Mbeki missing, or is he missed?

Oh finally, I managed a moment with Thabo Mbeki. The former Captain of the rocky South African ship was in Grahamstown addressing the Rhodes University students after the SRC invited him (I don't believe that it was a student initiative as they wanted us to believe). He was referred to, the whole time without mistake, as Mr. President, like really, of what country? I wondered.

Anyway, Mbeki was here to celebrate the overrated Africa Day, and good that guy can orate stories so well. I wondered why some quotas of the media called him boring and aloof. There was no aloofness to the Mbeki I listened to, he smiled, he joked, he used 'cool' phrases like "like really" to a laughing and applauding students. Now I understand why the ANC couldn't take it anymore, the guy is formal, yet welcoming, and very patient as he later on showed during a Question & Answer session.

You make a terrible mistake if you think you have him at a tight corner, as he showed when an IsiXhosa speaking lady vigorously (and naively) asked him why he didn't speak any IsiXhosa when he was in Mpuma Koloni (An IsiXhosa name for the Eastern Cape Province. He listened as the female student grew with confidence as the crowd roared.

He then politely told her to take into consideration that IsiXhosa was not the only African language and that in order for him to be inclusive of everyone he had to speak the language that could be easily understood by all. This time the crowd, the very one that roared the first time around roared for him. It was really getting interesting.

"Mr. President, just exactly who are these 'people on the ground' that you refer to? and who determines that they are ordinary? asked another student, again to a roaring crowd, by now I took it the roaring crowd roared because of the validity of the question. The ordinary people, according to the former skipper, are the people on the ground, the people without certain acquired skills as we at Rhodes University have. "And if you think you are ordinary, then you are abdicating from your responsibilities as you are supposed to be giving back to these people," he said, and the roaring went on again, and I joined in this time. According to Mbeki, the children of Africa need to embrace their continent, and I believe that we have to.

Africa needs a new generation of leaders who will reclaim it back with pride. Because the talk was not meant to be a political one there were almost no questions about him and his former party, the ANC. But one student managed to ask him why he didn't go back to parliament as a former president, and well, he said he couldn't do that because he didn't want to be a mere back bencher.

Mbeki is a leader we will miss in this country, surely he made some errors in his time, but his leadership will be missed solely. He is indeed an intellectual, and he engages you, only if you can concentrate when he speaks. He is not someone you will applaud every 2 minutes, because you need to be attentive until he finishes talking. There were times during his address I wished he was still a president of this country, but the Rhodes staff that was present made it their point to quench that thirst of me as they referred to him as Mr. President. How I wished it was true.

First appeared in Cape Times