Africa-Press – Eswatini. I admire Themba Masuku. Firstly, he is a gentleman.
Polite and humble. But, more importantly, he is accessible. He shows up – just as he has done this past week.
He will do what needs to be done.
But I will get to this one later. For now, let me start with how dreadful this week has been. No, dreadful is an understatement. This has been a nightmarish week where once again we have been confronted with the frightening insatiable appetite for violence that brought back memories of last year’s unforgettable episode of violence.
It is hard not to wake up in a pool of sweat from this nightmare of the wave of protests of June last year. It is hard not to feel the pain of what we have lost and continue to lose every time the nightmare replays itself, for it brings back the sad reality of the deaths we have lived through, if not the uncomfortable reality that all of what we are experiencing could have been and could still be prevented. There is no denying the fact that the damage that this is causing this beautiful country and its people is huge, and the more people cheer it on the more that we move further from the peaceful society we have known.
The fear and apprehension of all of this being revisited once more upon us, once again came flashing back on Thursday – and for a second, we all feared the worst.
The reason for this is that we don’t know any more, what lies around the corner. We do not know any more who waits and lurks for us around the corner.
All we know is that we are desperate, for calm, for sense, for help. We are desperate that we find some kind of divine intervention that will provide the path for us once more. Sadly, there is nothing to suggest that even those who might bring in that divine intervention are capable, if not available, to usher us into that realm. They too, just as I pointed out last week, have disappeared to the mountains, hopefully to pray, leaving behind a congregation of fearful worshippers stranded at ‘Hlane’. It is that bad bekunene!
This country used to be a Christian country, stout in its belief in prayer and in the Lord and our Saviour. But, in much the same way people talk of dialogue being the answer, one could also say that Christians should be out there, reminding us of the power of prayer and calling such big and national prayers, calling for that divine intervention. This should be the national call – for the church in its numbers to unite in prayer.
But, what do you know, there is only silence. Eerie silence for that matter and Christians are happy to play the blame game too. Maybe I am being naïve. Maybe Christians themselves don’t have that much faith – after all, there are so many fake and false prophets filling the churches.
But, I thought, for a second, it was strange how there are no national prayers being called, let alone women in the mountains converging for prayer or pastors standing up to play their part.
It all boils down to how this country has been neglected by those who should be leading, all of who are now found singing the chorus of dialogue being the only answer.
I have a lot to say about those people and the notion of the dialogue being the solution, but then again, that might get me into all sorts of trouble, so I keep my views in this regard to myself.
Save to say, however, that the notion that the dialogue is the only solution to the political crisis in this country can’t suddenly take away or solve the dispute that led to Thursday’s mayhem, where transport workers decided they would stop at nothing to get what they wanted – which was the release of their colleagues who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting a man.
This is no different to suggesting that if there had been one, public transport operators would have reasoned to the case for the rule of law. Then surely we would not have experienced the chaotic scenes of Thursday, where a police post was burnt down.
Of course I am being simplistic, perhaps overly, but the point here is that there is a culture that’s settling in these days that has been endorsed by all those who simply just dismiss the issues at play by suggesting that the problem should be attributed to the failure to hold a dialogue. This to me is no different to endorsing the violence, arson attacks and senseless killing of security services officers, instead of calling out those behind all of these first before shrugging our shoulders off to when is the dialogue.
I find this dangerously playing into the lawlessness that is being inculcated by everyone looking the other way, but that is my thought.
Restored
So anyway, we are grateful to the good Samaritans who stood up for the country on Thursday and decided to pay the bail for the five workers in order to enable order to be restored. Mind you, the three associations leaders who stood up to be counted could also have pushed the blame to the issue of the dialogue and sat comfortably in their corners.
But, they did not. Instead, they saw the bigger picture, and that something needed to be done. It would have been easy for them to join in the bandwagon and push the narrative. But, in their political maturity, they collectively asked themselves what it is that their country needed – and came up with the right decision.
Someone could have just left it alone, and we could have witnessed more property being destroyed and more chaotic and violent scenes.
To these three, we want to say thank you. The country is grateful for your intervention and leadership. That is what the country is crying out for, these days. It is crying out for people to do the little they can to avert more violence. It is crying out for people to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, this is why we are here, because those who should are failing us. In fact, it is sad that when they do, like our so-called Members of Parliament, they take the wrong decisions. When they do intervene, it is a desperate attempt at grandstanding, which only means they end up fuelling the situation more than helping.
Over a year later, MPs are still displaying poor judgment in this political crisis, only thinking for their stomachs more than looking for a solution that will get them into the history books. It is all too easy for MPs to stand up and claim that they are getting death threats and they are afraid to talk, but to challenge those who are calling for political reform to call off the violence would in my books be the heroic thing to do.
But, sadly, our politicians are only narrowminded and fail the political test with flying colours. This past week, they demonstrated once more that they are happy to take the easy way out when the going gets tough.
MPs now seem to have found their voice – singing in unison that ‘if we did the dialogue this would not happen’. This to me is only being opportunistic and ignoring the real problems that we are being confronted with – which is, lack of service delivery and unemployment.
The bigger elephant in the room in this country is that the narratives that are burning this country are being ignored and that has dangerously dragged this country on the verge of a civil war. No one, not even Alpheous Nxumalo is focused on the real issues, which is honestly, making the public see that some of the issues of concern are being addressed. What Parliament needs to do is come up with a solution to the political question – which is, at the very least, some kind of referendum. I would have expected that if MPs care that much, then they would be inviting the people to their constituencies to solicit their views on these issues, not to tell us about issues they have not yet been mandated by the people who voted them into office.
I have of course said a mouthful on this issue, so I will leave it be, except to say that if anyone bothered to listen to the cries out there on social media, then they would know enough to at least take responsibility where there is a need to.
Which is what brings me to Themba Masuku. The acting prime minister has had his critics, not least for his decision to ban the delivery of petitions. But, there is something admirable about how he has stood up during some of the country’s difficult moments – putting himself in the fray whenever needed.
Taken into context, there can be a case for the defence, especially when viewed in the prism of what everyone else in his position has done since the political crisis descended into violent agenda.
I was thinking this week that Themba Masuku has showed his political maturity in the manner that he has handled himself in the midst of all the criticism, including how he was lynched last year on social media yet he had availed himself to engage with the public. He left, although not before he had received death threats and had insults from here to Lawuba.
But, today we are looking around for leaders who listen and engage. Yet, those that do are targeted, vilified and used as a scapegoat.
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