Why “shut uuuuup!” was so wrong
IF Police Minister Bheki Cele’s recent rant is anything to go by, we are essentially footing an exorbitant payroll for a cabinet full of “untouchables”.
As soon as one’s ego is bruised, criticism is levelled at the top, or ineptness is pointed out, one can simply be turfed out or, as the minister so brazenly did, told to “shut uuuup!”.
Minister Cele has since conceded he could have handled himself better following last week’s heated argument between himself and Action Society’s Ian Cameron.
This is not a school playground, and ratepayers voicing pertinent concerns around crime and Saps deployment cannot be bullied.
We have civil servants who are now elevated to glorified “touchme-not” celebrities!
The fact that the race card or being a “garden boy” were even brought into the equation is mind-boggling as the community engagement session was attended by a fair cross-section of the community who all shared the same sentiment.
For the record, being a gardener is nothing to be looked down upon.
While Cameron was forceful in communicating his concerns, so were other speakers. It was more a case of when you cannot beat the argument, you attack the person.
Action Society has since laid charges of crimen injuria and common assault against Cele and members of the police who forcibly removed Cameron from the Gugulethu community meeting.
Where is the concept of servant leadership that Nelson Mandela once preached and lived?
If ever we needed peace, reconciliation and forgiveness, which Madiba so eloquently and charismatically emulated, we need it now.
The South Africa of today mirrors a fragmented society - brewing bitterness, whiffs of revenge and hatred.
We seem to be walking on eggshells, waiting for the next racism rant to fuel further dissention.
Politicians don’t seem to be helping the situation as they craftily use racially-heated debates to boost their own agendas or defend their bruised egos. Servant leadership is almost non-existent.
Servant leadership
“It is time for South Africans to emulate the servant leader we so loved by becoming servant leaders ourselves,” writes RONELLE RAMSAMY
Nelson Mandela International Day is a reminder that Madiba saw himself first and foremost as a servant of all South Africa’s people, to whom he felt he owed a duty, and who he led by example.
The true message of Madiba Day extends beyond 67 minutes of kindness to help another human being, but is a call for all South Africans to emulate the servant leader we so loved by becoming servant leaders ourselves.
May the legacy of Tata live on not just as a novel and charitable tradition once a year, but also a mindset shift to drive reconciliation. Black or white, coloured or Indian, we are South African.
This is what makes South Africa unique and special – the diversity of our rainbow nation and its ability to unite against adversity. Do not work against each other.
As Madiba so aptly stated, “what counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead”.
What would the “father of democracy” have said about the country’s current state of affairs and Minister Cele’s “shut up” fiasco? A far cry from the principles of ubuntu and Batho Pele.