These days, the popular image of Roger Jardine is as the private sector’s knight in shining armour who is waiting in the wings to usurp the leadership of the multiparty charter (MPC) and perhaps claim the presidency itself.
Yet, in an interview with the Sunday Times this week, in which he confirmed his entry into active politics, Jardine was clearly uncomfortable with the tag. If he is in fact the preferred choice of the business world, he seems to be reluctant about it at best.
Until a week ago, Jardine graced the corridors of the banking world as chair of the behemoth FirstRand. Perhaps that is why he seems acutely aware of the risks of being identified too closely with business in one of the most economically unequal societies in the world. But he may find it hard to quash suspicion that he is a water-carrier for capital.
“I’m the immediate past chair of FirstRand,” he said. “It could invite that kind of commentary, but it’s entirely misplaced. The people who are going to decide on the leadership of this country are going to be the citizens. We will derive our legitimacy from what people think of our ideas.
“I’m not the business candidate. I’m from Riverlea and Eldorado Park. I don’t read about the lived reality of people in this country; it’s not theory to me. Many of my relatives use public hospitals. The same goes for many other communities,” Jardine said.
He rejects the notion of a purely pro-business political agenda. “If anyone were to run exclusively on a mandate from a very narrow point of view, a business agenda, they’ll get nowhere in this society. We have a very stark contrast of rich and poor in South Africa. This is what really inspired me to raise my hand to want to be part of the solution.”
The best way to tell if his platform will cater only for the interests of business, he says, will be to look at the manifesto that will emerge after public consultations being launched this weekend.
It is a balancing act for Jardine, as it is for other parties. For while business can fund parties and candidates, it is the general citizenry who cast the ballots.
Jardine has also been dogged by rumours — which he denies — that various corporations have stumped up R1bn for his venture.
I’m confident that in our programme you will not see a narrow business agenda. At the end of the day the people of this country will make choices based on what you have to say about fixing the state
“There’s no R1bn. We are fund raising and we are going to be doing more of it and will be reaching out to patriotic South Africans who have a clear interest and are invested in the future of this country. Every party is doing it.
“Political party financing is a global issue. You cannot run a political party or project without financial resources. I think it’s very important that you have to disclose who’s funding you. I’ve seen reports that there’s a list of conditions [for my project]. I haven’t seen such a list.
“Importantly, the measure of business influence on any political party has to be seen through the programme of that entity. I’m confident that in our programme you will not see a narrow business agenda. At the end of the day the people of this country will make choices based on what you have to say about fixing the state and solving the problems that they face each day.”
That said, Jardine expressed a belief that “our society is better off if investors and the business community have confidence that they can grow and thrive in a stable political and economic environment”.
Apart from his obvious business experience, straddling the top echelons of various sectors, he has solid struggle credentials. He is happy to expand on these, and his reasons for pivoting into politics — a move he has left too late, some say.
“It’s part of my own journey. I started out being rooted in a family which was heavily involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. It is almost full circle for me. My grandmother was a trade unionist in the Garment Workers’ Union, working with Solly Sachs, judge Albie Sachs’s father. The family has been involved in activism over many generations.
“In 1955 my grandmother was brutally beaten up in a march to free Solly Sachs. That was a big turning point in our family’s political life. My father [Bill] was part of the ANC underground, a well-known activist and mentor to many people, many of whom you see in public life today.”
Jardine matriculated at Woodmead, a progressive private school near Lanseria airport, but also attended Riverlea High.
“When I was going into my late teens there was the state of emergency and the founding of the UDF. It was a big political moment in the country’s trajectory.
“At our high school [Riverlea] we were surrounded by ‘Rooi Rus’ Swanepoel, the same guy who gave the order to shoot in Soweto in 1976. He led an attack on our high school. We fought them, the soldiers came and we fought them. [Ours] was a community that was steeped in resistance. I was part of that. It forms a consciousness that you carry with you forever.
“My father was heavily influenced by his mother. He taught us that the struggle against apartheid was a struggle to restore humanity and human dignity to every South African, including white south Africans. We used to have conversations about the resistance movement and political philosophy. People talk about going to political school and political education. I had that in our household.”
While critical of the ANC’s performance in running the country, Jardine is at pains not to tar everyone in the party with the same brush.
“There’s a lot of people in the ANC who are good people, who are also struggling with how the situation has played out,” he said. He added that such people “have such a big role to play as we recast the next democratic republic”.
Jardine, 58, does not come across as a firebrand champing at the bit to take South African politics by the scruff of its neck; he has the demeanour of someone thrust to the fore by the disappointment of seeing his dreams of democracy derailed.
He says he was torn by the decision to turn his back on his lifelong political home, and feels obliged to offer his erstwhile comrades an explanation — something uncharacteristic of politicians who jump ship.
“Remember this is family, it’s relationships of decades. It’s a whole lot of people who were in and out of our house as I was growing up. At a personal level I’m deeply respectful of that history, especially of my father’s legacy and the way he was loved.
“I feel I need to explain, with 70 years of family history in the ANC, why I’m taking this step. I feel accountable to that ANC, to explain myself. I’ve asked many people, ‘What’s the alternative, how do we get out of this? Please give me another way.’ Not one person has been able to tell me of a different way to do this.”
We can’t have another five years of this dysfunction. It’s time to step out of our conventional ways of thinking. It’s time for South Africans, who may disagree on a range of issues, to forge a common platform
At the same time he is unequivocal about the need to eject the ANC from power. “There’s a shared sense that this ANC, which is not the ANC of our parents and our grandparents, which is not our ANC, has failed the people. It’s time for them to go.”
He wants the urgent reconfiguration of South African politics, a tall order given the entrenched adversarial political environment.
“Change is urgent. We can’t have another five years of this dysfunction. It’s time to step out of our conventional ways of thinking. It’s time for South Africans, who may disagree on a range of issues, to forge a common platform for how we want to take South Africa forward and to work together. The polarised politics of the last 30 years have not worked for us. People are not happy with the state of our body politic.”
The values and ethos that gave South Africans hope in 1994 still applied today, Jardine says.
But even as he condemns the ANC’s failures, he seems ready to cut President Cyril Ramaphosa — another politician with substantial experience in the private sector — some slack.
“When president Zuma became the leader of the ANC many people thought the ANC would moderate his impulses. That failed. Then President Ramaphosa came along, and people said it’s about the president, not the ANC. Let’s back the president.
“That, too, failed. The conclusion is that the institution has failed. It’s in a dysfunctional, inoperable situation. Ramaphosa is the head of a highly dysfunctional organisation and it has affected the way he’s been able to perform.”
And then we come to the issue that has placed Jardine in the spotlight of late. Would he accept the leadership of the MPC, if offered?
On this he becomes uncharacteristically cagey. “I think that’s premature. Any notion that you parachute a leader in… That doesn’t work in practice. It won’t work for me personally. I think leadership is something that you earn and something that you work for. I’ll work very hard to find a common platform with all of these players for the sake of this country.”
His biggest hurdle, of course, will be whether those already at the MPC table, some of whom covet that leadership role, would be willing to stand back for him.
And if Jardine has ambitions to move into the Union Buildings, he hides them well. Asked about it, his response is fudged: “I decided to leave FirstRand because I wanted to be part of taking the country forward and engage in the political process. Leadership you earn. I’m going to be sharing our vision for the future with South Africans and they will decide if they like the plan.”
Anyone who meets Jardine will be struck by his rather laid-back and courteous manner, which might seem out of place in South Africa’s boisterous, often boorish political culture. I ask him how he would fit in.
“One of the most important lessons I learnt from my parents was respect; treating every human being with dignity. I don’t think South Africans want to reside in a place of acrimony and bitterness.
“In a republic you can have adversaries, political opponents, but not enemies. For all the players who might adopt a more aggressive attitude about what we are trying to do and our messaging, I’m quite resolved that we will meet them at the polls, not in the gutter. We’ll test our vision and ideas against theirs through elections.”
And how does he describe his political ideology? “Our starting point in society cannot be a label, but what are we trying to solve? Our philosophy is rooted in social solidarity, which is an extension of being a social democrat. Labels have dragged us under,” he said.
As we spoke, contractors were putting finishing touches to the movement’s spartan, newly acquired offices in Braamfontein. An adviser quipped that the movement was a “start-up”. “It’s an upstart,” Jardine retorted.
One question is whether the “upstart”, being publicly launched in Riverlea today, has left it too late to make a significant impact in next year’s elections. The other is, how can the addition of yet another party reshape South African politics — especially one led by a “Mr Nice Guy”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.