BY ZOLA PINDA:
A Long Association, Not a Sudden Encounter
Professor Xolela Mangcu and I are not strangers who encountered one another through a recent disagreement. We have known each other for many years and have shared a friendship and association that extended beyond intellectual and public life. At various times, we played golf together at estates in Johannesburg and at Sun City, and enjoyed the ordinary conversations that come with such occasions.
That history matters because it provides the context in which I responded to his recent writing. My intervention was not the reaction of someone who had suddenly discovered Professor Mangcu through an article. It came from a relationship in which there has been familiarity, mutual engagement and, importantly, an understanding that we do not necessarily have to agree.
Responsibility of Public Office
There was another dimension to our relationship during the years when I was a government civil servant. At that time, I carried the reputation and responsibilities of the particular office I occupied. Public servants, particularly those operating at senior levels, do not always have the freedom to respond publicly in the same manner as private citizens.
I understood that responsibility and carried it with dignity. Professor Mangcu knew that context. He also knew that my circumstances could change, and I had made it clear to him that, should that happen, I would reserve the right to respond to some of his writings in my personal capacity.
That moment has now arrived.
Speaking in My Own Capacity
I therefore want to make something very clear. My response to Professor Mangcu’s article was not an act of institutional retaliation, nor was it motivated by personal hostility. I was responding as Zola Pinda — a journalist, writer, former public servant and citizen who has his own intellectual formation and his own right to participate in public debate.
The fact that I once occupied public office does not mean that I surrendered my capacity for independent thought. Nor does leaving public office require me to remain silent when I encounter arguments with which I disagree.
The distinction is important: I am no longer speaking on behalf of a government institution. I am speaking for myself.
No One Asked Me to Apologise
There is another matter I would like to put beyond doubt. No one has asked me to apologise to Professor Mangcu. Professor Mangcu has not asked me to apologise. Neither have friends who know both of us. This clarification is important because reconciliation can sometimes be misunderstood as an admission of wrongdoing. That is not what I am doing. My decision to write this reflection comes from my own instinct and judgement. I have reached a point where I would rather put the matter to rest than allow a robust intellectual disagreement to become unnecessarily personal.
Robust Does Not Mean Disrespectful
I do not believe that my response was disrespectful. It was robust because I regarded the issues raised by Professor Mangcu as serious. Questions concerning democracy, merit, institutional integrity, political formation and the character of South African public institutions deserve serious engagement. To disagree strongly is not necessarily to insult.
Indeed, I would argue that intellectual life becomes impoverished when disagreement is automatically interpreted as hostility. A democracy that cannot accommodate robust disagreement is not intellectually confident enough. My intention was therefore not to diminish Professor Mangcu. It was to engage his argument.
The Intellectual Tradition From Which I Come
That is why the reflection that follows should be read in its proper context. My intellectual formation did not begin at university. It began much earlier, in KwaNdlambe, in the Eastern Cape, in a family and community whose knowledge was transmitted through experience, observation, memory and oral tradition.
Rhodes University subsequently expanded my intellectual.
Zola Pinda is a journalist who holds a BA in Journalism from Rhodes University and an MA in Professional and Business Communication from La Salle University, Philadelphia. He has more than three decades’ experience, including work with the National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions). His writing focuses on public institutions, governance, African intellectual life, geopolitics, leadership, accountability and the public interest. – @NewsSA_Online
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