Shut up or do something about it: Gareth Cliff and political debates

You white, racist liberal! This is how 5FM’s DJ and M-net Idol’s judge Gareth Cliff was labelled in not so many words by the KwaZulu-Natal Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) last week Thursday 21 October 2010 in response to a letter that he wrote to Government. While the letter was written in a rather aggressive and rude tone, it did touch on pressing issues that need to be addressed. Though I feel that it was not the way to address the situation, one can somehow share Gareth’s sentiments.

His letter, titled ‘Dear Government,’ touched on some fundamental economic issues. He used a very sarcastic tone to congratulate the government on the work they had done thus far and claimed to ‘forgive’ the government for the fact that some places are worse off now than before 1994. Gareth Cliff’s beef is what almost the entire country and the private press beef is about: corruption in government, fat cats and tender awards, Zuma’s overnight millionaire nephew, the flawed education system, unemployment, and the Media Appeals Tribunal. Nothing new from what we have read in the press before. Nothing really intelligent, just the same script but differently cast. Same song but different notes to it.

It is all good to hear people like Gareth Cliff complain and criticize. But never offering any concrete solutions, they too are probably baffled and do not know how to transform government. We all know that corruption needs to be rooted out. The ANC will not always be in power but it is time that we all came together, especially the affluent like Gareth Cliff, and discuss the way forward, discuss a turnaround strategy for unemployment, education, etc, regardless of who is in power. The ANC one day will pay for its sins and will go down. But if we are truly passionate about transforming South Africa and giving the poor economic opportunities, then we need to get off our butt and blogs and actually do something about it. Yes, information is the key to freedoms, freedom of expression is the key to democracy and emancipation, but words followed with no actions do not mean anything.

If we truly feel passionate about the corruption and tenders, the fat cats etc., then let us kick them (the tenderpreneurs and government) where it really hurts, bring them to their knees. It is evident that words do not mean much to the government. Instead they are trying to deploy weapons that will shut up the media forever so that corruption would never surface. If we do not have genuinely good intentions about speaking out against corruption and the failing system but instead just want to put in place a new power regime then people must just shut up and blog about how they judged the top three on Idols and tweet about what they had for dinner after Idols. If we are genuine about the way we feel, then something must be done.

As for the Young Communist League, their response too was nothing new, nothing intelligent. Just the same old race card that is played whenever the government is criticized by a white person. I do not think that Gareth is hating blacks but he may have been a bit too harsh on Zuma and his many children, calling them ‘bastards’. But then a lot of men and women have children out of wedlock and the President after all is only human. The principles of the alliance are silly when they defend each other, even on the most obvious issues just for the sake of solidarity. The letter was not entirely based on Blade Nzimande though Cliff called him ugly and that is his opinion. The league should have dealt with Gareth’s letter intelligently and not just played the race card. We know the root causes of the current crisis are colonization, apartheid and neoliberal ideologies. What is the Zuma leadership doing to fix these ills? Advancing the wealth of a few people is not the solution. And why is that every time someone criticizes the government or expresses him or herself, they have to be disciplined? Why does Gareth Cliff need to be disciplined for placing his own views on his blog? The alliance needs to learn that it is a battle of ideas and images out there and they too should fight back using words and images, find platforms to express themselves and not cry for disciplinary action for every little criticism of the government.

Andiswa Makanda

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