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Pots and kettles: The ‘democratic’ edition

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Judith February is executive officer: Freedom Under Law.

Lashing out has become the new form of democratic deliberation in South Africa, it seems. If your argument is found wanting, attack is the best form of defence.

Last month, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe proceeded to label Daily Maverick journalist, Ranjeni Munusamy, as ‘ill-disciplined’ after an exchange regarding the release of the Marikana report. Mantashe lambasted not only Munusamy, but threatened to block all ‘hostile’ journalists. In fact, Mantashe’s words, verbatim, to Mail & Guardian journalist Qaanitah Hunter, were: “If you project yourself as hostile, we refuse to give you an interview… it’s our right.”

If one examines the paranoia in Mantashe’s comments, it is hardly surprising. Marikana will forever be etched in our collective memory as the moment police brutality reached a new low. Government’s initial response and the slowness of the president to release the Farlam Commission report on Marikana are both indicative of an administration which has lost touch with its citizens and its Constitutional obligations: transparent, open and accountable governance. Usually the defensive response is in direct proportion to the amount of heat the ruling party is feeling on a specific issue. We have seen this manifest in the Nkandla matter, for instance. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has repeatedly and rather absurdly been accused of being a CIA spy, much to the chagrin and bewilderment of the Americans.

Recently, too, the ANC Youth League has called for the deregistration of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in the Free State, after TAC claimed corruption by the MEC for Health in that province. This represented a serious attack on civil society, the right to legitimate protest and freedom of expression. Again, prompted by the insecurity of those who hold power when their misdeeds threaten to be exposed.

Parliament, intended to be the ultimate site for democratic deliberation and contestation was thrown into disarray this year after riot police in civilian clothes were called into the House during the president’s State of the Nation address – an unprecedented, undemocratic step. Despite Speaker Mbete’s assertion that Parliament remains ‘vibrant’, the debates this year have continued to descend into petty name-calling with quality deteriorating rapidly. Yet the trend has been steady. In September last year, the Democratic Alliance walked out of House during the motion of no confidence debate. They did so on the grounds that the debate was pointless as the ANC was simply abusing its majority to shut matters down.

So it is safe to say that the ANC has not covered itself in glory when it has been found wanting on governance issues and under pressure from the media and civil society. It has increasingly shown itself to be paranoid and incapable of accepting criticism. The DA has regularly taken the ANC to task for abusing its majority and shutting down debate.

So it is surprising, then, that the City of Cape Town, under the leadership of Mayor Patricia De Lille, appears to be using the same tactics in the Council Chamber, where the DA majority is firmly intact. The Social Justice Coalition (SJC), together with Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) has been involved in a long-standing advocacy campaign regarding budgets for water and sanitation. The SJC and NU have sought to engage the Mayor, as well as mayoral committee members Ernest Sonnenberg and Ian Neilson, in constructive debates on increasing the budget for sanitation. In addition, this year, the organisations collated hundreds of submissions by community members regarding the lack of sanitation in Khayelitsha and other areas.

This appeared to unleash a storm during the recent City Council meeting to approve the Budget as De Lille launched a scathing attack on the SJC. In an extraordinary rant that lasted about 10 minutes, De Lille tore into the SJC with some quite ludicrous assertions that were repeated in local newspapers. De Lille calls the SJC and NU research, “lies” and accuses them of being “concerned with building a media profile based on mistruths (sic)…” She continues to accuse the media of “being complicit in a false narrative” painted by civil society organisations. In addition, she labels the SJC and NU as “Twitter trolls” and has made other references to their being influenced by foreign donors to pursue a specific agenda. It is rather hubristic to assert that foreign donors would be concerned enough to plot against the City of Cape Town. That’s quite a stretch of logic.

One wonders what the DA response would have been had this immature attack on civil society come from the ANC? Perhaps it would have labelled the ANC as ‘abusing its majority?’ As the Council meeting continued, with DA members cheerleading De Lille, speaker after speaker affirmed the budget as ‘pro-poor’, cheering and applauding the Mayor. Not much of this was covered in the local media and unsurprisingly, the ANC seems completely without a plan, as opposition in Cape Town. It has neither the research nor intellectual capacity to engage in proper debates regarding questions of budgeting.

De Lille’s over-sensitivity and Thatcherite ‘hand-bagging’ is surprising, given her own political history. But, as we have come to know only so well in South Africa, there is something intoxicating about politics and power, which causes even some of the best, most committed activists to forget why they came.

The basic point is that the Mayor and Councillor Sonnenberg may well disagree with NU and the SJC, yet they have resorted to name-calling and paranoia as opposed to engagement. Sonnenberg’s famous quote that the “SJC is obsessed with budgets” is an insult to those in informal settlements who do not have access to decent sanitation. Perhaps Sonnenberg would have been one of the 500 residents of Khayelitsha who made rudimentary submissions to the City in often broken English, if he did not have a proper toilet? The City all but ignored the 500 submissions, placing them under a single category, thus hiding their impact. Quite interestingly, the well-written suburbanite submissions on potholes and the like were given their own special categories in the public participation process. And so we further understand that the DA has to work for its constituencies- and those are not the far-flung townships without sanitation.

What is specifically bothersome about De Lille and her Council’s attitude is that they have sought to portray NU and the SJC as troublemakers peddling inaccurate information. SJC and NU have consistently attempted to engage with the City and have not been part of the hopelessly misguided ‘poo-flingers’. They have used their Constitutional rights to protest, make submissions and challenge a City that reeks of greater inequality by the day.

By all means, the Mayor and the DA Council should debate the facts regarding sanitation and, if needs be, disagree. Such deliberation is at the heart of our Constitution. The Constitution provides the framework for the progressive realisation of socio-economic rights, and so there has been no expectation that all our City’s citizens should be provided adequate sanitation immediately. Neither the SJC not NU has called for such immediate, unrealistic action. What they are asking for is a proper debate, based on their reasoned research that has been supported by the International Budget Partnership. In addition, citizens are requesting a proper sanitation plan and an increase in budgeting for water and sanitation.

Jeering, name-calling and dismissing the SJC and NU in such a petty and paranoid manner says infinitely more about the DA and its style of governance than the SJC and NU. It also tells us that paranoia is not the sole preserve of the ANC.

The DA in the City of Cape Town under Mayor De Lille is as capable of shutting down a debate as the ANC is.

Next time the ANC is accused of abusing its majority in Parliament, the DA might do well to recall the conduct of its councillors during the City’s budget ‘debate’.

It will be like the pot calling the kettle black. DM

Judith February is a senior research associate at the Institute for Security Studies.

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