‘I did not join the struggle to be poor’ – How words capture the spirit of an era

The public utterances of a country’s leaders both reflect and define their times.

Sometimes, a leader’s words inspire at a dark historical moment. Sometimes, our leaders’ words inadvertently reveal the hole in their soul.

Few statements captured the heartlessness of apartheid more tellingly than Justice Minister Jimmy Kruger’s response to Steve Biko’s death in custody: “It leaves me cold.”

Four words that continue to bring a shudder of revulsion 45 years later. It’s interesting to speculate what has been said by an ANC leader that is memorable. It’s probably not by Nelson Mandela.

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While Madiba was inspirational to an entire world, there’s nothing that comes to mind which, in a single sentence, captures the essence of his time. The same with Thabo Mbeki.

During Mbeki’s two terms, Smuts Ngonyama was head of the presidency and the ANC spokesperson. His enduring legacy is a single sentence, uttered in 2004.

He was under the media whip because it came to light that he was to about to score big time from a so-called black empowerment deal spinning off part of Telkom into a consortium of former ANC officials.

Defending his personal windfall of R160 million, Ngonyama quipped: “I did not join the struggle to be poor.”

That sentence came to encapsulate the kind of ethically dubious – but legal – cadre enrichment that eventually morphed into the criminal state looting of the Jacob Zuma era.

In the Zuma years, the competition hots up. There’s the one about “a shower would minimise the risk of disease” with which he explained condom-free sex.

Others might plump for “the ANC will rule under Jesus comes back”.

But many of the catchphrases of that era came not from the president but from the quick-tongued Julius Malema.

Although he is no longer an ANC leader, having set up the rival Economic Freedom Fighters, the divide is more theoretical than real.

While the antipathy between the two parties was bitter – “We will kill for Zuma” swiftly became “Pay back the money!” – it was brief.

The two men now sip tea together and it’s disquietingly feasible that Malema could become the country’s president, if the two successfully make common cause: the growing phenomenon of militant black racism.

It’s sometimes grisly: “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now.” “We will cut the throat of whiteness.”

Other times it’s toxic bile directed at women and those Zuma disparagingly called “clever Africans”.

After Malema, it’s a relief to turn to Cyril Ramaphosa’s New Dawn.

It’s early days to define a young administration that’s been marked, so far, by a stubborn inability on the part of the ANC to bring patently dishonest officials and minister to account.

There are only two things that Ramaphosa has said that seem to have stuck in the public mind. The first, “My fellow South Africans…”.

The second, “I am shocked!” when yet another corruption scandal erupts. Cyril, however, needn’t worry overly much.

The catchphrase for the Ramaphosa years is the motto of every ANC thief: “Innocent until proven guilty”.