Dr. Pieter Mulder: FF Plus Leader, Budget Vote Debate: Presidency (Pres. Zuma), Parliament, May 30 2012

Speaker

The Goodman Gallery and the painting of the honourable President Zuma this week led to serious debates in South Africa. These debates said more about the good and bad state of relationships in South Africa than it did of the painting.

A number of examples: The Afrikaans radio held a phone-in program of an hour about the painting. Eighty percent of the people who had phoned proposed that the painting should be removed immediately because it is in poor taste and is offensive. The majority of these callers were Afrikaans and white.

In a similar program on the English radio channel the callers emphasised freedom of speech and tolerance. The participants were evenly divided in favour of and opposed to the painting. White and black callers were on both sides of the argument.

It was noticeable for me that the views in favour of and opposed to the painting was not that of white against black.

At this point Mr. Gwede Mantashe entered the debate. He sees it immediately as an issue of white against black and as racism. Then he adds: "The more black South Africans forgive and forget, the more they get a kick in the teeth." What an irresponsible statement with which he incites people against each other. Honourable Blade Nzimande followed in the same tone, he threw down the race card and suddenly the debate obtains a serious racial content, which it initially was not about.

Mr. Barend La Grange, who painted red crosses on the painting, explains that he did it precisely in reaction to the racial argument to demonstrate as Afrikaner that this is not a racial white-black issue.

Why do I talk about this? Because I am tire that certain leaders use the race card in every debate. It also goes for journalists who cannot hide their own racial bias in opinion pieces. The past three months there have been a number of these debates

This is short term politics. It is lazy politics. It is politics which incite people without thinking about the long term consequences of this for South Africa.

This is Malema-politics. The damage which Malema-period caused to white-black relationships cannot yet be calculated. I had hoped that the Malema-chapter had been closed and lies behind us.

But in the newspapers there are photos of the placards in yesterday's ANC march which read: "Whites hate Blacks". This is the natural reaction of the protestors to Mr. Mantashe's statement: "The more black South Africans forgive and forget, the more they get a kicked in the teeth."

A reader wrote in a letter: "Racism - That little word that has become the political whip with which the ANC work the masses up into angry mobs and riots anytime something happens that they don't like. And it's becoming really, really tiring."

In this country there will always be white and blacks. I am not planning to leave this country and I do not intend to be intimidated by racist propaganda. We can live together in conflict and hate or in harmony and peace. Leaders' comments and examples will determine which recipe of the two we will be following. That is why it is necessary that we learn to disagree with each other and to debate with each other without hiding behind the race card every time.

Why is this politics so dangerous? Because it is the politics of generalisations. All whites are racists, are said. This is definitely not true. All whites are wealthy, is said. This is not true. Go and visit the 70 white squatter camps around Pretoria. All blacks are corrupt. This is also not true. This type of politics may mobilise voters but will not bring any solutions for our problems.

In Zimbabwe the MDC secretary for legal affairs said: "Mugabe keeps talking about whites, about the British, about imaginary enemies and conspiracies because he has no answers for the problems created by his own government".

This is an old political tactic. Hitler singled out the Jews as the scapegoats for everything that was wrong in Germany. We know how that ended. Is it a recipe which is being repeated here without thinking about the long term implications?

Why am I talking about this in the president's budget debate? Because I believe that relationships have deteriorated in South Africa in the past couple of months and we cannot leave it like this. If I had more time, I could mention more examples of this.

In my speeches I often warn against generalisations. The president said last week at Ford Hare: "Don't paint all Africans with the same brush". It is the right message which has to be carried out stronger. But the message has to be expanded to "Don't paint all white Africans people with the same brush". And "Don't paint all South Africans with the same brush". Before we can solve South Africa's poverty, unemployment, shortage of infrastructure, poor service delivery and other problems, it is important that there are mutual trust and good relationships. The current climate and the irresponsible comments of certain leaders are accomplishing the opposite.

Issued by the Freedom Front Plus, May 30 2012

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