By Mbongeni Mbingo | 2025-03-21

I was reminded this week of French philosopher Roland Barthes’ theory of ‘The death of the Author’, which essentially suggests that once a story is published, you have no control over what people make of it – it takes its own life and shape and helps create its own perception to those who read and receive the message.

So, whether you intended, or meant well with what you publish, it is in fact, very irrelevant and can never be guaranteed.

Writers have no control over the meaning of their work – good intentions and not, which is why Roland Barthes argues that authors should write their work with a certain impersonality.

This conversation with one of my colleagues stems from the Prime Minister’s interview published by the Sunday Observer, in which the Chairman of Cabinet confirmed the existence of a cabal in the country. It is important to underline, ‘confirmed’ here, because it has been suggested previously that there is a cabal – if not more than one – that is working against the prime minister.

It came out in Parliament of course, although the very notion of such a thing was quickly shot down by MP Marwick Khumalo who advised the prime minister to not spend his time listening to ‘bonodwayiza’ – which I still find a very descriptive word to use in this context.

I might add here also that I found back then that the MP’s tone when addressing the issue during the parliament debate was one I thought to be agitated, if not annoyed. The Lobamba Lomdzala legislator of course is entitled to feeling like these things are below his political maturity, at times – because of course he has been there and done that for so long.

Which is why, perhaps he is usually known to have the last say on issues and what he says goes. He adopted a similar tone the other day addressing the issues of the allocation of E20m budget for The Luke Commission in which he made it clear no one else should have a say.

But, that is beside the point and I do digress. In dealing with the cabal claim in August last year, the MP advised the prime minister not to be fixated, if not distracted by the noise and listening to bonondwayiza.

Based on this, therefore, the distinction between confirming and merely mentioning the existence of the cabal is fundamental to the discourse the nation has been having on the cabal issue. 

It is important because it draws the reference to this being an ongoing issue, in which the prime minister went on to assure Senators that he has enough intelligence to arrive at this point where he can comfortably and confidently confirm that this is a real issue.

conversation
It is not a mere nondwayiza’s version anymore; it is no longer just political mongering, or in fact an attempt to deflect attention from the real issues. It is an essential part of the conversation that informs of several things that have happened. It is, as someone said the other day, a substantial development that should not be surprising after all!

What is surprising however, is how this is being received, dissected and then dismissed contemptuously as though the prime minister has woken up to create this ‘inunu’ to scare his critics away. 

That is in fact the point at which I am reminded of the notion of the death of the author, where I was struggling to understand, if not accept the wave of criticism that goes with, on the one hand, the newspaper and myself publishing this interview and then secondly the criticism from quarters who argue that the PM should not have made this statement.

Firstly, because – as I have said before – it is an open secret that there are elements, if not forces, working and pulling the strings against the work of government. Anyone who denies this is delusional. Perhaps now the problem is who is saying it, because when Majozi Sithole warned us when he was finance minister he was crowned the nation’s hero.

Majozi informed us that E40m (was it then?) went into corruption monthly, and everyone sat up and noticed.

That money and that conversation wasn’t because Majozi was refusing to accept responsibility for his action, but it was because he was making the point of the shadowy figures milking this country’s economy dry. His version was accepted.

The argument that the late Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini never quite fished out the mafia that he said existed does not mean that its existence could not be proven.

But, be that as it may. I recall also that someone stood up at Sibaya some many years ago and told all of us in the blazing heat then that there is a state capture in this country. 

We all stood up and applauded, and hailed the brevity of that individual for raising such a sensitive but very necessary point.

dismissive
That there was a notion – and one that is acceptable – of the government being captured should tell its own story about how far back this was said and how far networked those doing the capture are. 

It makes sense to me of course that the only reason people are dismissive of the existence of a cabal is that they are afraid to even think this way, for they know it is true. They are afraid because to them this should be the norm – or that it is actually!

What I find of course, to be troubling, is the lack of interest in tackling this cancer we are living in, that has destroyed the economy and will soon destroy the very fibre of our society.

It is important to recognise that the existence of a cabal can never be tangibly felt and touched with our bare hands. It has its symptoms and it has its ways in which it can be detected. It is not something you wake up to and recognise with your eyes, but is a pattern of behaviour and activity.
What should be alarming is that the prime minister has barely been in that cabinet house and he already is confident enough to spell it out. 

That is frightening, but I am sure, not as frightening as the very idea that accepting this notion of the existence of the cabal immediately comes with criticism and insults from those who refuse to see your standpoint.

But, as I was made to see, that is the whole point of Roland Barthes’ theory; that you have no control how the audience reads you.

Your argument is dead as soon as you say it, and then is a birth of a whole new perception, which is, at this point, ufuna lesikhundla sa Alpheous. Don’t I laugh!

Anyway, Senator Isaac Magagula nailed it when he called for the smoking out of the cabal, and doing so begins with finding harmony among those working for the public in the three arms of government. This in my books, is what we should be helping the prime minister with.

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