One of history's great mysteries that scientists are yet to research is the relationship between an empty fridge and ideological flexibility. Marx wrote about class. Fanon wrote about decolonisation. Biko wrote about psychological liberation. But none of them adequately prepared us for the political migration that occurs when the butter disappears and the electricity bill remains unpaid.

Andile Mngxitama deserves his own chapter in political science. There was a time when Mngxitama spoke as though Steve Biko had left him (alone) the spare key to Black Consciousness. 

His every sentence carried the cadence of liberation, every paragraph smelled of Azanian possibility, and every critic was dismissed as suffering from terminal colonial consciousness. If you listened carefully enough, you could almost believe Biko had appointed a deputy before leaving this world. Then something extraordinarily horrible happened. The refrigerator began making political decisions.

When Julius Malema led the ANC Youth League, Mngxitama templated him a betrayer of the revolution who was merely holding a toy gun. Then, as if guided by an invisible GPS calibrated to the nearest source of survival, his destination suddenly became the EFF. It would seem some bridges are not burned, they merely require a catering budget.

Then came Jacob Zuma.

There was a period when Zuma represented everything wrong with the post-apartheid political establishment. Mngxitama would shout his lungs out from Malema’s spaza shop in parliament demanding Zuma to go and his criticism of Zuma flowed freely. But then the vocabulary changed, the tone changed too. Even the thieving and corrupt Indian Gupta family, in whose pockets Zuma dwelled, became tall revolutionary heroes. Black consciousness appeared to undergo a miraculous software update. Once again the fridge had entered the conversation and black consciousness principles reached an expiry date.

Now comes another fascinating chapter. 

The man who once preached uncompromising Black unity, now supports the “march and march” advance merely because his breadwinner from Nkandla supports it. Vice Biko increasingly finds himself echoing positions that would have drawn fierce criticism from his earlier Black Consciousness self. The Andile of yesterday would probably have written blistering articles condemning the Andile of today as surrendering to reactionary politics. 

The Andile of today would undoubtedly reply that the Andile of yesterday lacked revolutionary maturity. It is difficult to determine which Andile would win the debate, although both would insist they represent the authentic tradition of Black Consciousness. 

This is not unique to Mngxitama. It has become a recurring disease in our politics.

The loudest guardians of principle often become the fastest auctioneers of principle once survival demands a new vocabulary. Suddenly ideology becomes strategy and contradiction becomes tactical repositioning. Language is endlessly inventive when their livelihoods are involved.

The greatest tragedy is not that Mngxitama always changes his mind. Human beings evolve. Circumstances change. Evidence changes. Honest reflection is a virtue. The tragedy is that each time he pretends that every u-turn was always a straight line.

One year he is quoting Steve Biko to denounce everyone else. The next year he is explaining why his latest alliance with same people is the inevitable culmination of Biko's unfinished project. Somehow Biko always ends up endorsing whichever organisation currently provides him the microphone. It is almost miraculous.

Science teaches us that tadpoles grow into frogs. That is evolution. But science can never successfully explain how a fully grown frog can wake up one morning and become a tadpole. Yet Mngxitama’s politics specialises in precisely this miracle. He claims ideological adulthood today and suddenly returns to the political nursery when circumstances require a fresh beginning. They call it reinvention. Perhaps we should stop asking him whether he has principles. The better question is whether those principles can survive grocery shopping.

History suggests that when the cupboard is full, conviction speaks loudly. But when the cupboard is empty, the same conviction suddenly discovers coalition politics. And somewhere, Steve Biko must surely be wondering why his name is forever being expropriated by someone who return it only after he has secured the next political meal.

On thing is certain though, the refrigerator and political consciousness are mutually reinforcing in Mngxitama’s world.

Tshediso Mangope moonlights as a social and political commentator in his spare time…

*The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of this publication (Journal News).