Moral fibre
May 23, 2006 Edition 1
By the Editor
At a time when political rhetoric is flying thick and fast in the city as the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance continue their battle for control of the city council, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool is looking and sounding increasingly statesmanlike in his approach to the fracas.
Although he made several bellicose remarks in the period immediately after the election of the DA by a narrow plurality, Rasool is increasingly taking a conciliatory role in his approach towards Mayor Helen Zille's administration.
Yesterday morning, in what we sincerely hope becomes a watershed moment for the city, Rasool addressed some 100 prominent business, religious, academic, media, sports, community and labour leaders.
He did so in the context of a frank admission that "political leadership may not be enough to tackle the challenges we face".
Flanked by Zille and Richard Dyantyi, MEC for local government and housing, he also said frankly that "what we have come to address may in part be contributed to by the need for the politics of the province at local level to settle down".
And the reason for the gathering? "An anxiety, a tension, a discomfort" in the Western Cape arising out of the divisions and polarisation in society, the high levels of violence and death, out-of-control gangsterism, hired assassins operating in the taxi wars, violence at schools, unemployment and tik abuse by the youth, deadly xenophobic attacks on foreigners, and the violence of the security guard strike.
While yesterday's meeting was "not about pushing the panic button", there was a need for leadership that was moral, a public consensus about what constituted acceptable behaviour and an isolation of unacceptable practices, a need for ethics in business, and a new mindset in which gangsterism became a scourge, not an ambition or a career path, he said.
Statesmanlike stuff, the stuff we have come to expect to hear from a man with Rasool's high moral principles.
What a pity then that on the same day, ANC Member of the Provincial Legislature, Patrick McKenzie, in a mean-spirited statement, called on Zille to quit and her coalition to be toppled, saying it was a "disgrace" that the city was being managed on an "ad hoc basis by a crisis committee".
This would appear to be somewhat at odds with the more measured tones of Rasool yesterday morning.
