CR’s Tintswalo analogy would have been laughable if it wasn’t so insulting to millions

I won’t bore you with my memory of the euphoria I felt as democracy was being ushered in 30 years ago when I was an 11-year-old girl, lest I am mistaken for a supporter of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ill-fated Tintswalo analogy in his recent State of the Nation Address.

Do you know the meaning of the name Tintswalo? I’m sure many curious South Africans who don’t speak Xitsonga rushed to google it to find out, but for those who didn’t, it means grace or mercy – the antithesis of the ANC’s rule over at least the past decade.

“The story of the first 30 years of our democracy can best be told through the life of a child called Tintswalo born at the dawn of freedom in 1994. She grew up in a society governed by a Constitution rooted in equality, the rule of law and affirmation of the inherent dignity of every citizen,” Ramaphosa waxed lyrically.

The analogy would have been laughable if it wasn’t so insulting to the millions of South Africans who cruelly have been brought so close to the promise of the Constitution, yet have barely been able to enjoy its protections and prescripts.

What may have started off as a seemingly clever metaphor and an electoral ace card for the ANC sadly came off as a tone-deaf, insensitive and clearly manipulative political ploy. The self-congratulatory tone was off-putting in light of the reality faced by those born in 1994.

We cannot celebrate the Tintswalo who could have, should have and would have been just to assuage the ANC’s ego.

I’m not prone to cynicism, but it unfortunately bears mentioning that it’s not difficult to claim to have improved the lives of South African people from the low base that was apartheid; it’s a given that a shift to democracy would have achieved this.

I think the ruling party can rightly claim to have had an upward trajectory in its first 15 years of assuming the mantle of government. However, the past 15 years have been anything but. So, an accurate reflection of Ramaphosa’s Tintswalo would in fact show that she was tragically stunted as a 15-year-old teenager, her promising future after 1994 markedly curtailed.

We cannot celebrate the Tintswalo who could have, should have and would have been just to assuage the ANC’s ego.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Tintswalo and balloons take centre stage amid the weird, the curious and the contradictory debates

What we need to do is ensure that we do better by the Tintswalos born during our democracy by electing a political leadership of unquestionable moral standing with a demonstrable commitment to the founding principles of our Damascus moment in 1994.

We’ve done it before and I believe we can do it again. That’s why, in this year’s elections, the calibre of the political party we choose is so important.

Leaving behind the perhaps unkind criticism of the speech, what we can glean from Ramaphosa’s words is the unintended insight that should give us pause, namely just who a dysfunctional state hurts the most: the very Tintswalo he brought to the country’s collective imagination. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.