Now that the censors have retreated, albeit temporarily I suspect, and Nadine Gordimer is rehabilitated, it is important to focus upon an issue that was obscured by all the righteous indignation surrounding the opprobium heaped upon our Nobel laureate’s head.
The abiding irony is that the censors were right, for the wrong reasons.
Gordimer is not an appropriate author to inflict upon learners (or upon anyone else for that matter). Not because she is racist it is much worse than that: she is boring and pretentious. And you don’t have to take my word for it.
Gordimer is reported as having claimed, ”[July’s People] has been understood all over the world … as a revelation of the condemnation of the ways racism and colonialism distorted human relations under apartheid. If the selectors … are looking for moral lessons few could be more telling than the situation in this novel.”
Apart from the unmitigated hubris, literature is here reduced to hollow homily and pious pontification. On Gordimer’s own admission, her text is now irrelevant.
Oscar Wilde stated that ”there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book, a book is either well written or it is badly written”.
It is indeed a tedious thing to plough through Gordimer’s turgid prose and vacuous sermonising (and I have had the joy of teaching her texts). Utterly bereft of any redeeming aesthetic value, Gordimer’s books are badly written. Laurence Berman, Department of English, Unisa
Judge Dread?
Zebulon Dread’s take on the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (”Arts festival or Boerfest”, Friday, April 20 to 25) is a unique and pertinent look at the kultuur-en-kak that resounds across Oudtshoorn each April and nogal, as the dreaded Zabalon would say ”uit die kaffir se vuil bek”!
I’m always delighted by his uncompromising bloodletting anarchy; mine is dull by comparison. Hotnotsgod? Don’t lose yours! Pieter-Dirk Uys, Darling
Nice one, Zebulon. I was there too and Zebulon didn’t tell a single lie. And that’s coming from some Afrikaans guy. We bow to thee, O black hole balancing out 10 000 ooms and tannies. Toast Coetzer
The hate speech in Zebulon Dread’s article is both alarming and sad to read. The ”article” is not only a slap in the face of your liberal Afrikaans readership, but is also annoying to other readers.
If I would like to read this kind of stuff I would buy MAD magazine.
It is also disappointing that you have decided not to publish ”The week that was” anymore. Any weekly newspaper/magazine of repute (the Economist, etc) has such a feature.
And what has made Robert Kirby decide to be a moralising firebrand instead of the brilliant satirist he always was? Pierre du Bois, Stellenbosch
A perilous hope
That so many Africans, particularly black Africans, are risking their very lives traversing a desert and a treacherous sea lane, all in the hope of a better life in Europe (”The dream of a better life”, April 20 to 25), is a shameful indicator of the abysmal state of affairs in most of the fabled Dark Continent.
Surely it is a historical irony that black slaves were once marched across this same desert by Arab slave dealers and now some Arabs are involved in helping black persons, who are voluntarily taking on the desert, to get to Europe across the straits of Gibraltar to an uncertain if not ”slavish” future.
It does seem as if many blacks are badly treated at home and expect and, perhaps, get better treatment in Europe, just as their leaders too would rather shop and holiday in Europe as the acme of earthly bliss.
Oh, ”hopeless continent”, to recall an allusion by the Economist magazine last year. Michael E Aken’Ova, University of Venda, Thohoyandou
Is anybody there?
I could not help but respond in support of your article on the National Development Agency (”NDA needs warp speed on delivery”, April 12 to 19). Unfortunately, much as [CEO Thoahlane Thoahlane] Dr T rejects the reports about the NDA’s non-delivery, they are very true.
I am director of a community centre in KwaZulu-Natal and I can confirm the reports about adult education NGOs not receiving funding from the NDA.
My organisation submitted a funding proposal to which we have not received any response. We call the NDA offices on a weekly basis to follow up and either nobody picks up the phone or we get put through to empty offices.
I have left several messages for the executive director, none of which has been responded to.
To know that funds are there and yet our organisations face closure due to some people’s incompetence is unacceptable.
The non-delivery by the NDA is threatening the work of many NGOs doing good work in pursuit of the citizens’ rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights, notably ”the right to basic education including adult basic education …”
The NDA must get its act together, or civil society will act decisively against it.
Do not believe Dr T when he denies this or dismisses those who have raised this issue as unthankful white racists.
I am not white and certainly not racist, but I am very angry at the NDA. Name and address withheld on request
Taking issue
I refer to your article ”Dolphin closes its SA head office” (April 20 to 25). Certain of the points are not accurate.
I refer to the following: the Promenade Hotel has never been attached, contrary to your statement. There have been no demands for more than R8-million. Liberty Properties and Nedcor combined were asking for R4,3-million. The Rivonia Inn did not run up an overdraft of R4-million. Rivonia Inn does not even have an overdraft facility. Block Hotels did not make a last-minute court appeal to freeze the auction.
Mention was made that Mike Sharpes had not come out to South Africa in the past year. At no time was Mr Sharpes blamed for the ”crisis”, and no mention was made that the problems arose from Mr Sharpes’s ”hopeless mismanagement”. Judd L Lehmann, operatons director, Block Hotels SA
Circumscription
As an organ of state, President Mbeki should be circumscribed. Robert Ribeiro, Pietermaritzburg
More historical truths
If considered in isolation of the history of Israeli domestic and foreign policy, the honorable Tova Herzl’s sermon (”Jews deserve a place in the sun to call their own”, April 20 to 25) is worthy of note.
For one to make complete sense of the ambassador’s piece, one needs to consign the following (inconvenient) facts into (George Orwell’s) memory holes:
1. Israel was one of the very few states that used to supply arms and share intelligence with South Africa (in contravention of a United Nations-sanctioned arms embargo);
2. Palestinians continue to be driven off their land and have their homes flattened in the middle of the night by the Israeli military.
These historical truths (one of which is still unfolding) are etched in my mind, so instead of seeing (in the ambassador’s piece) a clarion call to battle with racism, I see a textbook example of hypocrisy. Velaphi Mjongeni, Mowbray
A sexist condom policy
I wonder why our government is still giving men preferential treatment, by only distributing male condoms.
All current statistics prove that young women are most at risk of contracting HIV, with figures growing daily.
Poor and dependent women have very little power to protect their most basic right to life, because female condoms are very expensive.
The government is aware of men’s attitude towards using condoms, yet fail to empower women to protect themselves.
Female condoms should be available free of charge, as is the case with male condoms. Madi Ditmars, Gezina
Saving the rhino
I have just been sent a copy of a letter from your newspaper describing the cruel and callous shooting of a rhino in a municipal reserve near Kuruman.
How could this senseless act have been permitted?
First of all, the sale of the animal was against the wishes of local people and, second, the manner in which it was killed was barbaric, to say the least.
What price a trophy!
Shame on hunters such as this individual from Hertzogville who, it would seem, hasn’t an ounce of compassion in his body.
Will this rhino’s mate be next? We will want to know. Virginia McKenna, The Born Free Foundation, West Sussex, UK
Aids does not discriminate
We are very pleased that the article about Triangle Project’s sex survey was published (”Shock survey on gay sex”, April 6 to 11).
We must agree with Shaun de Waal (”How shocked should we be?” April 12 to 19) about the unfortunate title of the article, and endorse his contextualising of the findings and the survey sample. There are a number of issues that we would, however, like to clarify.
In his article De Waal refers to the 7,7% of respondents who reported that they had tested HIV-positive. What was not clear was that men in the survey sample were more likely to be tested than average men who have sex with men in Cape Town. This is because the major reason for testing was in applying for a home loan. Also 23,2% of the respondents had never had an HIV test and only 61% of the men stated that their current HIV status was definitely negative.
It is therefore correct to assume that the HIV prevalence rates for gay men in Cape Town are between 8% and 39% for the sample and quite possibly more for less affluent gay men.
In the past three months, 14% of the tests done at Triangle Project have been positive for HIV/Aids.
This is not to say that gay men, and men who have sex with men, are most at risk of HIV/Aids.
It is important to correct two myths that gay people spread HIV/Aids and that HIV/Aids is only a heterosexual problem in Africa.
Many men who do not identify themselves as gay also have sex with other men. This is made invisible through homophobia, silence around single-sex institutions, and the false belief that homosexuality is unAfrican.
The truth is that the virus does not discriminate against people on the grounds of sexual orientation. It cannot know if the sex is ”gay” or ”straight”.
It is also true that the gay community is still vulnerable to infection and bearing a disproportionate burden of illness. Gay communities shouldn’t be ignored in HIV/Aids prevention strategies. Annie Leatt, director, Triangle Project
Prosecute him
I read with relief that the investigation into the racist CD has been completed and that there might be some prosecutions taking place. Shane McCallaghan must be prosecuted for referring to President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela as ”k…..”.
I could not believe that any white person, no matter how trapped in our apartheid past, would use such an insulting and racist term against black people. I regard this as insulting not only the two high-profile black people, but also black people in general.
I find his excuse that he recorded the songs under the influence of alcohol ridiculous and unacceptable. If that was the case, thanks to the alcohol because it revealed something innately entrenched in him.
Black people sacrificed their lives fighting against the notorious
apartheid regime, which entailed derogatory references such as the one in question, and eventually the system was toppled.
Now we are in the new South Africa, which is based on human dignity and respect. However, we still have individuals who want to sow divisions among South Africans.
To deter any potential racist, not only white, against such behaviour, Shane McCallaghan should be prosecuted.
Khulani Qoma, Rhodes University
