An open letter from ANC parliamentarian Phumsile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Human Rights Commission chair Barney Pityana, supporting his attack on ‘racists’
Your response to the remarks made by Professor Dennis Davis (Mail & Guardian February 23 to 29) will hopefully encourage more of us in the government to defend the decisions we take from the assaults of the Twelfth Language Group of South Africa.
The Twelfth Language Group, small as it is, speaks louder than all the other language groups put together because they control, both directly and indirectly, the mass media, especially the print media.
By the miserable political performance of the party closest to them, we know they command a pathetic 1,73% support, even though they try to impose their values on the other 97,27% rather unashamedly.
This esteemed group — made up of Anglophone liberals, who are mostly “peace-time heroes” and were only prepared to bleed ink through their pens at the height of the struggle — see themselves as custodians of what we should all accept as the standards and values of this society.
They think they are the most politically correct people to speak about the human rights of people whose languages and cultures they have never bothered to understand.
To be fair, I will acknowledge the efforts of those, across the spectrum, who have tried to find and build real bridges based on mutual respect, without being condescending.
Members of the Twelfth Language Group think of themselves as the real liberators and that everybody is assisting them to liberate humanity. They think they are the ones who have been doing the real work of leading and bringing about liberation. This is not so different from how the new Nats think.
If the government should contemplate anything unpalatable to this 1,73% group — especially if it does not extend its income capacity — it will summon its army of pens and microphones to shoot down the idea.
The Human Rights Commission was approved by a majority after going through a long and thorough selection process.
We cannot allow the values, views and self interests of the Twelfth Language Group to be imposed as standards which we all have to live by. “Their enemies are not our enemies and their values not our laws.”
Barney, thank-you for defending the decision of Parliament and your right to be the original copy of Barney Pityana and not an imitation of anyone.