The tragedy that is Roger Jardine! On February 12, his Change Starts Now party launched its manifesto, but barely two weeks later it folded. OK, so it was never truly a party — just him supported by a businessman here and there, the odd NGO administrator, and a few communications consultants.
They invited some people to Kliptown and addressed them as change-makers. On February 29, a leap year day, they had to spoil everyone’s Thursday by announcing the abandonment of the manifesto they had launched just two weeks earlier.
When the ANC returns to power, even with the help of small parties, we should all remember why. No-one should blame the voters. Instead, we must look to people such as Jardine, who used their money and clout to sow confusion in the political realm instead of joining existing organisations to help South Africa.
There are so many ways to turn a decaying South Africa around. One of them is to support opposition parties and help MPs play a more effective role in holding the executive to account. Opposition parties would benefit from having better researchers and higher-calibre MPs who can use their powerful parliamentary platform to show us they are a government in waiting.
He just wanted to waltz into the Union Buildings because he was better than the others. He could have joined any one of more than a dozen political parties already in parliament, or even one of the newbies. But he is Jardine, and therefore worth more than that
South Africa will certainly need better informed MPs when it moves into a period of high volatility after the elections. Being an MP is a hard and boring job, and about R1.2m is a decent salary only for those who cannot get jobs outside politics.
Parliament is necessary to grow a political base. Take a look at the EFF. For a while, it depended on its parliamentary seats to create the illusion of being a mass party, when it had cloud cover instead of ground cover. It is now, for the first time, investing time and energy in places such as KwaZulu-Natal to create a mass support base. But the party’s longevity so far has been simply about using its parliamentary airtime.
Jardine was not ready to put in the hard yards. He just wanted to waltz into the Union Buildings because he was better than the others. He could have joined any of more than a dozen political parties already in parliament, or even one of the newbies. But he is Jardine, and therefore worth more than that.
He was just a diversion enjoying an expensive joyride. We could have had better conversations about the state of the country, threats to our democracy, inequality, and the like. His disappearance from the limelight had better be swift, so that the conversation can turn to serious politicians. Jardine and his “change starts now, or a little later” crowd of consultants and political mercenaries seem to think their problem was all about timing, in that they would have been unable to collect the required number of signatures to get on the ballot paper.
That’s just a sorry excuse. The man needed a product for the political market. He’s just a rich guy who thinks he is better than everyone else in politics. His political credentials were massively hyped up, when in reality Dali Mpofu is a more prominent ANC veteran than Jardine. His whole venture was a failure from the get-go.
This is the kind of week in which I would have enjoyed discussing BEE, which features in the various party manifestos.
On this issue, the DA hunkers down in a laager, typically opposing both the principle and the application of BEE. But its opposition to BEE would now attract many voters who would not vote for the Freedom Front Plus. In other words, it does not see the ANC as its opposition, but rather Pieter Groenewald’s party.
South Africa’s political history mirrors that of Malaysia, which has its own BEE equivalent in the form of Bumiputera — a much-praised programme. It is easy to see why Malaysia’s Bumiputera earns accolades and our BEE doesn’t. Malaysia’s economy has been experiencing decent growth, while South Africa’s has been doddering. It is easier to distribute wealth in a growing economy than in one where there is none.
One of the stories this week was how Bidvest International Logistics sold about a quarter of its share capital to Akhona, an investment firm. At some point, such transactions need to be seen as straightforward business deals instead of being boxed as empowerment initiatives.
Of course, the empowerment element is essential, but our experience with such matters in sport should teach us a lesson or two. Someone like Makhaya Ntini could never be seen as an empowerment or quota cricketer, but transformation itself was still necessary in the sport.
He made the team on merit. But it is hard for black businesses such as Akhona to acquire stakes in other firms without proactive policies in place intended to promote equality — and the realisation of this objective needs a helping hand owing to our past. With the politician wannabes and the economy we have, it’s every man or woman for himself, and God help us all.
• Mkokeli is the lead partner at public affairs entity Mkokeli Advisory
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