The yoof are on the march. Again. It does not make for a pretty picture, although it is a politically fascinating one.
The issues vary from train fares at the micro level to unemployment, rural deprivation and racism at the macro. The strategy, however, is uniform, calculated and well tested in South Africa. It is the deployment of chanting placard-wielding youngsters, most of them black, to exert maximum public pressure on the target and extract maximum embarrassment.
A couple of weeks ago the protest was at Johannesburg’s Park Station against ever-higher fares for deteriorating services. There, in tactics that recall the old regime’s stupid heavy handedness, a small group of protestors trying to talk to commuters was forcibly evicted by Metrorail security because they ‘did not have a permit to hold a political rally’.
Last week the march was in Delmas against white racism and the failure of the police to deal with rural crime. It was sparked by the ‘uncalled for … racial slurs’ of earlier rightwing white protestors who had proclaimed the murders of a five-month old baby and his caregiver to be ‘racially motivated’ by ‘barbarians’.
This week hundreds of young protestors singing liberation songs marched in Pietermaritzburg for the ‘immediate’ introduction of the youth wage subsidy and ‘jobs today’.
These marches illustrate interesting contradictions in our political terrain. They were organised not by radical groupings but by the opposition Democratic Alliance, cannily pressuring government on issues where there is widespread resentment over failed delivery, as well as internal policy divisions within the ruling alliance.
The cheeky destination in the Pietermaritzburg march was the office of KwaZulu-Natal premier Zweli Mkhize. The premier, along with most of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet, supports some form of youth wage subsidy. But the African National Congress’ ally, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, is implacably opposed to a subsidy and has mobilised hard against this particular policy of the government it is part of.
Surely only in the Wonderland of SA politics will one find the official opposition marching in favour of a government policy while an important chunk of that selfsame government marches against it?
When the DA last month dared to march on trade union headquarters in Johannesburg to deliver a memorandum in support of the wage subsidy, it was met with violence from Cosatu members. Heads were broken, amid police teargas and rubber bullets.
The Pietermaritzburg march, said a DA spokesperson, gave Mkhize the ‘opportunity to put politics aside and back the [DA-controlled] Western Cape’s call for provinces with the political will to roll out the subsidy, to be given a share of Treasury’s budgeted R5bn’.
The DA does know that this is not going to happen. In the face of opposition to the subsidy from Zuma’s critical allies, in a year when the president is lobbying for a second term, it makes no sense to tackle divisive issues and alienate crucial votes . But what fun it is for the DA to exacerbate those cracks.
The R5bn set aside for the subsidy has been available since 2010, but Zuma will ensure that the issue will remain parked for ‘discussion’ at the National Economic and Labour Development Council until the Mangaung conference has been safely hurdled. Or not, as the case might be.
Lindiwe Mazibuko, the DA’s young, black parliamentary leader, has led many of the marches. The racial complexion of the participants has overwhelmingly been black.
The DA’s message is that the ANC does not hold a divinely ordained patent on black aspirations or how they are to be realised. Nor does the ANC and its allies own the streets.
The DA has always bumped its head against the inaccurate perception that it is a ‘white’ party. It is, in fact, statistically, a party of minorities: whites, Indians and coloureds, as well as slowly increasing numbers of middle-class Africans.
Now the DA is looking towards long-term electoral growth by pitching for street cred among the African unemployed. That’s not a constituency that the governing alliance will tolerantly surrender. If the DA shows signs of making headway, expect more cracked skulls.
The DA don’t even need to ‘exacerbate the cracks’. The road to Zuma-babwe is so full of potholes and the ANC sinkholes now so apparent, that it won’t be an easy ride. But what’s worth fighting for, never is:
And with integrity, hard work and courage on their side – and a new generation who look at things with open eyes and an open mind, it is the DA and our youth who
will herald in the changes this country needs.
From the Cape Argus: ”You are right: the ANC will never take back Cape Town. But wrong that the ANC will never lose a national election to the DA.”
The DA represents everything that was Mandela’s vision for the ANC: an equal-opportunity, non-racist society for the benefit of all … … not a corrupt government feeding its greed by hoodwinking the poor into being ANC voting fodder, so that those on this grim gravy-train can continue their immoral bungling, thievery and fraud.
Look at the ANC today: ‘Reverse racism’ rules. ‘Ineptocracy’ & ‘jobs for pals’ with no experience or expertise, the order of the day. (“You don’t have to be a drunk to own a bottle store”. Ja, but it would help if you knew something about wines, or ever ran a store before.) Everything … healthcare, education, policing (what’s not been affected?) is devastated or depreciating. After 18 years, this country is a sick joke.
It is the DA and our fearless, forward-thinking youth that will lead us into a successful and fulfilled future.
Cosatu is being ridiculous – our laws protect anyone from being fired because of their age, or even, believe it or not, their skin colour – IF they can get a job in the first place.
And redundancies have to be structured as last in (the subsidised youth apprentices) first out – unless Mbeki changed THAT law as well!
But I am happy with the Constitutional Court Judgement that Cosatu can march BUT they pay for the damage in future – about time the Court showed some common sense!
As a white tribal party, a relic of the old National Party, the DA have hijacked the role of “opposition”. The voting data in Wikipedia speaks for itself, and my analysis of the data http://southafricana.blogspot.com/2010/12/myth-of-da-liberalism.html shows that the DA absorbed the lions share of the Nats circa 1994
The DA is playing with fire by stoking black on black violence in their despicable politics of division highlighted by their march to the Cosatu building. The DA could care less about the plight of unemployed youth but use them as fodder!
This “swart en rooi gevaar” politics has allowed the 18% white minority to govern over the black (Coloured, African, Indian) majority in the WCape. Now they aim to take this to the national level during the next election not realizing the dangers of fomenting black-on-black violence. Just like the silence of the majority of whites during apartheid, their present silence similarly condones the evilness of the DA’s brazen tactics. Just like they pretended to care about illegal immigrants to hype xenophobia during the 2010 World Cup they now pretend to care about the poor.
From comment last week by Marcus Dlamini:
” … a badly kept secret that Dave is Stateside, think NY. He let it slip … when he wrote about … going to SA for Soccer World Cup. … he hides behind a fake name .. protesting too much when it comes to the nat days?’
Just as phony ‘Dave Harris’, hiding out of the country, continues his boring (ho-hum, yawn) anti-white diatribe week after week, so does he filch words:
His recent usage of words like ‘hijacked’ and ‘voting fodder’ – is like him repeating what I have already eaten and digested ages ago. (He should stick to his BEO, or whatever it is it’s supposed to stand for -and which he tries so hard to make his own. If he wants to steal from me, why not try ‘Zuma-babwe’ or the cANCer ruling our country. He also used the word cancer a while ago – but it was in the wrong context, and lost its intended meaning.)
As an imposter living in the US, nothing he says is relevant.
What we want is an equal opportunity, non racist society – living in harmony with each other. We don’t need a subversive, divisive, yellow-bellied, racist troll shielding behind a computer in another country, and spewing his worn-out divisive dross at every opportunity for a society in which he no longer lives.
He has no credibility. As racist troll (probably paid by the ANC) he may also, like Tofolux, be obsessed with seeing his fake name in print – somewhat like ”vanity publishing’ as it were.
@”Dave Harris”
“White tribe” – what white tribe?
There is not, has never been , and never will be a homogenouss “white tribe”.
English, Afrikaner, Portugese, Greek and Jewish South Africans are all of reasonably pale complexion. A tribe they aint.
DA stoking black on black violence? Huh?
COSATU were the ones first making threats and then making good on those threats by throwing sones and bottles.
You show an extremely patronising view of Coloured, Indian and Middle class black voters if you believe that they would be swayed by “swart en rooi gevaar” tactics.
By your own definition, Coloured and Indian voters are black so you are suggesting that they are afraid of themselves!
Surely it is possible that most of these voters prefer the policies of the DA to those of the ANC, or perhaps beleive that they might do a better job of governing?
No-one can hijack the role of opposition – that position is earned by the party that garners enough votes.
By the way, “Dave”, in the 1970 general election, the National party got less than 50% of the national vote – the majority of voters voyed for someone other than the National Party and their Apartheid policies.
NP gerrymandering of the constituencies and the vagaries of the first past the post electoral system ensured that the NP got the most seats in parliament.
You are entitled to you own opinins, no matter how wrped, biased or dogmatic.
You are NOT entitled to your own facts.
Tra-la-la-lala, tra-la-la-lala, same old song by Harris. But I do enjoy the humour, quoting his own ‘analyses’! Precious! No Kaptein, no matter how loud you bleat and blame and point at others, it won’t change or deflect from your and the ANC’s failures. Only by getting of your backside and putting in an honest day’s work, quietly, because this is needed to do so, will you actually get anywhere. Try it, you might start liking yourself a bit. ‘Dismissed’.
@Charlotte
Quoting William Saundersen-Meyer aka Marcus Dlamini and playing the man instead of the ball is an old trick to deflect from the real issues. Character assassination, name-calling and intimidation is infantile. Try countering my arguments for a change.
“racist troll (probably paid by the ANC)” / “an imposter living in the US”
C’mon Charlotte, isn’t the DA is the real impostor, a white tribal party, lacking the courage to take to the streets to protest themselves but using blacks to carry out a protest for them, while they have their wine and cheese events watching the protests on the streets on TV, all in the comfort of their corporate offices.
HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT.
1. Use the Wage subsidy to employ suitable employees.
2. Us the existing employees to train and uplift the new recruits to become more and more productive.
3. As production and demand increases and more people are needed then use the trained to train the untrained with the help of the subsidy.
4. Of course all the above falls apart if unsuitable recruits are not allowed to be fired! With our ridiculous labour laws the inspiration to hire in the first place needs to be backed up the ability to replace unsuitable or unproductive workers with new recruits.
5. It is absolute rubbish that an employer will replace older, productive employees with newer unproductive employees.
6. The only way growth can and will occur is with an inbuilt training facility in every firm, where the new learn from those who know. Almost a case of apprentices coming in and journeymen coming out made possible with the subsidy. An ‘apprentice’ is useless for a year or two but soon becomes able and willing to train up new ‘apprentices’. Night schools should be brought back so the new recruits can learn by being hands on during the day, and at night for a few hours a week, get the theory and knowledge that comes from class instruction and study.
7. Without realist labour laws only fools will employ anyone.
Also get rid of the perception that employers exploit their employees. Without employers there will be no employees.!!!
Like the husband who beats his wife to a pulp and then says: “It was her fault. She made me do it.” comes your unbelievable statement, the cliches of which you never stop repeating:
“playing the man instead of the ball is an old trick to deflect from the real issues. Character assassination, name-calling …is infantile.”
Coming from you!! It is exactly what you do.
It is you who keeps insulting WSM, inferring that he is a liar; and now accusing him of fabricating a name so he can dispense false information about you. (This is defamatory.)
It is you that does not stop insulting writers on Thought Leader who denounce the ANC for what it is. It is you that keeps hurling racial abuse and offensive insults; who indulges in character assassination, name-calling and slanderous accusations.
… (and from a troll nogal: “deflect from the real issues”!)
Charlotte, Peter L. and Steve Goodrick are absolutely right and well worth re-reading.
i.e. “You are entitled to your own opinions, no matter how warped, biased or dogmatic.
You are NOT entitled to your own facts.”
Read what Peter L. says about the 1970 general election!
As a ‘white’ who fought vehemently with many others against apartheid, I take great exception to your slander.
You not only owe William S-Meyer an apology for defaming him; but every white
South. African as well. You ‘defend the indefensible’ (the ANC) by trying to racially divide and disunite South Africans.
@’ Dave’
“C’mon Charlotte, isn’t the DA is the real impostor…?”,
Answer: No. It’s not an imposter at all. You are.
Unconfuse yourself ‘Dave’.
The DA is honest, capable, caring, courageous, hard-working and forward thinking – a non racist, equal opportunity party for all South Africans – reflective in their leaders, their supporters and certainly everyone who marched (not burning, or looting or damaging property or throwing rocks) – to present an urgent case for a wage subsidy on behalf of unemployed youth .
The ANC is corrupt and inept.
That’s it! Not that hard to remember.
@Camille Leon. Thank you for your eloquent reply, which I fully support.
I fear that it will be ‘A Long Wait For An Apology’…………
The DA is focused and proactive. They have become a party of action, as opposed to the ANC which just wallows in endless talkshops, rallies and whatever, but no action. Today they handed out bikes to poor communities in the western Cape; cycling in bitter wet weather, Helen included. Now can you see the ANC and its elite doing that ? We should all be hoping for a Zuma 2nd term as it will accelerate the fragmentation of the ANC. The DA has the wind up their sails and no amount of rhetoric from the ANC can stop them.
@Peter L
I never said “white tribe” but “white tribal party” – huge difference semantically! Under the Nats, whites consisted of different tribes from various parts of the world, all united under one term – whites. Who was let into the whites only club was carefully controlled by the morally corrupt apartheid bureaucracy and everyone else were called “non-whites”. Based on Wikipedia’s SA historical voting data, the National Party enjoyed the OVERWHELMING support of whites until our liberation! That’s a FACT. Then that whites-only club magically transformed into the DA who now proclaim themselves to be the “opposition”.
@Camille Leon
“It is you who keeps insulting WSM”
Don’t you think his mean-spirited blogs are far more insulting and demeaning to many who sacrificed their lives and their families for our liberation!
Now how about addressing William’s shameful justification of window dressing his DA party with his claim ” the inaccurate perception that it (the DA) is a ‘white’ party” ….”in fact, statistically, a party of minorities”
On one hand the DA will NEVER reveal the racial demographics of its party, yet it still claims to be a multiracial party by fronting. Well you can’t have your cake AND eat it, can you?
‘The many who sacrificed their lives’, Dave Harris, are to be mourned. In that number, were doubtless people who would have improved the ANC today, had they lived. It’s a moot point whether the best or worst ANC supporters died in the struggle…perhaps you’re making up for lost time. If not, you are simply mercilessly out of touch with a country to claim to support.
If the DA is the answer – then please explain to me what is the DA’s policy on the Homelands and tribal chiefs?
And what is the difference between the DA tolling Chaplan’s Peak, and E-tolling in Gauteng?
Our roads were built with convict labour and civil servants. The first road acroos 2 passes between the Boland and Grahamstown was so built by John Montagu, who was an innovator who divided the convicts into 2 gangs, taught them to read an write and other skills. When they finished their sentences they had money earned and were snapped up by the farmers as senior labour.
AND there were only 500 convicts in the WHOLE of the Cape Colony in those days!
The Future Truth
Rests With Our Youth
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -
Computers, notebooks, laptops
We live in a new world today
I-Pads, I-Phones, Facebook, Twitter
Youth sees things in a different way
They don’t want to work and pay taxes
For the ANC to frit away
Or struggle to find employment
While ANC officials don’t work – just play
They don’t want to be robbed by ANC rogues
Who have been ‘suspended with full pay’
So that after they’ve bought another luxury car
There’s still plenty to salt away.
Our enlightened youth will lead the way
To a better world and a brighter DAy.
Like they marched to make themselves heard
By their votes, they will have the last word.
I thought the issue was: “street politics” and you all fall in the “DAVE trap”, hook, line and sinker.
Not unlike the nation falling into the Malema trap some time ago.
@Dave Harris
I quoted the results of the 1970 whites-only election in which the National party polled less than 50% of the popular vote as factual evidence that suggests that the majority of whites have not always and in each election voted for the National Party (you know – the one that merged with the ANC – THAT ONE).
You counter by quoting Wikipedia (not exactly the Gold standard source of statistical data) numbers relating to elections from 1981 onwards.
A case of data mining or just a common or garden straw man? Take your pick.
Some come on Dave, time to “uithaal en wys”
What is your real name, and where do you live?
Have you ever lived in SA?
I will get the ball rolling – Peter is my real name and I live in the Eastern Cape (raised in Cape Town).
Your turn……………………………………………..
Actually the Nats one the 1948 election on the slogan of “white bread for all” – a poverty, not racist, issue.The poor could only afford the fortified and subsidised brown bread.
And the vote was loaded against the cities in favour of the country by 30 percent – for which mistake you can thank Jannie Smuts, who, like Mandela, was better on the International stage than at home.
@Peter L
Talk about clutching at straws? LOL
Actually in 1970, the heyday of the apartheid regime, the NP got an impressive 54.43% which translated to a 71.1% of the seats!!!
If you think the Wikipedia data is incorrect, then feel free to change it. You see unlike the SADF military records that were cleansed before our liberation, the world will not allow you to propagate your misinformation.
btw. Don’t you understand the value of anonymity in an open society? I sure you would prefer the good old days where the mere though of the Security Branch knocking on the front door was a death sentence to countless anti-apartheid activities.
@ “D.H’ According to you, the whole army is out of step; only you are in step.
Don’t you get tired of repeating yourself over and over ad nauseum?
Everyone else is.
Your ‘same-old, same-old’ rhetoric and distortions don’t make it true – only irritating. … Like a woman who ‘doth protest too much”
WSM is neither ‘mean-spirited’ or biased. He bases opinion on facts. … Unlike yourself.
Maybe the way you see him (or any white writer critical of the ANC – or any white person for that matter) has something to do with you – not him. .
But we’re not talking about WSM: and apart from your racism and rudeness, we’re talking about street marches and protests.
However, as you never have anything new to add, and we all know what to expect (read comments on all other blogs), please go and breathe some fresh air, and desist from playing your tedious and tired old cracked record over and over again.
Your ‘facts’ are, as we are all too familiar with, fabrications and falsifications.
We’ve got your message: And it doesn’t wash.
Dave Harris,your posts are noted. There is bulk of society that agrees with you on most of your points. It a shame that part of society doesn’t have access to such platforms. The minority always feel their outlook is the overall shared by country since they dominates such platforms! They shout for DA and forget to acknowledge that 20 years ago was a minority rule…which sane black person would wish that in their lifetime. This country is far away from “them n us” mentality!
Dave Harris states: “Based on Wikipedia’s SA historical voting data, the National Party enjoyed the OVERWHELMING support of whites until our liberation!”
In other posts I take issue with Dave when I believe he is either stretching facts, or stating unsubstantiated allegations as facts.
However, I am a seeker of truth, and the Wikipedia data does show strong support for the National Party (in the 1970′s). I call it strong and not overwhelming, although that is my subjective view, and obviously Dave will beg to differ.
1. An interesting aspect that Dave (conveniently?) forgets, is that a large part of that strong support was based on the promise of increasing political reforms (actually, the old hard core Nationalists moved to the right-wing parties). Admittedly those reforms were baby steps (tricameral parliament, for instance), but the Nationalists were moving in the “progressive” direction.
2. In the 1992 referendum (the first time I ever voted), I was part of a 68.73% turnout in favour of a new, inclusive, democratic, fair South Africa.
Question: Why does Dave insist on only seeing the old bad, and not the clear indicators of the positive mindshift that whites in South Africa underwent over a decade and more.
The older white generation had been gradually disappearing (dying) since the late 1960s and 1970s, and a new generation of whites wanted to be WITH blacks in South Africa.
Sadly Dave keeps on blaming the younger generation.
Thando says: “They shout for DA and forget to acknowledge that 20 years ago was a minority rule…”
Technically, yes, and I acknowledge that.
However, just like Dave you very conveniently ignore the major turnout (by whites) in the 1992 referendum in favour of a full democracy in South Africa (while technically still under minority rule, as you correctly say).
None of us can ignore the facts. Yes, many whites in the 1960s and 1970s voted for the Nationalists. However, as they died off, increasingly the later generations of whites started voting in favour of reform – yet I see these reform-oriented whites consistently being lambasted by Dave and others.
Can we please keep some perspective here?
I have the utmost respect for many of my black fellow South Africans, and am thankful for those that want to forgive and work together towards a better future. I acknowledge their magnanimous gesture.
If it is difficult for you to recognise that the same desire for harmony and fairness existed in those 68% of whites who voted for it in the referendum, then maybe you should earnestly look at what shadows you are carrying around inside you?
“We see the things not as they are, but as we are.” – H. M. Tomlinson.
@ Harris. How is that possible that one person could suffer so badly from blinkered vision? I’m beginning to think that you are actually a computer that is programmed with a variety of responses that get generated when certain key words are picked up….like “white,” “DA” oh, and I suppose I should add “blinkered vision” now. It’s hard to believe that a human being could be so unimaginative. Ah what the hell. I may as well respond pre-emptively to your vitrolioic response now. yada yada yada, blah, blah, blah.
@ ‘jandrO’ …. great response. great quote – “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”
… and true: He does sadly keep blaming the younger generation.
@ ‘Good grief’ … great response. great ending – “Ah what the hell. I may as well respond pre-emptively to your vitrolioic response now. yada yada yada, blah, blah, blah.”
… and true: “It’s hard to believe that a human being could be so unimaginative.”
This comment has been edited.
@Thando
Thank you for your comment. It gives me courage to stand up to the name calling and insults by the usual suspects who are too afraid to address the real issues.
@jandr0
What you fail to say “reform-oriented whites” that supposedly voted for majority rule is that:
1. They had NO OPTION, since our country was at the brink of civil war with the major international backers of the apartheid regime stepping back and giving SA an ultimatum in order to secure their economic interests with a resource rich SA.
2. There was nowhere to run to in the case of a full blown civil war since the international community has no desire to open their borders to the perpetrators of apartheid,
3. The National Party morphed into the white tribal DA party, and now, even though whites constitute a mere 18% in the WCape, they now rule over the black (African, Coloured, Indian) majority in the WCape.
4. They once again keep silent on the DA’s divide and rule tactics, which are not only disgraceful but dangerous and destructive to our society.
@Dave:
I suspect that you are remedial so I will not tease you any longer.
1. We all had an option in the referendum. Civil war was not a problem we could not have mustered, ask your right wing buddies in the ANC. Our white minority was well-equipped, trained and fully capable of suppressing the black majority without any problems: They were doing it for years. Nobody wanted to carry on down that route.
It was a voluntary decision to end apartheid, from the white minority’s side. We’re on one of the most resource-rich places in the world. We would’ve been fine otherwise.
2. There were/are plenty of places to run. Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada… all these countries as well as countries further up in Africa are still taking refugees.
3. The ANC actually holds the majority of the former NP party, both in terms of voters and in terms of members of parliament. How many DA MPs can you list who’ve been NP members?
4. The quote is ‘divide and conquer, unite and rule’. The DA has only started dividing and conquering recently.
For the record, I do not support the DA and I think the youth wage subsidy is a silly idea. I do think it’s about time that protesters get taken to task when they behave like savages. Taking part in a protest should not exonerate one from being culpable.
And taking part in a protest doesn’t solve much. One does not simply toyi-toyi for jobs.