In true Evita Bezuidenhout style, she’s once again poked fun at South African politics and shown how ridiculous the governing party politics is. Laughing at fear has been a regular hallmark of what Bezuidenhout (Pieter Dirk Uys’ 35 year old creation) delivers. Evita was speaking at the Cape Town Press Club recently, delivering her alternative State of the Nation. It’s a speech that’s been hacked by the Russians and plagiarised by America. And it may just carry more truths than what President Jacob Zuma delivers in his #SoNA2017 address. – Stuart Lowman
By Donwald Pressly*
Her Excellency, the former Ambassador Evita Bezuidenhout told her audience at the Cape Town Press Club that her speech was “to be the basis for President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address” at the opening of parliament, but unfortunately it was hacked by Russians and then plagiarised by the United States.
However, she delivered the speech which had been “reconceived” with fake news and alternative facts removed in the form of the Luthuli Housekeeping Report, the third of its kind to the Cape Town Press Club. Evita, by the way, was dressed more demurely than usual in keeping with her sombre message.
“Let us again make South Africa great again,” she charged. Explaining that she had joined the ANC two years back, she said her speech was delivered on behalf of the collective in the ANC. “We in the ruling party are now joined with the people of South Africa in a great national effort to rebuild out country and to restore its promise for all of our people.”
Together “we can determine the course of our rainbow nation and the continent for years to come,” said Evita. “Yes, we will confront great hardships. But we will get the job done eventually.”
Every five years after a democratic free and fair election “we gather on the steps of our non-racial, non-sexist parliament to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, usually from the same party to the same party”. And so “we are grateful to our fellow comrades for their gracious aid through these transitions. They have been magnificent.”
Paying tribute to presence of the Swiss Ambassador and Swiss Consul General at the Luthuli Housekeeping Report, Evita also noticed former South African Ambassador to Ireland Melanie Verwoerd – now resurrected as a journalist – in the audience. He praised her for rising above her name.
Not invited to the ANC party
Bezuidenhout said there was a new wave of hope spreading through the ruling African National Congress. “For too long, a small group in our party’s headquarters has reaped the rewards of government while the real people have borne the cost.” During this unfortunate period, Tshwane – which he explained was to the Left of Pretoria – Genadendal, a shebeen in Saxonwold and Nkandla had flourished. “The real people did not share in its wealth,” Evita acknowledged. Indeed, certain politicians had prospered “but the jobs left for China, and the factories closed”.
Asked if she was hankering for a post in a Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma led ANC government after 2019, Bezuidenhout said she was definitely not politically ambitious – at least not any more. She believed that South Africa should learn from the United States where the voters had decided not to replace one Clinton with another.
The 105-year-old ANC had been inspired by such figures as Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela, but had been “hijacked by some” who prefer to remain nameless, started to protect itself, but not the citizens of the country. “The selfish victories of some cadres have not been your victories.” She added: “Their overrated triumphs have not been your triumphs.”
“While they (the ANC cadres) celebrated yet another birthday at the Orlando Stadium there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land…who were not invited to the party.”
But change had begun “starting right here and right now, because the State of the Nation address (on Thursday) is your speech. It belongs to you.” It belonged to everyone gathered at the press club and everyone who would read about it or watch it on ANN7 or fake news sites like eNCA “all across Mzanzi”. The State of the Nation opening of parliament speech “is your day…that is your celebration. And this, the Republic of South Africa, is your country.”
What truly mattered was not which political party controlled the government “but whether our government is controlled by the people”. February 9, 2017 would be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of the nation again “when our President Jacob Zuma is hopefully allowed to speak”. Clearly taking her cue from President Donald Trump – heading a new wave of openness in the US presidency – she said: “The forgotten men and women or our country will be forgotten no longer.” All they had to do was listen “and then join the ANC… the ANC will listen to them as you listen to me”.
South Africans must think bigly and dream ‘even biglier’
On 27 April 1994 “you came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.” At the centre of this movement called the ANC “is a crucial conviction: that a nation only exists to serve its citizens”. South Africans wanted great schools “for their children”, safe neighbourhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. “These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public,” she said. “But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape”, a higher education system flush with cash “but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge”. And the crime and gangs and drugs “that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential”. The South African carnage stops right here and stops right now. “We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly and robustly, but always pursue solidarity. When South Africa is united, the future is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God. Finally, we must think bigly and dream even biglier.”
“We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of African workers left behind. The wealth of our new middle class is being ripped from their homes and then redistributed amongst a new elite.”
But Evita assured her audience “that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future. In your presence here today on behalf of the collective leadership, I am issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to be South Africa First.”
Making the audience laugh at the ridiculousness of it all
“We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways and nuclear power stations all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of social grants and welfare and back to work – rebuilding our country with South African hands and South African labour. We will follow two simple rules: Buy South African and hire South African.”
Obviously the ambassador’s input was a satirical performance, so it gives her a licence to make fun of our South African reality – while at the same time coming to some home truths.
In contrast, Sipho Pityana called on his audience at the press club to join the social movement aiming to Save South Africa. But he did not provide great hope that people would succeed in that.
He expressed the fear that it would be “end-game” if Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was replaced – in a rumoured reshuffle. It would be a victory for the people who were intent on extending an already elaborate ‘state capture”. He appeared to indicate that this was a likelihood.
His alternative state of the nation address was, of course, serious. He was not poking fun at our establishment. He was dealing with real matters. But Evita, somehow, left her audience feeling a little more hopeful about the future. Perhaps is was only because she had made them laugh at how ridiculous South Africa’s governing party politics is at the moment.
- Donwald Pressly, editor of Cape Messenger
