For the South African
post-apartheid political establishment, how they contest political power to
remain firmly in their hands seems they must survive narratives every time they
approach succession epochs. The 2022 Conference of the ANC was supposed to be a
moment of triumph for the Paul-Mashatile-as-a-node establishment. What is now
unfolding indicates that as-a-node, he is under siege to be allowed to succeed
Cyril Ramaphosa as President of the ANC and maybe the country. 

When ANC cadres search for solutions
to any siege they find themselves, or any of its leaders, they habitually turn
towards themselves and manufacture theories about each other as being
responsible. They package themselves into distinct factions and mine from
within factions tormenting pasts that make them ignore what drives the siege
against the organisation and its leaders. In the whirlpool of fighting amongst
themselves, they feed the narrative designed to drive the wedge inside the
ANC. 

When a narrative begins and catches
fire, we tend to focus on the ‘narrated’ content and never the ‘narrative’,
which is advanced. The Paul Mashatile saga, or ‘narrative’, seems familiar
about liberation movement leaders since its unbanning 1990. For each leader,
there was and still is a narrative. These were all aimed at liquidating the
moral high ground of the liberation struggle; at the least, they were designed
to demonstrate the hollowness of the settlement in real power terms. 

How the various leaders were dealt
with displayed a form of lynching. Lynching is the public ‘killing’ of an
individual who has not received any due process. Lawless mobs often carried it,
sometimes even through (police) officers or equivalents. This they did under
the pretext of ‘some’ justice. Lynchings are (reputationally) violent public
acts that people (with some form of power) use to terrorise and control the
dominated. Historically lynchings typically evoke images of Black men (and
women) hanging from trees, but they involved other extreme brutality, such as torture,
mutilation, decapitation, and desecration. Some victims were (burned) alive.

A typical lynching involved an
accusation, an arrest, and the assembly of a mob, followed by seizure, physical
torment, and assault (including murder) of the victim. Lynchings are often
public spectacles attended by a cheering community to celebrate the supremacy
of the dominant. 

Without any brief to any of the
publicly lynched ANC leaders for one issue or another, and in almost all
instances, there is no conclusive narrative on the issues they were hanged in
the town square for. 

In the matter between Louis Luyt
and Nelson Mandela, Louis Luyt refused to appear before a presidential
commission of inquiry and instead forced President Mandela into court. This
demonstrated Nelson Mandela’s commitment to the rule of law, but its public
lynching character was equally pornographic. 

There was also the HIV/AIDS issue
of Thabo Mbeki, where he was globally presented as a President that believed in
garlic and beetroot as a cure for HIV/AIDS when he interrogated the thesis
behind the interventions he was expected to endorse. His inquiries instructed
what was the most elaborate HIV/AIDS intervention by a government. Zuma had his
lynchings, legitimate or otherwise, David Mabuza had his lynchings when he was
deputy President, and Ramaphosa is still navigating his public lynching. 

The onslaught on Paul Mashatile is
following the same pattern. Accuse until the accusation becomes a narrative as
you search for supporting evidence to an otherwise peddled narrative. This is
not new. Paul Mashatile will hang on that tree for the economically dominant
and benefit from cheering as they look on. The lawless mobs operating under
the pretext of press freedom inconsistent with the press code are hard at work
with extreme brutality on their reputation. His reputation is in torture,
mutilation, decapitation, and desecration. 

The open letter by Jurists for
Christ Foundation is an encouraging act by Civil Society Movements to demand
accountability from fishers of African Role Models to lynch publicly. There are
worse acts of corruption, dysfunction, and malfeasance that have not received
equal wrath and perpetrators being put on South Africa’s post-apartheid tree at
the town square. CUT!!!