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Maimane and Malema: Why young political leaders are a good thing (maybe)

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Marianne Thamm has toiled as a journalist / writer / satirist / editor / columnist / author for over 30 years. She has published widely both locally and internationally. It was journalism that chose her and not the other way around. Marianne would have preferred plumbing or upholstering.

The election of Mmusi Maimane at the age of 35 as the new leader of the Democratic Alliance this weekend has highlighted the role age plays in contemporary politics. EFF CIC Julius Malema is 34 and there is a fair crop of young MPs in the country’s Parliament. The only party that seems to be encumbered by an ageing top leadership corps is the ANC.

If you have the stomach to go back and examine images of the white men who led South Africa during its grim, separatist heights you will notice something striking. They all look incredibly old, really geriatric, like they’re all in their 80s and that someone has quickly dabbed off the drool and spilt lunch from suit lapels before the photographer snapped them.

A bit like those rows of photographs of rugby, swimming and cricket teams that line the walls of established, old schools. It’s amazing how the white boys in some of the under 16 teams in 1920 or even 1950 all appear to have full bluebeards, their enormous, slabby calves clad in cumbersome cricket padding or with a rugby ball clutched in big, hairy man hands.

Paul Kruger looked 115 when he became President of the Boer Republic in 1883. He was 58. Granted, the 19th and 20th Centuries were trying times. Back then men wouldn’t dream of moisturising or waxing, cosmetic dentistry was unheard of and beards were a necessity, not a mark of hipster cool. And besides, there was no Photoshop or good lighting to speak of.

There is also a theory (untested of course) that conservatism and bigotry (not that all conservatives are bigots, mind you) ages one terribly and that more open-minded people tend generally to age better. So, essentially you get the face you deserve, just like political leaders.

Political pundits have all mentioned the relative youth of the leaders of the country’s two opposition parties, the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, and the unofficial opposition, the Economic Freedom Fighters. That both male leaders of these parties are in their mid-thirties is something significant, we seem to think. And in some respects it is important.

Young, engaged people – political leaders – generally have a sense of hope and a vision of a future. It is a simple developmental matter. While most of us spend our 20s preparing for that future (working towards getting real degrees like Floyd Shivambu, Julius Malema and Lindiwe Mazibuko), by the time we reach our 30s we have this urge to “establish” ourselves, to make our mark, so to speak, and actively shape that future.

The older we get, the longer we live, the more we tend to reflect on the past (and stupidly refer to old fascist leaders as “smart” or conjure Jan van Riebeeck in speeches). We have had time to think of our failures, our triumphs perhaps, but our natural inclination, at this point, tends towards introspection and the finite. We feel the hot breath of the youth panting down our necks. We think of providing for our retirement (Nkandla) or maybe not if you’re Robert Mugabe who was a sprightly 56 when he became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980. (And like Nelson Mandela, who was 76 when he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Mugabe’s youth was absorbed in a fight for freedom). Mandela, by the way, was 33 when he became the president of the ANCYL in 1951.

As we age, we begin to understand that the future does not belong to us. Young people know their way around the world, they have the energy and the knowledge of how some things work. That is why we ask 12-year-olds to help us hack into the CIA’s secret computer vaults.

This is, of course, not dismissing the vast institutional knowledge and experience older people bring to the world. But there comes a time when it dawns that humankind has been stuck on some sort of repeat button ever since we managed to walk upright and it’s time to opt out and binge watch episodes of Downton Abbey or reruns of ‘Sgudi ‘Snaysi if you can afford to.

While the global average age of a political leader used to be around 51, it is now not unusual for young people to lead their parties or their countries. Here’s a short and random list of people who became leaders of their parties or their countries (for better or for worse) round about their 50s: Abraham Lincoln (51), Adolf Hitler (43), Kenneth Kaunda (40), Uhuru Kenyatta (53), Tony Blair (43), Angela Merkel (46 when she became the leader of the CDU and 51 when she became Chancellor of Germany), Tony Leon (44).

Strangely, we tend to want our leaders to be older than us, unlike our film stars. When Bill Clinton was elected as the imagined leader of the free world in 1993 at the age of 46, it was decidedly odd coming to terms with the fact that Mick Jagger was older than him (50). Barack Obama was 47 when he became America’s president in 2009.

Thomas Sankara (an icon for modern revolutionaries) was only 33 when he staged a popularly supported and successful coup in 1983, renaming Upper Volta Burkina Faso. Sankara was assassinated by former compatriot, Blaise Compaoré, in 1987.

Patrice Lumumba was 36 when he became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo in 1960. A Belgian execution squad, aided by Congolese collaborators, assassinated Lumumba seven months after independence.

Benazir Bhutto became the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan at age 35 in 1988. She was elected for a second term in 1993 and was assassinated in December 2007.

There are risks, it would appear, to the young leader of a country.

The average age of the ANC’s NEC is around 62. President Zuma is 73, Gwede Mantashe is 59, Zweli Mkhize is 53 and Baleka Mbete, Cyril Ramaphosa and Jessie Duarte are all 62. Younger ANC Ministers with a profile are Malusi Gigaba (43) and Fikile “I’ll Block You” Mbalula (44).

It is exciting that the two leaders of South Africa’s main opposition parties are in their mid thirties. Their youth will no doubt appeal to and resonate with some younger voters. And now that they will help shape the politics of the country’s future and we cannot, from this vantage point, know what that will be, the most pressing question begging to be asked is what will they do once their terms are up – once they have spent their “political capital”?

Maimane (well, at least in his own party’s dreams) hopes to lead the country, as does Malema. But what if these dreams are shattered or remain eternally deferred?

Maimane operates within the democratic structures of the party he leads, Julius Malema not so much. The EFF is most certainly, at this point, constructed around the cult of Malema’s personality and it remains to be seen if he will go gently into that great political wilderness that is the lecture or column writing circuit, to which so many former political leaders are banished.

Stock up on popcorn and enjoy the ride with the young ones. DM

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