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On a chilly Wednesday evening this week in Diepkloof in Soweto, a group of young people met at an “upmarket, urban, upbeat cocktail lounge”, The Establishment, to discuss political leadership.
The posh joint is situated in the Diepkloof Square mall along the main Immink Drive going into the township from the Soweto Highway.
Through the large glass door at the entrance, the ground floor offered the usual midweek vibe on a month-end week: plenty of drinks, banging sound, a deejay playing the latest deep house music and revelers having fun. It’s just before 9pm.
But it was probably not as refreshing as the gathering on the first floor, where National Youth Development Agency board member and ANC youth activist Kenny Morolong led a discussion on political leadership and the role of young people as the guest of the local Toastmasters International club led by Gaoretelelwe Molebalwa.
Molebalwa described the organisation as a nonprofit organisation that operated educational clubs worldwide for the purpose of “helping members improve their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills”.
Morolong kicked off his presentation, quoting a historical remark by famous Greek philosopher, Plato: “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
Because politics involves the process of taking decisions on economic and social activities on behalf of communities, he said, it is for this reason that the youth’s involvement in politics should be contemplated as an absolute necessity rather than a “by the way” preserve for the dishonourable.
He went on to say that “involvement in politics is therefore the noblest duty of every visionary, patriotic and self-loving young men and women capable of providing visionary leadership in order to provide solutions to the most complex of challenges facing human existence”.
Just when we thought the evening was going to turn into a dreary academic exercise punctuated by big words that made the banging bass sound downstairs more appealing, that phrase emerged: “State capture.”
“The phenomenon of the “corporate capture of the state” or “state capture” as it is commonly known is not a preserve for our country,” Morolong said, adding that “its global tentacles are a living reality of our political, commercial and social existence”.
He said it was “undeniable that state capture did not start eight years ago in South Africa”.
“There are those who say that this phenomenon started when Cecil John Rhodes entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871. His son’s company, De Beers, formed in 1888 and retains its prominence into the present day in the 21st century.”
By this time all of the 20 or so young people were fixated on Morolong, waiting eagerly for the names Jacob Zuma and the Guptas to drop. But they never did.
“Whatever the case may be, the formidable leadership task facing the ruling class has always been to provide a leadership that was a complete antithesis of the moral decay that characterised the system of apartheid,” said Morolong to applause.
He said “the task has always been and continues to be the provision of an ethical leadership capable of transcending the moral deficiencies of a system predicated on inequality and racial segregation”.
He spoke about “a leadership that understands that service of the people rather than one’s own interests – the supreme virtue of genuine revolutionaries,” adding that the current discussions and developments “on the corporate capture of the state should therefore not evade us”.
The deejay downstairs also seemed to be on the beat, as he started to drop percussion-driven tracks, almost like a soundtrack to the speech, which was heating up.
Morolong turned to “the fourth industrial revolution” that presented both opportunities and challenges especially for the developing world due to our relative underdevelopment and ranking in the world economic playing field.
“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another,” he quoted again, this time from the World Economic Forum in its report dated February 14 2016.
“Unlike many of us who dreamt of becoming doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen, studies associated with the World Economic Forum have confirmed that job opportunities that will be available in 20 years time do not exist today”.
He said: “A Grade 1 learner today, unlike many of us gathered here, doesn’t have the same certainty of job prospects.”
The South African prospects remains largely unfavourable in the short term.
GDP growth is forecast at 1% for 2017, he said, “and with the possibility of another downgrade by Moody’s [rating agency] after the unfavourable grading by other international rating agencies (Fitch and Standard & Poor’s) our government’s ability to provide much needed quality services to our country’s population and most particularly the poorest of us is threatened.”
Morolong spoke about “the growing incidents of abuse of women and children [being] a matter of grave concern” and “the latter and many other vexing issues which have occupied public discourse characterise the real state of leadership in this country”.
In closing, Morolong said: “I have often remarked that the new world order requires ethical leadership that will always strive to do good even when no one is watching”.
“The principal test of every leadership is true legitimacy. Any leadership that doesn’t enjoy the confidence of its following does not have legitimacy.”
And with his last words the deejay took back his night and young people went back to doing what young people do.
