The Banker Who Aims to Fight for the Poor

In a turnabout that has got his former underlings – who once respectfully referred to him as uBaba – incensed, former president Jacob Zuma’s latest move is akin to that middle finger he’s known to show when adjusting his spectacles. Except this time it’s less out of mere habit than a pointed “stuff you!” at the ANC which he still calls home but will not be campaigning or voting for come 2024.

Banker turned politician, Roger Jardine. Image: Wikipedia.

Not unlike other disgruntled members who left the ANC in a huff before him, the man they call Nxamalala is making sure to bless and back the party which has apparently nicked a treasured ANC heirloom. COPE walked away with the Congress of the People. Ace Magashule’s newly-formed ACT has borrowed from party colours and now the Zuma-backed startup have taken arguably the most famous name to emerge from the Struggle-era ANC.

Umkhonto weSizwe (MK); paramilitary wing of the organisation and lauded in toi-toi discography as the revolutionary force that would descend leopard-crawling, cradling AK-47s and telling Piek Botha that his hours were numbered down on apartheid Pretoria. As an MK commander during the Struggle years, Zuma was at the coalface of strategy, nowadays though, he hopes that outfits like MK will topple the very organisation in which he was – for better or worse – Number One going almost on two terms. Not one to mince his words, Zuma has come out guns blazing, labelling the current government of president Cyril Ramaphosa as one of ‘sell-outs and apartheid collaborators.’ Hence his conscience, he pontificates, will not allow him to campaign or vote for it.

Former president Jacob Zuma throws his weight behind Umkhonto weSizwe, a new party. Image: Wikipedia.

In September, MK registered with the Independent Electoral Commission and will seemingly be contesting next year’s ballot. Needless to say, this has ruffled a lot of feathers. ANC supporters have been quick to downplay the outfit as little more than a bunch of bitter factionalists who are struggling to come to terms with how cold it is outside of Khongolose. The KwaZulu Natal ANC has gone into panic mode, ‘sniffing out’ members who have defected or are campaigning for MK. The ruling party has also issued a cease-and-desist letter to the party demanding that it changes its name and logo. Ever the loyal ally, the SA Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande has come out to warn their alliance partner not to focus “on diversionary tactics. If [the ANC] were to be bogged down on that, then it means it’s losing the plot,” said the chairperson.

But it’s not just disgruntled politicians who are throwing their names in the hat to challenge the ANC next year. The latest hopeful comes in the form of FirstRand chairperson, Roger Jardine. Although he too clutches desperately onto the “anti-apartheid” activist card, for at least a decade he’s been swallowed up in the private sector maw that has to some degree chewed up many of his acolytes, the most famous probably being the once revolutionary Tokyo Sexwale. The banker Jardine, in 1995 at a sprightly 29 was once the country’s youngest director-general, reckons – naysayer criticism notwithstanding – he has the necessary wherewithal to run a complex government. He’d have us believe that he can waltz right out of an affluent corporate gig and put on the cloak of “civil servant” and have the masses swearing by his hitherto obscure name into the megaphones and at rallies.

Activist Mark Heywood gets into a political career. Image: Markheywood.com.

Although pundits are far from convinced, a few known names have since thrown their weight behind his cause. This would include activist Mark Heywood (currently employed at Daily Maverick) as well as executive director at the Helen Suzman Foundation, Nicole Fritz and the late statesman Nelson Mandela’s doctor, Aslam Dasoo. There have been rumours of ANC stalwart Mavuso Msimang also possibly climbing aboard, a move that according to BizNews, could revolutionize “the political landscape” and “draw ANC supporters and challenge the ANC/EFF hold in the upcoming elections.” Msimang, has however indicated that there were only talks between him and Jardine, nothing concrete.

As for Jardine, his schtick is seemingly towards a coalition with like-minded individuals. However, it still remains to be seen whether he might be open to partnering with the colloquial Moonshot Pact, brainchild of the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

Already there are those who aren’t sold on Jardine’s aspirations, scoffingly likening him to Dr Mamphela Ramphele, the prominent academic who harboured presidential ambitions of her own some ten years ago. Their scepticism is that although individuals like Jardine, Ramphele or Songezo Zibi may be palatable to the middle class, in working class circles they are considered suspiciously as being part of the privileged black elite. BEE types who live in gated communities and drive around in German sedans and could thus not possibly be relied upon to faithfully champion the challenges affecting the poor and downtrodden masses living in slums and squalor throughout the beloved country.

Leader of the defunct Agang party, Dr Mamphela Ramphele. Image: Wikipedia.

For activist Heywood, this is precisely why he believes Jardine is the right man for the top job. “This,” Heywood was quoted on the Cape Talk website, “is an attempt to cut a new path, an independent path and to resonate with people around their basic needs for hope and security and material security.” Msimang, known within the ANC as a keen erudite recently penned a scathing resignation letter from the party. “For several years now,” wrote the deputy president of the Veterans League, “the ANC has been wracked by endemic corruption, with devastating consequences on the governance of the country and the lives of poor people, of whom there continue to be so many.”

Barely a week later, following a meeting with party Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula, Msimang would do a surprising about turn, withdrawing his resignation. However, in the social media spatter leading up to the meeting, there were insinuations to bribery and how big business was seemingly bent on greasing the palms of big figures in the ANC for them to turn their backs on the organisation.

This is of course nothing new in our politics, where it’s an open secret that even the ruling party’s elective conferences are often decided with imigodlo – refuse bags brimming with (likely public) money. Rumours doing the rounds suggest that even the multi-party coalition is buoyed up by big capital. Thus it should come as no surprise that Jardine allegedly already has some R1bn (a claim he has refuted) to get his cause, Change Starts Now, off to a smooth start.

Perhaps the perception that money has trumped whatever smidgen of integrity remained in our political systems would explain the apathy that continues to grip the voting public. Thus far, some 13million people haven’t even registered to vote. Despite that there was a much-publicised voter registration weekend in November, only 568, 374 new voters were added to the voter’s roll. Another such do is forecast for the first weekend of February but who are we to hold our breath for a better turn out?

These patterns tell a story all on their own: gone are the snaking queues of 1994 where scores of voters who held on dearly to the promise of democracy suffered the elements, often waiting for long hours to cast their votes. Now, even with improved voting systems, the queues have shortened, suggesting that may be a lingering sense that voting has come to mean nothing but a waste of time. The more people vote for change, the more they get much of the same.

This would be a particularly interesting area for eParkeni to sink its teeth into on our shadowing of the campaign trail. Outside of the official literature, what might Colesbergians have to say? Once upon a time, registering to vote was a bid deal, if not an essential one to one’s prospects of finding employment. The tall tales on the street then went something along the line that if your name could not be picked up on the voter’s roll, you needn’t even bother applying for a job. You wouldn’t get it regardless your big scroll from Wits or wherever. As a result, the voting process was an appointment not to be missed by many in the township.

So does that spirit still figure nowadays? What are the Gogo Dlaminis saying? The youth? Those who actually threw a rock or a petrol bomb at the previous regime. “Your vote is your secret,” goes the popular mantra, so perhaps we’ll keep our line of questioning on a less revealing, lighter note, as we try to delve into the psyche of the local voter.

In the meantime, though, there are more immediate questions on our hands, like, for instance: will Change Starts Now live up to its name or will it prove to be nothing more than a hopeful name to an otherwise hopeless political situation? It’s a question that cuts across the spectrum. A question which is relevant to all the new – and the old – players alike.

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