Gcobani Ndzongana@gndzongana
My fellow South Africans,
I have been consistent in saying that we should not use hate to disagree with people we do not like. We must learn to be tolerant of different views.
What some of you are doing to Ngizwe is exactly what Ngizwe and many others are doing to Comrade President Julius Malema. They hate Comrade Malema even when he is saying the right thing. Now you are doing the same to Ngizwe, even when he did the right thing by rejecting the notion that he is a tribalist.
He went to the land of the AmaXhosa, marched with them, and displayed unity. Although his words sometimes distorted his actions because he misused the platform by expressing hate against Comrade President Julius Malema, that does not mean you must condemn his intentions for going to KuGompo yesterday.
Condemning him makes you no different from the way you label Ngizwe as divisive and tribalist.
Your hate for him blinds you, so you fail to see when he is doing the right thing.
We must also understand that we are in politics. In politics, we will not agree on everything, and we do not have to compromise our positions or ideological beliefs.
My ideology is simple: the people are always right. As a leader, if I see that the people are wrong, my duty is to join them and share my advice with them, just as I did with Operation Dudula during the time of Nhlanhla Lux.
I totally disagreed with his position and the way he was doing things, including assaulting protesters during the July unrest.
However, I gave myself time to engage him, and I can safely say he took my advice, although I never told him to resign from Operation Dudula.
As leaders, we cannot blame the youth, nor should we blame them if we fail to address their grievances.
If political leaders fail to lead the people, the people will lead themselves, and that does not mean the people are our enemies.
While politics comes first for others, for me it is people first. His intentions were good and it was to unite our people yesterday.