Ismail Mahomed writes that who would have thought that on the 58th anniversary of the Lilliesleaf raid, we would be denouncing a former post-apartheid president's action as an act of detestable ethnic mobilisation?
On 11 July 1963, South African Police raided Lilliesleaf Farm in the north of Johannesburg. It was the headquarters of the then banned African National Congress (ANC). Among the men arrested at Lilliesleaf Farm were Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki. Their arrests led to the iconic Rivonia Trial and the resultant detention of the men on Robben Island. What followed was a heavier arm of the law on South African citizens by the Nationalist government and a determination by a banned ANC which operated from outside of the country to overthrow the apartheid regime by calling on black South Africans to make the country ungovernable to win the release of the detained men and to start South Africa's long walk to freedom and transformation.
On Sunday 4 July 2021, Jacob Zuma addressed supporters and media who had gathered outside his homestead saying, "I am not scared of going to jail for my beliefs. It will not be for the first time. I will be a prisoner of conscience. I spent 10-years on Robben Island, under cruel and difficult conditions."
He added, "I fought for freedom. I was fighting for these very rights. No one will take my rights away. Even the dead that I fought against during the liberation struggle will turn in their graves."
Zuma tried to argue that the Constitution Court sentenced him without a trial and he tried to compare the court order for his arrest with the apartheid struggle when he said that he would be a prisoner of conscience.
An insult to those detained at Lilliesleaf
Nothing is more insulting to the integrity of the men who were detained at Lilliesleaf than this outrageous comparison made by Zuma. Nothing can also be more hypocritical than Zuma trying to paint himself as a martyr and trying to sound like Nelson Mandela, who stoically said from the dock at the Rivonia Trial, "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Jacob Zuma has none of Nelson Mandela's idealism. His presidency has divided South Africa into a country of those who have because they are politically connected and those who don't have because some pigs are more equal than other pigs.
Zuma's Presidency is also characterised by a trail of allegations of corruption that range from him siphoning off millions of rands for his homestead after selling off the country to the Gupta brothers. Zuma has essentially betrayed every one of the founding values of the ANC. During his tenure, he turned both government and the public service into a trough where pigs come to eat while the rest of Animal Farm has had to be content with chicken wings, Oros Orange Juice and one more t-shirt brandishing his face.
The men from Lilliesleaf walked with their dignity intact when they stepped into their cells at Robben Island. Zuma's dignity has been trampled by himself and his own arrogance. He deserves to be in a cell with other common criminals. He has breached the law. He also needs to be brought to book for the tolls of corruption and criminality that has betrayed the aspirations of a country that once held solidly on to the promise made by Nelson Mandela of a better country for all.
Zuma's call to his followers to protest his arrest is nothing short of deception. The violence, looting and civil disruption that has spread over this past week is sheer opportunism heeded by Zuma's bigwigs who use poor, ignorant people as fodder to advance their and Zuma's criminality.
On the evening of 11 July 2021, the 58th anniversary of the Lilliesleaf Raid, when President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on his Covid-19 update he was quite right to add that the current wave of violence and unrest spreading through the country is nothing but sheer opportunistic crime driven by ethnic mobilisation. Ramaphosa came just short of calling it what it is —- a devious plot driven by Zuma's call on the tribe to act on his behalf.
Ramaphosa added, "All South Africans must condemn this at all costs as we are a nation committed to non-racialism and non-tribalism that is underpinned by the diversity and unity of all the people of South Africa, whatever their language, culture, religious beliefs and race". While Zuma may have succeeded in some respects to drive a narrative of Zulu mobilisation and having conned the mobs by painting a picture of himself as a prisoner of conscience it is worth noting that the highest houses of Zulu royalty have not responded to Zuma's call.
Condemnation
In fact, the traditional Prime Minister for the Zulu monarchy, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi condemned Zuma's mobilisation of the tribe at his homestead. Buthelezi said, "what is happening in Nkandla right now has the potential to do much greater harm. As someone who has served my country for more than sixty years, I dare not keep silent. I love my country too much to see its future destroyed."
Zuma deserves to be in orange overalls because of his contempt of court order and the many charges of corruption that he still needs to face and for taking our country so many steps backwards. Who would have thought that on the 58th anniversary of the Lilliesleaf Raid, we would be denouncing a former post-apartheid president's action as an act of detestable ethnic mobilisation?
It makes our country's fight against racism seem so old fashioned. It makes it seem as if Zuma's plot to mobilise one ethnic group against the others is a game played right into the hands of Hendrik Verwoerd. For sure, Hendrik Verwoerd can't be turning in his grave as Zuma expects. Hendrik Verwoerd must be smiling.
- Ismail Mahomed is a multi-award-winning arts administrator and playwright. He was the director of the National Arts Festival and former CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation. He currently serves as the director of the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He writes extensively in his personal capacity on matters about the arts, civil society and social change.
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