Has Mngxitama sold his revolutionary conviction for a living?

For a while now, Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama has been making the headlines, but not for his known views on a land issue. Instead, he has been making the headlines in defence of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, an SABC’s head of corporate affairs, President Jacob Zuma, the Gupta brothers while attacking former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, Johann Rupert, Pravin Gordhan and the media “controlled by settlers”.

Not long ago, speaking at SAAPAM seminar on political party coalitions following the 2016 Local Government Elections, Mngxitama claimed that Motsoeneng “is the only one who is progressive,” prompting intermittent interjections from TUT Station Manager Jeremy Thorpe. Besides turning the public broadcaster into Zuma’s propagandist mouthpiece, I wonder what is progressive about Motsoeneng.

As if Mngxitama’s claim is not enough to boggle my mind, he added, “In South Africa today I can tell it is Hlaudi and [Eskom CEO] Brian Molefe who, in my view, are patriotic managers.” Again, he boggled my mind. What is patriotic about Motsoeneng and Molefe, whom, along with Zuma, Des Van Rooyen, Mosebenzi Zwane, and Jimmy Manyi, to name but a few cheap souls, have sold our country over “a plate of curry,” taking a leaf from Julius Malema’s book, at Saxonwold.

As he was delivering his address, Thorpe kept on interjecting Mngxitama. “No. He is an idiot,” interjected Thorpe, referring to Motsoeneng, who faked his matric qualification to get a job at the SABC. As seen in the video clip that went viral, an angry Mngxitama charges towards Thorpe, who had sat in the front row, and asserts, “You are a hopeless racist who should not be teaching” and threw a bottle at him. One among the audience alleged that Mngxitama is on the Guptas’ payroll, begging the question as to whether the Guptas have also captured him.

Incidentally, it was not the first Mngxitama had sung Motsoeneng and Molefe praises. As a regular panellist on ANN7, another Zuma’s propagandist mouthpiece owned by the Gupta brothers, he has been singing the duo praises. Except Professor Sipho Seepe, whose partisan political analysis speaks volume, most of the so-called analysts are nonentities, also singing for their supper. Seepe, once caught for plagiarism, was part of Zuma’s “brain trust” team. His pro-Zuma analysis, therefore, is not surprising, not by a long shot.

As part of his anti-colonial and imperial scrimmage, Mngxitama claims that “the distance dream of economic liberation could become a reality” under Zuma, whom he says, “understands the tactics used by white capitals to control South Africa”. Needless to repeat that, once again, he boggled my mind, unless if he refers to himself, Duduzane Zuma, an overnight billionaire without credible business background, and other cheap souls. As for the millions of landless natives, a dream of a better life, as promised by the ANC, remains a far world. It is deferred.  

In pursuit of a revolution, a challenge is not necessary the revolution itself, but a conviction to remain true to a course of action until the victory is certain. This, essentially, begs the question as to whether Mngxitama remains true to the land issue, or he has sold out his revolutionary conviction for a living. The conviction is a living organism. It needs food and shelter to remain true to a course of action.

To answer the question as to whether Mngxitama has sold out his revolutionary conviction for a living, one has to look at his financial status. Following his expulsion from the EFF, where he earned an estimated R1 million a year as an MP, a few media outlets ran stories about two of Mngxitama’s houses that went on auctions. He could not afford to service their loans, as he’s unemployed.

Where does he gets the money for a living, not to mention the money to pay his legal fees for trespassing the Public Protector’s offices in Pretoria and holding the staff hostage? Who is bankrolling him to lose his revolutionary conviction on the land issue because the MMM scheme has collapsed? I cannot recall the last time Mngxitama made the headlines on the land issue. Even his site, Black Opinion, is not replete with the land issues.