Maravi

(HERALD) Kill the Boer indeed

Kill the Boer indeed!
Wednesday, 11 January 2012 00:00
My Turn Caesar Zvayi, Deputy Editor

Being one of the few Zimbabweans who got the chance to join the ANC in celebrating 100 years of existence in Mangaung, I stubbornly refuse to call it Bloemfontein, let me take this opportunity to wish my South African brother’s a happy anniversary.
I hope you will have another 100 years of bringing meaningful change to the lives of the poor people in Kayelitsha, Alexandra and many other slums whose inhabitants do not hear, but listen to Letta Mbulu’s classic hit, Not Yet Uhuru.

This powerful ditty not only captures the tragedy of many African countries that got
the crown minus the crown jewels; but South Africa’s unique condition of being a political and socio-economic binary.

In Mzansi the white minority has a stranglehold on the means of production while for many freedom, not independence, has just meant seeing black faces in government which explains the anger among the likes of Julius Malema.

Well it is not my place to try to spoil the spirit of the centenary. A hundred cheers to my fellow brothers!

In his address in Mangaung, ANC president Jacob Zuma rightly paid tribute to countries in southern Africa and many others as far afield as Cuba and the Nordic countries for the crucial role they played in bringing freedom to South Africa.

Its worth noting that in his 56 page speech, Msholozi made no mention of the countries that today pass themselves off as the originators and defenders of neo-liberal democracy — the United States and Britain — for rather than abet South Africa’s cause for independence, these countries actually abetted apartheid.

They violated the sanctions the UN had imposed on the apartheid regime, and continued to trade and consort with the murderous regime. The US in fact went a step further by placing the ANC and its leadership on sanctions after declaring them terrorists.

The administration of Ronald Reagan opposed formal sanctions on apartheid South Africa, preferring to exert quiet pressure to speed up reform.

But the demand for sanctions could not be quieted, and in 1986 the US Congress overrode a presidential veto to ban the importation of South African goods and prohibit American business investments in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, whose legacy the Anglo-Saxons have sought to expropriate by turning him into a virtual mascot for politically correct photo opportunities, was deemed a terrorist by the US State Department as late as the run-up to his 90th birthday in 2008.

US president George W Bush had to issue an executive order to have Mandela and the ANC leadership off the sanctions list before July 18, 2008.

Be that as it may, the bottom line is Uncle Sam was an enemy of democracy in South Africa as evidenced by his opposition to Mandela’s quest for freedom, and this should put his sanctions on Zimbabwe, its leadership and other people into perspective.

But the question is why do westerners embark on this charade of celebrating Mandela as if they believed in his cause? Why did they erect his statue in Piccadilly Square? What is it that happened between February 11, 1990, the day Madiba ambled out of prison and 1999, the year he left office that so endeared him to westerners?

The answer is simple Madiba, after taking the baton from the other nine ANC presidents before him, did not upset the apple cart. He was content to have the crown minus the crown jewels, and in so doing became the typical good African who does not pose “an unusual and extraordinary threat to US foreign policy” unlike his counterpart north of the Limpopo.

For in imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, the US made it clear that the sanctions were being imposed because ‘‘Zimbabwe constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States.’’ This is the text of Executive Order 13188 that the US president uses to extend the sanctions every year.

Contrary to western rhetoric and grandstanding the sanctions were not imposed to promote democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe but to subvert democracy whether in its expansive or minimalist form.

So what is my point?

My point is South Africans who have become notorious for something called ‘‘xenophobia’’ should know that while their freedom was a regional effort, it certainly is not the responsibility of the region to transform that freedom from the political to the economic dimension.

Beating and hacking your brothers to death simply because you are out of a job or slept on an empty stomach will not change your condition as long as your leadership chooses to quote and implement only the preamble of the Freedom Charter that goes

‘‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white . . .’’

They should not pay lip to the rest of the charter that inspired patriots to lay down their lives to defeat apartheid.

The absence of the westerners in the tributes Zuma paid to all who helped South Africa on the path to freedom should tell us all who is for and who is against us.

But for me the enduring memory of the centenary was not the counter-flow of Afrikaners who drove out of Mangaung as the ‘‘black peril’’ from Soweto drove in; nor the enthusiasm and jubilation of ANC members of all ages who turned Mangaung into a sea of black, green and yellow.

For me, the enduring memory was that moment Jacob Zuma ended his 56-page speech with the thunderous slogan, ‘‘Amandla!’’ to which the crowd responded with an equally deafening ‘‘Ngawethu!’’

The lasting memory was when Zuma’s voice filtered from the giant stadium speakers doing justice to the anti-Apartheid song, ‘‘Dubula ibhunu! (Kill the Boer)’’ Yes that song that the South Africa Supreme Court tried to kill by declaring it ‘‘hate speech’’ rolled off Zuma’s lips as Malema nodded along on the VIP stage.

I puffed out my chest, and lip-synced even though I do not even know a single stanza. For me Zuma’s rendition of that song showed there is hope for the ANC over the next 100 years. They need to kill the Boer, metaphorically that is, for that is the only way the power (amandla) can be theirs!

Labels: ANC, CAESAR ZVAYI

posted by MrK @ 11:44 AM