THE SETTLEMENT BETWEEN THE ANC AND AFRIFORUM ENTRENCHES ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY ON AFRIKANERS TO THE DETRIMENT OF BLACKS
Norman Gary Finkelstein, an American Scholar of Jewish descent is a well known political commentator on the Israeli-Palestine conflict and the Jewish people in general. What differentiates Professor Finkelstein and probably what makes him well known all over the world is his personal crusade to speak against the "norm".
As a son of parents who were subjected to the holocaust and whose extended family from his father's side was literally exterminated in Auschwitz concentration camps one would expect that he would be the last person to consistently attach what he calls the Jews' use of their experiences in the Nazi concentration camps as an excuse to hold the world and everyone else to ransom. In his seminal book "The Holocaust Industry" he expertly, clinically and scientifically advances a compelling argument of his views on Jewish people holding everyone else to ransom using the historical holocaust,
The so called settlement agreement between the ANC, Julius Malema on one side and the rightwing outfit masquerading as a civil society organization AfriForum as well as the Afrikaner farmers organization Transvaal Landbou Unie- Suid Africa, referred to in the agreement by its English name, Transvaal Agricultural Union of SA ("TAU-SA") reminds one of a similar tactic that Afrikaners in this country are using, to the one used, as argued by Norman Finkelstein and others by Jews, in holding black South Africans and transformation to ransom. For the black population meaningful transformation and economic emancipation is also hijacked and the status quo maintained by all means, including the use of the clearly untransformed courts and other institutions of civil society,
It is instructive and interesting that almost two decades into democracy you still have such racist groupings called AfriForum and TAU-SA. More interesting is that so many years into democracy you still have institutions still naming and defining themselves in terms of old apartheid territorial boundaries without the so called pro-democracy campaigners raising an eyebrow. Which part of the country is Transvaal by the way!
That said, Kallie Kriel of AfriForum is right when he said this morning during an interview with Bob Mabena of the station Kaya FM, that the so called settlement is a victory. It is indeed a victory to the Afrikaners and their well thought out and coordinated strategy to use the fact that there are a minority to hold the country to ransom. It has worked for them for years starting from the birth of the "modern" Republic when they were victims of the English rule,
During that period they used all manner of ways to "protect" and advance themselves against the English menace. Some good and bad came out of it. The good is that they bandied together and started economic empowering enterprises like SANLAM and others. A lesson clearly lost to blacks! Some bad which is lingering to date was apartheid, the Broederbond and others,
In the case in point, they successfully used the same tactic to cajole the ANC into some fuzzy capitulation regarding the song that contains the lyrics "dubula ibhunu". The "settlement" stemming from a legally, historically and culturally flawed ruling of Judge Collin Lamont ( no disrespect to the Learned Judge) in terms of which he ruled that using the words in a historical struggle song amounts to hate speech.
The issue however goes beyond this specific judgment but to the bigger principle issue of the ANC increasingly failing to govern and transform this country for various reasons including it being besieged by a well organized section of the Afrikaner and sometimes black so called experts and "civil society" formations who use every trick in the book to sabotage any meaningful transformation,
AfriForum and its sister "organization" Solidarity are well known for attacking any black appointment in positions also contested by white people.
The "settlement" and the other behaviours referred to above stems from this siege mentality that any right thinking black South African would normally look up to the ANC to confront head on. In reaching the settlement with AfriForum the ANC has failed dismally and one can only hope that it fully appreciates the implications for the transformation project.
The argument advanced by Cde Gwede Samson Mantashe for the agreement is deeply flawed and completely misses a point of principle and an issue that he had, ironically, on many occasions raised: that life and decisions of government are increasingly dictated by apartheid beneficiaries using the very institutions of democracy that the ANC's struggles ushered,
The matter goes beyond the so called agreement and more particularly the vague and philosophical terms of the settlement. It even goes beyond the fact that the Supreme Court of Appeal may have ruled against the ANC. Viewed on its broader context and universally the ANC should have understood what it means for any political and government decision that does not favour the Afrikaner as a minority grouping in this country,
It is a matter that goes back to even the terms of the CODESA negotiated settlement in terms of which the whites made virtually no meaningful concession and only the black majority conceded. StatsSA bears out this position succinctly in its recent report which shows that blacks remains the poorest and least paid in any job in this country. In fact it is even difficult to point to any meaningful progress economically for black people in this country save for a co-opted privileged few and the imaginary "middle class" that white media and institutions continually refers to, to pacify any attempt to seek meaningful economic change.
Indeed it will be a great tragedy if the current leadership of the ANC capitulated for political expediency and convenience (read Mangaung) because the implications will be dire and will be felt in many decades to come. South Africa is not the only country with a minority but it sure is the only one that gets held to such kind of ransom. Those of us who grew up in the liberation movement grew up knowing and idolising white liberation, ANC and Afrikaner stalwarts like Dr. Beyers Naude and others and they sure sang along (if they could) to these songs.
The so called settlement agreement therefore represents yet another sad day for the forward marching economic and political transformation of this country.
Dinga Nkhwashu is a member of the ANC in Pretoria East and writes in his personal capacity.
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