To many South Africans Themba Lukhele Nzimande is an audacious podcaster known for streetwise monologues, fashionable sense of dress and a criminal past. A self-made celebrity with a solid social media presence, he is often seen rubbing shoulders with the cream of the country’s socialites and kitted out in high-end apparel but now the man they call Skeem GP is one in a growing surge of ex-cons and celebrities who has developed political ambitions.
Not just as a layby ward councilor but as the Afrika Mayibuye Movement’s mayoral candidate to take charge of the embattled, corruption-ridden City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. His nomination has taken many by surprise and even had Newzroom Afrika anchor Xoli Mngambi incredulously asking Lukhele whether, this was ‘for you a joke really, that you can come on a station like this and try and convince the viewer that you can run a city … Do you take this seriously or is your party putting you forward because it simply doesn’t take the people of Ekurhuleni seriously?’ Eina!
Can one really fault the newsman’s obvious skepticism? For an orthodoxly sharpwitted interviewer, Lukhele seemed like a fish out of water under Mngambi’s line of clear-cut questioning. He was evasive, absent of his usual charisma and so horrendously failed to adequately address those base-level questions before he sheepishly quipped that the anchor was ‘grilling’ him.
Yet Mngambi’s questions were not rocket science, just the kind of essentials one would expect any aspirant public servant to be au fait around. These are usually the low-hanging fruit that even dropout candidates are prone to regurgitate ad nauseam so as to at least give the impression that they are clued-up on what they are talking about.
But it would seem that Floyd Shivambu’s new political outfit are banking solely on Nzimande’s popularity and don’t seem all that keen on offering their man a cauldron of ‘umrhabulo‘- a crash course in political education. For an upstart party, he is a convenient asset, an easy sell whose campaign will require far less resources than that of a complete unknown. However, he is not exactly ideal if you consider that Shivambu, the former so-called brains of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has always positioned himself as a stickler for academics and informed eloquence.
To the observant citizen, Mngambi’s thorough probing of the man proved justified and necessary especially inasfar as SA politics have gradually tanked into a cesspit that has opened up the electioneering space to half-wits and people who ordinarily would be best suited for sensationalist reality shows or doing time behind bars. One would even go as far as saying that Nzimande’s nomination has less to do with fielding a competent candidate than a rebuttal against ActionSA’s Ekurhuleni candidate, the drug-busting television personality, Xolani Khumalo.
In places like America, the trend towards celebrity culture and convicted offenders turning to public office has been a ‘thing’ over the decades. Everyone from Ronald Reagan, to Shirley Temple and even current US President, Donald Trump, have used their celebrity status advantageously to catapult themselves into public office. Yet for all its sins, America – as Barack Obama once advised at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service – remains a nation of strong institutions rather than strong men.
For the most part they tend to have at their disposal Ivy League secretaries, researchers and advisors. The celebrity may be the bait to more votes but he has at his disposal the finest brains to guide his operations. And, being a highly developed first world nation, America’s problems couldn’t be further from the issues that confront South Africa.
Yet in a country like SA, with its myriad challenges and merit-averse policies like cadre deployment, you may find that those who surround the elected individual are themselves as unwitting as the person they are charged with assisting. Add to this toxic and stagnating combo the electorate’s obsession with populist rhetoric rather than solutions-driven ideas that are grounded in intellectual logic and you learn to understand how figures like said Nzimande, Mazwai or a Gous can feel inspired to try their luck.
Gone are the days where one’s intelligence and capability determined how far one progressed. With a growing culture of anti-intellectualism, having your wits and moral compass about you can quickly invite slurs like ‘clever black,’ making this probably one of very few countries where intelligence is often seen as a swear word. Just ask the scores of ANC stalwarts who showed their disdain towards the newly-elected Jacob Zuma by quitting the ANC in solidarity with former pesident Thabo Mbeki in the wake of his recalling back in September 2008. They could already foresee the shocking dropping of standards, sloth and patronage that would characterise the looming ‘state capture’ years. In walking away, they probably wanted the party to stop and think. Instead, the ANC thanked them by calling them counter-revolutionary. The country has never been able to claw its way back since.
Which then begs the question: is it not high time that political parties took the nation’s problems seriously enough as to put intelligence and competence as the top priority on the ballot? More importantly, is the electorate able to look deep and perhaps realise that a reconfiguring of voting patterns is long overdue? Instead of a celebrity, why not headhunt a chartered accountant, architect or engineer? They may seem like mavericks and command a lot of street credit but what else are those ex-cons in very high office good for when it comes to running a government department?
It is worth noting that in the aftermath of the massive public ridicule following his interview, Nzimande went on to post a video in which he tried to walk back his woeful showing. On that desperate second attempt, he sought to redeem himself. This is a man who doesn’t shy away from reminding us that he started and grew one of the country’s top podcasts. However, even he now must know that giving a platform to former inmates is an entirely different ball game to running a R71 billion municipality.
Featured image: Themba Lukhele Nzimande (centre) at a Afrika Mayibuye Movement event. Source: Floyd Shivambu Facebook page.