Time & Perspective Quote by Thabo Mbeki

Mbeki reaches for medieval imagery to describe a thoroughly modern anxiety: the return of ideological policing dressed up as moral urgency. “Prohibited,” “banned,” “heretics,” “burned at the stake” is not casual hyperbole; it’s a deliberate escalation that frames censorship as persecution, not mere moderation. He’s warning that once a society starts treating viewpoints as contagions rather than arguments, it stops doing politics and starts doing purification.

The line also carries the fingerprints of a statesman who spent years navigating factionalism, liberation-movement orthodoxy, and the intense pressures of post-apartheid nation-building. Mbeki knows how quickly “the cause” can harden into a tribunal. By invoking heresy, he’s not only critiquing formal state censorship; he’s targeting social and institutional enforcement: parties, universities, media ecosystems, even activist circles that decide certain questions are illegitimate to ask. The stake is metaphorical, but the social consequences are real: deplatforming, career damage, ostracism, self-censorship.

There’s subtext, too, about power. Calling someone a heretic is an old move for authorities who lack the patience - or the confidence - to persuade. It turns disagreement into sin and converts public debate into loyalty testing. Mbeki’s intent is less “anything goes” than “democracy dies when we confuse safety with silence.” His worry isn’t offensive speech; it’s a culture that treats dissent as treason and forgets that pluralism is not a vibe - it’s a discipline.