Right of Reply: Mashaba on Tribes, Vibes and changing views
Herman Mashaba replies to the recently-published "TRIBE VIBE – Changing views on Herman Mashaba" in which the BizNews team compiled the response's of the BizNews community to Mashaba's recent interviews on BizNews.
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By Herman Mashaba
Dealing with emotional lashing out
I read your article titled "Tribe Vibes, Changing Views on Herman Mashaba" with great interest. As I was reading it, a part of me was tempted to believe that the views expressed could only have been about someone else, not me, but I immediately realized how frustrating it can be when different people interpret the same set of events differently, often presenting vastly conflicting interpretations of the same set of occurrences.
Some people have expressed genuine confusion and seemed to seek explanations that could provide them with the assurance that things will still be fine; others responded in anger, even hatred and contempt, based on their interpretation of the ever-changing political environment in our country. Disappointingly, there are others who seem to have forgotten about the stubborn legacy of decades of apartheid abuses and almost 30 years of ANC corruption and arrogance.
I did not enter politics to cushion apartheid pain and ANC abuses. I will not apologise for standing firm against those who seem to be nostalgic of a South Africa where race was the sole defining attribute for personal freedom and success or, following the end of apartheid, those who abused 'I'm black like you' skin colour and political proximity to twist the knife that has already been deeply inserted into our collective back.
But, as a leader in our society, I am inclined to take all the feedback with humility, as I must, realising once again the amount of work required to constantly listen and communicate my actions and those of the party I lead with patience, clarity, but also firmness to get across the message about the rationale for the decisions we're had to make and the challenges of the unprecedented political terrain we're navigating, following the 2024 general elections. I admit that none of it has been a walk in the park.
Leadership, including mine, gets tested in many ways all the time.
Unexpected electoral outcome
It is true that we were disappointed by the election results. We were absolutely convinced that the path we proposed was the right one, with a core message that sought to attract South Africans from extreme, polarizing, political narratives to the right and to the left of us, into an inclusive centre. We sought – and continue to seek – to propose a stronger, more united, South Africa, a country where all could work together again, irrespective of background, to build a strong economy, free of corruption and the high levels of arrogance and impunity we have become accustomed to.
I challenge anyone to tell me they would not be disappointed, even angered, when abused people choose to vote for a bunch of suspected criminals over a team of credible, hardworking, ethical, and knowledgeable people proposed as an alternative.
So, on one hand, we were, and remain, happy that the ANC has lost its absolute majority and hold on political power in our country. On the other hand, we were both surprised and disappointed by the support received by parties like Zuma's MKP. This is not jealousy, far from it. We're simply disappointed that so many South Africans opted to vote for a party with no clear policies, that is led by people who are suspected of having led the criminal onslaught on our vital institutions through state capture and other forms of corruption. All indications are that the same people have played key roles in weakening and repurposing key elements of the criminal justice system, especially the SAPS, the Hawks, and the NPA, by deploying numerous dodgy individuals into them who would ensure that the long arm of the law never reaches their masters, in politics and business.
MKP has also not been secretive about its intentions to get rid of our country's Constitution and the rule of law as we have come to know them, to replace them with what they describe as a return to pre-colonial Africa, where much of the power was held by unelected traditional kings and chiefs.
Read also: RIBE VIBE: Mashaba faces harsh criticism over Tshwane debacle
We're still the alternative we have promised
If we have been insensitive in some of our responses to the events that have unfolded since the end of the 2024 general elections, we sincerely apologise for that. If our communication has alienated some people from our core political message, we apologise sincerely for that and invite them to take time to engage us again so that we can reach mutual understanding of the new political terrain we have to navigate, as well as the best ways to manage it for greater good.
We shall, however, not apologise for having acted in recent months to defend ActionSA against a clear political onslaught aimed to undermine and destroy it. We have learned the hard way that there are indeed no friends forever and no enemies forever, in politics. It has been hard to wake up to the reality that people we had reluctantly agreed to support in the past, and whom we worked with for almost two years, would be the first to conspire behind our back to destroy us.
We have never been driven by greed, as some people seem to suggest, even as we pre-empted a potentially fatal political strike on ActionSA, based on reliable intel, and removed the danger before it could harm us.
ActionSA supporters can be sure of one thing: none of the defensive moves we have had to make in recent months mean that we have abandoned our founding values, our policies, and our promised alternative to bring South Africans together around a shared basket of values, aligned to our Constitution, all driven to lead to sustainable, inclusive, healing and sanity.
We may respond in hurtful words, at times, and we apologise for this. But we do not apologise for standing firm against criminality, which we shall never defend, irrespective of whom we get into coalitions with, now and in the future.
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