By Lukhona Mnguni
Those of us who are born in July are growingly becoming either miserable or jealous over Madiba. There is hardly a fuss about anyone’s birthday but that of Nelson Mandela’s in July. However, this is not really the main point of protest over this Mandelafication of the month of July.
It is difficult to disagree with or criticise the legacy of Nelson Mandela without opening up yourself to all kinds of insult. The minute people detect that “oh that’s anti-Mandela”, they often lose all rationality and go on the insulting tirade. He is after all the “father” of the nation. Reality is that there is a growing resistance towards this transformation of Mandela’s legacy into some form of “religious” practice.
There is truth to the claim that Mandela’s legacy, in particular his legacy post his 27 years in prison, is an obstruction to the economic upliftment of black people. It should be worrying that racism and non-racism proponents alike can confidently feel that they are custodians of this legacy. We are made to believe that this is the case because this legacy is truly that of reconciliation and integration of these two forces. This claim lacks truth.
The Mandela who went to Robben Island (radical, pro-black, non-racialism advocate etc) is different to the Mandela who was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa (a pacifist, half pro-black, reconciliation proponent etc). As a result, people choose to conveniently embrace this latter legacy of Mandela, one that is devoid of claims for nationalisation and other radical utterances that are “a threat’ to white capital. What Mandela preached in 1994 going forward was reconciliation without placing focus on the real causes of racism in South Africa. Racism in its conception is about the economy. You cannot focus on reconciling the oppressor and the oppressed without dealing with the cause of oppression, which is segregation to alienate one race from living equally with the other race.
In 1970, Steve Biko wrote, “Let me hasten to say that I am not claiming that segregation is necessarily the natural order; however, given the facts of the situation where a group experiences privilege at the expense of others, then it becomes obvious that a hastily arranged integration cannot be the solution to the problem.” The legacy of Mandela that we celebrate today is one of “hastily arranged integration” and it poses a serious threat. It is this legacy that made the white community feel that it had no obligation to pay some form of reparations to the black community for decades of colonialism and afterwards equally brutal decades of apartheid.
Today the DA embraces Mandela because his post 1994 legacy is in line with their liberalist dream for South Africa, which advocates “an equal-opportunity society”. Why do they not embrace the legacy of Robert Sobukwe who was also a proponent on non-racism? The truth is that the liberalist legacy of Mandela and the Africanist legacy of Sobukwe present different routes to the same desired destiny of a free and non-racial society. Apartheid deliberately subjugated the majority (black people) in this country, so that all the economic wealth of this country could be developed and enjoyed by the white community. In order for the realisation of freedom to be real, the restructuring of the economy and redistribution of wealth would have to take centre stage. The legacy of Mandela that we celebrate today does not allow for this.
We are made to believe that, today black and white are equal, simply because they can now all vote and choose their government. Yet, when you discuss the calamitous state of education in Limpopo whereby textbooks were not delivered for six months, you are dealing with the lives of black children. Then you hear suggestions that these deprived learners should have used libraries and then one must deal with the reality that about 70%-75% of public schools are without libraries and the bulk of them are in settlements where you find black people. When you look at unemployment statistics, the contrast of the unemployed blacks versus that of unemployed whites is telling. This means that even in the free South Africa, the lives of black people have still not changed.
This snail pace to change can easily be attributed to the democratic government for its inadequacies, growing corruption and lack of commitment to good governance. If we accept this, we must also accept that Mandela himself led an administration that gave birth to some of today’s problem. Of course, the white racists among us will begin their blame from Mbeki’s tenure and the black racists will blame everything on apartheid and not hold the black government accountable. There is unwritten consensus that the five-year period of Mandela’s presidency cannot be interrogated. This is the cause of today’s structural failures.
The bridge (ie Mandela) that was meant to transit South Africa from a painful and horrendous past to a prosperous future was not well-equipped to handle the traffic of complexities. As a result, Mandela’s focus became narrow and focused on reconciliation of the “elite” through the TRC chaired by Desmond Tutu and this worked because the elite of the National Party and the ANC even agreed to a merger of the two parties, by the NP collapsing some of its members into the ANC. What project did Mandela start to bring about reconciliation of the ordinary masses? What closure did the black masses that were forced to live in slums and rural places; in destitution and economic deprivation get? That project remains deferred and people refer you to Mandela’s legacy when you bring it up. It is for this reason that I cannot celebrate Mandela’s legacy. I can only acknowledge it. Racism is not dead in this country and it is not about to die because we were hastily arranged to non-existent integration. Black people were forced to forgive white people who never showed remorse nor asked for forgiveness.
Lukhona Mnguni, UKZN student, community and development studies.
@Sterling, your attempt at rubbishing Steve Biko’s intelligence is weak and feeble. Much like the Nationalists in this country were influenced by Hitler and used his signals and memorablia, revolutionaries will forever be influenced by teachings of other revolutionary thinkers and visionaries (duh). @ Oldfox, i have noted that you are extremely fond of your racial categories, I wonder to make which point. Can you think outside the box and accept that human beings are humans beings and not racial classifications? I also take a dim view of your very narrow analysis. And here one must remind you of poverty and the nature of poverty in this country. All the benefits that the minority enjoyed under apartheid was done at the expense of black people. The taxes that were imposed upon us eg bicycle taxes etc was used to pay for services in your areas. To make the point, poverty was imposed on non-white communities by the apartheid govt. Secondly, the way the govt is structered at the moment. It will always fail. Simply because the structure does not work for this country. The processes are tedious and time consuming, But then again, Oldfox, this is how the Nats fooled Codesa into thinking that the three spheres would work. Basic analysis will show that this will never work in any developmental state. But then again, a myopic, dim and narrow view will always fail to provide proper and objective analysis.
@Tofolux,
Do the sums, whether with pen and paper or Excel or whatever: how much taxes from Poll Tax, bicycle tax ( I’ll need to read up on this, have not heard about it in over 30 years) and any other taxes paid by Blacks and Blacks only, contributed to the national coffers. Then calculate the taxes paid by Whites and White owned businesses during the apartheid years. This information is accessible.
What is not easy to calculate, is how much income taxes Blacks, Coloureds and Indians would have paid had they earned more. I have mentioned ‘non white’ teachers earning far less for the same qualifications. Black mineworkers earned a small fraction of White mineworkers doing comparable work.
It is however meaningless to say/imply that Black taxes paid for the development in White areas. Is that what gets taught in school today?
@Oldfox, denialism is a terrible thing. This wholesale amnesia must be wonderful for people like you. This is why we cannot find any person, white in particular, in SA today, who lived in this country during the apartheid years. We cannot find any person today, who benefitted from black oppression. We cannot find any person in SA, who supported apartheid.This is how callous and insulting these utterances are. WOW!
@Tofolux, you are the one that put down imported knowledge and when I reminded you that Steve Biko was influenced by Du Bois, who was an American, you came back with another story. However, you never touch on the real problems of black Africa and that is the economy of extraction that was setup by their leaders in Africa. In an economy of extraction only about ten percent will benefit from this and the others will always be poor. Since 1994, the SA government trade has exported whole industries to China and million of people have lost their jobs. This country is running a massive trade deficit with China but, you never mention the real problem with SA. In order to keep the people happy the ANC has put half of the population on family grants because there are no jobs.
There is a book written by an Africa writer Archille Mbembe call ” PostColony” in this book the professor pointed the finger at the African leaders. You should read this book and he paints a different picture from you. Many wounds in SA and Africa are self inflicted by their leaders. How can a government spend billions on a world cup and millions of their people are suffering from AIDS but, they will not spend nothing to help these people? It was the US government that pressured the government to setup this treatment program and they are paying for it.
@Sterling, can I say one thing to you. as an Africanist, I will not engage with your Afro-pessimism. If I do that, it legitimises the racial bigotry. To enter into a debate with the elementary knowledge as displayed, evidences education along white nationalism. But then again, one shouldnt be surprised when some arguments are reduced to the colour of one’s skin.
Unfortunately for South Africa, the writer is clear, concise and on target. A ” Hastily contrived nation” constructed at the expense of th Black majority in deference to the white minority is a telling condemnation of true ideals gone awry. The Limpopo textbook scandal, the Easten Cape educational funds theft, the HIV/AIDS apathy and several other dysfunctional missteps give the impression that those that govern have more self-interest at heart than National responsibility. In a real world, Politics ALWAYS takes a back seat to economics and the Politicians now this which is why they pretend that the situation is reversed.
The Armed Struggle was defeated at Cuito and by the signing of the Nkomati Accord.
The ANC had no other choice but to negotiate.
AFTERWARDS they started the myth that the Armed Struggle could have been victorious.
I don’t believe that they ever intented to keep the Codesa agreements.
Hi All
I am dissappointed at all of you for not commenting on the subject matter, the fact that the demigod status given to Mandela is pure distotion of facts and history. Firstly if my memory serve me well we have greater icon of the struggle than Mandela is, I will quote a few Robert Sobukwe, OR Tambo. placitake these two man and dustapose them against Mandela, their legacy far outshines that of Mandela.
2. Apartheid was crual and a majority of white people enjoyed its fruits and voted for it over and over again. majority of white south african did nothing to help the course of oppressed and impoverished black majority south africans. instead a majority of white southa faricans carried the mandate and implemented aparthied.
3. The current ANC government is failing the poor of this country which has and is still majority blacks, coloureds, indians and few new breed of poor whites.
I personally will not be casting my vote, becuase I refuse to be party to the looting of the state, the corruption that is currently stealing from the poor and killing the small business that is needed to fight the unemployement in this country.
i refuse to be silent and be part of a continual killing and raping of the black childs mind that is currently done by the elite and the fat tenderpreneurs of this country.
yes apartheid has coursed us a lot and lot will be blamed on it deservingly so for a long time to come, but what black government is doing to poor black poeple is…