polarisation
Jaspreet Kindra The Azanian PeopleOs Organisation (Azapo) this week sidled up to the African National Congress, moving South African politics a small step closer to racial polarisation. AzapoOs shift dropping socialist militancy in favour of calls for racial solidarity is but one symptom of a growing racialisation of the countryOs public life. Calls for party co-operation by blacks and political defections over racism allegations have strengthened the trend.
The ANCOs contention that it is a non- racial party has been questioned, given the partyOs comments on a cooperative alliance with black parties. When Azapo president Mosibudi Mangena emerged from his partyOs 15th annual conference this week to call for all black parties to come together and cooperate on issues affecting the majority community, the ANC responded to the call with enthusiasm.
The ANC attempted to clarify their response by saying that Owe are not out to build a black South AfricaO. However, the party accused the Pan- Africanist Congress, when the latter rejected the call for cooperation, of failing to move in the Odirection of the majorityO.
The PAC had dismissed the call on the grounds that the ANC had Osold outO on its promise to the black majority by adopting a conciliatory stance towards whites. Fears of racial polarisation surfaced when the Democratic Party and the New National Party went into an alliance last month. This week Inkatha Freedom PartyOs national representative, the Reverend Musa Zondi, revealed that the ANC had accused it of Ogiving voice to white minority interestsO in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, where the ANC is the IFPOs coalition partner. At issue was the ANCOs insistence on installing an executive mayoral system in the province. The ANC is upset with the IFP for joining forces with the OwhiteO DP and NNP in KwaZulu-Natal in opposing the plan. OWe found the ANCOs accusations very strange as it always tells us it stands for non-racialism,O said Zondi. OFor us it is a matter of principle because we believe in inclusivity and work against the idea of a winner-takes-all situation. We believe in participatory democracy; otherwise this raises the danger of polarising communities.O
Adding impetus to racial polarisation was the decision by the NNPOs only black structure in the Western Cape, its Khayelitsha branch, to walk out en masse and join the United Democratic Movement. Branch leaders accused the party of racism and lack of consultation over its merger with the DP. Mangena found the recent moves unsurprising. He told the Mail & Guardian that while talk of a Orainbow nationO appeared Obeautiful on paper, the reality on the ground is totally differentO. Azapo failed to decide whether to open up its membership to all South Africans who believe in its Black Consciousness philosophy. Since its inception, the party has restricted its membership to black South Africans. Some Azapo members fear that by opening membership, the party would lose sight of its commitment to the black majority. Mangena says while the party at the leadership level realises it is time to start a discussion about transformation, Oit is difficult for people on the ground to accept change, for nothing much has changed. Black people still live in the townships and work for the whites.O He admits that politics in the country is growing increasingly racially polarised. OWhite parties tend to drift together. They are uncomfortable about changes being brought about to help the black majority; they feel threatened and tend to club together.O
It was only natural that like-minded black parties should form a Ocooperative allianceO to counter this. He hastens to add that he is not advocating a Oone-party stateO.
South African Communist Party deputy secretary general Jeremy Cronin is not surprised by the trend. He said that since the country is racially polarised, political parties would reflect that reality.
The DPOs James Selfe was less sanguine, describing racial polarisation as a Odangerous phenomenonO. He criticised ANC president Thabo Mbeki for his oft-quoted remark that South Africa consists of Otwo nations the rich white and the black poorO.
The statement, he says, is Oextremely divisiveO. Selfe dismissed the notion that the NNP-DP alliance has led to racial polarisation of politics in the country. He said the criticism of his party amounted to using OlabelsO pasted by parties with vested interests. OWhy canOt issues be addressed without racial references?O he asked, pointing out that South Africans across the racial line Ostruggle to make ends meetO. Cronin said issues in South Africa had to be dealt with in the racial context because of the legacy of apartheid and colonisation.
OIt is a question that the communist party has grappled with for decades the sense of injustice that black people experience, the sense of grievance entrenched in their souls following decades of colonisation, is unique to them.O He referred to the recently released Statistics South AfricaOs Household Survey results that underline that blacks are the worst affected in matters related to education, poverty, unemployment and sanitation.
According to the survey, 26,8% of black households indicated that children under the age of seven were going hungry in their homes, more than a quarter of all African families lived in shacks and that the community had the highest unemployment rate.
He said songs sung at ANC rallies that emphasise African leadership are not racist but an attempt to empathise with the majority who have lost their sense of self- worth.
In that sense, he says, it will be a long time before South Africa will build a deracialised society. Mangena says: OWe [the black and white communities] have to fight our own battles but the end result is the formation of an open society where the colour of the skin is not a point of reference.O