Shikota: the party's over

Posted by Madibeng Kgwete: 10 February 2011

When Mbhazima Shilowa came to my township one Saturday morning during the 2009 election campaign, I joined scores of other Soshanguve residents at a local church from where the former Gauteng premier was expected to deliver an important address.

Shilowa was scheduled to start his address at 10h00, but when I arrived at the church an hour early, a group of ANC members was already toyi-toying outside, looking threatened by Shilowa’s potential to woo traditional ANC supporters in the township towards the new party that he co-founded with Mosioua Lekota.

By the time Shilowa arrived, the church was packed. Dignitaries at the main table facing the crowd had already taken their seats.

As Shilowa made a boisterous entrance from the front door of the church, walking towards the pulpit, the dignitaries joined the crowd in a standing ovation for Shilowa, accompanied by the chanting of a struggle song.

Not for him, on this day, the pin-striped suits that he used to wear whilst Premier of the Gauteng Province. Not even the usual sight of bodyguards in black suits surrounding him as he entered the church.

The picture that Shilowa painted of himself that day – and for most of the election campaign – was of a man who had given up the comfort of high office to rescue his country from what was painted to look like the brink of political and administrative chaos.

Shilowa, at least on this day, didn’t seem remotely capable of politicking for power’s sake. He was, after all, the man who voluntarily vacated the lucrative position of premier of South Africa’s richest province, venturing into an era of uncertainty.

That was in 2009.

Today Cope no longer survives on the back of either popular support or a just cause. It is sustained by pride.

None of the party's two co-founders is willing to be led by another, which leaves the few remaining supporters on both sides of the divide looking vulnerable and confused.

If he were to return to Soshanguve today, those toyi-toying ANC members will simply ignore him – or, at the very least, turn up only to deliver a simple message: “We told you so.”

I doubt if Shilowa would have the courage (or even the reason) to return to my township.

And since neither of the co-founders seems prepared to declare the end of the party (or at least make way for another to lead), the voters in the upcoming local government elections have a duty to send a message to Shikota via the ballot: the party’s over.