Government and Justice
The Thuma Mina concept has since 2017 been President Cyril Ramaphosa’s rallying cry calculated at galvanising South Africans to the idea that each of us has a role to play to servanthood – which means to serve in our individual capacity, to do all that is good to build a sustainable country to meet the needs of all.
This idea was developed after the ousting of former president Jacob Zuma from political power with the implied claim that his administration had been corrupt-ridden, and that its mission had been to serve the interests of personalities whose main object was to safe-guard their own interests, and that state resources would, in whatever means, be used to enrich the elite either in government or out of it.
The prominent name that comes to mind is that of the Gupta dynasty, which had, perhaps in de facto terms, been given a carte blanche to partake in the looting of state resources, and to be, in some small or big measure, permitted to be seen as having a big say in determining the direction the Zuma administration would take in dishing out the largesse.
The largesse would be dished out from the state kitty, to accomplish the nefarious objectives of outsiders – those who did not have the mandate to run the
affairs of the state, given by the electorate as they voted the government of their choice to power.
To illustrate the point, the short trip in 2015 from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, to the Gupta compound in Saxonwold, sought to capture the then finance deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas with a promise of R600 000 immediate payment to be thrown into his imagined bag, if he allowed it to happen, and a further R6oo-million that would be deposited into his account, if he conceded to be appointed, at the
Guptas’ instance, to the position of finance minister.
Whether these things happened, remains a debate for another time.
The detour is an attempt to give context to the Ramaphosa’s Thuma Mina project, which as we understand it, was meant to cause the end of corruption and malfeasance that were throttling the country’s economic growth, with the Gupta dynasty at the forefront of it all.
Also, to amplify the Thuma Mina concept, it would be useful to go right back to its source and place it in its proper original context.
The biblical prophet answered to a mission of being called to a service, which required that anybody who wanted to be “sent” must have “clean lips” with no form of any defilement attached to them.
It seemed Ramaphosa latched on the biblical metaphor, contextualised it for modern-day use, committed himself to ridding the government of an any defilement – including corruption.
Zuma, when he ousted former president Thabo Mbeki in Polokwane in 2007, claims made by Zuma’s supporters, including the likes of former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, among others, were that Mbeki was not a “people’s person, and was aloof, and wearing an elitist veneer”.
The demise broke Mbeki and his followers, some of whom left the ANC to establish COPE, which in its initial stage of its existence held hope it would change the country’s political trajectory.
But that was not to be.
After doing relatively well in its first election attempt in 2009, earning nearly 8% of the national vote share, the new party destined to challenge the might of the glorious movement of Nelson Mandela, would become a damp squib, and would in subsequent years disintegrate due to internal squabbles and dissent.
Ramaphosa has inherited a troubled ANC, wrecked by deep disharmony and a lack of common vision, and deep-seatedinternal disagreement, and corrupt leadership.
Word has it that Ramaphosa may be the only hope the ANC has. What will happen after the 2024 general elections, we lack the benefit of a crystal ball to know.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord say, whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
Ramaphosa said, “Here am I, send me.”
The people wonder if the Thuma Mina project will come to fruition, and full bloom.
- Mdhlela is the acting news editor of Sunday World, an Anglican priest and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
