There can be no doubt about the importance of words. Used recklessly they break hearts. They can also cause mayhem and destruction or ignite wars. Used well, words carry hope, which is oxygen for democracies and for us mere mortals who have endured much of the pain this world has to offer.
But what matters most are our actions. What do we remain with long after the words are uttered or when we don’t even remember what we were promised? What matters most is what our actions accomplish.
Sometimes words are used to lull us into a false sense of accomplishment. Or to assuage our pain, making us believe we don’t have it as bad as we feel it is, or that our concerns are exaggerated. Yet, when we sober up, when we recover from how words are used to mesmerise us, we remember how valid our pains are.
The nation is preoccupied with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choice of words during his meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Is Russia South Africa’s ally and valued friend? The other party that’s still trying to establish it's co-governing after its headlong rush into the GNU is up in arms. Many others are sucked into the controversy, such as it is, about whether Russia is valued or not. Frankly, it’s a storm in a teacup. What does Ramaphosa’s choice of words change? What is it that makes Russia valued or not valued? Its contribution to our struggle against apartheid? Is this a new discovery?
To the extent that Ramaphosa was referring to South Africa's friendship with Russia and how it helped us during our darkest hour, we must thank Ramaphosa for being polite. He demonstrated ubuntu. Truth is, if Ramaphosa said Israel is a valued partner in the process to find peace in the Middle East, none of the feigned outrage we are subjected to now would be at the centre of debates.
What ought correctly to be worrying us about all these annual Brics meetings, G20 meetings and other talk shops is: what has Ramaphosa proposed that will change the lives of millions of poor people in the country who hope this GNU will deliver?
Let me rephrase: the niceties of the diplomatic world, including how leaders greet each other, don’t matter to 26-million people who today are reliant on one social grant or another when they should be out working for themselves and their families.
Former president Kgalema Motlanthe, speaking at the annual inclusive growth summit hosted by his foundation in the Drakensberg this weekend, said there is much to learn from waste recyclers who push their trolleys on Gauteng roads every day. He said the fact that they are up very early in the morning, pushing evidently heavy loads, sends a message that these are people who are willing to work. The state has a concomitant duty to provide minimum training and support to those, like the trolley pushers, who don’t just want social security grants.
What we must therefore be losing sleep about is not which polite words Ramaphosa used while greeting Putin, but rather what these bosom buddies discussed that will help improve the lives of trolley pushers and those like them who are crying out for jobs. That’s the issue, and none of us are talking about that.
What we must therefore be losing sleep about is not which polite words Ramaphosa used while greeting Putin, but rather what these bosom buddies discussed that will help improve the lives of trolley pushers and those like them who are crying out for jobs
We are told Russia is an aggressor, a human rights violator and so on. But so is Israel. China has a dark human rights record — yet DA leader John Steenhuisen was fawning on a recent trip there as minister of agriculture without a care about human rights violations. The US is permanently at war with Russia through Ukraine, and with Iran, Lebanon and Palestine through Israel. Yet everyone was supportive of trade & industry minister Parks Tau’s recent trips to Washington to schmooze Americans into keeping their investments here.
MTN chair Mcebisi Jonas, speaking at the Drakensberg summit, hit the nail on the head when he said the role players in the GNU must ask themselves — along with the rest of us — if the GNU was the destination or if it was a vehicle to take the country to a different destination. In other words — is that it for our country?
Our preoccupation with whether Russia is a valuable friend or not is unhelpful. While some among us may be pugilistic by nature, there is value in being placid and not participating in every battle to which we are invited. Yes, some statements may lead us to gnash our teeth as we listen to our leaders speaking in forums across the globe.
But we must calm down and remember our lodestar. We come from a dark past that has left many in soul-crushing poverty. There is no greater mission for this generation than economic inclusion. Where there was much hope, the 30 years of democracy represented a veritable dystopian turn that has created an opportunity for parties like the EFF and the MKP to connect with the disenchanted.
We must have the maturity to put aside the petty politicking and ask: what, in hindsight, did our hosting of the Brics meeting in Sandton last year help us achieve? Importantly, how has it impacted the lives of the economically excluded?
We must eschew the short-termism of storms in teacups. It shouldn’t matter much how Ramaphosa greets Putin. We should worry much about what he brings home after that greeting. The poor can’t wait forever.
The campaign to strengthen the EFF and MKP is not based on the strengths of these parties, but on how the establishment continues to neglect the poor and pretend that greetings are more important than the outcome of sessions such as Ramaphosa attended in Russia.
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.