REPLY TO KADER ASMAL, ANC MINISTER OF EDUCATION - That
âPEOPLEâS LIVES HAVE IMPROVEDâ
By Dr. Motsoko Pheko
Prof. Kader Asmal delights in defending the indefensible and undermining the intelligence of the people. His article in a daily newspaper on 29th October 2OO3; that âPeopleâs lives have improvedâ since 1994 is a myth, which cannot go unchallenged. Which people is he talking about? Certainly, it is not the majority population of this country â the African people.
Let me start with education. In 2OO2 out of 667O43 students who registered for Matric only 4OO,OOO sat for their examinations. 267O43 dropped out. In 2OO3 sixty percent of Matric students dropped out. Only 4O% are this year writing their Matric. Several students from the African majority population are not able to complete their university degrees and other studies because their parents are poor.
That is why the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) is advocating free education. Prof. Asmal has told Parliament in reply to PAC âs demand for free education; that âthere is no such a thing as free educationâ. The PAC insists that there is such a thing as free education. If poor countries such as Zambia and Tanzania could give free education; South Africa can certainly do better with the wealth of gold, diamonds and platinum it possesses.
On Friday the 3rd of October 2OO3, our platinum sold for US$ 723 per ounce. That is about R 5O61 per ounce. On the 29th October our platinum sold for US $755.5O per ounce. That is over R 62OO per ounce. Where does this enormous wealth go? Some of it must go for free education of the majority population of this country who have been the victims of colonialism and apartheid, and were denied proper education. Education is the key for the success and advancement of a country. In South Africa, this must be done to level the playfield. A nation, which does not educate its children and people, is committing national suicide.
The harsh reality is that since 1994 over 1O million people have experienced water cuts. The same trend is emerging with electricity. Over two million families have lost their homes because they could not pay their utility bills. Sheriffs came and collected everything. Sheriffs still terrorise these poor people and dispossess them of the little they have.
Unemployment is over 41% in provinces such as Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
Privatisation of strategic state assets by the ANC government has created unprecedented high rate of unemployment in this country. That is why the PAC is advocating an unemployment allowance of at least R 5OO per month.
Over 5OO,OOO people, mainly Africans have died of HIV/AIDS while the present government is dragging its feet over providing the appropriate drugs proposed by the PAC, NAPWA, TAC and other organisations for free treatment of this terrible disease which is an attack on our future. The ANC government has betrayed the land question. It is wrong for the leaders of the ANC to say that âthe problem in South Africa is homelessness, not landlessnessâ. Homes are not built in the clouds or air. They are built on the land. Today the constitution of this country under the ANC government confines land claims to âafter June 1913â.
In other words to the crumbs of 13% which were allocated to the now 77.6% African majority, under the colonial Native Land Act 1913 and Native Land Trust Act 1936. That is why today 1O million Africans live in squatter camps where Prof. Asmal cannot spend even one weekend to demonstrate that âpeopleâs lives have improvedâ in South Africa since the ANC took over the government.
Contrary to the misleading information for purposes of elections by Prof. Asmal, in South Africa; and despite its abundant riches, 95% of Africans are poor. The highest unemployment rate is among the African people. The African rural areas are experiencing 75% poverty. South Africa is the most unequal society in the world, after Brazil. In South Africa today, the lowest households representing 53% of the population consume only 1O% of the money while the top 1O% of the households accounting for 5% to 8% of the population consumes 4O% of the money in this country.
The World Bank Report has confirmed these figures. The poorest people in our country live on less R 281 per month. The poorest white person lives on R 5O55 per month. Since 1994 Africans have become poorer by 19% while the Whites have become richer by 15%. This is because the economic policy of the present government develops areas that are already developed. It enriches those that are already rich. That is why the ANC leadership talks of âBlack Economic Empowermentâ which in practice merely enriches a tiny black elite.
What has increased in this country is not the improvement of the peopleâs lives but corruption in the top leadership of the ANC ruling elite, crime, laws promoting moral degeneration, poverty, disease, ignorance and the economic oppression of the African people and their continued land dispossession. In fact, the constitution of this country reveals that homosexuals are shown more respect than traditional leaders.
Kader Asmalâs assertion that âPeoplesâ lives have improvedâ is a colossal deception and delusion. It is a futile propaganda exercise to trick the voters of this country who have been given empty promises for a long time.
The truth is that our country is like one, which was seen by Prophet Jeremiah and Prophet Isaiah when they wrote respectively, âOur inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners. We are like orphansâour mothers are as widowsâwe drink our water for moneyâ.ââYour country is desolateâyour LAND, strangers devour before your presence.â
Dr. Motsoko Pheko M.P.
PAC President
2.
DID GHANDI CARE FOR BLACKS?
By Dr. Motsoko Pheko
Recently a South African daily newspaper published an article by an Indian lawyer, Anil Nauri in New Delhi in which he asserted that ââGHANDI CARED FOR BLACKS.â My rebuttal of his opinion is not meant to disparage Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi, otherwise known as âMahtama Ghandi;â nor is it meant as disrespect to the Indian people. Its purpose is an honest debate to show why the belief that Ghandi cared for the African people is wrong or is a huge exaggeration thriving on a myth. It is a distortion of history, especially in South Africa.
This myth is compounded by the illogical invention that âGhandi fought against apartheid in South Africaâ. He was assassinated in India in 1947. Daniel Malanâs Nationalist Party introduced his Partyâs policy of apartheid in 1948. It must also be remembered that apartheid in South Africa was internationalised by the 21st March 196O Sharpeville Uprising which was led by the PanAfricanist Congress of Azania (PAC).
Confirming this fact, Frantz Fanon, the author of THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH has written, âThe seventeen days that shook South Africa, and indeed, the entire world from March 21st this year, have forced an irrevocable turn in the history of the country, For aâglorious moment, the PAC and the urban proletariat actively intervened in the destiny of their affairs and ushered in a new period, rich in historical perspectives and pregnant with political possibilities for the democratic movementâ.It was through that, that men and women in the world became acquainted with the problem of apartheid in South Africa.â`
The documented utterances of Ghandi over along period in history, both in South Africa and in India do not show him as caring for the Blacks. That is Africans in South Africa and the âUntouchablesâ in India.
On the 2nd of June 19O6 Ghandi said in the Indian Opinion newspaper, âThanks to the Courtâs decision, only clean Indiansâother than Kaffirs can travel in the trams.â It is true that in South Africa, Ghandi was once thrown out of a train compartment which was exclusively reserved for the Whites.
But as Michael Edwards writes in THE MYTH OF THE MAHATMA, âIt was not that Ghandi was fighting on behalf of the local Africans that he broke the rule in getting into a Whitesâ compartment. No! that was not the reason. Ghandi was mad that he and his merchant class Indians were treated on par with the local Africans.â
On 26th September 1896, Ghandi had said, âOurs is one continued struggle sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.â
In the Indian Opinion of 18 March 19O5, Ghandi wrote, âClause 2OO makes provision for registration of persons belonging to uncivilised races, resident and employed within the Borough. One can understand the necessity of registration of Kaffirs who will not work, but why should registration be required for indentured Indians.â
On the 25 March the same year and in the same publication, Ghandi wrote, âUnder my suggestion, the Town Council (of Johannesburg) must withdraw the Kaffirs from the location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.â
Anil Nauria, the writer of GHANDI CARED FOR BLACKS, cannot, therefore, ignore the persistent statements which show that Ghandi did not care for Africans or untouchables but looked down upon them. It must be remembered that during the war of national resistance against colonialism led by Bambatha in 19O5, Ghandi recruited Indians on the side of the British. They fought against the Zulu-speaking Africans.
As one writer puts, âGhandi joined in the orgy of Zulu slaughter when the Bambata Rebellion broke out. One needs to read the entire history of Bambata Rebellion to place Ghandiâin... proper perspective.â This writer reminds that Ghandi âreceived a war medal from the British Empire while in South Africa for participating in the war against the Blacks in South Africa.â
About the caste system in India, Ghandi wrote, â I donât believe the caste system to be an odious and vicious dogma. It has its limitations and defects, but there is nothing sinful about itâ (Harijan 2 November 1933). In 1947 Ghandi wrote,âI believe in Varashrama (caste system) which is the law of lifeâ.The law of Varna (colour and or caste) is nothing but the law of conservation of energy. Why should my son not be a scavenger if I am oneâ (Harijan 3 June 1947).
It is a national shame that South Africah as no national monuments or films to show for its great sons and daughters such as Hintsa, Bambatha, Mmanthatise, Sekukuni, Mmantsopa, Mohlomi, Mkhabayi and hundreds of others; but there are monuments and films which this country has built or produced for the controversial Mahatma Ghandi. African children are taught more about Ghandi than about their own numerous deserving heroes.
The life of Ghandi in history must be researched and scholarly evaluated. It must be based on facts not fiction and gross exaggeration. A number of his documented utterances do not show that Africans and the âuntouchablesâ of India must build monuments and make films in his honour. END
