Race just gets in the way
Who needs race, really? Is it the black nationalists, communists, white conservatives, liberals? All or none of the above? How does winning the race debate change the life of the working and unemployed poor? Race just gets in the way of South Africans lifting themselves up by their own bootstraps (“Capitalism’s not a white thing“, September 16).
Capturing the political kingdom only sets the stage for the capture of the economic kingdom and social emancipation. Fifty years of freedom in most of Africa shows that the struggle for economic freedom will be long and hard.
Race has become a chain tying South Africans down. Should African people not affirm themselves? The ANC commands an overwhelming majority in Parliament. So why the need for Africans to be affirmed when we are the main actors?
The struggle for African affirmation has taken some curious turns.
African Trevor Manuel calls African Jimmy Manyi a racist. The nation is enthralled by the court battle in which Afri(can/kaner)Forum takes on Julius Malema, alleging hate speech when he sings an African song. Newspapers publish long articles on the race debate. Worthy people engage in these interesting diversions while unemployed youth march with placards and burn tyres on the streets.
Perhaps Malema is doing the continent a favour by raising economic questions so sharply.
Nationalise the commanding heights of the economy, he has declared. Business Leadership South Africa has come out guns blazing, declaring war not on Malema, but on the idiocy of his economic ideas.
The real danger is that the debate will continue to be framed in racial terms. Africanism will be the enemy and (white) capitalism the defence. Has not Malema himself called whites “criminals” who stole African land?
South Africans dare not go back to discussing what racism is and what an African is. The real challenge is connecting with the forgotten poor who are fighting for survival.
Nonracism is more potent today than it ever was, not as a tactic, but as a core principle. The black-white discourse is anachronistic and reactionary, regardless of whether the noise comes from “Africanists” or from “white” conservatives.
Oliver Tambo has been quoted as saying: “It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity.”
Racialised ownership of the economy is not sustainable in the medium term, maybe not even in the short term.
Where the nation is in 10 years’ time depends on whether South Africans focus their energy on struggles about songs and definitions of “African” or focus on the war for social and economic transformation.
The point is that race is no longer a determinant of wealth distribution. South Africans should all wake up and smell the proteas. — Vuso Shabalala, ANC member and former MK fighter, Queenswood
The idea that Samantha Vice has not hit a nerve in post-apartheid whiteness should by now be completely outrageous: a page full of angry, mean-spirited letters to the Mail & Guardian (September 9) is evidence enough.
We needn’t swallow Vice’s argument whole to take what she is saying seriously. The central issue she highlights is that the very possibility of an ethical life here is dependent on a certain impossibility of being and in order to be ethical “successfully”, one must fail to do so.
One understands why this offends people: it is precisely this comfortable ethical position from which so many whites refuse to withdraw. For Vice, clinging to an ethical position is, paradoxically, an unethical choice. I think the nerve she hit is a narcissistic one, signalling the failure of whites to relinquish the positions of power and privilege which apartheid and colonialism placed them in.
The response to Vice suggests, as Margarete and Alexander Mitscherlich said of Germans in 1970s’ Germany, an “inability to mourn”, in this instance, an inability to mourn the death of apartheid and what it enabled. To mourn it would be too catastrophic a loss of white selfhood.
An ethical path may require us to take an “uncomfortable position”, as Vice puts it, in finding new ways of relating and engaging.
A greater awareness of the legacies of apartheid and colonialism will be needed. Without this, whites will be bound to stubborn repetitions of a disavowed past. — Ross Truscott, East London
Academic Samantha Vice has caused a storm of controversy with her thoughts on white shame in South Africa. Read the reactions on our special report.
Guptas unfairly targeted
Newspapers are going through really tough times. Advertising is down. Circulation is under pressure. At the same time, serious questions are being asked about the efficacy of self-regulation in the industry, particularly now that some papers are finding “creative” ways to drive sales by not allowing the truth to spoil what some editors believe to be a good story.
Increasingly we are finding our family at the centre of these “creative” news-gathering processes, in which some editors fall prey to trusting sources who peddle nuances and half-truths.
The recent Mail & Guardian piece on Shiva Uranium is a case in point. Through the poorly researched article “Row over ‘unpaid’ bills at Gupta family’s mine” (September 9), the M&G aims once more to malign the Gupta name. Valuable newspaper acreage was devoted to a story that, we believe, has, at best, questionable motives and devious intentions.
What interest is served by this story? The M&G lists various companies with whom neither the Shiva mine nor the Guptas have any commercial dealings whatsoever. The only party with whom the mine has any dealing is Nelesco. The journalist in question was given a letter from Nelesco denying it having any payment issue with the mine.
Why not make this story about how Nelesco treats its suppliers? No, that would not be quite as meaty as throwing in the Gupta name for a “juicy” headline-grabbing story. It would seem that the M&G feels justified in printing these misleading stories on the basis of a token paragraph at the end of the story to meet its requirement of the right to reply.
In this specific story we would be keen to know if the journalist asked any of the companies in the article if they had made any claim against “the Guptas”. This would reveal to any inquirer the authenticity or the target of any such claim.
Is the M&G stooping to a level where wild claims and accusations are aired without due process?
This may become a refuge for companies seeking publicity for their ill-conceived and misdirected causes.
In this case, it was clearly misdirected, because the companies in question did not have any relationship with the Guptas or any of their companies. They were contracted by a company contracted by Shiva, and the main contractor admits in your story that it has had no payment problem with Shiva or the Guptas.
It seems this article might be ill intentioned – poor journalism paraded as newsworthy and credible. — Atul Gupta
Church tainted with Mugabe brush
Your report “Mugabe push for pulpits’ pulling power” (September 16) says: “Earlier this month Mugabe swore in a nine-member Anti-Corruption Commission tasked with investigating graft and crime in Zimbabwe. It includes a prominent preacher, Goodwill Shana, the leader of the Word of Life International Church, which has 8Â 000 followers.”
This implies I succumbed to Mugabe’s pulpit politics. The connection between having been sworn in by Mugabe and pulpits being used as a platform for politics would lead unsuspecting readers to conclude that I was now part of the plot.
The writer of the article uses my name and the alleged numbers of our church to imply that my appointment was based on church attendance and the hope that this could be used for political gain.
My participation in the commission was the result of a tripartite vetting process that included the committee for parliamentary standing orders, which agreed on a slate of names. Our church has not indicated any political affiliation.
I want to express my anger and disappointment at being tainted like this, without so much as the usual false excuse of “Dr Shana was unreachable for comment”. Shame on you, Mail & Guardian. My congregation and those in my ambit of influence share my dismay and will in future treat the M&G with the same disdain as poisonous local publications. — Dr Goodwill Shana
Keep reading Dickens
I was heartened by the attention given to speculative fiction at the M&G Johannesburg Literary Festival, which unfortunately I could not attend. As a 24-year-old who reads eclectically, I was, however, disappointed by some of the comments from your panellists.
Gwen Ansell’s quoted claim that “children need to stop reading Charles Dickens” was hopefully taken out of context. Although I have some reservations about Dickens myself (he can be too sentimental and sometimes displays a very Victorian paternalism), I still consider him a great writer more than worthy of children’s attention. Besides, Ansell should know that Dickens also contributed to the speculative genre with his many superb supernatural stories.
Leon de Kock’s description of speculative fiction as “a cute and fuzzy thing” also deserves comment. I was not at the session so I do not have the context of the remark, but it is a common enough misconception about speculative fiction. Yes, a lot of it is derivative mush but this is true of most of what is published both locally and internationally.
De Kock should know better than to use such a broad brush in criticising any type of writing. He needs to remember that there are many writers, living and dead, who have contributed to speculative fiction, but who have also delivered critically acclaimed works Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolfe and John Crowley, to name three off the top of my head.
I hope the M&G Literary Festival goes from strength to strength. I am not particularly hip but I hope to attend next year’s festival and I just might bring some of my hipster friends with me. — Dewald Steyn
Part of our heritage
Many seem puzzled that Julius Malema received substantial support from the South African Communist Party, Cosatu and the ANC regarding the hate-speech court ruling by Judge Colin Lamont.
What must be made clear is that the song is a product of a popular liberation struggle led by the ANC; the history of the ANC cannot be narrated in full without reference to its songs. That explains why the entire liberation movement came out in its defence. Heroes of our struggle, such as Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and many others, sang that song.
Lodging an appeal against Lamont’s ruling is resistance to this attempt to edit our history. It does not amount to blanket support for Malema’s wayward conduct.
The people’s song was hauled to the courts, thanks to Malema, whose penchant for fame has caused the ANC enough tribulation. The challenge to Lamont’s ruling is being made to preserve what we consider our heritage. Malema and his troops must not misconstrue this gesture. — Hector Moyane, Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga
Pay for your guilt
Why all the complaint about getting whites to pay a “guilt tax”? Many whites benefited from apartheid, as indeed I did. It was a nuisance having to do military service, but I received a good education at state expense.
I’ve now had a long career as a teacher, at secondary and tertiary level (sometimes simultaneously as these jobs are not well remunerated). Does this mean that I’ve paid my debt to my formerly oppressed compatriots? Not at all!
People like me need to be made to feel more guilty and what better way than the imposition of a financial penalty? — “White Trash”, Grahamstown