“It is not yet Uhuru”

Introduction
The author of the above quote is Oginga Odinga. He was influential in the struggle for Kenya’s independence and became the first vice president of an independent Kenya. Uhuru is a Swahili word which means freedom and he therefore implies that Africans are not yet emancipated since Africa’s independence. A postcolonial period is what the name suggests; an era after colonialism which must be free from any form of colonial oppression. However, if we analyze the period after colonialism, we will find that the quality of existence for most ‘black’ Africans did not change much since the independence of Africa. The only obvious change is the emergence of a small affluent ‘black’ elite in Africa, whilst the majority of ‘black’ Africans are poor. This begs the question: Are we really free? This essay will attempt to answer this question by arguing that freedom in Africa is not yet achieved. And will, therefore firstly, discuss freedom in a postcolonial Africa and lastly, it will look at the ‘back to route’ movement which is essentially going to explain where it all went wrong for Africa after independence.

Freedom in postcolonial Africa
What does freedom in a postcolonial Africa entail? How can freedom be obtain and maintained in a postcolonial Africa? These are some the questions we need to ask ourselves as political studies students when we want to found out if we are really free. Freedom in postcolonial Africa is a very contentious issue with many arguments but with no clear answer. And it seems as none of these arguments can help poor ‘black’ Africans to achieve the freedom that they have been waited for since the independence of Africa. Before we can start a discussion on freedom in a postcolonial Africa, we will firstly have to look at the various levels which Africa was colonized and secondly at the meaning of freedom that one of the leading political scholars in Africa provides us with in his book Uhuru Na Maendeleo (Freedom and Development).

According to Ture & Hamilton (1992: 6-23) colonialism had operated in three areas which were politics, economics and culture. During colonialism political decisions which affected Africans were made by colonial powers through a process of British indirect rule and the French assimilation. Further, the colonial project from the beginning was an economic project; colonial powers came to Africa not to ‘civilize’ but to exploit them economically. On, the cultural front colonial powers created an ideology that “relegated the black man to a subordinated, inferior status in society” (Ture & Hamilton: 1992: 23). This therefore meant that for Africans to be completely decolonized they had to be decolonized at all three levels. More simply put, is that they had to operate completely independent from the West at all three levels. The next section will discuss freedom in a post colonial era.

Julius Nyerere argues that there are three forms of freedom: (i) national freedom - which is the freedom of citizens to determine their own future; (ii) freedom from hunger, disease, and poverty; and (iii) individual freedom - which includes the right to live in dignity and equality and the right to freedom of speech, etc. For Africans to be free in a postcolonial Africa they have to experiences all three forms of freedom. But, as people that stay in Africa, we are all aware of the inequalities that are present in our societies. This, therefore, seems as that we as Africans in a postcolonial Africa are partly free. We are free to choose our government and our individual freedoms are protected by our constitutions, but we are not free from poverty, hunger and disease.

Firstly, the reason for this is that during the struggle for Africa’s independence we “decided for practical reasons to accept a fragment of independence” (Fanon; 1987: 120). The “fragment of independence” that Fanon here refer to is that we have exchanged economic power for political power and because we do not have the economic power we are burdened by social inequalities such as poverty, hunger and disease. This also means that we were never economically decolonized. A classic example would be how the ANC, during negotiations for a democratic South Africa, had to choose between economic power and political power. Today 15 years since the first democratic elections in South Africa this is still visible, the ANC has the political power and the ‘whites’ has the economic power. Inequalities, in Africa, are entrenched by Western capitalism through neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism “addresses itself essentially to the middle class and to the intellectuals of the colonial country” (Fanon; 1987: 122) and therefore it creates unequal relationship between ‘black’ people in Africa. This unequal relationship causes the emergence of a small ‘black’ elite and the poor ‘black’ masses in a postcolonial Africa. And as long as we will have Western capitalism present in a postcolonial Africa we will not be free from Western oppression.

The second challenge that we face Africa is intellectual colonization. Intellectual colonization is a result of cultural colonization. Intellectual colonization makes us accept the unequal relationship that Western capitalism portrays as ‘right’. For example, every time we watch something on television the ideas of Western capitalism are being fed to us ‘as the right way of life.’ This simply means that you as the audience want to live your life like those ones on television. You want to drive their cars, you want to go to their schools and you want to do their jobs. But not knowing you are agreeing to the veiled inequalities that this life presents. To drive that car, to live in that house and to do that job, you are in support of the idea that some people must be rich whilst some must be poor; and some must be the servant whilst others are the boss. This entrench inequalities in Africa and deny Africans from the freedom which many had died for.

Where it all did went wrong for Africa
The ‘back to route’ movement explains where it all went wrong for Africa. There are number of arguments that we can discuss but this section will discuss the work of Issa Shivji. He wrote a document which is titled ‘The silences in the NGO Discourse’ in which he discusses how freedom in Africa was taken. Firstly, he notices that the generation of African nationalist, after Africa’s independence, crafted a form of nationalism which was modelled on that of the colonial powers but the ideological genesis of African nationalism lay in Pan-Africanism (Shivji; 2006: 6). Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah has realised that in order for African nationalism to work it must happen in Pan-Africanism, if not independent African stated will become pawns on a chess board for European imperialists’ (Shivji; 2006: 6). This was the biggest mistake most African leaders made. They went for self-interest over the interest of the majority. This gave Western imperialist the opportunity to regain their grip on Africa through various ways such as supporting corrupt African governments if they benefit from it and by only supporting “crisis-ridden economies” (Shivji; 2006: 9), if African governments adopted the structural adjustment programmes by the Bretton Woods institutions.

Towards Uhuru in Africa in the 21st century

A number of scholars has came with solutions to fix the Uhuru problem. This section, however, will only discuss the work of Julius Nyerere and Thabo Mbeki. Julius Nyerere suggests the following solution:

Our first step, therefore must be to re-educate ourselves; to regain our former attitude of mind. In our traditional African society we were individuals within a community. We took care of the community, and the community took care of us. We neither needed nor wished to exploit our fellow man (1973: 166).

His solution according to Bogue (2003: 103) brings two aspects to the fore which needs to be considered to enable us to achieve human equality: they are (1) intellectual decolonization and (2) the relationship between the individual and the community. Julius Nyerere wrote Ujamaa as a political framework to stimulate the intellectual decolonization of Africans, after the independence of Tanzania. His thought was based on human equality. If we study his concept of human equality it is apparent that human equality may achieve freedom. The second aspect means that you have individual rights within the community but your rights must not be greater than that of the common good of the community. This, therefore, entails you to generated wealth as an individual for the greater good of the community and not for your selfish needs.

Posted by Jacob Cloete ©

 Posted June 02, 2011

Democracy is more than just the vote

There is more to democracy than just to vote. Politicians, the media and the IEC, just to mention a few, want us to believe that by voting we are deepening democracy. Voting is a criterion for deepening democracy. Democracy also mean the right to have proper services delivered, a safe environment to live in and ‘spaces’ of participation to engage the state between elections.

Presidents Zuma this weekend said that he now understands why service delivery protest marches are taking place. This came only after the ANC was exposed as also being guilty of building open toilets. This begs the question can we believe him? I personally do not believe him because protesters usually submit a memorandum of understanding or a petition that voices their grievances. So, what happen to those memorandums and petitions? Are they collecting dust on some administrator’s desk?

The open toilet saga made aware of two things. The first is the hypocrisy of the ANC and second, it made me wonder why citizens of both Khayelitsha and Moqhaka accepted these toilets. Why didn’t they voice their grievances earlier? In the Moqhaka it is only eight years later that this particular issue got the attention of the media. This also raises an issue of media bias.

As the politicians have a responsibility towards democracy, we as the people of SA also have a responsibility and amongst other it is to engage the state between elections around issues of service delivery. We can’t sit back and expect the state to deliver service.  We have to tell them about the services we need and follow-up and make sure that they do deliver these services. You might argue and say that we do it through protest marches. But that is the problem. Protest marches only happen once the situation is so aggravated that citizens see no other way as to violently voice their grievances. And we saw how it ended for Andries Tatane.

There are ways of engaging the state at local level. There are the Integrated Development Planning (IDP), ward committees, public meetings and Imbizo’s that citizens can use to voices their problems. However, research so-far have indicated that the majority of citizens do not even know that ward committee and the IDP exist. Research also indicates that these mechanisms of participation in many cases are so dysfunctional that it does not help communities much. Here you might ask yourself why I want you to participate in structures that are dysfunctional. My answer is simple; it is dysfunctional because of a lack of community participation in these structures. However, it does not stop you from starting your own structure to engage the municipality because it is your right to engage the municipality.

As citizens we need to develop innovative ways of engaging the state and keep the state accountable. We also need innovative ways to get the state to respond to our needs but sitting and waiting on politicians to deliver will not help us one bit. So, it is important to vote but the vote alone will not change our situation it is only when we engage the state and voice our grievances and keep them accountable for the decision they are taking that we will deepen democracy.

Jacob Cloete

The Constrasts of a Democratic South Africa

Our visit this week to Gugulethu once again have revealed the many contrasts of the reconstruction of the post-apartheid society. Firstly, there was the really poor and the affluent. The poor stay in really tiny shacks with no running water or proper sanitation whilst the affluent stays in big houses with high walls and alarm systems (See photo 1 and 2 in the Gugulethu Folder).

Secondly, Gugulethu also have a very rich struggle history. Most of the prominent ANC leaders of Cape Town are from Gugs (as it is informally known). One of the most well-known sites in Gugs that are visited by many tourists is the Gugulethu Seven Memorial. However, I have noticed that some youngsters have vandalised the monument by writing on it. This shows the ignorance of the youth towards their history, a history that has been written in blood (see photo 3 and 4 in the Gugulethu Folder).

Thirdly, there are those that nothing to eat whilst there are those that have so much to eat that they do not know what to do with the left-overs. Those of us that have been to Gugs surely would have been to Mzolis. A place the local elite and tourists hang out. If you have money you can order as much meat as you desire and then you can try and devour it. You will also find in Gugs people that do not have food to eat and have to struggle on a daily basis to make ends meet (see photos 5 and 6 in the Gugulethu Folder).

So the contrasts go on and on and on. It is really sad that most of us who are in a much better situation look at the government to do something about poverty, and by doing this we are shifting our responsibility to the state. A close friend of mine  has the following to say about our responsibilities as citizens: “We as South Africans need to stop complaining about what the government did not do or need to do and take the responsibility and initiative towards changing our lives and the lives of others for the better. Government must be seen as a tool in helping us getting there but not an excuse of why we not getting there”. So look around in your community and identify the contrasts and do something about it.

Posted by: Jacob Cloete
22 May 2011
Photos © Jacob Cloete

Nelson Mandela Day must change to Humanity Day

I personally will not give 67 minutes during Nelson Mandela Day because the hype and the money that are created by Mandela Day are outrageous.

If we have a closer inspection we will see that the biggest beneficiaries of Mandela Day are the big corporates. These companies use the face of Mandela as a marketing tool to attract more customers or clients, and the saddest part is that most of these companies do not care of the well-being of people. They have only one objective and that is to make money.

But it will be bias of me to only pick on the big corporates. The Nelson Mandela Foundation also uses this as a way of branding Mandela to generate money. In all of these cases the people that benefit the most from these 'Foundations' are usually the people at the top of the organisation.

This left us with a question which is whether Mandela Day serves the interests of the vast poor majority across the globe. I am in agreement that Mandela Day is good initiative but I do not see how it in its current form is going to change the lives of the poor majority across the globe, because it take more than 67 minutes a year to change the socio-economic realities of the poor.

To change the lives of the majority is through embracing a humanity that Mandela, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nyerere, and others advocated, and that is not to be driven by self-interest. We have the ideas but we do not have the strategies to implement these ideas. We have the policies but we do not have the capacity to implement these policies.

UWC is also celebrating Mandela Day. In the Rector's address to the UWC community on Wednessday 13 July 2011 he said that it is time to 'think, act and initiate change' to carry out the legacy of Nelson Mandela. The thinking part is the easiest part but the acting and initiating parts are the most difficult parts of carrying his legacy forward.

Birgit Schreiber said,  the director for the Centre for Student Support Services at UWC, the only way to make a difference is by sharing that what you good at with the rest of the people that need it. She is proposing to start small to make a difference.

I have to agree with her because Mandela himself said that 'it is what we make of what we have and not what we are given that separates the one person from another'. I would, therefore, propose that instead of celebrating Mandela Day we celebrate 'Humanity Day' and to use what we currently have (skills, resources, etc) on an on-going basis to make a difference in the lives of the people that need it.

Written by Jacob Cloete
15 July 2011

Who are we waiting for?

This morning I was reading the account of Jesus of Nazareth and the pharisees. For those that do not know this particular account, Jesus attracted a lot of people and was against the hypocrisy of the pharisees.

The pharisees tried many things to get a reason to kill Him (In the new Testament in the Bible you will find many of these accounts). Eventually they killed Him without finding anything against him. The work of Jesus threatened the very existence of the pharisees. They were scared that they will lose their status, money and power.

It was then that I realized the politics of the time and one can draw the same parallels in a post-apartheid South Africa. In a post-apartheid South Africa we have become so oblivious to the corruption and the incompetence of the ANC that we do not care to speak out and those that dare to speak out are sidelined and labeled as 'anti-revolutionary' or 'agents'.

Those that dare to speak out are not regarded as fit to lead or incompetent to govern. When 'Arch' Tutu spoke out last week, we all jump and sing praises because here is someone that are going slay the evil beast. But unfortunately, the man is to old to continue the liberation struggle.

My question is simple! For who are we waiting for?

13 October 2011

We are not all black

During a Student Affairs Conference at Stellenbosch one of the speakers correct me to say 'African black' and not 'black' people when referring to people from the isiXhosa, seTswana, isiZulu, etc groups.

I almost burst out laughing for the simple reason whether you used the term 'African black' or 'black' you still black. For me the tag 'African' is problematic because of two reasons.

Firstly, westerners use the term 'African' in a derogatory sense. If you do not want to believe me just watch CNN and BBC on Africa. If you a westerner and you picture Africa, you see famine, civil wars and people that are running naked through the Kalahari. This is the backward conception of the word 'Africa'.

Secondly, it is a term used in South Africa to exclude other 'black' people. In SA coloureds, Indians, and people from the isiXhosa, seTswana, isiZulu, etc groups are sometimes collectively referred to as 'black'. So a good question to ask would be when can you use the term 'African' black.

'African' black is used in AA and EE policy and 'black' is used in BBBEE policy. So why the difference? The answer is located in the concept 'equal opportunity'. The first part of the answer is simple. Employment specific retributive discrimination need to take place to address the discrimination of the past. In the past equal opportunity to employment was not given to all races.

But this does not explain 'black' and BBBEE. To answer this question we need to visit history for a while. If you old enough or if you have read wide enough you will notice that opportunity for coloured, Indians and "African' blacks to the economy was denied. Here no opportunity was given to these group, hence the difference today.

However, this does not explain the exclusionary nature of the term 'African'. The explanation is simple. Coloured, whites and Indian citizens is also African. They were born and bred on this continent. So 'African black' make Coloureds, Indians and Whites not 'African' which is problematic. This mean that these group is strangers or do not belong on the African continent and that they have to go back where there came from.

However, here is a fact that is often overlooked. The Khoisan is regarded as coloured and according to history the Khoisan have been in Southern African longer than any other group. Doesn't this make them more African than any other group?

We need to be more critically of the concepts we are fed at university, schools, the government and even the media. If not we have a situation on our hands where 'some animals is more equal than other animals'.

PS: It is already happening.

25 October 2011

Music and Porn

It hit me this morning watching Channel O that the porn and the music industry have one thing in common: naked women. Women are paraded naked to generate money in these industries.

And this made me think as to who is the biggest contributor to this situation. Is it men or is it women? I personally think women is as guilty as men. For the simple reason women accept these kind of jobs, and please do not tell me that working in these industries was the last option for these women.

It also made me wonder what other products are sold without a naked women on the cover of the product. Almost every product use women to sell it. This brought me to the conclusion that we (the majority) are more interested in the body of a women than the intellect.

The saddest part of this situation is that almost no women own companies or are marginalized in these industries, or operate from the periphery of these industries. Once again who is to blame. Do we blame men or do we blame women? You make up your mind.

BTW: I think the Bill of Rights would have sold better if there was a naked women on the cover of it.

27 October 2011

Juju is Fighting Back

By now you supposed to know that Juju is suspended from the ANC for 5 years. Some of you might be celebrating and some of you might be sad. Me on the contrary is excited. The last time I was this excited was with the NSFAS protest marches on campus.

We are entering an interesting period ahead. Some of you might have heard of Mangaung 2012 and might have wondered what it was all about. Let me explain this by taking you back to September 2008, when Thabo Mbeki was asked to step down as the President of South Africa.

Most middle class people were upset and Lekota and his cabal use this opportunity to start COPE; hoping Thabo would join which we all know never happened. So when Juju this year for a second time was called for a disciplinary hearing, I was just expecting yesterday's outcome.

But what I did not expect was Juju fighting back. This make me wonder whether this will be the repeat of the Zuma story. For those of you that do not know what I am talking about, let's go back to 2005. In 2005 Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as the deputy president of South Africa but failed to expel him from the party.

Would this be a case of Juju come back and kick Zuma out of the ANC at Mangaung? Or is this the end of Juju? Like I said very interesting times ahead.

PS: For those of you that is still in the dark about Mangaung, it is where the next ANC conference will be taking place. The conference is going to elect or re-elect the President of the ANC who most probably is going to become the next president of South Africa.

11 November 2011

Opening Spaces

Ignoring or excluding the voices of students from decisions that impact their livelihoods can have grave consequences. In 2010 the University of the Western Cape erupted in protest marches over NSFAS. It eventually led to the arrest of 21 students and a court interdict to stop it.

Students in the end won the battle but it showed that it is only when students protest that they are taken seriously. This year it seems to be the case with residence accommodation also the case as students are already protesting over a shortage of accommodation. KOVACS and UWC have an agreement to build a state of the art residence that will be privately owned by KOVACS for about 30 years and after that it will become UWC property.

It sounds like a good deal until you hear the prices. The price for a single room is R30 000 per and for a double room R27 000. The reality of UWC is that not a lot of students can afford it. In the process of building this new residence, KOVACS would have to demolish two smaller residences of UWC to make way for their privately owned bigger residence.

This is what anger students the most. A significant number of students this year have not been successful for residence accommodation because there are not enough spaces. One of the questions one need to ask is the following: who in their right mind would break down public property to build private property and this whilst a lot of students from disadvantages backgrounds do not have a place to stay. This does not make sense.

A number of bursaries so far have indicated that they will not pay for accommodation at KOVACS and with the loan most students receives from NSFAS it will not be enough to cover living at KOVACS and other necessary expenditures. The SASCO led SRC have also indicated that the establishment of KOVACS will tear apart the social cohesion of the UWC residence community because of the class division that will are creayed in the process.

KOVACS therefore is contradictory to UWCs ideological stand which is a leftist university. For many years UWC is known to be university of the working class. A second question therefore need to be ask: Does KOVACS signals a departure from UWCs ideological stance? Can it still be called the home of the left?

Today I saw the faces of the protesting students, and it was clear that they are not backing off. Anyone who hoped that this will blow over quickly is wrong! Students need accommodation and as long there is a residence being build who can accommodate them, they will not stop?

After the leaders gave feedback, one student ask such a valid question: She asked: Where must we stay tonight? A question that left me speechless. I still do not have an answer to this question.

01 February 2012

Racism Never Left

Saturday I took a taxi to Eersterivier because I had to get to someone to get to a wedding. It was early morning and usually during this time of the day taxis are overloaded. I was sitting close a 'black' lady and I could see her facebook post.

At that time see was updating her status and it read as follow: already 22 in this taxi with the windows closed, wish I was already there #death by the hands of a coloured taxi driver. the problem with this status is that all taxi drivers in Cape Town is the same and all of them overload. After reading this I realised that we are all racist, it is just hidden at a sub-conscious level.

To be honest I felt angry and disgusted by the racism we still experience in South Africa. It have just became very nuanced. I felt the same way a couple of weeks back when I bought biltong in a butchery in Stellenbosch. A 'white' lady did not want to help me so she called a coloured worker to come and help me.

I felt the same way when coloured people stereotype black people and calling them loud. I felt the same way when I go to Tygervalley mall and Parrow mall. Those of you that have been to these two malls would have noticed a contrast.

What I am trying to show is that racism is alive and kicking in South Africa. It has just shifted to personal spaces and it is hidden somewhere in our subconscious level. Here is an appeal to me and everyone else, let's find this parasite that is hidden in our subconscious level and kill it. If we do not do this, it will eventually take over our lives and we would become the parasite.

14 November 2011

Give Credit Where It Is Due

The ANC can sometimes be brilliant and sometimes just plain dumb. The new Madiba bank notes are another brilliant idea by the ANC! I know there are some of you that will not agree. For you I have to ask whether your disagreement is based on emotions.

If you acted on emotions, let me explain the logic behind the new Madiba notes. Did you know that a Mandela R5 coin is worth R22 000? Did you know that one such a coin sold for more than a million rand? Did you know that Mandela is as famous as Coca Cola? If you did not know any of these you have not been reading and therefore would be emotional.

Here are some advantages of the new Madiba bank notes. Firstly, rare bank notes and coins are worth a lot of money. This means that the old South African bank notes will become rare and will be worth a lot of money in years from now. So if you are clever you would save your old notes and sell it in years from now.

Secondly, Mandela is a global icon and therefore many people all over the world would like to have some Madiba notes and this will strengthen the South African rand. Thirdly, a stronger rand would give greater resistance to international economic shocks.

However, there is a negative and that is when the rand strengthens the exports are suffering as a weaker rand is good for exports. The bottom line is the advantages are more than the disadvantages. So I think the new Madiba notes are an excellent economic idea.

On the other hand, it is poor idea for commemorating the ANCs centenary because Madiba was not the only person that contributed to the struggle for a politically free South Africa. It is therefore unfair to put him alone on the South African bank notes.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that when it comes to economics and business we cannot become sentimental as it would not give us the edge over our competitors. So based on this the Madiba notes is a brilliant idea.

11 February 2012

How Can We Forget

I am writing the following entry with tears in my eyes and very angry. I must say I am gatvol! How can you forget the hell we went through during apartheid and we still going through. How can you forget how people were forced to leave their homes to make way for white people? How can you forget 21 March 1960 or 17 June 1976?

We must understand that the Khayelitsha’s, the Mannenberg’s, the Soweto’s and the Galeshewe’s of today were created to oppress black, coloured and Indian people. It was created to keep them in poverty as long it is possible. The truth is that as long there are Khayelitsha’s white people will an unfair advantage over black people. We also need to be conscious of the fact that the moment we forget this the apartheid project will succeed.

This is a reality that makes most white people uncomfortable because it is true. After writing this I would most probably labelled as an angry ‘black’ who is ungrateful for what he have. What if I have nothing!! What if I tell you that what I got from my late grandparents is a walking stick because there was nothing to leave behind. They came in this world oppressed and they left it that way. And I am expected to be grateful!

I have decided to never forget where I came from and what it took me to get here. I also decided to continue the struggle for a Khayelitsha, Galeshewe, Soweto and Mannenberg South Africa!

06 March 2012

Mental Slavery

Imagine you are oppressed for hundreds of years and you were made believe that you are less than your oppressor in every aspect of life. You are made believe that you are not as clever, not as pretty or handsome and that you are completely dependent on the oppressor; and then one day it suddenly disappears and you are told that you are free.

In 2006 I attended an Imbizo of the then Premier of the Western Cape – Ebrahim Rasool. The Imbizo took place in Vredendal, a rural town which is located along the West Coast of South Africa. During the questions and answers session they gave an opportunity to an old lady that has been standing whole time with her hand raised. She was coloured and made the following comment: “I do not know where all this black people came from but I want them to go back where they came from and leave the white people alone because they have always gave us what we need.” You can imagine how shocked we were.

What I am getting at is mental slavery. We cannot expect this old lady to change her mind set over night because she was born into a situation that enslaved her mind. Remember during the period of oppression the only way to control the masses was to mentally enslave them. Many brilliant African scholars wrote on this particular matter. However, it was Julius Nyerere that proposed a solution. His solution was twofold: (1) intellectual decolonialization; and (2) the relationship between the individual and the community.

Before we are able to see the opportunities of a ‘new’ South Africa we need to lose our oppressed mentality. We must believe in ourselves and that we are just as good as or even better than our oppressors. So Thierry if the state is to blame, blame it for not facilitating a process of intellectual decolonialization. A sad reality is that the South African state is dependent on economic forces and does not have any sense of independence. This independence nature of economic system will only change when we become mentally emancipated. The state and other forces might have the monopoly over violence but violence is never enough to keep citizens from over-throwing old systems and starting new ones. I personally think the ‘arab spring’ would have not been possible if citizens Egypt, Tunisia and Lybia had an oppressed mind-set.

Blaming the state would not change our predicament of ‘mental slavery’. Mentally enslaved we will also not be able to take on a transformed apartheid state. It was and has always been our responsibility (the emancipated few) to facilitate a process of intellectual decolonialization. If not we are postponing the true liberation of the South African people.

11 March 2012

The Truth Hurts

If you do not like to hear the truth or if you cannot take positive criticism, please do not read any further. For the past two weeks I have restrained myself from commenting on the current happenings in South Africa but it reached a point where I could not keep quiet anymore after I read the DA commentary on Zille’s ‘edu-refugee’ tweet. In South Africa the truth might sound racist but it is not. So here is my last warning if you do not like to hear the truth with regards to the current situation of the majority of South Africans, PLEASE DO NOT read any further.

By now most of you of know the tweet of Zille which referred to black pupils from the Eastern Cape as ‘edu-refugees’ and you must have heard of the ‘racial wars’ in Grabouw in the Western Cape. Whilst the DA and ANC is busy fighting over the definition of ‘refugee’ the real issue is overlooked.

My last two posts addressed the issue of intellectual decolonization and the oppressed mind-set of ‘liberated’ South Africans. What is currently happening is a great example of this ‘mental enslavement’ of majority of South Africans.

Let me contextualised Zille’s tweet. Her tweet was in response to the ‘racial wars’ in Grabouw. There was a clash between the ‘black’ and the ‘coloured’ communities over an overcrowded school. The one community wanted to burn the school down whilst the other did not want to burn it down. The bottom-line is both communities were wrong because before resorting to violence as the answer there are other ways of dealing with the situation. Both parties want the best education for their children and that was the issue that was supposed to be discussed and not fighting one another over the method of dealing with the situation.

The sad part is two previously disadvantage groups are fighting over a service that they were denied during apartheid; a historical fact that both Zille and her cabal conveniently overlooked. This situation also brought another issue to the fore; ‘white’ people do not want to take responsibility for the mess that was created during apartheid. They were the beneficiaries during apartheid and still is today. What most people do not understand about apartheid is that it was an ideology that was created to make ‘white’ people that sole beneficiary of whatever economic output.

For any ideology to be effective it needs to institutionalise physically and mentally. What happened in 1994 is a half done liberation process. The ANC was unable to remove all of the institutional features of the apartheid ideology and that is why the majority of South Africans are “held captive within the economic and cultural structures of … [apartheid]” (Dr Chinweizu, 2007)). What happened in 1994 according to Dr Chinweizu is the following: “On each country’s ‘independence day’, it simply moved from being ruled and exploited for imperialism by white expatriate colonialists to being ruled and exploited for imperialism by black comprador colonialists.” What I am trying to show is that the ANC was unable to remove all of the structures apartheid.

The solution in Grabouw was simple, instead of looking towards the state for a solution for the overcrowded school in Grabouw, the farmers of the area was supposed to take the responsibility of building a bigger school for the children of their farm workers. Remember they introduced ‘Bantu education’ and benefitted years from the cheap labour from the Eastern Cape, so it is now their responsibility to give back what they got from disadvantaging others.

The second issue at hand is the DAs subtle racism. It is sad that they deny it and is completely unaware of it. Unfortunately for them, Helen Zille this time around made a silly mistake by calling ‘black’ pupils from the Eastern Cape ‘edu-refugees’. At a subconscious level she still sees people who come from the Eastern Cape as ‘refugees’ from the Transkei ‘homeland’. We all know that during apartheid ‘black’ people needed a pass to enter the Western Cape. Maybe she see ‘black’ pupils from the Eastern Cape attending schools in the Western Cape carrying passes and this might explain why she called them ‘refugees’.

While I am on the issue of the Eastern Cape, Zille must remember that it was her fore-fathers that supported an apartheid South Africa. Many English ‘white’ South Africans do not want to take responsibility for apartheid but they easily forget that before apartheid was officially introduced by the National Party in 1948 the English laid the foundation for apartheid by forming the Union of South Africa without ‘black’ people.

Here is another fact that Zille conveniently forget, in the 1980s the Western Cape was declared as a Coloured Labour Preferential Area. The Coloured Labour Preferential Policy was created to attract cheap labour from the ‘homelands’ to cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town. When the Western Cape was declared such an area and many South Africans from Transkei came to the Western Cape in search for work. This allowed farmers to access cheap seasonally labour.

If we consider all of this why is it so difficult for Zille to apologise and accept that she offended the majority of South Africans? I am also suggesting that Zille who obvious speak from a privilege background to understand that she cannot utter racial condescending statement and then go about blaming the ANC where she and her fore-fathers was the cause of it all. It is time for the beneficiaries of apartheid to take responsibility for the mess of apartheid, and not only by apologizing and say that “we were wrong” but through sharing some of the resources they gained through disadvantaging ‘blacks’ during apartheid.

26 March 2012

Waiting in Vain

I come from a small town called Bitterfontein and the name says it all. If you have to drive through Bitterfontein at any given time you would think the people is fast asleep. I know that currently there are less than a 1000 people staying in Bitterfontein because most people need to look for jobs outside the town.

Since 2002 I am the only graduate and most youngsters stay at home ‘looking’ for a job. Some people, especially if they are from the city, would find the laid back nature of Bitterfontein quite frustrating.

But something happened about two weeks ago that shocked the whole Bitterfontein. It happened so fast; they protested for jobs and houses and they even made the regional newspaper!

The housing issue in Bitterfontein is a rather sensitive or delicate situation. If you are a government official and you use the words ‘housing’ or ‘house’, they will swear at you, your mom and your dead grandparents.
The housing situation in Bitterfontein goes as far back as the 1980s. According to one of the local leaders they were promised houses in 1986 and when 1994 came this promise was repeated and thereafter before very major election.

If you go to Bitterfontein now, you would rarely find a house that does not have back yard dwellers. To make matters worse 22 of the back yard dwellers were promised houses, they even have the plots in their names. However, when Bitterfontein in 2011 changed from a district management area under the West Coast District Municipality to a ward of the Matzikama Municipality they were put on a waiting list because there are more priority areas in the greater Matzikama than Bitterfontein. This made people despondent towards their new municipality.

And then Matzikama made the mistake that the people were waiting for all along. Matzikama contracted people from outside Bitterfontein to clean the streets. This angered the youth in particular.

What happen next could not have been predicted by any political analyst and I am 100 percent sure those who participated in the protest march were also unable to. After a confrontation with the municipality staff they started burning tyres in the main street of Bitterfontein; they one that take you to the gas station.

The police was called in but even they were unable stop the protesters or they were too scared because some of the protesters were their sisters, brothers, uncles and aunties. Or they have never seen a protest march and they were dumbfounded by what was happening. The protesters went on burning the dustbins and throwing rubbish everywhere; it took them a couple of hours to cool down and to go back to their everyday of living which is waiting on the government to deliver.

8 May 2012

Zuma and the Media

Without the media’s help President Jacob Zuma would have not been where he is today. Without the ANC I do not think that any newspaper in South Africa would have survived financially. The media know that the majority of South Africans are supporting the ANC and therefore they need to make sure that half of every newspaper every day is covered with stories of the ANC.

Last week the hopes of ANC presidential hopefuls, like Sexwale and Motlanthe, was shattered by news reports on the controversial painting of the president’s genitals. This was sealed by the continuous reports on how outrage and hurt the president and the ANC were.

Let me explain how Jacob Zuma is benefitting from the incident. We are all aware that in 2005 Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as his deputy president. This gave Zuma and his supporters an opportunity to portray him as a victim of a political complot. As a victim it gave him leverage over his competitor Mbeki as people usually sympathises more with victims than anything else.

The painting therefore is a blessing in disguise for Zuma’s dying Mangaung campaign. Once again this gives Zuma and his supporters an opportunity to portray him as a victim and surely this will garner him more sympathy.

Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that is right to portray the President of South Africa like that. I am merely outlining the advantages of the painting and the bias of the media. The media was also the one that perpetuated the violence against black internationals and termed the incident that happened that night in May 2008 on the Eastrand as ‘xenophobia’.

Xenophobia is the fear for all strangers but what happened during the month of May 2008 throughout South Africa was not a fear for strangers but a fear of black African refugees. It was the media reports that alerted thugs and criminals to use an incident like that as an excuse to loot Somalian owned businesses.

So once again the media is giving Zuma an unfair advantage over his competitors for the top spot in South African politics, but they will not complain because they will be laughing all the way to the bank.

22 May 2012

Equality in South Africa

Human rights are those essential rights that every human being is supposed to have. During apartheid the majority of South Africans were denied these rights and were treated inhuman. These rights are embedded in the South African Constitution but since 1994 the realisations of these rights have been minimal.

The Gini - coefficient is a statistical tool to measure the equality in a particular country. The South African Gini - coefficient is one of the highest in the world and makes South Africa one of the most unequal societies in the world. In South Africa the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. For example, in 2009 more than 13 million people received a social grant (Taipei Times) and in 2011 the Mail & Guardian report that about 50 percent of South African is living below the poverty line. A poverty line is based on the minimum food needs for daily energy requirements. South Africa’s is currently are measured at R500 per person per month (National Treasury).

In South Africa you find that the majority is living in conditions that are not suitable for humans; many lives in shacks without running water, electricity or proper sanitation. The plight of the poor in South Africa was created by a system of systematic discrimination of blacks (used as a generic term to describe the previously discriminated) during colonialism and apartheid.

Dr Chinweizu argues that African states have failed to gain independence because they are still “… still held captive within the economic and cultural structures of the … [colonisers]”. This explains a lot with regards to the current situation in South Africa. The majority of black South Africans are still living the way they used to under apartheid.

Black people are still your waitresses, domestic workers, gardeners, construction workers and farm workers something that Bantu Education ensured. The father (Hendrik Verwoerd) of Bantu Education believed that black people must get an education that will make them pretty much a farm animal.

The apartheid ideology created a situation where black people were enslaved in their own minds; they believed that they were not more than any farm animal. This is what Dr Chinweizu is talking about: the black people of South Africa are still held captive since 1994 within the economic and cultural structures of apartheid.

This raises the question whether all South Africans are treated equally and like human beings. This question is not an easy one to answer, especially if one considers the South Africa Constitution. In terms of section 9 of the Constitution everyone has the right to be treated equally. No one can be discriminated against race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. The Constitution also states that everyone has the right to life and a right to human dignity. In addition to this, the Constitution even went as far as embedded some socio-economic rights such as healthcare, housing, education, food, water and sanitation. However, the Constitution put a limitation to these rights because it states that the state must ensure the progressive realisation of these rights within its available resources.

This limitation on socio-economic rights has prevented the majority of South Africans demanding for radical realisation of these rights; radical in the sense that they demand government to give them houses and give it to them now. From the time the new Constitution came into effect and 2000 it seemed that citizens would have to wait for the state to provide resources whenever they have it and whenever they had the money for it.

But then the Grootboom case happened. Irene Grootboom was part of a number of people who were squatting in the Wallacedene informal settlement near Kraaifontein in the Western Cape. When the informal settlement became overcrowded she amongst other decided to occupy a piece of land next to the informal settlement. However, the land owner got an eviction order and the people were forcefully removed and their belongings were destroyed in the process. They were stuck because they could not anymore go back to Wallacedene as other squatters took their spaces and they decided to settle at the local sport field.

They informed the local municipality about their situation and demanded temporary accommodation but when they did not received any communication from the municipality they took the municipality to the Cape High Court. The Cape High Court ruled in favour of Grootboom in terms of considering children. The Cape High Court took this decision to the Constitutional Court who indicated that the state did not fulfil its obligation in cases of people living in extreme conditions. The ruling also encourages obliges the state to plan properly for the realisation of socio-economic rights.

This case created a big debate as to the state of equality in South Africa and whether the state is doing everything its power to create an equal society for all. Another watershed case in this regard was the Treatment Action Campaign vs the Minister of Health and others. The TAC also took the state to the Constitutional Courts with regards to providing HIV positive citizens with anti-retroviral treatment. The Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the TAC and obliges the state to provide citizens that could not afford anti-retroviral treatment with ARVs.

Even though these cases signal a positive stance from the courts to bring about equality and the realisation of human rights, it does not mean that citizens are treated equally. The law recognises citizens as equal but it does not mean that in practice equality is achieve. Let me give you practical examples. Just look at Constantia and Khayelitsha. More people per capita square metre is staying in Khayelitsha than in Constantia. Constantia is a previous ‘white’ area and Khayelitsha a previous ‘black’ area, in terms of race these areas stays the same. If we focus on per capita income in terms of race it is clear that ‘white’ people are richer than ‘black’ people.

However, if you take a trip to Gugulethu you might be surprised by the inequality in a black neighbourhood. In Gugs you will find some very rich and some extremely poor black people. The same can be said about Kraaifontein and other places in South Africa. Even though ‘white’ people still largely enjoy the fruits of the economy, we also notice that more and more black people are joining them. This signals a class division among black people. Sadly but true most of the black beneficiaries is somehow connected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC.

In term of education we also notice the same trends. The Sunday Times (27 May 2012) have reported that there is a primary school in Limpopo without any class rooms. It also reported that Limpopo schools will write exams without the necessary textbooks. This is the sad reality of the state of education in South Africa. Furthermore, whilst ‘white’ people still largely get better education than black people, there is an emergence of a black middleclass that is able to afford private or really good education. In the future no one will be able to get a decent job without a university degree, and if quality education is accessible to the middleclass and the rich it will create a situation where the poor majority will have to settle for inhuman work and will be trapped in their current situation. We are noticing this already because only last more than twenty illegal miners were killed in two separate mining accidents. For these ‘miners’ it was their last resort to risk their lives to put food on the table for their families.

If we consider all of this it paints a scary picture for the poor black majority. If this particular situation continues the poor will become more impatient and will resort to other measures of realising their rights such as violence. Since 2000 the number of protest marches had increase and this is clearly a symptom of a nation that fed-up of waiting. The poor have waited for too long. The ‘arab spring’ (the popular uprising in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc.) was not predicted or even anticipated. If I am the rich and the National Executive Committee of the ANC this would send shivers down my spine.

29 May 2012