't know where this notion comes from that we are a collection of individuals who have conscience. We are members of ANC in a party political system."
Wise words, sir. Proven true. The absence of conscience, collective or otherwise, has been amply demonstrated through the years.
Yours in the strenuous struggle for wisdom.
Richard
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