In some respects, the National Party did South African politics a favour. By exploiting ethnicity in its implementation of apartheid, it inadvertently ensured not only that black people would unite against policies aimed at dividing them, but that nonracialism would become the benchmark for the new constitutional order.
The immortal words of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, the restless spirit who agitated for the formation of the South African National Native Congress, forerunner of the ANC, became the guiding principle for opposition to apartheid. “The demons of racialism, the aberrations of Xhosa-Fingo feud, animosity that exists between the Zulus and the Tongaas, between the Basutos and every other native must be buried and forgotten; it has shed among us enough blood! We are one people. These divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes and of all our backwardness and ignorance today.”
Seme’s clarion call for black unity and the formation of an organisation to pursue it had been given impetus by the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which saw the four provinces founding a unitary white-controlled state that excluded black people from any meaningful political participation.
When the NP came to power in 1948 and accelerated the implementation of apartheid, black unity, especially the outright rejection of political affiliation or organisation on a tribal basis, became almost a creed or a sine qua non in opposition circles. Tribalism became a taboo, a swear word. When at its meeting in Kliptown in 1955 the Congress Alliance declared in its Freedom Charter that South Africa belonged to all who lived in it, it was yet another riposte to the NP’s policies, especially its Bantustan policy that regarded every tribe as “a nation” that would get its own patch of land to govern itself.
People are flocking to its rallies, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, regardless. They seem to have got the message, and it’s very clear: MK is a tribal party and tribalism is its ideology
The United Democratic Front’s slogan “UDF unites, apartheid divides” summed up the contrast succinctly. The black consciousness movement further cemented that unity not only among Africans but all oppressed people including coloureds and Indians, to the exclusion of white people. Those participating in apartheid structures — township councillors, homeland leaders, and so on — were shunned and regarded with contempt by opponents of the system, who sought to isolate them not only at home but internationally as well.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi tried to straddle the divide, participating in the Bantustan system, which was based on tribal affiliation, while claiming to be fighting to undermine apartheid from within. He founded Inkatha, a cultural movement, to arouse Zulu sentiments and history — using to good advantage tribal regalia, songs, cultural events and accoutrements, even corralling the symbols and services of Zulu royalty, as forms of mobilisation. It was a textbook definition of tribalism, which ANC founders had not only warned against, but whose rejection was key to the founding of the organisation.
Buthelezi’s brand of politics went some way in desensitising the public to the spectre of tribalism. Initially the ANC and other likeminded organisations eschewed the tribal card. But in the run-up to the 1994 elections and in the face of fierce, violent competition with the IFP, the ANC seemed to change tack. Mosiuoa Lekota, its leader in southern Natal, was replaced by Jacob Zuma, a polygamist who took to the cultural and tribal aspects of the region like a duck to water.
The IFP prevailed in 1994, but the ANC has steadily gained a stranglehold of the province. Zuma went on to become the country’s deputy president. It was at a Zulu cultural event that Zuma, dressed in tribal regalia and waving his cultural weapons, made his infamous comments about gay people, much to the dismay of Cosatu and the SACP, who had supported him in ousting Thabo Mbeki as ANC president. He apologised at the time but, by expressing their displeasure, the comrades had merely reined in his true impulses. He simply wasn’t the revolutionary they thought he was.
Now that he’s left the ANC and teamed up with the nascent MK Party, Zuma seems to have been liberated. He has been freed from the straitjacket of a party that claims to be nonracial and nonsexist. He’s railed against our electoral system, which he claims is neither free nor fair. Pregnant teenagers should be dispatched to Robben Island. But he’s saying nothing about the men who impregnate them, probably because he’s one of the culprits.
MK’s unstated yet overt goal is tribal mobilisation. Apart from Zuma, little is known of its leadership. It has yet to release its manifesto. But that seems unnecessary. People are flocking to its rallies, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, regardless. They seem to have got the message, and it’s very clear: MK is a tribal party and tribalism is its ideology. There’s therefore no need for some policy document.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has turned out to be an awful leader who deserves all the criticism he’s getting. But one gets the sense that Zuma’s attacks on him are not aimed at the president’s obvious weaknesses — his failure to tackle crime, corruption, and so on. They are in fact dog whistles intended to delegitimise him as leader; to suggest he’s unfit to occupy the position simply because of his tribal origin.
The irony is Zuma would be languishing in jail were it not for Ramaphosa’s decision to dishonestly reduce his sentence. And this week, on the basis of that remission, the electoral court allowed a convicted criminal to run for public office. The ANC will have a problem making its voice heard in KwaZulu-Natal. Its provincial leaders were once Zuma’s ardent followers; and some may still be secret admirers. They may be tempted to join the pig in the dirty mud of tribalism, in which case there will be only one winner.
Tribalism will be the country’s undoing. Its future, its salvation, lies in forging one national identity.
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