Why appointing Tony Leon would be a slap in the face of the poor

South Africa’s political elite’s complacency and failure to address systemic inequalities

- ALI RIDHA KHAN

TONY Leon's nomination as an ambassador to the US must be situated in the broader trajectory of South Africa's liberal democratic project.

The 1994 transition, while ending formal apartheid, created a constitutional order that preserved existing economic power structures under the guise of non-racialism and individual rights.

The liberal constitutionalism championed by the DA has proven adept at containing radical change. It offers robust protections for civil liberties (important gains, to be sure) but has also shielded property relations and corporate capital from the kind of mass redistribution needed to uproot apartheid’s legacy.

Both the DA and the ANC largely operate within this paradigm - fiercely debating policy details while sharing a fundamental commitment to the neo-liberal status quo. Indeed, over the past three decades, we've seen a striking elite convergence: former liberation movement cadres and erstwhile liberal opponents mingling in the same cocktail circuits, trading cabinet posts and ambassadorial gigs.

It was no accident that the ANC government sent Tony Leon to Argentina as an ambassador shortly after he stepped down as DA leader - a gesture that symbolised the incorporation of the old white opposition into the new multiracial elite. Leon's return as a potential US ambassador continues that story: a convergence of interests where yesterday’s foes unite to manage an unjust order rather than transform it.

From a Black Consciousness and Pan-Africanist perspective, this liberal elite pact is precisely what our liberation heroes warned against. Steve Biko cautioned that “integration” (when pursued on white terms) could become a trap that co-opts black aspirations into a system still defined by whiteness and inequality.