Dilly Dalaing comes back to bite the Comrades

I have delayed talking about this for some time, coz I needed to calm down. I didn’t want to write anything rash that I would later regret. As they say, what you write on the net stays on the net. But although I am still fuming, I think I’ll manage to get through this without completely losing it.

When most South Africans are asked who their hero is, they invariably say Nelson Mandela. And although I love Madiba as much as the next man, I have a different hero. A strange hero at that. I am an atheist, and my hero is the epitome of a man of God. But although we have differences of opinion on the matter of religion; for his compassion, humility, empathy, wonderful sense of humour and love for every person on Earth, regardless of gender race, religion or sexual preference, as well as his ongoing fight against injustices done to the innocent, my hero is Desmond Tutu.

A few weeks ago, my hero celebrated his 80^th birthday. It was a huge milestone that he should have been celebrating with those closest to him. Instead, it turned into something bittersweet, as one of his closest friends and a fellow spiritual leader, was not able to attend, thanks to the best efforts of the South African government.

Now, I’m not a (professional) political analyst, so I’m not going to speculate on if China was the reason for South Africa’s decision. I don’t know if the Chinese government put pressure on South Africa to not grant the Dalai Lama a visa, or if they did it on their own accord, trying to curry favour with the Chinese, and frankly I don’t think the details matter. The fact is, Desmond Tutu is one of our proudest sons, he is revered the world around and is thought of in the same way as the ANC’s favourite person- Nelson Mandela. To treat him with such gross disrespect is a travesty and the government should be ashamed of themselves. Tutu is an old man, as is the Dalai Lama. What harm could his visit possibly have done to any sort of relations between South Africa and China?

Speaking of Nelson Mandela, when he was president he himself invited the Dalai Lama to our country, China’s opinion be damned. He also invited Cuban leaders to his inauguration, the US be damned. He stated unequivocally that these superpowers were more than welcome to bring their business to SA, but we are a sovereign state and our foreign policy will be conducted how we best see fit. Instead of vilifying him, they gained even more respect for him because of his stance.

South Africa has cut off its nose to spite its face. They may or may not have appeased China, but in the process have been ridiculed by the rest of the world. And as for South Africans themselves- they will put up with a lot of shit from their government. I mean, our president is a shuckster who has more wives than I’ve had dates and still finds the time to have children out of wedlock, and we just shake our heads and sigh. But when they blatantly insult one of our national treasures and two Nobel Peace Prize winners, we say enough is enough. They will live to rue this decision for a long time, because we as a nation will not forget.