Tuesday 19 April 2016

The forbidden K-word that still pops up at private social events

Picture the scenario. You are invited to a family social gathering. You look forward to socialising with your besties and close family. While standing around a braai, the conversation jumps from one topic to another as the beer and wine flows freely. Someone unsurprisingly, raises the topic of race and discrimination; the conversation becomes uncomfortable and the inevitable happens, someone mutters the K-word!  There is a brief momentary silence (all of 3 seconds) and someone else adds fuel to the already lit blaze of discrimination. Although you feel very strongly about racist behaviour, you remove yourself from the conversation awkwardly and maintain your silence indefinitely.

On your way home, you find yourself pondering the events and discussions of the afternoon, and wonder if you had done the right thing by remaining silent during the racist tirade of people you’ve come to believe is your support base and the fabric of your being. Although you have differing views on the topic of racism and discrimination, you ponder whether you should have “upset the apple cart” and reprimanded the offending instigators. The fear of losing or falling out with close friends and family is something you cannot afford, so your silence vindicates you from being a part of that act of blind racism. You feel that it was enough protest to voice your position on the subject.

Alternatively, had you voiced your opinions and reprimanded the offenders, you may have undoubtedly fell out of favour with your closest brethren and possibly never invited to a family gathering again for fear of you “upsetting the status quo”. Nevertheless, you felt that the conversation was reminiscent of the type of conversation you may have experienced in the bad days of apartheid. You feel that you have progressed and learned enough since then, yet are saddened that there are still people within your social circle who share the same views they have shared more than 20 years ago.  You feel the democratic dispensation of 1994 has done little to quell the thoughts and misdeeds of people closest to you, and disparagingly, your community as a whole. As you ponder, you reason, that, countering the racist argument would fall on deaf ears, because it would be similar to having an argument with a 4-year old, on why he should not be eating lots of sugary sweets and luxuries. You therefore feel helpless under the circumstances, and resign yourself to accepting that you are powerless in changing or influencing the thought patterns of people set in their old fashioned racist ways.

You wonder if it’s worth abandoning your social circle for the sake of your ethical beliefs. If not, are you also a silent racist like them or do you believe your reaction was justification in maintaining your social circle, and the silent protest enough to voice your difference of opinion?

In hindsight, my silent reaction to a recent racist conversation, was unacceptable and I should have done the right thing by reprimanding the offenders and cement my stance on all acts of discrimination.  By remaining silent, I betrayed the victims on the receiving end of racism (all people of colour, including whites) and my loved ones who I have taught to speak up against such discrimination. Never again will I remain silent in the presence of old fashioned racists who display very little knowledge of the pain caused by Apartheid on the millions of people (and their ascendants) in this country, let alone their own families and communities. The only way to rid the scourge of racism is for each and every one to speak up against, and forbid any form of discrimination in their presence…….albeit a childish prank played out by supposedly elderly, responsible men who should know better.

Monday 21 March 2016

How unmitigated arrogance can be self-defeating

Much has been written and discussed about the latest Guptagate revelations. While browsing through the weekend newspapers, the Guptagate saga took precedence over any other local or international story that was worthy of being published. Claims of attempted “State Capture” by the Gupta-Zuma alliance, affectionately named “Zupta” by the enfant terrible, has raised considerable interest across various sectors of South African Society. The fear of South Africa turning into a kleptocracy, and in the process our economy being trashed with a downgrade to “Junk Status” by global rating agencies, was a very real threat for every South African struggling to make ends meet in our already dodgy economic climate.

The impact of political uncertainty has already affected interest rates, costs of energy, food, and basic daily living standards. The lack of effective leadership culminating in factional fighting within the ANC and the Tripartite Alliance, has caused reverberations internationally and has discouraged any possible foreign investment this country so desperately needs. A review by Moody’s rating agency with an expected downgrade will seal our economic fate and render our investment potential as toxic by international investors.  The repercussions of this will be felt for the next 5 to 10 years, with very little potential for real economic growth. Can we seriously afford to have a government with a ruling party whose leaders are embarrassingly incompetent, corrupt and utterly out of tune with the expectations of the electorate. Do they have any inclination of what they have wrought on the populace in their last 5 years of national rule?

The general consensus for our continuous path of downward spiral is the cause of one man and one man only, this being our esteemed Commander-in-Thief himself. The corrupt relationship he enjoys with dodgy businessmen and their attempt of absolute state capture through this relationship is blatant for the world to see. Although the call for his impeachment and recall, from all South Africans is overwhelming, the ANC leadership seems somewhat unperturbed. While there are some dissenting voices within the party and the Tripartite Alliance, this has proven not to be enough for the NEC to act on the public’s outcry for a recall of Mshiniwam. That said, Mshiniwam will emerge much stronger than before. Considering his arrogance, this will undoubtedly give him the impression that he is untouchable, with all-encompassing powers over state, party and parliament. But, history has proven to unmask the self-proclaimed untouchables, and it would be just a matter of time before the Nkandla Crooner makes that one fatal mistake that would eventually bring the curtain down on his illustrious criminal career, and as the leading Corruptor-in-Thief. I think we as the public should be patient and allow the corrupted one to slowly tighten the noose around his neck and eventually hang himself through his own arrogance and self-indulgence. We wait with bated breath.....

Thursday 25 February 2016

The price we pay for being the most unequal society, globally.


Although South Africa, as a nation, has transformed from an oppressed apartheid state to a questionable democracy (I will leave this debate for another day!) since 1994, we have still not liberated ourselves from the scourge that is racism. The only thing that has evidently changed is the political dispensation from oppression to democracy in the guise of a world leading Constitution. Ye t this, coupled with 22 years of hard work has not transformed our society from racist behaviour as experienced prior to 1994. The latest confrontations between campus students at various universities across South Africa, lends credence to the fact that ours is a society still sick with racist and discriminatory tendencies, which is evidently deep rooted in the individual psyche. Some would argue that 400 years of oppression cannot be eradicated in the space of 22 years.  My argument is that if bad-ass legislation (something similar to Saudi Arabia’s criminal laws) is put in place to curb the scourge of racism, we can eradicate racism in our society within a period of 20 years!

The introduction of BEE as legislation, has expanded the middle and upper class, predominantly, and improved the lives of PDIs (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals) fortunate enough to have prospered from such legislation. Unfortunately, this has given rise to another form of discrimination not only between people of different races, but sadly between people of the same race, i.e. class and social discrimination.  As a result of the expansive growth of the middle and upper class through BEE legislation (and government corruption), South Africa has arguably become the most unequal society in the world.  The Gini Coefficient for South Africa, which measures the average wealth of the richest ten percent compared to the poorest ten percent, has consistently been the worst (most unequal) of all countries measured over the last 5 to 10 years. 

Although some of us have improved our lives from humble grassroots to the prominent middle class, in terms of earning and living standards, we tend to have forgotten how we got there and who we had left behind (or who was not fortunate enough to have prospered from same said BEE legislation).  With the country currently in a state of indefinite protest with sporadic violence and pilfering by different protest groups, there seems to be a tendency of favouring one group of protesters over the other, seemingly based on skin colour and/or social circumstances. I may be barking up the wrong tree, but a case in point is the protest of local residents from Parkwood in Cape Town, who were protesting against the destruction of their settlement of shacks. Here, we have a typical case where people from poverty stricken and low income earning households objecting to the destruction of their humble homes. Given the circumstances, it was inevitable that the protest may escalate into something quite familiar, i.e. the looting of nearby businesses, or destruction of property through wanton acts of vandalism.  I’m not condoning these actions or saying they were well within their rights to take the protest to the next level. On the contrary, there should have been a community leader to co-ordinate the protest peacefully and ensure no such vandalism occurred. But, as is wont in most unmanaged protest marches in this country, the inevitable DID occur, with unfavourable repercussions. This unfortunate act of vandalism (as a result of a legitimate reason for protesting) was scorned upon in Social Media as a scourge worse than the bubonic plague. Unprintable words and phrases to describe the perpetrators were strewn around social media sites, with media hacks expressing their “utter disgust” of the act in question. Amazingly, or should I say disappointingly, MOST of these comments came from people of the same race……

Turning to the two incidents that happened at TUKS and OFS Universities, where protests of a more complex nature were unfolding, the conclusion to these protests resulted in brutal violence BETWEEN race groups. The social circumstances of these groups, I’m inclined to believe, was that of a more progressive position than those protesters in the Parkwood debacle. Although there were traumatised and hospitalised victims as a result of this blatant act of violence from a group of racist white “intellectuals”, I failed to find a similar uproar from the same group of people who so openly showed their disgust for the Parkwood protest. 

I’m therefore inclined to believe that if you are from a specific social class, or specific race, your behaviour in public, no matter how unsociable, is acceptable and is condoned unreservedly by the keepers of middle class society. Although the violent protests at the campuses were denounced by people from different persuasions on Social Media websites, the reaction was less so than that of the very distasteful reactions for the Parkwood protests.  THAT, unfortunately, is the price we South Africans pay for being the most unequal society in the world. If we are struggling to rid our Society from racist bigots after 22 years of democracy, how long will it still take to rid our society from class discrimination, and heaven forbid, BETWEEN people of the same race group!