/ 25 March 2010

Steve vs Juju: Celebrity death match

Steve, Steve — what is this shit? You used to be cool, man. Now you’ve turned into one of those cranky old bittereinders writing grammatically sound, politically flawed letters to Afrikaans newspapers. You’re not supporting the Soccer World Cup because Julius Malema is a racist idiot? That’s the kind of dumb logic the ANC Youth League uses.

You’ve practically become Julius Malema. You want to hold a country hostage because of the actions of one self-serving firebrand? You think that Malema’s violent, racist pandering to the lowest common denominator is best dealt with by stereotyping Africa as a place that ”has yet to yield a single intellectual, a single thought school, a single intellectual thought not inspired by the West?”

As that great African intellectual St Augustine once said, for a war to be just, achieving peace must be your central motive, even in the middle of violence. A letter such as yours only wins Malema more supporters, and just crystallises the belief of many South Africans, that white people see black people as homogenous. Malema does not speak for all South Africans, but the more you sink to his level, the more you fight his fight for him.

But YOU should be speaking for all South Africans — stopping Malema’s hateful rants isn’t about saving the white Afrikaans race — it’s about making South Africa a better place for all South Africans. Your closing paragraph is the Steve Hofmeyr your fans admire — you DO know better than to stereotype all Africans, based on the actions of a few rabble-rousers like Malema and Mugabe. So why do it? I mean, we’re all pissed off, but there are better ways to fight the good fight than resorting to crude racist rhetoric.

Steve Hofmeyr’s open letter to Julius Malema (source: stevehofmeyr.co.za)

Dear Julius,

As of today I withdraw my former World Cup enthusiasm with active endorsements of all warnings to potential visitors until your leadership rebuke you as we see fit. Tomorrow, after you’ve shot the boere you will still be a pitiful black African living in denial of your own impotence parading as a fake achiever without contributing to the world a single original idea.

Yours is mere envy disguised as hatred as nothing you say, wear, drive and steal alas, even your idiocy, is a luxury born of this continent. You must appeal to base sentiment as Africa has yet to yield a single intellectual, a single thought school, a single intellectual thought not inspired by the very West you and Mugabe detest.

You have been a phony from the day you set out to champion a defiance from a period you we not even born. You are still consuming from that productive era living in the lap of luxury thanks to the taxes of the very people you want to shoot, the only tribe to sacrifice a third of its population to breath in the African air.

In history South Africans will choose to forget you when the only thing you should be remembered for is your share in the falling short of a brilliant idea: a working South Africa.

You are a black man. To be proud you must pander to white ideas: you must drive cars, live