The problem with former leaders "finding their voice"
There is a Chinese proverb that "when a person leaves, the tea gets cold". In the literal sense, this of course does not refer to tea but rather to power. As the proverb goes the "the tea must cool after the guest has left, otherwise it will go bad", meaning that although one freely drinks tea during their tenure in office, the authority to warm it up once they are gone is diminished.
Such is the rising tendency of former leaders who lambast the governments and parties they were once proud to serve. As a result of the luxury imposed by not having the responsibility of elected leadership, they want to warm their tea by seeking celebrity through criticism of those in office and the policies that they themselves once espoused.
This is not a uniquely South African phenomenon. All over the world, countries such as China and so-called mature democracies of the United Kingdom, the United States of America and even some countries on the continent, battle with the challenge of former leaders intent on positioning themselves within society at the expense of the parties and governments they led.
It is said with hindsight everyone becomes a brilliant political pundit. Former leaders of parties and government reveal things to the media that at no point they had raised with their erstwhile or even current parties.
Having suddenly ‘found their voice’ after happily playing status quo politics whilst in power - the ‘former insider’ status of these former leaders lends them an extra appeal in the media. Their insights on party and state affairs are held up as ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘bold’ - speaking truth to power.