JONNY Steinberg (Irony has replaced language of sincerity in ANC, November 13) is right in saying that the gap between the world we were promised and the one that has been delivered is now so large that the African National Congress (ANC) has nothing but language to offer us.
That language, according to Steinberg, no longer describes the South African reality; it has become "a series of self-conscious jokes"; ANC officials talk "largely in the codes of irony".
This would indeed be "darkly funny": politics as late-night cabaret, with the world crumbling outside; talking about fighting corruption while corruption is thriving and tolerated. But has ANC discourse so elegantly abandoned seriousness?
When I hear Gwede Mantashe speak, I hear none of the playfulness and nimbleness associated with irony. I hear flat-footed pedantry, rage and menace. Mantashe’s quoting Mao Zedong’s wisdom on democratic methods may be an in-joke to be deciphered by Kgalema Motlanthe, but, read without irony, it is historical illiteracy or the crassest of intimidation.
That’s another reason Steinberg flatters Mantashe by calling his language ironic. Irony tends to open the mind to new thoughts. Mantashe is trying to control people’s right to speak. Not so long ago, he criticised the Wits vice-chancellor for commenting on politics. Now he is saying that Motlanthe should only speak to "our people" if he wishes to make the obvious point that the idea of a tripartite alliance is ironical at best.
G Olivier
Brixton
Gwede Mantashe. Picture: RUSSELL ROBERTS
JONNY Steinberg (Irony has replaced language of sincerity in ANC, November 13) is right in saying that the gap between the world we were promised and the one that has been delivered is now so large that the African National Congress (ANC) has nothing but language to offer us.
That language, according to Steinberg, no longer describes the South African reality; it has become "a series of self-conscious jokes"; ANC officials talk "largely in the codes of irony".
This would indeed be "darkly funny": politics as late-night cabaret, with the world crumbling outside; talking about fighting corruption while corruption is thriving and tolerated. But has ANC discourse so elegantly abandoned seriousness?
When I hear Gwede Mantashe speak, I hear none of the playfulness and nimbleness associated with irony. I hear flat-footed pedantry, rage and menace. Mantashe’s quoting Mao Zedong’s wisdom on democratic methods may be an in-joke to be deciphered by Kgalema Motlanthe, but, read without irony, it is historical illiteracy or the crassest of intimidation.
That’s another reason Steinberg flatters Mantashe by calling his language ironic. Irony tends to open the mind to new thoughts. Mantashe is trying to control people’s right to speak. Not so long ago, he criticised the Wits vice-chancellor for commenting on politics. Now he is saying that Motlanthe should only speak to "our people" if he wishes to make the obvious point that the idea of a tripartite alliance is ironical at best.
G Olivier
Brixton
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