by Justin Foxton | Dec 21, 2016 | Citizen Participation, Leadership
If you have read this column before you will know that I promote positive dialogue and peaceful change. However, practising what I preach is a daily effort and I fail more often than I succeed.
However, this is not my fault. This is the fault of a small handful of people who make thinking happy and peaceful thoughts virtually impossible. Now, I don’t condone violence of any kind. However, I totally relate if you have ever experienced an overwhelming urge to climb into your television (or newspaper) and slap the person inside.
This rather uncharitable-but-oh-so-delightful notion came up at a recent family Christmas lunch. We were talking about the events of this tumultuous year and the enormous personalities that shaped it and the conversation quickly degenerated into who had had the most “slap-able face” of 2016.
I kicked off proceedings by voicing my near pathological desire to slap SABC dictator Hlaudi Motsoeneng and this seemed to open the floodgates. My dear mother pursed her lips, narrowed her eyes and hissed “Zuma” under her breath, glancing about her to make sure he wasn’t sitting at the next table. My sister who lives in England, looked equally sour and tabled pro-Brexit UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
Now my wife Cathy can watch a Springbok rugby match only when Faf de Klerk is not in view. When he appears in shot she squeals and races out of the TV room only returning when he is gone. This makes for an exhausting 90 minutes for the whole family.
All this got me thinking how we could best channel this dark and delicious energy into something productive and even cathartic. And then it dawned on me: we need an International “Slap-able Face of the Year” competition. It can have real judges, a big glitzy Oscars-style event and we can get our very own Trevor Noah (not in the least bit slap-able) to host it. Maybe we can get big name sponsors (but not, I repeat not the infinitely slap-able Gupta brothers).
And so it began. From its humble beginnings at a curry restaurant in Tinley Manor, the International Slap-able Face of the Year competition now finds itself splashed all over the newspapers.
My on and offline call for nominations was heeded like a battle cry. People from all over the world climbed in. It seems that the world (well 20 or so friends and family) was just waiting for the opportunity to cyber-slap their (anti) heroes.
So, without further ado I am proud to announce the finalists of the inaugural edition of this major international competition. They are (in no order): Nigel Farage, Ajay Gupta, Atul Gupta, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Lewis Hamilton, Donald Trump, Julius Malema, Vladimir Putin, Faf de Klerk (just the 1 vote), Kanye West, Chris Brown, all the Kardashians, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, every woman who voted for Donal Trump, every person who voted for Brexit, Brock Turner, Boris Johnson, Bill Cosby and Sylvester Stallone (“because he always looks like he’s just been slapped!”).
Now interestingly, our very own President Jacob Zuma was only nominated twice. This is surprising because as far as straight slap-ability goes, I would have thought he would be top of the pops. Have we forgotten his TV “apology” after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s (very unslap-able) judgement on Nkandla? Could we all – regardless of political affiliation – not have taken a little jog to Luthuli House and smacked him? I know I could have. My only explanation is that we don’t want to see him win anything ever again not even the Annual Slap-able Face of the Year Competition.
Now before you all explode from sheer anticipation I would like to announce the winners of the competition. Due to a lack of funds, Cathy and I are the only judges of this inaugural event and the venue for the gala event is our living room. This year we are toasting the winners (and of course those who did not win; please don’t try again next year) with a cup of tea but next year we are sure it will be Bollinger at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
In the International category of most Slap-able Face of the Year, in runner up position we have a tie between Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson. And the overall winner is everyone’s favourite sentient naartjie (thank you to whoever coined this wondrous description) Donald Trump.
The runner up in the South African category is our very own EFF President Juju Malema. Seems that his svelte new image has done little to reduce his overall slap-ability. And the run-away winner, happy-to-have-you-entertaining-our kids-every-night (not), the SABC’s (or is he still?) Hlaudi Motsoeneng (and the crowd goes wild – literally).
We would like to launch a brand-new category for the most Slap-able Human Being in the Entire Galaxy as we know it and Possibly of all History. And the winner is? Faf de Klerk! Wooohooo!
Apologies for that interruption. I just popped out to make tea and Cathy hijacked my laptop. There will be no most slap-able face in the galaxy/history category next year. It’s just silly.)
So, there you have it. The end of a truly slap-able year.
Until next year, goodnight from the Foxtons living room.
Justin Foxton is founder of The Peace Agency.
This column is dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Anene Booysens: gang raped, mutilated and murdered, and our Mozambican brother Emmanuel Josias Sithole: beaten and stabbed to death.
by Justin Foxton | Nov 24, 2016 | Citizen Participation, Democracy
“When even the custodians of the story no longer believe the story, you know its days are numbered. It is a shell with no engine, running on habit and momentum.” Charles Eisenstein.
David Cameron’s Britain? Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton’s America? Jacob Zuma’s ANC? It could be about all 3 – and indeed the world at large – though it was penned specifically about America in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat by Donald Trump.
When you read the above quote you may feel like you are stood atop a very high bridge about to jump with nothing more than a length of elasticated twine attached to your ankles. Only problem is we have been given no choice but to jump. The safe and comfortable view of our world held by many, has been shattered. We have been well and truly pushed; 2016 has given us one massive shove.
It has been a shove we desperately needed but did all we could to avoid. Is that not the truth of any good shove? It flung us into a downward trajectory; a certain belly-churning freefall that would see all of us “sensible” folk losing our breakfast, lunch and dinner in a swirl of elections, referendums and reports.
And what was that shove? It was a shove out of our blinded complacency. We could longer kid ourselves that America is the land of the free; that Britain is the old grand dame of civility and propriety; that the ANC is not tearing our country apart limb from limb and cannibalising its very flesh. How can this be good for anyone?
But therein lies the bitter irony. As the masks of civility and tolerance and interbeing get ripped from the face of the world, could we ultimately be better off? Yes, I ache for us to believe the old stories once again; to believe that what our folks taught us – and what so many people on every continent have given their lives for – is still alive and well: That the world – though messed up – is headed in the right direction. But that would be to continue the deception that we have been labouring under for years; that the democratic project is largely complete and a success; that racism – if not dead – has been dealt its killer blow; that current systems of government have a handle on poverty, that women are by-and-large equal to men and that inter-faith dialogue has given birth to a generous and loving God. These deceptions must die if we are to ultimately win the fight for a free and equal society for all. Without their death, we are just play-acting a fairy-tale.
Now, seen in this light Donald Trump, Brexit – even our very own president – become necessary catalysts for humanity’s next big strides in terms of change and progress. They will cause a radical shifting of the pendulum from the one extreme to the other; the necessary swing needed for equilibrium to be reached.
It seems outrageous to call Trump or Brexit or indeed Zuma “progress”. But the truth is that if we are to advance towards a better place; a place of resurrection from what now appears to be a slow and painful death; a place without pretence or complacency or masks, we must be prepared to bravely enter a period of great uncertainty – a liminal space if you like – in which just about anything could happen.
How do we enter this space between? Perhaps a better question might be, what tools will we need to play a part in the scripting of the next chapter in world history?
We will need to reassess our non-negotiable values and hold onto these for dear life. It happens so easily and quickly that good men and women who ordinarily consider themselves to be law abiding and peaceful begin engaging in violent words and deeds to defend their position. We are seeing this in America. We have always seen it in South Africa. This is driven by our fear.
We will need to put ourselves in the shoes of the other. As Eisenstein points out, 6 states that voted in America’s first black president twice, voted for Trump. Did they become racists overnight? Or are they just deeply disillusioned with the world? Are you deeply disillusioned with the world? If so, you may have voted for Trump even if you hate what he stands for.
We will need to understand that no one wins when leaders fail. We can and must oppose where necessary, but we must also work to build leaders that will succeed. This includes our president and Trump. If you pray, then pray for them.
And finally, we must not do nothing as we undergo this necessary falling process. We must peacefully but decisively oppose everything that acts against the universal principles of love and empathy and kindness. We must embrace the fall but not what caused it. We must use every opportunity to denounce racism, the abuse and oppression of women, the hatred for religions other than our own. We must now ensure that the next few years see the world bounce back to that better place.
Justin Foxton is founder of The Peace Agency.
This column is dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Anene Booysens: gang raped, mutilated and murdered, and our Mozambican brother Emmanuel Josias Sithole: beaten and stabbed to death.
by Justin Foxton | Nov 10, 2016 | Citizen Participation, Crime & Corruption, Democracy, Leadership
“Just as the power of water often lies in the ability to bend around obstacles, sometimes the most powerful step you can take is a step back”.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela posted this quote on her Twitter timeline just hours after last Wednesday’s release of her State of Capture report. The quote was not direct and not credited to anyone which made it more of a note-to-self than anything.
I have always had a sense of this woman’s unique ability to intuit the metaphysical and spiritual requirements of the moment beyond the physical aspects of her work as our Public Protector. Without naming it as such, I believe this is why most of us esteem her as we do. We in turn intuit the extent of her impact rather than just see, hear or feel it. Madiba elicited the same response. The fact that her response to the release of this final labour-of-love was to step back, should confirm what we may have sensed all along; that she is as much a spiritual leader as anything else. This is not a badge of honour and certainly not a mantle that I would expect her to wear comfortably, but that very fact would serve as further proof of the hypothesis.
When I say spiritual leader, I am not using this term in any kind of religious way, although that is how she – and indeed perhaps you the reader – chooses to give expression to spirituality. I am talking about a leader who “leads from the deep” as it were; from beneath the heart level; from that level of intuition that exists in those that understand that to fall is to rise; to step back at the right time is the ultimate power-move. As my favourite Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr puts it, the power of “falling upward”. Is this servant leadership? Yes, in its very purest form.
Thuli Madonsela is a person who understands what it means to lead in such a way. How can we tell this? Because in her finest hour, she knew instinctively that her most powerful response would be to step out of the limelight and into the shadows. She knew that for her work to have the maximum power and impact, she was going to need to humble herself and – without taking so much as a bow – exit stage left. This would allow the necessary processes to unfold untainted and uncluttered by her presence. The job was done.
Now, had I been her, I would have booked interviews on every radio and TV station possible. I would have made sure that the whole dang world knew how great I was. I would have got someone to sky-write “Justin For President” but pretended it was just an adoring fan. I would have planned the release of my book – entitled “Just in Time – How I saved South Africa” – to coincide with the release of this report. There would have been mugs, pens, t-shirts – the works. Now come on admit it; you would have been tempted to do the same and shore up your fame and fortune for good.
But she chose to post a quote about stepping back. Why? Firstly, she knows that we are ultimately only ever as powerful as we are humble. That is the conundrum of falling upward. The extent to which our ego is in control determines our impact for good in the world. Alas, this does not mean that ego-driven human beings will not become powerful leaders. It simply means that their legacy of positive impact is an illusion that will ultimately fade and die.
Secondly, by leading from this place of humility she will have sensed that in the days and weeks following the release of this damning report, crooks and cronies would come crawling out from under their rocks to try and discredit her. By stepping back she would give them nothing new to say. They would simply have to follow legal processes; not something that criminals like to do.
And finally, she drew a line in the sand and said, this job is now done; this fight is fought. I can now rest and prepare for the next challenge – whatever that may be.
Of course, there is also an implicit challenge in Madonsela’s above quote. It is her time to step back but where does that leave us? It is most certainly not our time to step back. As our Public Protector, she left us her legacy as well as lessons and of course tools to step forward and continue the fight for our democracy. But the battle is far from over. As Vytjie Mentor said, we are the same now as we were before the report. What can we do to ensure that South Africa emerges victorious from this battle for her soul?
I do not have 3 steps you can follow here, but I do know that our role in the process will come to each of us as we seek to lead humbly where we are and as we understand that each of us must play our part – however big or small – in the healing of our nation.
This – more than any report – is the greatest legacy that Thuli Madonsela leaves us.
#leadlikethuli
Justin Foxton is founder of The Peace Agency.
This column is dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Anene Booysens: gang raped, mutilated and murdered, and our Mozambican brother Emmanuel Josias Sithole: beaten and stabbed to death.
by Justin Foxton | Sep 2, 2016 | Citizen Participation, Democracy
I have a friend who recently came out of the racism closet.
Well, when I say she came out of the racism closet what I mean is that she came out publicly – on Facebook. She did not mince her words or try to soften the blow. She just came right out and said it.
Now under any circumstances this would be an extremely brave thing to have done. Coming to terms with our own internal tensions, ideological complexities and paradoxes is a life-long journey and revealing those in public is a truly vulnerable act. However, for me it was doubly brave given the profile of my friend. A little about her for context:
She is an educated, savvy, young, middle-class, white woman. You wouldn’t say that she comes from a conservative background as such, but she does come from a church-going family and the church can sometimes be a conservative environment.
Given this short profile you can understand why her closet-hop on Facebook caused a bit of a stir. Here it is verbatim: “Listening to Julius Malema on SAfm – this guy makes so much sense! Love it. Glad I voted EFF. (Update – not a hack folks!)”
Now, let’s recap for clarity: my friend is an educated, young, white woman. She is a deep thinker and her decision to vote for the Economic Freedom Fighters would have been well-considered, researched and spoken-through.
Now, the post did not go unnoticed. Some – presumably in denial – stated that her account must have been hacked. Others pointed out that Julius Malema is anti-white, to which she responded that he is not anti-white but anti-white supremacy.
Why is all this important to us? Well, with this post my friend sent a couple of very clear messages. Firstly, she defied the general rule of your vote being your secret. This tells us that she is proud of her choice and fearless about making it known publicly. This is good for democracy.
Secondly – and this is the more important point – she sent a hugely powerful message about who she is as a white South African; the journey she is on – a journey out of her own dark closet: her closet called racism; her closet called white privilege; her closet called white-is-right. Through this short and simple post, she told the world that she will not be a slave to her own white fear for one day longer, but will stand tall and proud and say something like (my words of course – not hers):
“I am working hard to become a person who my children can be proud of; a person who daily internalises the fact that even though I rejected apartheid – in fact more accurately, I came of age after the demise of the thing – I benefited and continue to benefit from apartheid and from being white. I realise that in order for me to be where I am – privileged – people, yes, black people, have had to lose their lives and their dignity and they continue to make these sacrifices for me on a daily basis. I simply cannot rest on my piece of land whilst knowing that yours was taken from you because of racism. I cannot send my child to a beautiful school whilst your child has no access to even the most basic education. I cannot stand by and watch while business founded and forged on the backs of the oppressed continues to enrich itself whilst over 30% of our population remains unemployed.
Do I feel guilty that my children go to good schools or that I live in a nice home? No. I feel broken. Broken by the inequality I see around me each day. I simply cannot continue as I am knowing that I live a life of quite extraordinary benefit and privilege at the expense of my black brothers and sisters.” That is something of what my friend said to me in this Facebook post and it killed me because all my work tells me that she is spot on.
Now please don’t misinterpret her post. It was a statement of defiance against her own unearned white privilege; a statement of recognition that she – like all of us – has such a long way to go before we can joyfully inhabit this land together as one. It was not an endorsement of Julius Malema personally and it went way beyond any kind of political statement.
With this simple post my friend challenged me on so many levels. I voted for the DA but when I read her post I somehow wished I had voted for the EFF.
Justin Foxton is founder of The Peace Agency.
This column is dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Anene Booysens: gang raped, mutilated and murdered, and our Mozambican brother Emmanuel Josias Sithole: beaten and stabbed to death.
by Justin Foxton | Apr 16, 2016 | Democracy, Leadership
In August 2014 highly respected ANC veteran Pallo Jordan found himself in hot water over lies regarding his academic qualifications. He had claimed to have a PhD going by the title of Doctor for years.
Via an article in the Mail & Guardian, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe explained that Jordan had written to the party’s leadership taking full responsibility for what Jordan termed as “deceit over a long time”. Jordan apologised to the ANC, its members and all South Africans and resigned.
There are moments in all of our lives that come to define us as men and women. For leaders with position and power, these moments may go down in the annals of history. For leaders like you and I they may simply become part of the history of our own small lives, or be forever etched in the minds of our children: “My Dad was always someone who did the right thing”; “My Mum played fast and loose with the law.”
The story of Pallo Jordan’s deceit did not end with an apology to South Africans. That is because Pallo Jordan is a man of integrity. How can we possibly say that about a man who lied and cheated his way through decades of his life, receiving benefits that he should never have been entitled to? Well, we can say that because when confronted with that dreadful moment of truth about his lie (a variation of a lie that many of us have spoken in our lives to make ourselves or our companies sound more impressive), he chose to admit his mistakes and resign. With only the evidence provided by his conscience and a Sunday Times expose; without any pronouncements of a court of law – he did the hardest thing possible; he took responsibility and action. His apology would have meant nothing had he not resigned; his apology would simply have been a request for us to let him off the hook: “You have been a naughty boy Pallo, but we forgive you. Just don’t do it again.”
My primary memory of Pallo Jordan is not that he lied about his qualifications. I remember him for the fact that he resigned as a result of being exposed. I remember how quickly, how decisively and how humbly he did it. I remember how he saw fit to respect South Africans and our democracy by doing what only the strongest of men and women and the best of leaders can ever do – kick themselves when they are down. Regardless of the fact that he would lose money, face and power he did what I have come to understand any true veteran of the struggle would do; he stood up bravely against anyone who dared to compromise the integrity of that struggle and the democracy that resulted – even when that person was him.
I do not need to spell things out and in any case, much has been written about the man who still insists on calling himself our President. Suffice to say that whether you love him or hate him, this man will now be relegated to the trash-heap of history occupied by corrupt leaders; those who lied, cheated, deceived, manipulated and put themselves before the people. But he will not simply idle away his final years in ignominy for Nkandla or the fact that he violated his oath of office or any of the other atrocities committed by him. Ultimately, this will happen because he apologised without resigning. Had he resigned on Saturday night he may in years to come have even been honoured for some of his not insignificant achievements as President of the Republic. But now, history will only ever remember him for being a man who – when presented with that moment – chose to apologise but not resign. He will be remembered for the fact that he not only placed his needs before the party or his people, but before the constitution of the Republic.
And this is what stalwarts, elders and civil society leaders are now protesting over. They have nothing to lose from standing against the systematic destruction of this mighty organisation. They know that a weak ANC is bad for everyone and they will not look on as Rome burns. What the man who insists on calling himself our President – and the entire ANC – has missed is that this has gone beyond politics and a scrutinising of the letter of the law. This now sets in motion the ANC’s slide downwards to the trash-heap occupied by corrupt liberation movements; those who lied, cheated, deceived, manipulated and put themselves before the people. What a tragic trajectory.
Is it too late for redemption for either him or the ANC? I do not believe so. Provided this once proud organisation is able to liberate itself from its own propaganda and make itself accountable to you and I by speaking truth to power, then anything is possible.
Pallo Jordan proved that people are very forgiving when the right thing is done.
Justin Foxton is founder of The Peace Agency.
This column is dedicated to the memory of 17-year-old Anene Booysens: gang raped, mutilated and murdered, and our Mozambican brother Emmanuel Josias Sithole: beaten and stabbed to death.
