Chris Pappas, the DA politician, is fascinating. First, he is an openly gay man in a world that struggles to embrace diversity, be it in political, cultural or social settings.
Second, he is a fascination because he is well-loved by his community, whether they are members of the ANC, EFF, DA or IFP. His humanity and passion for development and clean local government make him a politician to turn to if everything in the world of politics were to fail.
He says, in a speech, that his preoccupation, important as this may be, is not to attain clean audits more than to deliver vital services to communities.
Pappas argues that to be intolerant of corruption is the right thing to do, and that this scourge in his administration is intolerable, and that employment opportunities are open to all without regard to what political hats candidates wear, the criterion being first-rate ethical behaviour.
He prides his municipality for the distinction of not owing a cent to Eskom, an achievement he wished all municipalities should strive to achieve because to do so is to strengthen the capacity of the state entity to manage its finances well.
Third, with limited resources at his disposal and the municipality he has to oversee as the mayor, Pappas is able to command respect and admiration across the political divide.
Fourth, despite all the negatives and the fact that he operates within communities whose antipathy towards his organisation, the DA, is palpable, the 33-year-old dynamo is unfazed.
He is able to attract admiration politically despite the incongruencies presented by the lived realities, which are a product of a society bedevilled by racial polarity.
But if the world were to be honest and not be coy about it, Pappas is the kind of leader the ANC would wish for, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, where in the May 29 provincial electoral polls the ANC took an unprecedented hammering, earning a paltry 17% support of the vote in the province where the party had been a dominant force since 2004.
The DA’s performance in KZN has been lukewarm, yet in what appears to be a paradox, Pappas remains a knight in shining armour in the local government setting.
With little resources to go by, Pappas, it seems, is proving true the truism that hard work and focus help keep government wheels running; that it is not so much political rhetoric that brings about success but rather a practical nuts and bolts approach to politics accompanied by a deep sense of political acumen that wins the day.
This notion tends to support former president Thabo Mbeki’s assertion that more does not always equate to quality. On the contrary, quantity without quality, in the end, has its own challenges and contradictions.
Mbeki has warned that the decline in the ANC’s political fortunes, in part, could be attributed to the party attracting unethical “comrades” who are nothing but chaff — careerists whose main aim is to feather their own nests and advance their own interests above those of the party.
In a recent speech, Mbeki said: “The ANC has drawn into its ranks people who were only interested in getting into positions of power in government and abusing those positions for self-enrichment at all costs.”
Mbeki argued that this represented “a serious corrosion in the quality of some of the members of the ANC leading to abhorrent behaviour, such as embezzlement of public funds and other forms of corruption”.
Perhaps Pappas is the leader Mbeki would want to have in his organisation today, just what the ANC needs—not a populist but a rational person to help rebuild the organisation.
Pappas’s supports development economics with a special focus on town and regional planning committed to socio-economic development.
He makes no bones about his commitment to democracy and the Constitution and that being an unquestioning loyal party hack with no sense of ethics and morality would not be his cup of tea.
Remarkably, Pappas is of the view that just because he is a DA member, that should not mean he agrees with everything the DA says, arguing that constructive dissenting voices help to form a strong democracy in a constitutional dispensation.
• Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, an ex-trade unionist, and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journal
