Lindiwe Sisulu: trading on a famous South African surname has its limits.

 

Lindiwe Sisulu, South Africa's tourism minister, has provoked outrage by criticizing the country's constitution and courts. GCIS/Flickr.

For the most part, the world is organized under dynastic principles. Part of capitalism's logic is that money, and everything that comes with it, is passed down down the generations. Our laws remove any barriers to such succession. You're less likely to end up impoverished if your parents are wealthy.

Politics, on the other hand, is more complicated. The scions of great men and women are rarely promised the mantle of authority in democracies, but India was an exception during the Congress Party's leadership. They insisted, and still urge, that a member of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty govern the country.

Even if there isn't any built-in generosity, the reality of money and power are frequently enough to smooth the path ahead. After an eight-year gap, George W. Bush succeeded George H.W. Bush as President of the United States. We like to use cliches like 'the fruit never falls far from the tree,' 'he's a chip off the old block,' or simply 'it's in her blood' when this happens.

Therein lays the issue. Blood (or, more accurately, genetics) plays just a little influence in our development.

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Please sign up for our newsletter. Which takes us to South Africa's Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, who appears to feel that scion families like the Mandelas and Mbekis have had their say and that it is now time for the Sisulus to run the country. And when she says 'Sisulus,' she doesn't mean her elder brother Max; she only has one Sisulu in mind: herself.

Lindiwe was elected to South Africa's first democratic parliament in 1994 and served as a deputy minister (of housing) in Nelson Mandela's government before joining Thabo Mbeki's cabinet (as defense minister), where she has remained in the cabinet and on the governing African National Congress's (ANC) National Executive Committee ever since.

She's been in the headlines recently as a result of a divisive op-ed in which she criticized the country's constitution and slammed black judges, calling them "mentally colonized" and "house blacks." The essay sparked controversy, so she retaliated with further broadsides at her detractors.

Her activities have been seen as the commencement of a campaign for the ANC's and country's leadership.

Political dynasties in the ANC

 It seems natural for someone with political ambitions, such as Lindiwe, to remind folks of her name and thereby absorb some of the stardust that has collected on her parents.

Her father, Walter Sisulu, was Mandela's right-hand man on Robben Island and the ANC's vice president from 1991 to 1994. Albertina Sisulu, her mother, was a leader of the ANC-allied United Democratic Front in the 1980s, which coordinated internal opposition to the apartheid regime.

But there's no reason why a daughter reared in quite different circumstances should inherit the attributes of excellence gained the hard way by her much-admired parents. She was a small girl when her father was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to 27 years in prison for sabotage against the apartheid state.

Other ANC dynastic families' progeny do not have a promising future.Only one of Nelson Mandela's six children, Zindziswa, was politically involved (Zindzi). Her father was imprisoned while she was still a toddler. In 2014, she was named ambassador to Denmark, but her radical political beliefs – which mirrored those of her mother, Winnie Mandela – and undiplomatic behavior put her into trouble. She died of COVID at the age of 59 in 2020.

what is the the Mbekis?

On Robben Island, where black anti-apartheid activists were imprisoned, Govan Mbeki was renowned as a communist thinker who went his own way. On ideological reasons, he refused to talk to Mandela for more than three years while in prison. He proceeded to forge his own career in the Eastern Cape after his release in 1987.

Thabo, his first son, was politically and personally much different. He was regarded as sophisticated, urbane, and attractive in exile. However, back at home, a new personality emerged: thin-skinned, easily intimidated, and paranoid.

As president, this once-steadfast politician continued to make mistakes, most notably in his AIDS denial. A large fraud-laced armaments transaction was also consummated under Mbeki's supervision, but there is no evidence that he personally benefitted from it.

While Thabo climbed to the apex of South African politics, Duduzane Zuma, the son of the man who deposed him, never made it past the shallows. He encouraged the riots when his father was incarcerated, urging on them to loot'responsibly.' He was a devoted benefactor of Jacob Zuma's illicit state-capture partnership with the Gupta family.

'A chip off the old block,' says Lindiwe Sisulu.

So we're back to Lindiwe and her drive to reach the pinnacle of her profession. Is she, as she'd want us to believe, a 'chip off the old block'?

Walter Sisulu was known for his persistence as well as his abilities as a political strategist and thinker. He was also admired for his kindness, knowledge, modesty, and lack of personal ambition, all of which Albertina had.

Lindiwe, 67, has worked in the cabinet in various capacities since 2004, under Mbeki, Zuma, and Cyril Ramaphosa, demonstrating her tenacity. But what about wisdom, modesty, and altruism?

She has allied herself with those accused of seeking state capture and appointed men of questionable character to her side, including Paul Ngobeni (who was disbarred from practicing law in the United States) as her legal advisor and Menzi Simelane (who was found unfit to lead the National Prosecuting Authority, his integrity questioned by Constitutional Court Judge Zak Yacoob).

Her most recent campaign bombshell was a cynical attack on the rule of law, the country's negotiated settlement and constitution, and the "highest echelons" of the court, all of which her parents worked tirelessly to accomplish.

Which takes us back to the topic of whether having a well-known surname may help you advance in politics. In certain circumstances, without a doubt. But do they give you an automatic boost to greatness or even worthiness?

It appears that this is not the case.