No-one is excluded from running SA

Four weeks ago, Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald, one of the key players in the Democratic Alliance-initiated ‘moonshot pact’ negotiations, said something that just will not stop irritating me.

There was little or no reaction to what he said, and it now nestles in the newspaper archives, largely unexamined and unchallenged.

Asked by Sunday Times politics editor Sibongakonke Shoba in an ST politics weekly podcast interview if he thought the country was ready for a white president, Groenewald answered: “No. We’re too close to apartheid still.”

He went on: “Purely on merit, if a white person is the best candidate, it should [not] be a problem. But you are not going to get voters from the ANC to move their vote if they know it’s going to be a white person ... unfortunately.”

This reminded me of the 1990s. Nelson Mandela was getting on in years and there was full-on speculation about who would succeed him. Many analysts told us Cyril Ramaphosa would never make it because he did not come from the ‘main’ ethnic groupings, the Xhosa and Zulu. Such analysis cast the ANC as a tribal organisation.

Jeff Radebe and Jacob Zuma, we were also told, would not make it because the Xhosas in the ANC would not tolerate it.

It was a load of nonsense. Zuma became ANC president in 2007 and SA president in 2009.

The people of Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and elsewhere voted for him in overwhelming numbers. Ramaphosa, from the Vhavenda people who make up just 2.2% of SA’s population, won an easy victory in 2019.

SA should be careful not to fall prey to the racist and tribal shibboleths that we were fed under apartheid. The right white candidate would not lose an election in SA.

If you had put Joe Slovo forward as presidential candidate of the ANC in 1994 he would have won and been installed as president very easily, with as huge a majority as Mandela got — and the only objection to him would have come from the rooi gevaar (“red or communist danger”) crowd.

For the majority of black South Africans, believe me, Slovo would have been seen as exactly the right person for the job because everything he did was about the betterment of all South Africans and blacks in particular.

That is why Slovo is buried at the Avalon Cemetery, among many of his fellow comrades, where many South Africans know he is at peace.

So why is it that the right candidate, who may be white, put up by a strong and persuasive opposition, cannot win an election in 2024? It is because Groenewald and those who agree with him are being lazy. They can’t be bothered to elect the right candidate — or simply don’t want to do it.

If the people of uMngeni in KwaZulu Natal, a province many dismiss as rural and therefore conservative, can elect a dynamic, young, white, openly gay, Zulu-speaking man as their mayor, why can’t SA do the same?

I posit that if the opposition were to seek and put up at national level a candidate like Chris Pappas, the compelling mayor of uMngeni, then it would make serious headway.

Let’s not brand voters racist or race-obsessed (which is what Groenewald is doing) without asking if, perhaps, John Steenhuisen or any other candidate is the right person for the job. South Africans will not automatically vote for the IFP’s Velenkosini Hlabisa for president just because he is black. They will want to see his substance. If he does not measure up he will lose.

It is not just Groenewald and the opposition that make this mistake about race and candidature. The ANC is making the same mistake. Its next leader should most probably be Trevor Manuel.

He fought against apartheid in the United Democratic Front, became a leader of the ANC in the 1990s, and was made finance minister in Nelson Mandela’s cabinet in 1996.

For 13 years Manuel ran one of the most remarkable finance ministries of the time, raising our economy from the doldrums to one of the best performers in the world.

What do we want as a country? We want jobs, a vibrant economy, a democracy that is true to our founding principles, safety, peace, and harmony. Manuel has consistently and courageously stood up for our constitutional values while displaying effectiveness in office.

The idea that race should exclude someone from leading us is as nonsensical as the assertion that young people cannot lead.

Mandela’s cabinet and top civil servants was replete with youth. Tito Mboweni was 35 when he became labour minister. Roger Jardine, Robinson Ramaite, Paseka Ncholo, Chippy Olver, and others were in their twenties or early 30s when they were directors-general of complex departments.

Don’t believe the myths. Black voters would easily support a candidate of any race or gender if they were the right candidate. No one is excluded from running this country. Speak to the voters.