ANTHONY BUTLER: Waning personality cults leave leaders in disarray

First published in Business Day

23 AUGUST 2024

The waning of personality cults could well be the political news story of the year.

Across human history, chiefs, emperors and kings have demanded obeisance. Modern democracy partially dissipated such authority by containing leaders within constitutional rules. The power of individuals was for the first time balanced by elected legislatures and powerful judges. 

The danger persisted though, and it has recently been resurgent. Mass and social media, quasi-religious spectacles, nationalist emotions and mass rallies allow leaders to project their personalities, and so create modern cults. 

This may be changing again. In the world’s most advanced banana republic, former president Donald Trump’s fundamentalists are in retreat. Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, sucks charisma out of the air like a black hole. SA’s own cult leaders are, gratifyingly, also in disarray. 

The ANC in exile successfully created a Nelson Mandela legend, but this cult entranced foreigners far more than it captivated locals. The personality of his successor, Thabo Mbeki, corrected any tendency among citizens to treat him with reverence or adoration. 

Of course, Jacob Zuma has a certain charm, but he had to portray himself as a victim — a humble Zulu man put upon by others — to rise. His campaign in the May elections was scarcely that of a great national leader. 

Cyril Ramaphosa has meanwhile adopted the public persona of a decent man — perhaps slightly out of his depth, and certainly a conciliator rather than an emperor. 

The DA has wisely strapped its only potential cult leader, Helen Zille, into a straitjacket. While the party once exhibited classic cult behaviours — including sexual rituals in which spouses were exchanged by middle-ranking politicians and mystical or magical meanings were attributed to concepts such as “liberalism” — the DA has now settled for the amiable John Steenhuisen.

IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa meanwhile kept his face off election posters and adopted the persona of the school principal he once was. These key leaders at the heart of the unity government took up modest ministerial positions. 

The big-man hopefuls have fared far less well. The EFF’s Julius Malema was humbled by the voters. Reportedly pursuing the deputy presidency behind the backs of his own negotiators, he divided his party with self-aggrandising behaviour. 

The leaders of smaller cults, such as Herman Mashaba, Songezo Zibi, Mmusi Maimane and Patricia de Lille, resembled wandering pastors or out-of-condition yoga instructors rather than charismatic leaders.

The right kind of politics has clearly helped contain the cults. The ANC, DA and IFP all demonstrated the benefits that can flow from reasonably strong institutions, clearly formulated policies, and leaders who are servants of their parties. Their agreement to prioritise the constitution wrong-footed cultists who were spouting antisystem rhetoric and were distracted by the lure of blue-light convoys. 

There was also some exceptional leadership. Soon after a herd of credulous journalists followed Zuma around the national results operation centre — while he was bleating nonsense about a stolen election, nogal — Ramaphosa showed up, exuded confidence, backed the electoral commission and thanked electors for the ANC’s trouncing. 

Citizens are partly inoculated against cult leadership by the country’s apartheid history. When Malema had himself raised on a platform at the FNB Stadium during his cult’s 10-year anniversary celebrations, many observers saw Oupa Gqozo rather than Fidel Castro. 

However, the most reliable defences against big-man cults are institutional. In our parliamentary system the president is elected by the National Assembly — and so by political parties — and not directly by the people.

We cannot always stop the manipulation of emotion by our politicians, but it is far harder to turn a cult figurehead into a strongman in a political system in which the people do not directly elect the leader. 

• Butler teaches public policy at the University of Cape Town.