Thank you Gugu. Well written piece indeed. You say 'Where do the likes of Ken Sinclair and Jessica Leandra derive their resentment and condescending attitude for Black South Africans?' Well, while yours is a good and honest question, you obfuscate it by saying, 'The likes of Tshidi, Ken and Jessica are a new generation of racists...' You have compromised your grasp of what racism is by including Tshidi in the list. A racial slur is not equivalent to being racist.
Let me explain: Ken and Jessica, although they may be school colleagues of black kids, their lifestyle is fundamentally superior and comfortable. What do I mean? They live in bigger and secured (from black encroachment) homes, they have decent infrastructure; they know blacks as garden boys, house maids and trolley pushers at the supermarket; they don't know where the Blacks live until they see the tin houses and squatters through the window of their parents' big cars which always drive speedily further off the townships. Jessica's and Ken's parents are executives and managers of educated Blacks despite the superior or equal education on the part of Blacks. (Theirs earn 8 times more than Tshidi's re: Lucy Holborn's labour/salary surveys 2010/2011.) When they've been to their grandpa's farm, it is Tshidi's relatives who slog away and tolerate the shouts and insults from grandpa and his son...a son who soon enrols at UFS and lodges at Reitz residence! He has everything. And soon, whether govt will employ him or not, he is the heir of grandpa's farm - thanks to section 25 of the constitution - and he will carry on peddling the racist order. I could go on... Suffice it to say to you how dare you call Tshidi racist? Tshidi does not have the power (economic/legal/political/cultural) to subjugate Jessica or any white person for that matter, whether or not her parents are well off. I enjoyed your piece. FUSI Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: [email protected] Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 09:13:05 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [YCLSA Discussion] Fwd: The unilateral road towards nation building- Danger signs ahead Very powerful insight Cde Gugu! We still truly have a long road to travel. I can't say as a nation because we are not a nation, but just a bunch of 50million people who just tolerate each other in public but abuse one another behind closed doors (master-servant) or, of late, in social networks. It all goes down to the issues of entitlement by whites and inferiority by Africans. If SA is still refered as ZA, it ain't gonna change. If Africans are still refered to as "black", it ain't gonna change. If more than 80% of roads and towns names still reflect apartheid, nothing is going to change. If we are still members of Commonwealth, it ain't gonna change. If racism is not a criminal issue but an equality/human rights issue, nothing will change. If there are still Afrikaans-only schools, your guess is as good as mine. I still believe that CODESA and TRC were just charades. Blacks went to TRC as humiliated beggars, only to go there to humiliate themselves for what? For a little Bishop to receive nobel prize? I hope the upcoming policy conference of the ANC will bring real second transition for these humiliated beggars. Nathi Mdletshe Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! -----Original Message----- From: Gugu Ndima <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 15:10:27 To: YCLSA-FORUM<[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Fwd: The unilateral road towards nation building- Danger signs ahead *The unilateral road towards nation building- Danger signs ahead* ** I was intrigued by a very innocent, captivating picture on the front page of two major publications. Two “born free” young South Africans which represent diversity in SA were nicely captured. The picture alone tells many tales; at first glance it’s perfect and annulled of sin or pretence. It’s a picture of hope for nation building and for anyone seeing the picture without reading the story, they could easily be led to deception, thinking that we have perfectly managed diversity and finally have a non racial society where black and white South Africans can now gather around a camp fire and sing Kumbaya. Wow South Africa has arrived, I say to myself until I read the story behind the crocodile grins of the young two ladies These two young models were in a racist spat on a social network recently. They allegedly kissed and made up and a cynical Kodak moment, organised by the affirmative action representative of DA was captured on the front page of many newspapers. As expected of South Africans, we had a teary moment of facade reconciliation and pretended that the evil step sister named “Racism” is dead and gone-again. **** One is not sure whether to describe ourselves as gullible or we have our heads so deep in the sand that it’s unbearable to even think of confronting racism in our society head on. Every time we hear rantings reported we again get angry and are reminded of the good old beast. This week, over and above the model and young fellow from Cape Town story, FW De Klerk took the overall standing ovation on CNN and asserted that deep down there are deeply entrenched beliefs that whites still rein supreme. His words were short of saying that the apartheid government actually did blacks a favour and made them vote (in their bush homelands where they belong I guess). This then made me wonder where this insurrectionist behaviour, especially on race stems from with the “born free “generation? Where do the likes of Ken Sinclair and Jessica Leandra derive their resentment and condescending attitude for fellow Black South Africans? Not so long ago we were tackling the Reitz Four case as a nation. The truth is that this is the exact teachings disseminated at their homes over dinner, in churches in their social gatherings when there is no black ear to listen but possibly the domestic worker. The FW De Klerk’s of this world can never see blacks as equal fellow human species in their world. So the generation after them and grandchildren can only pass on this institutionalised thinking to their future descendants. Supremacy runs in their veins, religion and way of life. For the mere fact that Jessica was audacious enough to post such a criminal statement without thinking, simply means that this word is right at the tip of her tongue, used daily and has never been reprimanded for it until recently; hence she was even shocked at the reaction of the public simply because in her community, and immediate social network this is a way of life. This is how they view blacks. The question is, what are their parents teaching them? In South Africa 18 years post democracy we have a place called Orania which epitomises racial segregation and sustains separatism (within a democratic country) in this day in age. These spontaneous slurs are a deeper reflection of the rage and re-emergence of racial tensions. We can’t hide from it any longer; we can’t glossy coat it through TV adverts and racially correct tip-toeing. We now have a younger generation “supposedly “born-free” which has been severely contaminated and will not be kept silent. Tshidi Manana most probably not even politically active, for that moment made sense of some slogans which the late Comrade Peter Mokaba made back then, because she actually had a taste of racial intolerance and blatant attack on her being by a white counterpart. I doubt she said this because she is racist, but she responded to the arrogant tone and statement made by Jessica Leandra demeaning a black man publicly showing no remorse. It’s highly simplistic to say that she was racist –hers was no different from blacks in the 70’s responding to the draconian rule of the apartheid regimen who belittled and undermined blacks. We can do all ‘sorts of reconciliation PR exercises to cover up isolated slurs, but this does not address the under current beneath the calm surface. If a Minister in Cabinet can call his black colleagues Bantu’s or use that word as a reference in this day in age, what does he teach his children? As a nation we haven’t achieved racial harmony, it has been mere tolerance imposed to a large extent by the law. It has not been voluntary and as a nation we have bought into fragile non racialism through Vanity Fair “nation building” events such as the world cup (rugby and soccer). The road has been a unilateral one where consistently its blacks that accept apologies, racially motivated crimes reported- blacks are victims, black workers are exploited in companies. Its consistently been the black hand that must hold out the white flag to keep the nation building torch alive- hence these slurs because not both parties are coming to the table equally. If it wasn’t for affirmative action, Black economic empowerment, employment equity, and generally the constitution- many whites would have been happy with keeping the apartheid status quo, even though some don’t expressly say it. Hence even most complains about government come from their pockets of society and honestly speaking the democratic government is worse compared to what previous government or regime in South Africa; the apartheid government? This is the only government regime in SA that has initiated inclusivity of all races, which has championed non-racialism despite conceited efforts to undermine it. Non-racialism will perpetually be a vision if we fail to address societal factors which still assert racial stereotypes such as “white supremacy”. Blacks in their majority are still poor and marginalised in the main stream of the economy. Racial spatial disintegration still exists due to historical social economic imbalances- and one can still distinguish between a township and a “suburb”. The judiciary unfortunately to a very large extent still plays an instrumental (wittingly or unwittingly) in maintaining the apartheid status quo. Organisations such as the Afri-Forum have never been apologetic about their views and what they stand for; which is largely to preserve historical memorabilia which has no place in the current dispensation . . They managed to single handily wipe off a significant piece of history- the Dubulíbhunu song, through courts. They continue to use courts to undermine transformation as their power base is still largely economical and many economically powerful beings share their views in silent corners. So since access to the justice system still largely depends on your economic base, then it will still be accessed by a few to maintain and preserve traces of our dark past. The likes of Tshidi, Ken and Jessica are the new generation of racists – they now have access to social networks and can take the fight to uncontained places. One wonders how many other “born-frees” who have inherited such abhorrence for fellow their SA citizens exist. We should be apprehensive rather than passive; this should be a lesson for all South Africans, that racism is a stark reality and our failure to deal with it, will only create an unnecessary burden for future generations **** *Gugu Ndima* *A concerned patriot * ** ** ------------------------------ * Note:* This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. *Gauteng Provincial Legislature *and any of its subsidiaries each reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. 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