King George VI

I had a piece published in The Herald, Port Elizabeth, back in about 2001 protesting at the planned change of the name of the King George VI Art Gallery to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum. My concern was that the move amounted to destroying history. It came as the ANC has sought to change various colonial names. A tentative compromise has been reached in this area, with Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch incorporated in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro. Then I saw the film, The King's Speech, and thought I'd have another bite at this apple. This was the result.

My article, published in the Weekend Post, on March 3, 2011. Click on it to read it full-size.

Then came some follow-up letters and SMS, which are always interesting to see. Often, sadly, my "supporters" add a racist dimension I never intended. Will black Africans ever accept that, for all its failings, colonialism was a necessary step in this country's development?

Some more SMS responses from the following week (not the bottom one, which is about another issue).

Two more, from March 26, which means the issue kept going for three weeks.

The fight to save Mgwali

Today, 17 years since the advent of non-racial democracy in South Africa, many younger people will have no real concept of what apartheid was like. Working for the liberal opposition, the Progressive Federal Party, in the early 1980s, I got to grips with some of the policy's most sinister aspects. There was a so-called "white corridor" between the nominally independent Ciskei and Transkei. The purpose of Vervoerdian "grand apartheid" was to make black people a minority in South Africa, as people supposedly returned to their "homelands". But of course nobody wants to move from where they have lived for generations, so the state started its policy of forced removals of "black spots". One such area was Mgwali, near Stutterheim. The son of one of Mgwali's oldest residents, Kidwell Giga, visited us in our Eat London office and told us something about this historic place - and of how the Nat government was colluding with Ciskei officials to have the area "voluntarily" agree to be removed so some or other dumping ground in the Ciskei. The PFP made it its business to try to halt this removal and many others, including that of Duncan Village, a long-established black settlement in East London. Here the aim was to dump these people in Mdantsane, a sprawling township some 20km outside East London - and happily (for the Nats) in the "independent" Ciskei. They would lose their citizenship just like that.

I wrote this piece at the time (the last leg of copy is below). It was published in the Daily Dispatch in November, 1982. I was 26 years old. Please click on the images to see them at a readable size.

I am happy to record that thanks to widespread opposition, Mgwali and Duncan Village were not obliterated. A few small battles against apartheid were starting to be won in the early- to mid-1980s. I believe those of us who had the guts to speak out against injustice at the time helped bring down the apartheid government monolith in the early 1990s.

Fighting apartheid in the 1970s

Since the ANC came to power in 1994, but especially since Nelson Mandela stepped down as president in 1999, I have found myself compelled to become increasingly critical of the ruling party's mismanagement of our country. Corruption, cronyism, nepotism, the race-based black economic empowerment laws, and so on, have all come in for a battering. My detractors have often accused me of racism, but this is arrant nonsense. I just despise hypocrisy. Anyway, as proof of my nonracial credentials, here are some of my earliest writings.

Somewhat badly edited, this appeared in the East London Daily Dispatch of my childhood hero, Donald Woods, on June 27, 1974. I was 17 years old and in matric. My father had died a few months earlier of a coronary thrombosis. On April 24 of that year, the Progressive Party won six seats in parliament. Among those joining Helen Suzman was future leader Frederik van Zyl Slabbert. Alex Boraine would join them after winning a by-election later that year. These were the first major chinks in the National Party's armour. Increasingly, whites in urban areas would turn against the party of apartheid. My siblings and I worked for many years for the Progs and their successors, the Progressive Federal Party, in pursuit of a peaceful transition to a nonracial democracy.

But of course youngsters do have other things on their minds, and this little letter, published in the Dispatch on August 22, 1974, when I was still 17, shows the impact of the hippie era.

National service, or military conscription, to put it less euphemistically, loomed. I was meant to go in July, 1975, but for some reason the call-up was postponed a year. I worked for the first five months of that year on the Dispatch as a cub reporter, under Woods. During that time I penned this piece, which was run on the leader page on March 4, 1975. Again, it's quite naive and poorly written, but then I was just 19 years old.

The impact of apartheid really hit home when one visited the beach, which in my case was a stone's throw from our humble home in Bonza Bay. I probably wrote this before the June 16, Soweto uprising, but it was published in the Dispatch on June 20, 1976. There was always a delay of about a week before letters were run due to the lag caused by the postal service and, no doubt, a huge queue of letters at the newspaper. I had started studying fine art at the East London Technical College under Jack Lugg, so happily was able to delay the military until July, 1979. I used that time to fight apartheid.

Still essentially a child myself, in 1977, not quite 21, I wrote this piece, which was run on September 6.

I latched onto many issues. This one appeared on September 16, 1977.

The year 1977, with SA still simmering in the wake of the June 1976 uprising, was a traumatic one. Black consciousness leader Steve Biko was murdered in security police detention on September 12, 1977, two days before my 21st birthday. His death saw an outpouring of letters to the editor. These appeared on September 20 - again delayed due to the time lag. By the way, I never kept copies of these letters. My sister-in-law Hazel and I took turns examinig a myriad microfiche files of the Dispatch to track them down.

It was always a great thrill to get the lead letter on the page. This one appeared on October 10, 1977.

This was probably written the day news arrived of Biko's death, but was only published on October 6, 1977.

The evils of beach apartheid came under my cudgel again on October 17, 1977. It is interesting to read the adjacent letters on these pages as they give one an insight into what was happening at the time.

The next white general election was scheduled for November 30, 1977, so the country was not only dealing with issues like Biko's murder, but was also on an election footing. And at election time the Nats could be ruthless.

Here again, on October 20, I got the lead letter.

Another stab at the Nats appeared on October 21, 1977.

I must have been writing almost a letter a day at this point. This was written in the wake of the banning of Donald Woods and was used on October 25, 1977. For a short biography on this remarkable man, visit the Donald Woods Foundation site http://www.donaldwoodsfoundation.org/donald-woods-profile-details.cfm

The anti-apartheid campaign continued with this from October 27.

Here I talk about a protest we planned for the City Hall which was banned. It was run on October 28. My sister Jen was held briefly by the police during this incident.

The banning of various organisations, newspapers and individuals was the subject of this, from October 29.

Justice Minister Jimmy Kruger symbolised the unfeeling nature of a ruthless regime. These letters appeared on October 31, 1977. During this election campaign, I heckled Defence Minister PW Botha single-handedly in the East London City Hall at a massive public meeting. I was nearly beaten up. A few weeks later, we again protested inside the Orient Theatre and I did get kicked around by Nat thugs after we quit the meeting before the singing of Die Stem. The Nats won 134 seats in the election, but the PFP boosted its tally from 7 to 17, while the New Republic Party, successor to the United Party, only mustered 10. So to those who label me racist, I ask: have you ever stood up against tyranny? Have you ever spoken truth to power. I think, in my small way, I made a contribution in the struggle against apartheid which today qualifies me to be equally critical of the ANC when, as it so often does, it puts itself ahead of the interests of the people.

Name-changes

As noted in the blurb on the right, I have written articles and letters to the editors of newspapers attacking injustice and hypocrisy for decades. After being barred from doing so in the local Port Elizabeth media for a couple of years, with a change of leadership a window again opened and I put through this piece, which was used in the Weekend Post of March 3, 2011. Please click on the article to get the bigger picture.

Though cut somewhat, this retains the thrust of my argument. I have, as you'll see in subsequent blog postings, been one of very few writers sticking up for the positive impact which colonialism had on Africa. It will be interesting to see if this article has any response in the letters column this Saturday. If so, I'll update the blog with them.

On a united opposition and direct representation

Cope parliamentary leader Mvume Dandala.

IT is time for all non-racial opposition parties to unite against the ANC ahead of the next municipal elections in 2011. Doing away with the party-dominated proportional representation system would be a bonus.

I submitted this letter to the Sunday Times on the issue. What are the chances of it being used? Very slim, I’d guess, if Winnie Mandela submits another tome like the one they ran on Sunday, which took up nearly half the available space.

Anyway, here is the piece I’ve submitted (and it was in fact used):

THE problems raised by Eusebius McKaiser can be partially ascribed to our political system of proportional representation (“National debate? More like the clash of ignorant armies”, Sunday Times, April 18).

If there is one thing the “old South Africa” was good at it was debates in parliament. Who will ever forget the courageous one-woman stand of Helen Suzman against apartheid? And when the Progressive Federal Party was formed, people like Van Zyl Slabbert and Alex Boraine joined her in exposing the worst excesses of that system.

The bottom line was that each MP first had to win election by a specific constituency. This meant a personal election campaign against one or more opponents from other parties. If elected, he or she was accountable to a specific geographical constituency, and also, of course, to the party they stood for.

There are drawbacks to this “first past the post” system of direct representation, including the marginalisation of smaller parties, but the positives are huge.

Instead of MPs being entirely beholden to the party whip, each has his or her own powerbase, the constituency which they represent. They can even resign and stand for election as independents should the party not be happy with them.

But in the current system each party, and the massive ANC majority makes this pivotal, chooses a list of candidates, and the less independent-minded you are, the higher up on the list your party bosses are likely to place you. Blind loyalty to the party, irrespective of morality, is the requirement. Which is why, especially in the ANC, there is a dearth of leadership figures. No-one is willing to risk his or her political future by, for instance, challenging the party line – under Mbeki’s reign – on Zimbabwe and Aids. Today, no-one in the ANC will challenge the Zuma regime on the widespread corruption and nepotism we see around us.

Indeed, such corruption seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. While service delivery fails and town and city infrastructure crumbles, the incidents of ANC politicians and their friends using their positions to fill their purses is steadily on the increase. The latest example, following Armsgate, is what one could call Eskomgate, in which the ANC investment arm, Chancellor House, stands to siphon off billions to the ANC’s coffers through a form of insider trading in the construction of a new power station.

Imagine an election based entirely on constituencies? You might even get people interested in politics again, with meetings held in halls in each constituency as candidates try to woo voters. You may even see your candidate walking the streets and knocking on doors, canvassing for support. Today all we have are those stage-managed tours of the country before each election by the party leadership.

I’m not hankering for the past, having personally worked with the PFP in my youth in a bid to rid this country of apartheid. But I do think that the old system of direct representation gave our politics more character and meaning. The debates in parliament today are pretty much charades, as the ANC, with its huge majority, steamrollers legislation through while, at best ignoring, if not openly disparaging the opposition. How else does one interpret Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s treatment of Cope leader Mvume Dandala, when he tabled a motion of no-confidence?

While McKaiser says her attitude shows “either a basic lack of understanding about the rules of parliament, or a pernicious attempt to ignore them”, I believe at heart our proportional representation political system is to blame. There is something reassuringly humbling about the old way in which MPs were identified as “the member for Durban North”, or whatever. It gave the debates a sense of context. Sisulu may be a minister, but she should also have a constituency, where voters can actually vote her out of office if they are dissatisfied with how she performs. And, given her treatment of the Reverend Dandala, a gracious, caring man, I believe most people, even in the heart of Soweto, are downright unhappy with how she has used her position to disparage him and his party.

It is surely high time that Cope, for all its unpleasant links with the Mbeki past, joined forces with the DA to give the ANC a real run for its money. With the help of the IFP and the Independent Democrats, this grouping could surely win several ANC-held municipalities in next year’s municipal election.

And at least in local government elections there is greater accountability, with candidates standing in actual geographical wards, although some councillors are still appointed on a PR list.

Can Democratic Alliance stop the slide?

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille. Does her party hold the key to a successful future for South Africa?

IN speaking truth to power, it is not just to the very powerful that we must look.

In reality, more power is often wielded by politicians at a local level. Consider, for instance, how during the Nazi occupation of Europe it was mean, evil apparatchiks at town, even village level, who were responsible for some of the most horrendous atrocities.

Similarly, during the Rwanda genocide, it took only one evil madman with political clout to turn an entire village into a gang of marauding murderers.

I’m not suggesting we in South Africa have reached that point yet, although the attacks on exiles a few years back suggests there is a thin veneer of respectability that can very easily be stripped away.

How to keep things together? How to ensure that the centre holds, and things don’t fall apart? That is the key issue, and it is ironic that in 2010 we have probably seen, at a seemingly trivial level, just ahead of the World Cup, very real signs of the ANC-run municipality in Port Elizabeth allowing things to simply run down.

It is as if they don’t have the will to do the basics right anymore. With a drought threatening the very existence of the city, there are regular reports of people informing the authorities about massively wasteful water leaks, and nothing gets done about it. For days, millions of litres of water are squandered.

We have had ongoing examples of our traffic officers failing to do their work. They are rarely seen – except when barricading freeways in protest over some or other pay dispute. Minibus taxis, whose drivers are rarely brought to book, have become a law unto themselves, breaking every rule of the road with impunity.

Streets with a story

Just some of the gutters in Port Elizabeth where leaves are accumulating. In many, weeds and grass have taken a foothold, as the municipality seems to have stopped caring about maintenance of our infrastructure.

Alfred Terrace in Central, Port Elizabeth, back in the days when gutters were kept clean and some of our key heritage buildings hadn't been allowed to fall into disrepair by cynical, uncaring property speculators.

Okay I know there’s a drought on, so the beautification plans in terms of public gardens are pretty much on hold. But there can be no excuse for the neglect of such basic services as sweeping gutters and weeding sidewalks. It is not only about beautifying the city ahead of the Cup. The city’s gutters are filled with leaves and twigs, in which weeds and grass are establishing major footholds. In time, the infestation will be such that weeds and grass start to crack up both gutters and tarred roads.

Then, of course, when the heavy rains finally come, flooding will ensue as all that detritus in the gutters is finally washed down into the storm water drains, blocking them.

The new regime seems to be largely oblivious of the need to perform ongoing maintenance of the generally fine infrastructure bequeathed to it after 1994. But the rot has only really set in this year in terms of this city’s gutters. In the past, the municipality employed street sweepers, hundreds of them, apparently on a fairly informal basis. Then some bigwigs in Cosatu decided the fact that such people were employed through labour brokers was wrong. These, Cosatu argued, aren’t “proper” jobs, so let’s do away with them. So hundreds lost their jobs, and we no longer see men sweeping those gutters and preventing the growth of weeds. The result: general decay. Okay, sure, a few weeks ago a big yellow machine came past our house and suctioned up some of the matter lying in the gutters. But this is no substitute for manual labour; for a person physically cleaning gutters and removing weeds.

So, at a time when we are supposed to be labour-intensive, a Cosatu demand has seen a machine or two take over the work of hundreds – and of course fail to do the job properly.

A week’s light, but steady rain in the city has now also left a legacy of grass verges and traffic islands that are starting to resemble small jungles. One wonders where the municipal employees all are.

Oh yes, I’ve just remembered. They’re all on strike – though often it’s hard to tell these days. Except, of course, that the black bags pile up and are split open by dogs and vagrants, waiting for the next cold front to bring a gale which will spread the waste matter far and wide. Which makes you wonder why people are so foolish as to put out their rubbish for collection when they know – if they read their newspaper or watch telly – that a strike is on.

There is a national local government election next year. Most of the people who pay rates in our towns and cities probably support the opposition Democratic Alliance. The majority who don’t pay, or pay very little, vote ANC, which then takes those rates and either wastes them on parties and perks, or uses them to subsidise the free electricity and water which “indigent” township dwellers receive.

One would not wish to see poor people deprived of these handouts because, like pensions and grants, they provide the livelihoods on which so many depend.

However, I believe – as Cape Town and the Western Cape have shown – it would be wise to vote into power people who represent those who actually pay the rates that keep cities running. At the moment the ANC operates in a vacuum where they do as they please with money largely provided by people who did not vote for them. If all Cope and other opposition supporters simply voted DA, we might see other cities again start being run properly.

Just a thought.

Putting Pinky in her place

The Chapman, one of the ships which brought the 1820 Settlers to South Africa from Britain. About 5000 settlers arrived in Algoa Bay that year. Now, 190 years later, their impact and that of their descendants on the development of South Africa, is evident across the country.

Speaking truth to power

IN speaking truth to power, it is not only politicians one must consider as having a major influence on the affairs of state. Consider the impact which a misguided columnist in a newspaper with a readership of over four million has.

I have submitted the first seven paragraphs of this article to the Sunday Times for publication. What are the chances they will use the piece? Anyway, herewith my entire argument in response to what I consider a decidedly slanted bit of journalism.

Putting Pinky in her place

EVEN as she seeks to condemn racism, Sunday Times columnist Pinky Khoabane actively endorses anti-white racism. In “Mr President, don’t condone the racists” (April 11), she quotes from a report in The Economist which apparently said “only a quarter of black people accounted for the 4% richest people in this country”.

She adds that whites “still account for three-quarters of senior positions in the work place. Of the 295 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, only 4% have black chief executive officers”. “In short, Mr President” she concludes in her open letter to Jacob Zuma, “it is business as usual for whites in this country.”

Isn’t it time black people started thanking their lucky stars there are still skilled white people willing to invest their lives and futures in a country where they are continually disparaged? I would suggest Khoabane should be grateful that white people are still around to make this economy work. Does she not realise what would happen if four million white people got up and left? This place would fall apart. If things look a little threadbare now, after 16 years of ANC rule, imagine how bad they’d be had the racists got their way completely and all whites had emigrated.

Colonialism was a global reality. It happened over hundreds of years around the world. And it wasn’t all bad.

Where would this country have been without the skills and expertise the European immigrants brought with them? Where would this country be without the first-world trade and business links (think mining, medicine, industry, agriculture) the settlers brought with them? A simple “tour” of South Africa via Google Earth shows you the template of some 350 years of partnership between white and black in this country. It is an awesome achievement.

European settlers may have, as they did around the world, subjugated the local population, but they also ensured that today we have a relatively advanced economy on the tip of a continent which generally is desperately poor.

So instead of ranting against the role of whites, Khoabane should be counting her blessings they are still here, keeping businesses afloat and competitive in a tough global economy. Indeed, she should actively campaign for the scrapping of BEE, affirmative action and the Employment Equity Act, which openly discriminate against white people and, I am sure, are contrary to the UN’s human rights clauses.

Khoabane should be less concerned about the colour of those at the top of the business pile than about what is becoming of those areas now run predominantly by black South Africans – namely the public sector. It is no secret that service delivery has been atrocious over the past decade, with many municipalities crumbling under a sea of leaking sewage, pot-holed roads, failing water purification plants, weed-riddled pavements and gutters and widespread corruption and ineptitude. If the former white suburbs are looking bad, I hate to think how the townships are faring.

Black people should embrace their white compatriates and get the ANC to scrap immediately the clause in the bill of rights of the Constitution which allows for so-called “fair discrimination” in favour of the “previously disadvantaged”. I kid you not, there is such a clause which is used to justify all those racist, anti-white laws which everyone so blithely accepts in the name of “redressing” the inequities of the past.

This is Africa. Three quarters of the continent live in poverty. If the ANC want this country to join the likes of Zimbabwe as a failed state, then carry on complaining like Khoabane is doing about whites who successfully run profitable businesses. Where are the great new enterprises started by skilled black people during one of the longest periods of economic growth in our modern history just prior to the current recession? I’m not talking about all the suits in boardrooms who got there on the strength of their colour and BEE/AA/EEA. I’m talking about real entrepreneurship.

Creating wealth is not easy. Like Khoabane, I am a mere journalist. We are in second-tier jobs, arising from the establishment of cities by the original generators of wealth in commerce, industry and agriculture. I suggest she, and ANC cadres generally, humble themselves and look at what it takes to run a successful farm or factory, hospital or airport, you name it, before they condemn those who do so because they happen to be white.

They might discover that it is easier to criticise than it is to put in the long hours of hard work which are a prerequisite for such enterprises to succeed.