A while back I had the disconcerting experience of receiving a spontaneous ovation from an audience consisting mainly of Afrikaners. The statement that led to the unexpected explosion in enthusiasm was that ANC members seem not to be promoted despite alleged wrong-doing but because of it.
The statement was based on my analysis of the power politics within the ruling elite, where an opportunistic construction of victimhood fuels the rise of compromised individuals. John Hlophe is merely the latest to follow this strategy, a la Jacob Zuma.
The audience at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) in April this year had happily started clapping before I could provide the explanation for my statement, after which the clapping quickly subsided.
The statement per se was not funny. Why then the giddy response?
My suspicion, partly based on decades-long experiences with racist family members, is that the mirth sprung from the assumption that the statement confirmed existing racist ideas, namely that black people “cannot govern” and that black people are “naturally corrupt” and “incompetent”. (“Just look at the rest of Africa!” as the hackneyed saying goes.)
It fits in with messages that I am receiving nowadays from some Afrikaners saying it seems as though I am now finally on the right path; that my eyes have opened. These are responses to the critical analyses about the ruling elite that I have written in the last while. There is an attitude of “we told you so, one can’t expect anything better from black people”. (Obviously they don’t necessarily use the phrase “black people”.)
Anti-democratic action, whether by black or white, should always be exposed. Criticising the ANC does not mean that I agree that black people are inherently inferior and therefore do not have the ability to govern the country.
To think this way paradoxically plays into the hands of some ANC leaders who try to dismiss criticism against them by calling it racism in order to avoid having to account for irregularities.
The idea that race is an indication of people’s competency is propaganda out of the 19th century. It is ridiculous to think that something as arbitrary as skin colour could determine whether someone can rule a country or be corrupt or not.
But, unfortunately, it seems that some white people still can’t understand that race is a social construction. As social construction it does not mean that different skin colours don’t exist. It means that white people use the fact of a different skin colour as a useful mark to relegate black people to the bottom of a false hierarchy of human value. The same with the marks of sex, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and so forth.
The fiction of a “natural, biologically-based hierarchy” has historically been used to justify the plundering of resources and exploitation and violence against people disowned during the processes of colonialism and apartheid.
It will benefit Afrikaners to remember that the British also dismissed their Boer ancestors as backward and barbaric — like black people. This was done partly to justify the British lust for diamonds and gold and the resultant South African Anglo-Boer War.
Cecil John Rhodes, among others, believed that the British “race” was the most superior in the world and therefore had the right to an empire that left destruction in its wake. For his race to be “superior” and to be able to do as they pleased, he had to find races which he and other imperialists could construct as lesser beings, and southern Africa’s ethnic variety came in handy.
What is the use of these discriminating hierarchies today? So that some Afrikaners can still feel superior despite their disappointment about their system of inhumane and dehumanising abuse — apartheid — officially coming to an end? (Shame, what are we if we are not the “superior white race” of Africa?)
Moreover, if it weren’t bad enough, this racism goes hand in hand with an undertone of schadenfreude, or “to find joy in another’s damage”. The incident at the KKNK applies.
Some white people seem to find a perverse pleasure in the growing difficulties of the post-apartheid government. This attitude contributes to the failures that we are currently seeing at all levels of South African society, whether state administrative, political or social.
Afrikaners are not the only ones who are guilty of this. While some Afrikaners are still desperately holding on to their imagined racial supremacy, there are English-speaking white people who are not only convinced that they are the most superior white race in Africa but who are also relishing the dilemma that Afrikaner identity has landed itself in. They see no contradiction in this position.
At a talk before the Cape Town Club last year, I was taken on because I did not make it clear that apartheid was an Afrikaner creation. Some English-speaking whites are conveniently choosing to forget that apartheid continued some aspects of British colonial segregation and that the majority of English-speaking whites were voting for the National Party by the 1960s. Not to speak of the variety of horrors committed here and elsewhere in the name of British imperialism.
But, with opportunistic amnesia, some English-speakers can again position Afrikaners as a barbaric bunch, this time because “they” developed and maintained the policy of apartheid.
Meanwhile some Afrikaners position black people as backward and not fit to rule while “forgetting” about the violence and social disruption that apartheid wrought. There is an inordinate emphasis on infrastructure and service delivery during NP rule while little or no mention is made of the fact that the NP regime provided services to only a minority of South Africans.
To develop the state’s repressive apparatus to daily rob people of their citizenship, is much simpler than to acknowledge their citizenship with all the rights that accompany it, as especially the 1980s showed when the NP regime was falling over its feet trying — and failing — to win over “hearts and minds” by building roads and clinics in black areas.
In other words, the oppression of people is much easier than providing health, education, housing, job opportunities, welfare and basic services befitting the principle of human dignity, as the experience with the NP regime and many other authoritarian regimes on this continent shows.
The ANC inherited a state with overdeveloped repressive functions which provided services to only a fraction of the population that was separated in geographical enclaves. This is one of the many reasons why the ANC government is currently mostly failing in the delivery of state functions — above and beyond lack of skills, patronage and corruption, the reasons that are usually emphasised.
The historical legacy does not make the current factors less valid. All the reasons for state failure are relevant. So the question remains: why the schadenfreude? The damage is not to an “other” — it is to us as South Africans.
If the newspapers report that more than R600 million over a couple of years disappeared into the pockets of civil servants in the form of contracts, or that thousands of rands are being spent monthly on luxury homes for civil servants who want to live like ministers, or that the irregular scrapping of charges against Zuma encourages corruption, this is not happening somewhere “out there” to black people.
A collapsing state happens to us all. Without a functioning state that can deliver people’s right to healthcare, education and so on, democracy cannot work. As Dr Mamphela Ramphele recently asked: what is each of us doing to stop the collapse?
Many white people engage consciously with the realities and work hard, especially in civil society, to try and stop the state and therefore also democracy, from failing. We need more of them. Let’s leave the pettiness for when things are going better and we can afford it.
This is a revised, translated version of an article that appeared in Die Burger, Beeld and Volksblad’s supplement By in July 2009
Wow Christi!
what a great well balanced article!
just reading the commnents on mng blogs every day is quite depressing! People really think of each other as enemies. We all really need to understand that our futures are as connected as our pasts were intertwined, and build a culture of co-operation rather than division.
well done!
Only the most foolishly doctrinaire dogmatist refuses to believe the vast volume of evidence pointing to the prima facie case; the occam’s razored evidence neatly arrayed and chronicled.
Africans really HAVE made the most frightful hash of governing since their uhuru in the 1960s.
They’ve being uniformly dismal. The one or two who have not very impressively bucked the trend of rendering their country perilously close to a failed state in only one generation have generally done well by doing close to nothing.
But people are`squeamish about this huge continental failure and try couching it in race-less anodyne no-name-no-packdrill terminology.
Being “politically-correct”.
Let’s not offend our African rulers by calling a spade a spade, shall we?
It’s a doomed project. And it’s a dishonest project.
The ovation was because the`audience thought you had abandoned this futile enterprise.
They clapped wrong. But it’s not as bad as your thinking wrong and claiming you’re really right when you’re not.
Hi Christi,
Good on the hierarchy of whiteness in South Africa. Expect the usual kneejerk responses.
Christi,
As an Afrikaner I would like to clarify the following issues concerning my thinking about SA in the new dispensasion nl:
1 )I do not think black people can not run this country but it is becoming blatantly obvious by the day that the ruling ANC is not the champion of democracy ,human rights…etc.it made out to be.Just look at their obvios attack on the independence of the judiciary.
2 )I know incompetency and corruption when I see it and the ANC is certainly a shining example of both.
3 )Just because I am a white Afrikaner does not mean that I am not allowed to think or have an opinion about the state of affairs in SA.
4 )It certainly is not in our interest to wish that SA fails .
As you we say in Afrikaans: Jy slaan die spyker op die kop.
By the same token though, some black people relegate whites to racists merely by their skin colour. Advice from white people are often answered by the word:”you are no longer in power, therefore you do not have a say.”
I have met and dealt with black people who work just as hard to stop the decline in civil liberties and the seperation of powers. We need a lot more of them either.
Dr. Malan use to say, bring together those that belong together. In his time, that was based on race. In our time, the phrase is still relevant, but it needs to transpire beyond race. We should bring together those that have a common purpose, that is, to make this country the greatest on earth. People who place this country at the centre instead of themselves, like almost all parties in government today.
There are people like that, all over the color spectrum. I am starting to notice them becoming more and more prominent, especially on local government level.
Your point is well made, eventually. We are all part of the same country and should work together rather than against each other. It is, of course, not that easy when the politics of the day serves to ‘remind’ us that we are not all on the same team, but different groups battling for the same spot in the sun.
Initially, however, your article seems to be an attack on all ‘Afrikaners because they are obviously still racist’. All Afrikaners, English-speaking white South Africans, Africans (because they are the only africans?), Coloureds, Indians, etc. are not one way or another. I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but when I read the article it doesn’t seem that obvious, at least not initially.
Remember! criticising the ANC, or laughing at their failures is not necessarily racism.
…but certainly, we can all do well to remember that we are on the same team and while it gives some a sense of satisfaction to attribute shortcomings to “the others”, it only serves to worsen the situation.
Here’s an interesting lecture on how developing countries (including those in Africa) are pulling themselves out of poverty at a far greater rate than the Europeans did during their development phases:
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
Great article – it kind of mirrors Mr Andile Mngxitama’s recent appeal to black consciousness – this is the mirror of ‘white consciousness’ which is not too different in its own way. Many people are frustrated with the ANC – but the reality is the ANC has both exceptionally competent people and dreadful underperformers. Mr Mngxitama takes black consciousness a little further, saying that blacks can’t be racist. For those of us who wish for a non-racial society in future, both attitudes leave much to be desired.
Christi
Still on your hobby horse I see.
Just to correct a fact – the boers actually started the Anglo Boer War by invading the Cape Colony effectively declaring war on the British Empire, in the belief the Cape Afrikaner would support them as well as the Germans.
Yes – the British of the British Empire thought themselves the superior race, so did the Romans of the Roman Empire, and the Americans of todays American Empire. Actually so did Shaka over the other tribes and the Xhosa over the Mfengu, and both Xhosa and Zulu over the Khoisan. It is called human nature.
160 years ago (NOT 300 years ago) a group of landless poor whites trekked out of the Cape Colony which is when white and black friction really started. Who was supposed to be “disadvantaging” whom?
Have a look at the Congo, where all our own Bantu migrated from, and arrived only 100 years before the whites, both to displace the Khoisan.
Compare the Congo where there were almost no white settlers, to SA with the most white settlers in Africa, and therefore the most developed economy by the 19th century already.
I would say both black and white are better off.
Christi
In your own book “White Power” you even admit most whites whites did not vote for the Nats for the first 20 years of apartheid.
In the 1960s you say? And you see no connection with the ANC going communist? Even Liberal Whites were anti communist.
Thanks for this article. We desperately need new narratives, symbols and identities. As you said it,
“The damage is not to an “other” — it is to us as South Africans.”
You say: “Many white people engage consciously with the realities and work hard, especially in civil society, to try and stop the state and therefore also democracy, from failing.”
The ANC and its BEE policies is largely prohibitive for this to happen on a large scale. It has disappointed and alienated many good willing and capable individuals. Call it the “new apartheid” if you like.
If one is excluded from participating in the build up, one can only smile when things get out of hand. What else can one do?
Christi – you are your usual eloquent self here, but I believe this article is very much one sided to the point of damage.
I get a very strong sense of “white guilt” coming from you, and being an apologist for the current state of affairs. As Jon (second respondent) said – We need to stop playing the PC game and start to call a spade a fricking shovel. We will never solve problems by avoiding issues simply because they are politically incorrect.
Africa HAS problems with governance, whether you like it or not. Its not unique to Africa, but it is endemic.
I’ve read someplace (Bad journalism, I know) that in the history of Africa, only 3 presidents have ever willingly vacated their positions after their time was up. Mandela being one of those (article was written before Mbeki thing).
By not skirting around issues for the sake of “yeah but” perspectives, we are making the same fatal mistake junkies make – they never admit to having a problem. This is NOT a question of race, this is NOT a question of “blacks aren’t fit to govern” – it’s a case of “Africa is in the shit”, and we’ve proved it by offering bribes to leaders to step down after their term. (What’s this issue about giving African leaders a golden handshake should they vacate their posts peacefully?)
We have a problem, and looking at it from a one one sided, white-guilt perspective, ain’t helping.
@Sean Jacobs
The article is not about the “hierarchy of whiteness” this is a brave and uplifting article that all of us need to reflect on.
Christi, you’re quite correct in that the “schadenfreude” mindset especially from some of our white compatriots is utterly shortsighted, but expected, since many are still handicapped by their apartheid indoctrinition. Seems like they’re about to learn another hard lesson about the reality of living in the failed state they so dearly hope for.
I’m always amazed at the graciousness of Africans who follow Mandela’s example of forgiveness and continue to tolerate the mind boggling behavior of their past oppressors. This tolerance however is waning as evidenced by the recent elections which were polarized along racial lines.
Even here on TL we can see this “schadenfreude” mindset from the usual suspects masquerading as satire or political commentary sometimes wrapped in flowery language to mask its destructive intent.
Thanks for having the courage to speak out against these injustices.
Christi, this is just so Black & White to you, is it not? Are you able to define “Afrikaner”, “African” and “Racism”.
I think you will have difficulty, seeing that people considering themselves as belonging to either or both are not even able to agree on definitions.
If you keep that in mind as well as your own view on race being a “social constuction”, it might very well be that your perception of the “KKNK-incident”, which supposedly triggered the writing of this essay, might simply be that: a perception based on fictions, social constructions and vague concepts. You obviously like shooting at “strooipoppe”. Why?
Eish…I’m really dissapointed in this article, Christi. There really is no reason to assuma that your whole audience clapped (did you interview each one of them?) because they harboured racist notions other than a sick sense of political correctness.
It is just so easy to consider all Afrikaners to be backwards racists, isn’t it? Then they’re nicely packed away in a box you can understand.
Have you considered that your audience consists of a population group who are currently at the bottom of the political barrel? Have you considered that maybe they clapped because at last somebody is pointing out what they were seeing for the past 15 years but could not voice – because they weren’t quite in the politically correct camp anymore?.
Eish, suster. Stop the sweeping statements. They’re doing more harm than good.
Good article Christi.
@Lyndall. Following your various comments on various topics, I am not sure what to make of you.
Either you are a hugely impressive person and a powerful thinker with firm but good convictions,
or you are the same with significant prejudices.
Either way, fascinating!
Yes, Lyndall, “the boers actually started the Anglo Boer War” – and of course, Saddam actually started the Iraqi war and Cubans caused the Bay of Pigs. Bloody fools wouldn’t listen, see! Wouldn’t roll over. So THEY caused it.
Good article. Some responses missed the boat. I really feel sorry for people living in last century…the ‘when we crowd’…..it drives me bonkers! Rhodesians are the worst of the lot…
I appreciate the introduction to this article that refers to the notion of victimhood being used to further an agenda, and the examples as quoted are quite apt.
The woes and perils of this country will unfortunately continue, up to the time that we have uncompromising respect for the rule of law, and engage in honest business practices. The widely accepted notion that you can use every avenue in your defence, especially technicalities to get off or merely pay a fine, will cost South Africa dearly. This goes not only for political related, but also commercial type crimes. What comes to mind immediately for the latter, is the price-fixing from huge conglomerates, and not even to talk about the outrageous bank, cell-phone and internet connection charges.
It is of little use to point fingers and not suggest solutions, so the sooner we remove ruling party stooges and yes-men (and ladies)from state organs and the boards of big companies, the better. In the same vein, we also need people of impeachable character to take us forward and in this respect I am proud to be a South African, as there are many Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Indians who will qualify. Lets voice our opinions, debate the issues and put workable solutions on the table.
It is easy for the author to refer to the Afrikaners’ experiencing the South African ZeitGeist as petty (“Let’s leave the pettiness for when things are going better and we can afford it.”) But the count of 2 murders every hour 24/7/365 is NOT petty Christi. When robbers tie up white homeowners and then try to set the curtains alight, that is not petty. When mostly white farmers are gruesomely hacked to death, that is not petty.
Great article Christi,
Informative, I am a black young woman and I am perturbed by what Affirmative Action has become in our country. Because of AA black people will never be taken seriously in leadership positions, most white people assume that all black people are incompetent, corrupt and they are in those position because of AA…….I am black , that alone means I have to constantly prove ma capabilities in the boardroom, and I am a women that means I have to constantly act or behave like the rest of the guys for them to take me seriously in the boardroom …….Fact1 we are a generation that was lucky enough to get good education FACT 2. We can deliver better work than some of our white counterparts ADVICE. Never ever underestimate our capabilities, and judge all of us by the failures of SOME ANC members to deliver, because that’s just wrong. FACT. ANC WILL BE IN POWER FOR A VERY LONG TIME BRAZE YOUR SELVES
The article is lively, fresh and exciting. Those who try to deny this can only be a problem to themselves, their families and us all.
I wish I could write like her. I wish we all could. While she clearly does this often, many comments are from the bottom of the barrel; like rotten fish. The writers clearly deem them fresh and probably repetitively serve them as so.
Eish!
I mean to offend.
Dear Lyndall
The boers started the Anglo Boer war by invading the Cape Colony? I have to say this is hilarious – much the same as the recent claim by Russia that Poland started World War 2!
By all accounts, Ms Van der Westhuizen’s presentation at the KKNK (barely two weeks ahead of the elections) was extremely negative about what she termed the ANC “kleptocracy”. To come back to that event after 5 months and try to blame Afrikaners for misunderstanding her message is intellectually dishonest.
Go back to her previous blogs where the same negativity about the ANC under Zuma is quite clear. So what is up? What we see here is Van der Westhuizen going back to her pre-Zuma roots, trying to rehabilitate herself by doing what she does best: bashing umlungu’s to ingratiate herself with the new ruling elite she previously found despicable.
@ Lyndall Beddy: go read about the Kruger ultimatum of 9 Oct 1899 and the events following its expiry on 11 Oct 1899.
Alto
I am not interested in influencing people to any political path.
ALL I want is for the historic facts to be accurate – so that people can make up their minds from accurate history, and not from political propaganda.
@”Stheza”… BRAZE yourselves? Would welding be better?
I agree that the Schadenfreude that Christi refers to has its origins in Afrikaners and other whites enjoying the difficulties being experienced by the ANC in government. But the source of the cheering is not simply that. It is also a response to the fact that whites, and Afrikaners in particular, have unceremoniously been ejected from government on account of being too white. New officials are appointed on the basis that they can demonstrate an appropriate level of blackness. The unstated implication is that white people are inherantly incapable of competently carrying out senior roles in the civil service. This is because on the one hand they are too white to understand issues facing black people and on the other they are too white to be trusted to carry out ANC policy – despite the fact that many would be willing to and some are in fact doing so. Thus there is a serious sense of exclusion and dare I say it discrimination that Afrikaners and whites generally feel about the ANC government. The window dressing of a few whites here and there in government cannot be a defence against the real sense of exclusion that is felt.
The audience at KKNK may be basing their views on the economic performance of Liberia, rich in natural resources, and free of colonialism since time immemorial.
As opposed to Singapore, which has zero natural resources and which suffered under the brutal yoke of British imperialism up to 1964.
Hoo boy, back into the race rut with an Afrikaans flavour. Christi, I agree with other comments in that you generalise, make up stuff and dance around on the head of a pin. What for?
Would you not rather try and look forward and provide, in your view, what should be being done by South Africans to improve matters of poverty, service delivery etc etc. Or is race too easy a way to make money scribbling, the other options require really hard thinking and facing difficult facts.
Please, someone has to take the first step away from racial classifcation, stereotyping and generalisation. A lot of our politicians love it as it detracts / distracts from their failings. Break the mould, I dare you.
Let’s for a moment forget race, black/white, religion, sex, language, and all the other aspects that make us “different” one from another.
In 1994 the ANC took over management of South Africa which at that time was recognized as having a top (First World) infra-structure. This infra-structure if not in ruins lies tattered. Question – What caused this dilema and who is to blame and more importantly how do we resusitate our infra-structure. How do we again become the shining light in a otherwise dark AFRICA?
Dry comment Perhaps you would come across as less ‘Uncle Tom’, Cristi, if you pointed out that Schadenfreude as a motivation is by no means a white South African preserve. In fact I’d put it at the heart of many of Africa’s failures. From the adulatory support of ‘Mad Bob’ Mugabe to the regular posters of variants “It’s our turn now, get out if you don’t like it” these are reactions which border on the insane – from the wrong side – for the future of this country.
Actually, the problem isn’t white schadenfreude. That should actually serve as motivation to prove those people wrong. It’s the inverse. It’s the racism of the white-guilt apologists, the ‘oh it’s not their fault, they inherited a repressive system -(you)’ which refuses to hold black people to the same standard as we hold others. As Adam Smith explained it in ‘The Theory Moral Sentiment’ people wish to be thought well of. If society’s mirror frowns on their conduct, they’ll change it. If we make excuses for them and praise minor achievement we’d find barely acceptable in say white politicians — there is no incentive to change. Black people are as capable of achievement as white ones. It is racially discrimatory to expect or accept anything less. Actually, they have every incentive to prove Verwoed and Schadenfrueders wrong. You, and the Dave Harrises et al are helping them to fail.
Well said, Dave F.
Ms van der Westhuizen knows as much about Afrikaners as Lyndal Berrie does about history.
ANC types love lip-lashing Whites in general and Afrikaners in particular. Some in child-like fashion and others in a more
Goebbels-like way. Christi belongs to the former group.
Some perspective might be in order.
Afrikaners, mostly farmers, left the Eastern Cape leaving burnt homes and depleted cattle stocks behind them. (Has anything changed)
English farmers remained behind – and, yes, the British Army did a marvellous and professional job on the Xhosa raiders. (Lyndal, read the real history of Grahamstown)
In the years that followed four men, two White and two Black, signed “memoranda of understanding.”
The first two were Piet Retief and Dingaan.
The remaining two were De Klerk and Mandela. Like in the former example, they too could have made something quite momentous out of this. By far the majority of Whites were willing to give it a try. It was not to be. We have lost more White South Africans to Black killers and poachers since “democracy” than we had lost against both the Xhosas on the Fish River and against Dingaan’s Zulus.
When ANC spokespeople (think Black backed by their White sooth-sayers) speak about “The Past” I must be pardoned for being slightly confused.
In Africa, 100% of post-uhuru Black states failed. Their recipe was simple: get rid of Whites [discipline, work ethic and expertise] change names, allow rampant corruption, guarantee zero maintenance of infrastructure and blame
I took my eye off the word count. I apologise – and continue
The ‘brazen’ Ms Stheza tried to make a point – I do not quite know what, but it boils down to not all Blacks being stupid. We all know that – but can somebody explain to me why our wonderful South Africa is in the state it’s in. Why did the Black government adopted the same recipe that was applied by all sub-Saharan states. (the Francophone states and Lesotho being notable exceptions.) I do however agree with her. The ‘first world’ component in Sout Africa has been successfully dominated and negated – oppressed, if you wish – and the rest will follow as night will day.
When we do hit the swamp that is Africa Ms Van der Westhuizen and friends can then gleefully blame the Whites, the Empire, the colonial system, malaria, bilharzia and the corrupt West.
This piece of guff is based squarely on the old, dishonest, limp, left, liberal propoganda chestnut that any white who has missgivings about blacks in control of things does so because they are black. This is patently ridiculous and implies that said whites are stupid. Truth is that said blackness is a uniform that identifies a coherent group of people that by virtue of heritage, custom, tradition, background have a common value system, morality, beliefs, way of doing things which are not the same as those of the whites. The whites, legitimately prefer their own. It is CULTURAL, stupid. Not racial.
To put this article in a nutshell:
Racism has been with us for a long time, but it is without a true foundation. (i.e. The basket case status has nothing to do with Africa’s inhabitants)
Racism is a bad thing and the apartheid past is the cause why the current state fails.
The ANC is also bad.
But don’t say that –because as long as the state fails we all suffer.
Ja and the Emperor’s clothes are beautiful.
Please!
We knew it, we told you so because we had seen (still see) it in the rest of Africa.
At least take not from us away a bit of Schadenfreude –after all, as the Germans say it “is the purest form of pleasure”
Die reinste Freude
Hear-hear. M’lord puts it so succinctly.
Thanks Libra
Mark and Pete Ess,
Actually it is true. Read any accurate historical record, even read Langenhoven.Paul Kruger issued his ultimatum on 9 October 1899 and on 12 October they moved to invade Natal (later the Cape).
The boers even forced people to join them – and later some of them got hung for treason.
But Britain would have declared war eventually anyhow.
Johnathon Haze
It is not the colonial powers who caused the chaos in Africa but the Super Powers who moved in during the Cold War after the colonial powers handed over independence. In most of Africa the colonialists (except the Arabs) left half a century ago.
And Liberia was where the Americans dumped their freed slaves – who promptly enslaved the local population (becoming black colonisers)
Christi is dead right with the tenor of her article. We all need to care because all our futures are on the line. The only voices at the decision-making table are those with a wish-list – free healthcare, welfare payments extended beyond the present 11 million to 18 million by the extension of grants to kids up to 18; public sector unions demanding more and more.
The only voice NOT at the table are the tax-payers – the only group that can fund the transferring a wishlist into reality. To fund just the NHI proposal will take the tax rate from 40 – 75%. This will further alienate both domestic and international investors as well as increase the migration of skills resulting in an ever-increasing tax load on the shrinking productive sector.
We all need to partake in the present vital debate; standing on the sidelines with a schadenfreude attitude will condemn our country to deep failure. All who can add substance to the national debate MUST do so now.
It is NOT a black/white, Afrikans/English, Male/female, young/old divide – we all sink or swim together and the present course is far from encouraging.
Lyndall Beddy, I quote from your post on 1st September: “Just to correct a fact – the boers actually started the Anglo Boer War by invading the Cape Colony….. ”
I am aware of the fact that innuendo and obfuscation are preferred ANC propaganda tools but you seem to be plain deurmekaar.
And you may not like Afrikaners but is it not amazing what these “landless poor whites managed to do in Africa. Xenophobia, prejudice and confusion does not suit you, my dear. Oh yes, you can’t spell either – try ‘boers’ a capital ‘B’.
I’m beginning to suspect that your tenuous grasp of history were acquired at an affirmative/progressive institution.
Christi,
Surely we are products of our culture? And culture is more than just racism. One of the very real issues in Africa is tribalism – and the way super-powers carved up Africa into countries. Certainly a lot of good resulted (we’d otherwise have thousands of mini city-states today) from this colonial action – but in a meeting of two cultures with very different concepts of ownership (the King owns all vs the Prime Minister holds all in trust for the citizens), is the result (poor government in Africa, corruption…) not a natural consequence? It’s not about right or wrong – it’s about the clash of two big cultures, as I see it.
But the inevitable outcome is that Westerners associate – rightly – corruption with black-dominated governments. That’s an historical fact, not racism. And “black” is naturally associated with the culture and hence the dichotomy. At an individual level, you’re quite right. At a cultural level, we’re all changing – slowly – to a different mindset. Hopefully a truly SA one. If we make it before we move into the Zim phase of development…
To gratuitously express one’s racist beliefs, however well founded, is pretty much always a destructive practice.
After all, if somebody has to play with a given bad hand of cards, it will not help to point out that he is doomed to losing. Such demoralising talk robs the player of the will to win –even having bad cards can result in a reasonable outcome.
So to say that no good will ever come from black rule is both not quite accurate (we did have a few promising years post 1994 –even if the present trend is ominous) and of not much help.
But denying that there is a huge problem is even worse.
So why is the problem there?
Addressing THAT question could be of enormous benefit.
The problem is not a lack of competent and decent black leaders –brilliant and highly moral black people abound.
But on analysis of the continent’s history, there is an inexorable gravitation towards ending up with the worst leaders.
Why is this so?
Simply put; the system that selects and places the leaders don’t work here.
As long as we have an undiscerning electorate, we’ll have ever worse and opportunistic leaders.
So in the end we either have to scrap democracy (not a workable solution) or somehow educate the voters –they should be well motivated to learn, as they enormously suffer from placing the bad leaders.
Sad thing is that the latter option is diametrically opposed to the bad leaders’ interest.
@ Stheza,
Dont you think this country would be lot better off if the ANC was not assured of ruling for a very long time?
Twannie,
That gravitation towards corrupt leaders is simply explained. In a culture where the strong man is the right man (tribalism or old-style Russian communism), as opposed to the just man is the leader of choice (democracy – generally), it is a natural consequence.
Democracy is not the problem. Education is…
@ Peter Win,
Thank you for your thoughts.
So (a lack of) education is the problem, not democracy.
But the outcome of an uneducated electorate in an African democracy is eventually, well ….disastrous.
And even in SA, where an inordinate amount of money is spent on general education we are faced with very poor results.
Added to that is that next to general education the electorate needs to be taught that whatever they do, don’t vote for the “strong man”. Or they have to acquire generally critical thinking skills. Neither will not happen too soon.
So what are SA’s future chances?
If I had to bet –which I won’t- a benevolent dictatorship would almost seem a reasonable alternative.
Twannie,
I suspect you are right – and I’d be happy with that if a benevolent dictator was “honest” (just imagine a grasping individual like Mugabe…)
But I hope you’re wrong…
The next worse thing will be a Malema-style distinctly non-benevolent dictatorship. But what can an ordinary citizen, black or white, do to prevent that? Our system is the rule of a powerful click with a black vs white camouflage, where their rule is base on the fanning and thereby the perpetuation of racism. If by some miracle racism could be eliminated, that would deprive them from their mandate.