I read with shock the sentiments of my colleague, Mathew Blatchford of the University of Fort Hare, in his letter in the Mail & Guardian (October 4) criticising President Thabo Mbeki for his attack on the ultra-left. It is misleading for people who have elevated themselves to the rank of intellectual to conclude that African National Congress and government policies are a source of disillusionment for the masses.
Blatchford alleges that “unemployment and debt are rising; economic growth is lower than the population growth; infrastructural and human development is inadequate, and basic administration appears beyond the competence of government”. He further alleges that government ministers have “discarded the ideals for which we fought against apartheid” (the “we” assumes that Blatchford took part in this fight) and that one of them, Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin, has declared that those who voted for the ANC in 1994 knew they were voting for unemployment.
The South African Institute of Race Relations reported in April this year that the actual population growth between 1996 and 2001 was 1,52%. According to the South African Reserve Bank December 2001 quarterly bulletin, the real economic growth rate between 1996 and 2000 was 2,48%, significantly higher than the population growth rate. In short, this implies that the quality of life of ordinary South Africans has improved tremendously. In addition, it is estimated that the average per capita income increased by 8,1% over the period. For me, this amounts to nothing else than good news.
Secondly, the World Competitiveness Report of 1999, which compares South Africa to a group of 45 other nations, reported that as far as the government’s policy formulation and administration is concerned, South Africa’s rank improved from 38 in 1994 to 31 in 1998.
Thirdly, the very same report shows that in terms of infrastructure, South Africa’s rank improved from 37 in 1994 to 35 in 1998. It is erroneous and misleading to state that infrastructural and human development is inadequate without recognising and acknowledging the positive strides that have been made.
The statement that those who voted did so for unemployment is completely unfounded. In my mind, the slogan of “a better life for all” reflects the aim of a desirable destination for all citizens, including Blatchford and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
What is sad but realistic is that some short-term sacrifices will have to be made to realise this long-term outcome. Would you rather have a government that focuses on short-term gains and accumulates long-term losses, or short-term losses and long-term gains?
I am convinced that by following the latter course through its fiscal, trade and monetary policies, the government knows exactly what it is doing. It is the desire to be popular that blinds people like Blatchford and Cosatu’s leaders. — Itumeleng James Moses, economics department, University of the Free State
The future’s in their hands
There have already been many words penned in this and other papers about the recent anti-privatisation strike by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the accompanying war of words with the African National Congress and the government. Unfortunately, most of what has been written fails to address one of the most fundamental issues arising from the strike and its attendant politics: the complete political and organisational sterility of Cosatu’s alliance with the ANC for the organised working class, and the gradual shift towards the parallel political and organisational independence of the South African working class.
One of the main reasons why the strike, despite drawing tens of thousands of workers into the streets, was not fully supported by ordinary Cosatu members was that those members have recognised the futility of such actions as long as Cosatu remains politically wedded to the ANC (and the government it controls). It was not, as claimed disingenuously by the ANC leadership, because most Cosatu members, or for that matter most of South Africa’s workers and poor, support the privatisation policies of the ANC and the government.
If the strike revealed anything it was that Cosatu’s effective influence over key political, social and economic policies and decisions has been effectively paralysed through continued participation in an alliance with the ANC, which provides political and organisational cover for anti-worker policies and a public face of common strategic purpose between capitalists and workers.
Rather than confirming the strength and popularity of the ANC, the strike confirms that workers are increasingly recognising the need for the political and organisational independence of the South African working class. Although they will never publicly acknowledge this, it is this gradual development that petrifies the ANC leaders. No wonder the ANC has to resort to crude labelling, insinuation and demagoguery in its attempts to delegitimise and marginalise those who stand in its way.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum is not fooled by the ANC and the government’s political triumphalism. The class struggles of 21st-century South Africa are only just beginning to take shape and the resultant class lines will be increasingly drawn.The capitalist path being slavishly followed by the ANC and the government is already failing the majority, and it will continue to do so. It is only a matter of time before the workers and poor take the future into their own hands. –Dale McKinley, Anti-Privatisation Forum
Pagan values are being forced on our children
Our education department claims to be pro-diversity. Ironically, this has resulted in a top-down ideology driven by the government, not unlike the way the apartheid government went about promoting its belief systems. This is done in many ways, most recently by reducing the number of subjects at the further education and training level from 124 to 35.
What’s more concerning is the secular nature of this mandatory curriculum — all religious studies, including Bible Education and Islamic Studies, have been dropped. Replacing them is compulsory “Life Orientation”. This is, of course, not neutral, but loaded with ideology and values of a secular, pagan nature. For example, loveLife, a sex education provider that targets children, encloses a large pamphlet in the Sunday Times promoting homosexuality. A school booklet — Tell Me More by loveLife — promotes “masturbating our partners (with or without sex toys)”. “Partner” includes “homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual or transsexual”.
Furthermore loveLife tells the next generation “You have the right to choose: When you want to have sex. Who you want to have sex with.” Does this mean if a person chooses to have sex with a child or a dog that is okay, because, after all, they chose it? When we reject God’s absolute standards we are left in a moral vacuum.
A secular curriculum has values for sure — but they are pagan values that are being forced on everyone. Time will confirm the consequences of such a system — increased HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, increased rape and other sex crimes, and a lost generation, having gone through the school system without finding solid answers to life’s questions. –Rob McCafferty, United Christian Action
Back to past principles
When I read the editorial by your new editor, Mondli Makhanya, last week, I reminisced back to the mid-1980s when we were spending lengthy periods of detention without trial in the Pietermaritzburg prison. We debated the choice of a weekly newspaper that should be smuggled in. Should it be City Press, the New Nation (when it was still circulating) or The Weekly Mail (the Mail & Guardian’s predecessor)? We opted to revolve them.
My luck was that the designated prison warder sometimes failed to keep track and — to my extreme liking — tended to intersperse The Weekly Mail more often.
The reason for my pleasure was simple. We were not just seeking information, but also shrewd insight, critical courage and engaged support. There was also a very confidential motive for my preference. I had not finished my secondary schooling and needed to learn to assimilate great quantities of information and construct arguments, while learning to spell correctly and pronounce English. The Weekly Mail fulfilled most of my needs and more.
Like most South Africans, I was getting very concerned about the editorial positioning of the paper in recent months. It was becoming the antithesis of constructive intellectual engagement, especially on matters of policy, its formulation and direction.
I had been getting a sense that the paper was beginning to sound more like an affirmation of anti-African leadership simply because African leaders, due to their cultural predispositions, are inherently unable to, and thus cannot be trusted with, leading us into a prosperous, accountable and democratic society.
I had stopped buying the M&G, but continued to read it in the Johannesburg and Randburg public libraries. After reading last week’s editorial, I decided to buy it again to check what sort of editorial agenda you have in mind. I can say that you promise to be the paper that you once were, and for this reason I intend to subscribe as soon as possible.
Do not forget the centrality of being anti-poverty and pro-productive employment for all our people. Help us to build and consolidate a non-racist and non-sexist culture in our society.
I wish the new editor the best of luck, knowing that the challenge you have set yourself will not be easy. –S Dlamini, Bromhof
Time to tackle the Big Three
Non-profit organisations are being delusional if they think the Big Three — lotteries board chairperson Joe Foster, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin and his director general, Alistair Ruiters — are going to let go of the national lottery.
The expensive inserts in the Sunday newspapers are the first indication that they are not going to admit that anything is wrong with the way they run the lottery. Don’t forget Erwin and Foster have been friends since they were in the Federation of South African Trade Unions, before the Congress of South African Trade Unions was born. Foster used to be a great critic of the African National Congress, but now keeps a low profile — how many people know he is chairperson of the lotteries board? He has allowed, or instructed, lotteries spokesperson Sershan Naidoo to take the heat.
In fact Foster’s friendship with former trade unionists Marcel Golding, e.tv boss, and Kanthan Pillay, the station’s head of news, has ensured e.tv never gives the lottery critical news coverage.
The media have never had the guts to criticise Ruiters, allowing him and Erwin to get away with the arrogant decisions they have been making behind closed doors, such as the appointment of Foster as chairperson of the lotteries board.
And what about the tension between Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya and Erwin over the lotteries? Perhaps one day there will be a journalist with the courage to investigate the Big Three. –Thlomo Dikene, Pretoria
Unforgivable
The response by former Democratic Alliance MPL Belinda Scott, when challenged about still drawing her whip’s salary, requires a response.
Scott holds her seat in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature courtesy of more than 40 000 DA votes. Her constituency allowance of R5 500 is not “hers”, as she asserts, but that of the party that appointed her to provide constituency support to DA voters. This is a matter of principle I hoped would not be lost on my former colleague and close friend.
Scott’s betrayal of her party and voters disappointed me. But her greed and rejection of principle is unforgivable and beneath contempt. –Mark Lowe, MP, Durban
In brief
It was with relief that I read in the M&G (October 4) that “Squeaky” Pahad has announced our government will not declare war on Zimbabwe. Given our army’s state of readiness and the return of battle-hardened Zimbabwean troops from the Congo, this seems a sensible option. That is, until we have a couple of those German corvettes to protect our borders from any threat from across the Limpopo. I need to review my opinion of Squeaky, whose intelligence I once believed left much to be desired. –Eric Wellor, Cape Town
The situation around Dukuduku at St Lucia is a national scandal. In the late 1980s the old Natal provincial administration was about to move the last illegal settlers to alternative accommodation. With the transition to a new South Africa the matter was put on hold and the KwaZulu government did not have the leadership to address the problem. Kader Asmal took it on and failed, as did Ronnie Kasrils. The forest that could be a huge asset in the St Lucia World Heritage site has been degraded. Conspiracy theorists suggest those wanting access to heavy minerals are not sorry it has lost its pristine status. –Graham McIntosh MP, Estcourt
Robert Kirby has a sharp pen, but it went beyond its target on the origins of jazz: the roots of jazz are African. The first jazz instrument was probably a foot stomp or clap. What counts is the rhythm, present throughout Africa and in the diaspora. Kirby is right, however, to reject the role of race in playing jazz. Who could claim that Joe Zawinul, a white Austrian, does not play the heavy stuff? — Thomas Blaser, Johannesburg
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