by Peter Kimemia

At the beginning of Youth Month in June it was hoped the youth, through their leaders, would offer something contrary to the increasingly adversarial politics played out by their seniors over past months.

We have become quite accustomed to the internecine political battles the ruling party has been waging against itself through factions whose common denominator is greed for power and self-aggrandisement. The wielders of power want to keep it at all costs, and those aspiring to replace them seemingly want to do so at all costs as well, and they’re exhibiting signs of impatience.

In between are the ordinary folks, whose only means of participating in the governance of the country is through the payment of taxes and the ritual of casting ballots. And who knows what happens after you cast your vote?

These days it is no longer automatic that the guy who garners the majority vote gets to take power.  Take for example our neighbour Bob Mugabe.

But Bob and Zimbabwe are now old news, and the intention here is not to trivialise the carnage and mass violence that continues unabated in that country, even as the international community haggles over the best response to the unprecedented barbarism.

This is however not unprecedented – in the early 1980s a government-aided militia known as the 5th Brigade turned Matabeleland into killing fields as Mugabe sought to effect the final solution against his perceived political enemies. Of course that was the era during which the international community saw no evil, heard no evil and even smelt none. It was at the height of the cold war and every possible ally, no matter how rotten, was tolerated.

As for the OAU, the precursor of the AU, don’t even ask. The continental outfit had a sacrosanct provision in its charter that read something like “thou shall not interfere with any country’s internal affairs”.

So despots could commit all manner of atrocities against their nationals with no help for the latter.

Bob and his like-minded rogues in power surely miss those “good” old days when seemingly no one really cared. That is why he is a bitter man and just wouldn’t understand why over the past couple of years every Tom, Dick and Harry has been offering their two cents’ worth of unsolicited advice on how he should treat his “subjects”. It is terribly unfair to try to school an opinionated octogenarian on issues of governance – after all he knows better than most of his critics, doesn’t he?

Forget about Mugabe for a moment and train your focus on our own backyard. While we have been busy pointing an accusing finger at the Zimbabwean leader, and getting thoroughly irritated by his obstinacy and increasingly violent ways, we have been ignoring a worrying trend that is taking shape in our domestic politics.

I don’t think the ANC has ever sunk lower than its current levels of indiscipline and recklessness. One hopes it has exhausted its quota of folly and lawlessness and that things get better from here. But there is a fear that such optimism may be woefully misplaced. The litany of goofs by its key leaders appears to be spewing from a limitless reservoir. When they are not busy heckling at each other, they go one better and attack their opponents with all manner of crude weapons.

In the Western Cape, some are nursing knife injuries while their offending colleagues are in the dock for attempted murder. As if this isn’t embarrassing enough, ANCYL president Julius Malema has been beating war drums and suggesting to the youth that it would be desirable to shed blood in defence of ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Rather strangely, instead of correcting and guiding their young colleagues in what a leader of a democratic society should be encouraging, senior officials of the party have found it fit either to reiterate the message or to broaden their attacks on the primary institutions of our democracy.

Voluble Cosatu Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi sought not to be left behind, issuing threats of his own which equally appeared to glorify violence against perceived political opponents. Even more alarming is the ease and the recklessness with which the top echelon of the ruling party – mainly its deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and secretary general Gwede Mantashe – have criticised Constitutional Court judges and even labelled them counter-revolutionaries bent on undermining the ANC and its president.

To his credit, albeit feebly, Zuma has sought to distance himself from some of the antics of his cheerleaders. On its part, the Human Rights Commission just managed to reduce itself to a caricature of sorts after issuing unconvincing threats to both Malema and Vavi to withdraw their war-mongering remarks or face the music.

Predictably, the two remained defiant and ignored an ultimatum issued by the HRC. The latter has since recapitulated and made nonsense of their constitutional basis in the process. They have come across as lacking the spine to strike a blow for justice and the rule of law at critical moments.

Seemingly we are sliding dangerously towards the precipice and into lawlessness, courtesy of roguish leaders and lame-duck institutions only too happy to indulge them.

Ours is a democracy under siege – ironically, on the eve of a general election.  Where is the competition?

First published in The Transformer Vol. 14 No. 4 August - September 2008