But Stephen Friedman omits to tell us why the union leaders are "out of touch" with the union members. He also omits to dig into whether or not the "fixation to leadership", and not the fixation to what the masses (in this case union members) want, engenders a situation where one union is losing members to an emerging rival. The allegations that the unions (NUM and AMCU) are throwing at each other are possibly spurious but telling.
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Thabo Mathiba <[email protected]>wrote: > Nice piece of writting. > > > On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 8:06 AM, VC <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> [image: Business Day] >> >> >> *Fixation on ‘leadership’ merely passes the buck* >> ** ** >> ** ** >> *Steven Friedman, Business Day, Johannesburg, 5 September 2012* >> ** ** >> "TAKE me to your leader" was once a common line in jokes — usually spoken >> by an alien arriving on earth. The alien could easily be mistaken for a >> South African commentator.**** >> ** ** >> Our mainstream debate is obsessed by leadership. Most problems are blamed >> on a "lack of leadership" and it is often assumed that if we had a new >> political leader, we would be better off. This fixation is why, in the wake >> of Marikana, "analysis" is used to show that the event was caused by, and >> will have an effect on, the battle to choose Congress of South African >> Trade Union (Cosatu) and African National Congress (ANC) leaders.**** >> ** ** >> This tendency to reduce everything to leadership misunderstands what is >> happening in this society. And it substitutes a red herring — who will lead >> us — for discussion of our challenges. It does not even produce a useful >> debate on leadership, which was an issue at Marikana, but not in the way we >> have been told.**** >> ** ** >> Claims that Marikana was a consequence of ANC leadership politics rests >> on flimsy foundations. They assume that the key problem at Lonmin was a >> fight between two unions. Because one, the National Union of Mineworkers >> (NUM), supports Jacob Zuma, the challenge by the Association of Mineworkers >> and Construction Union (Amcu), is said to be a plan to weaken Zuma. Or we >> are told the NUM engineered a tough response to Amcu to protect Zuma — or >> because it wants to clear its way to remove Cosatu general secretary >> Zwelinzima Vavi.**** >> ** ** >> But with each day it becomes less clear that this is a battle between two >> unions. The dispute looks more like a worker rebellion against union >> leadership — a result of the relationship between the NUM and its members, >> not of the relationship between Zuma and his opponents.**** >> ** ** >> Amcu was formed as a result of a 1998 dispute in the NUM, so it is not a >> response to recent events in the ANC. Its leaders have never given any >> indication of an interest in or connection to the ANC or Cosatu leadership >> contests. If union rivalry is a factor, it has nothing to do with ANC or >> Cosatu politics.**** >> ** ** >> Another piece of "evidence" — and another sign of the leadership >> obsession — is the role of that perennial media favourite, Julius Malema, >> whose presence is supposed to show that the rebellion against NUM leaders >> was organised to weaken Zuma. But there is no evidence that Malema had >> heard of Lonmin before the shootings, let alone that he had helped organise >> a dispute there. He was imitating a tactic often used by Winnie >> Madikizela-Mandela: hear about an event and pitch up to make >> radical-sounding statements. It impresses the people to whom the statement >> is made until they discover you have nothing to offer them. But it does not >> show any influence on events.**** >> ** ** >> The claim that Marikana will influence Zuma’s re-election seems based on >> leaks to the media by Zuma opponents, who say Marikana shows he should not >> be president. But they did not think he should be president before the >> tragedy — and his supporters have not rejected him because of Marikana. The >> tragedy is doing in the ANC what it is doing in the country — confirming >> people in views they already hold. No one in the ANC has changed their mind >> in response to Marikana and so its effect will be neutral.**** >> ** ** >> The bigger question is why we fixate on leadership. Four years ago, our >> president was intelligent and well-read. Today, his successor seems to >> battle to read prepared speeches. But by the time the well-read president >> stepped down, the lights were off and complaints about government >> competence were growing. Today, government functions no worse than it did >> then and in some ways may work better. This does not mean Zuma is a better >> leader than Thabo Mbeki. It means that the identity of the president >> matters far less than we think.**** >> ** ** >> During Zuma’s presidency, the ANC has been racked by factionalism. If he >> is replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe, will that change? Probably not. As >> intelligent and well-read as Motlanthe is, he would not have a strong >> mandate for change and might struggle to fix the ANC’s problems as much as >> Zuma has.**** >> ** ** >> Would Marikana have been prevented if we had another president? Probably >> not. Will a change of leader ensure a similar tragedy will never happen? >> Certainly not. The fixation on leadership blinds us to the reality that our >> problems are too complicated to be caused by one person at the top, and to >> the fact that too much stress on leadership passes the buck for solving our >> problems.**** >> ** ** >> Leaders are important, but only if they are in touch with the society >> they lead. A problem at Marikana was that union leaders were not in touch >> enough with members, not that there was some miracle they could have >> performed but did not. Leaders cannot conjure up new realities out of >> nothing. At best, they can encourage change, which is already happening. >> Fixating on leadership ignores our responsibility to ensure this change.* >> *** >> ** ** >> >> - Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy >> >> ** ** >> *From: >> http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2012/09/05/fixation-on-leadership-merely-passes-the-buck >> * >> * * >> * * >> ** ** >> >> -- >> You are subscribed. This footer can help you. >> Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply >> to this message. >> You can visit the group WEB SITE at >> http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery >> options, pages, files and membership. >> To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected]. >> You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to >> put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail >> to this address (repeat): [email protected] . >> > > > > -- > Mr Mmamadimo Ephraim "Thabo Mathiba > > Cell No:0849782879 > Fax No:0865462214 > Other Email:[email protected] > > > -- > You are subscribed. This footer can help you. > Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to > this message. > You can visit the group WEB SITE at > http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery > options, pages, files and membership. > To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected]. > You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to > put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail > to this address (repeat): [email protected] . > -- Fusi M. Motaung tel: 0721207603 | fax: 0865482896 | e-mail: [email protected] -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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