THE Book of Esther, the Jew and wife of King Xerxes, is relevant in the humanitarian crisis of those excluded in the stakes of prospects for a better life – be they local or foreign.
Our present-day defiance wailing at the gates of power is not Mordecai, the Jew, that commander of the armed forces of King Xerxes, Haman, despised so much that he prepared a guillotine for him to be beheaded. But Mordecai represents poverty, inequality and unemployment that stands at the doorstep of a Parliament in ashes, and at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Twenty-five days ago, in an article in Business Report, titled “SA has sunk to a new low as the march against foreign nationals begins”, I argued that the absence of the government in this simmering conflict, while it had remained peaceful, will trigger what will end up as very ugly.
The shooting and injuring of Operation Dudula marchers at a shopping mall this week has elements that will lead to national discontent.
The justification or otherwise of this shooting is not the point of the article. The article is about stepping back from these troubled waters through the lens of Haman, King Xerxes, Queen Esther and Mordecai. This gives perspective on why an ever presence of leadership and governance resolves complex problems, and averts unnecessary bloodshed.
Mordecai, dressed in tartars, wore ash on his body as he wailed in protest at the gates of King Xerxes. In wailing he silently prepared the maiden Esther, his niece, for joining King Xerxes’s harem with a prospect of being a queen in time. Mordecai’s strategy worked. When King Xerxes exiled Queen Vashti for refusing to entertain his visitors, Esther wore the crown and became the Queen.
His commander of the defence force detested the “vagrant” Mordecai, and wished him dead. To achieve his goal of getting rid of Mordecai, Haman then hatched a plot that he sold to the King to kill all Jews and for his arch enemy, he built a guillotine on which he would behead Mordecai. Xerxes issued an order throughout Persia for the Jews to be killed.
On the eve of executing the order, Queen Esther was very much disturbed and King Xerxes asked her why? And Esther, the niece of Mordecai, unveiled Haman’s plot.
The King could not withdraw his order for the Jews to be killed, but issued a different order that said Jews must defend themselves. With this order was the public beheading of his commander, Haman, on the guillotine that Mordecai was to be beheaded. The instruction that Jews must defend themselves emboldened the Jews and immobilised the nation against them.
What happened a day before the shooting of Dudula operatives whereby the police stopped Operation Dudula in Hillbrow, but conversely have been accompanying them in their operations might well have emboldened those who shot at and injured the Dudula operatives.
Unlike the omnipresence and decisive action of King Xerxes when dealing with Haman, there is no such leader or king, taking a position on the grievances of both sides.
This inaction has been accompanied by firstly mixed-messaging by the police which supported and then did not support Operation Dudula; secondly, the mobilisation by different opposition parties and some foot soldiers of the ANC in operations that have the same elements as Operation Dudula; and thirdly, ultimately what now is alleged South Africans being shot at by foreigners. All this is bound to spawn an ugly face of a new fully blown wave of xenophobia. Xenophobia endangers South Africa’s ambitions in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
South Africa’s current defiant Mordecai – is now embodied in form at the footsteps of both the Union Buildings and ashes of the burnt down Parliament in Cape Town. They represent the gnawing, everlasting poverty, unemployment and inequality that hitherto we have not addressed.
The plot to kill Mordecai by Haman will spawn what will kill Haman. Let us take heed, the tinkering on economic policies has only a maximum effect of 1.8 percent growth, 38 percent unemployment and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 88 percent by 2026, according to a recent World Bank Report based on National Treasury estimates.
According to this, Haman has prepared the guillotine for Mordecai and King Xerxes has issued the instruction for the Jews to be killed. Against the mounting crisis, the King may yet wake up to face the truth when the Queen Esther moment arrives and Mordecai’s guillotine may be repurposed for Haman!
Dr Pali Lehohla is the former statistician-general of South Africa and the former head of Statistics South Africa. Meet him @palilj01 and at www.pie.org.za.
*The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL or of title sites.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE