Dear delegates to the 52nd national conference of the ANC,
This December you will be discussing issues of paramount importance for all South Africans. Allow the Afrikanerbond to raise some issues that we believe are necessary to ensure that the miracle of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s “rainbow nation” does not fade.
The president of South Africa is the symbolic glue that bonds our country — its diverse people, cultures, languages and religions. One of these groups is the Afrikaner. Exactly 300 years ago a young man in Stellenbosch, Hendrik Bibault, exclaimed “Ik ben een Africaander”. This declaration initiated a process through which people of European descent in South Africa identified themselves as belonging to Africa. President Thabo Mbeki recognised this when he addressed the AfrikanerÂbond in July 1999, and stated that “Afrikaners are Africans”.
Why then do Afrikaners, and the broader Afrikaans-speaking community, feel alienated, marginalised and almost second-class citizens in their country of birth?
Let us be frank. Both the Constitution and the Freedom Charter are clear about equal rights for all, and that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. In practice, however, this ideal is nullified by the policies of affirmative action and employment equity.
These policies have severe implications for government, its course of action and service delivery. The vacancy rate in government departments is estimated at 30% of staff, while the acceptable norm is about 5%. There are similarly high vacancy rates in provincial and local government.
In the department of land affairs alone there are 1 000 vacancies. This is the lead agency tasked with ensuring the success of land reform and the transfer of 30% agricultural land by 2014. But with an acute shortage of skilled personnel this target will remain a pipe dream. It is no use blaming white farmers for the slow pace of land reform when the department cannot cope with the demands of its own targets.
In 2005/06 underspending by government departments was about R5,4-billion, and large-scale underfunding is expected to continue in 2006/07. The problem does not lie with inadequate funding: there are simply not enough skills in both managerial and line function positions to plan, budget, procure and execute capital projects.
The Joint Initiative on Skills Acquisition attempts to address the skills shortage, but even with fast-tracking, academically qualified engineers will only be available in five years, and artisans in three to six years. Yet they will still lack practical knowledge and experience. With the infrastructure demands of the 2010 World Cup, all skills available in this country — black and white — are urgently required.
This brings us to the problem with government policies. Affirmative action and employment equity have seen skilled and experienced white South Africans being marginalised or offered retrenchment packages.
In his address to the Afrikanerbond in 1999 President Mbeki said: “We must be able to say as Africans on the southernmost tip of the continent, endowed with this resource, that there is tangible progress we are making in sharing skills and resources and moving our country forward faster.”
As Africans the members of the Afrikanerbond accept this challenge. The Afrikanerbond was co-responsible for the creation of Volkskas Bank (now Absa), Sanlam, Iscor and the Rand Afrikaans University, to name a few. This vast pool of knowledge, experience and resources is ready and willing to assist government in all spheres.
That is why the Afrikanerbond welcomes the pronouncements by Marius Fransman, Minister for Public Works and Transport in the Western Cape, who recognised the skills shortages and proposed a temporary moratorium on affirmative action. But senior ANC members quickly toned down his proposal.
The Afrikanerbond fervently hopes that this matter will be on the agenda at your national conference. There needs to be a sunset clause on the implementation of this discriminatory policy, which affects not only white people, but also coloured and Indian South Africans. There are vast skills outside the civil service and among retrenched people — not all of whom are white — that should be utilised for the benefit of the country.
We are disappointed that, in a recent letter in ANC Today, President Mbeki chose to single out white people (though his remarks were qualified) for severe criticism. The Afrikanerbond distances itself in the strongest possible terms from those whites who still refer to other races and cultures in derogatory terms. But racism is not only a white problem. Forms and expressions of racism occur among all ethnic groups, and it is only through mutual respect and understanding that future geneÂrations will be free of racism.
It is the constitutional right of cultural groups to protect and develop their languages and cultures. The Afrikaans community has organised several cultural bodies for this purpose and we have a great deal of experience in this field. The Afrikanerbond extends a hand of friendship and cooperation to the government and others to assist in developing the languages and cultures of our diverse country.
The vast majority of Afrikaners and Afrikaans-speakers of all racial groups are proud of their South African roots. They will join wholeheartedly in the singing of the national anthem at sport gatherings, have accepted the national flag and have adopted it as their own; they are proud when a South African performs well in the international arena. Your unqualified acceptance of Afrikaners as part of Africa will benefit South Africa, as we are willing and able to work with you in making this country a better place for all.
There is a constant denial of the extent of crime in South Africa. Crime affects all — black and white. And the perpetrators too are not only black or white. Severe skills shortages hamper the work of the South African Police Service and the criminal justice system. As a result, people have lost trust and confidence in the ability of the police. Those who complain are not “whingers” but simply people who desire a normal society. When the communities of Manenberg and Mitchells Plain take to the streets to protest against gangsters terrorising their communities, are they also racist whingers? No, they are simply asking that government do its duty to protect them. Thousands of ex-policemen, white and coloured, are eager to help in the fight against crime. The Afrikanerbond will engage government in this matter. We trust that this will be on the agenda at the conference.
But there is also the underlying cause of crime: poverty. Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana recently proposed conscription as a way to bring down violent crime. This is not farfetched, and has precedent in our own history. The current armoured core of the South African National Defence Force, the Special Service Battalion, was created in the 1930s, in the depths of the depression, to employ young men who could not find work. These units provided employment and training for many white youths and prepared them for civil society. We hope that the delegates will consider this suggestion seriously.
The final issue I wish to raise is the denial of history. In many provinces the ruling party has changed the names of towns and cities without adequate consultation and without consideration of local history.
History cannot be changed with renaming. The Afrikanerbond recognises that our history reflects white history, but to enforce new names does not contribute to reconciliation. Renaming a street, airport or town because it could be offensive to one group could now offend another. We propose a more scientific and reconciliatory approach that builds on international experience. In several countries a system of dualism has been adopted for purposes of reconciliation. For example, a dual naming policy was adopted by the New South Wales government, allowing indigenous Australian place names to appear alongside names of European origin. Similar systems exist in Manitoba (Canada) and Slovenia.
Perhaps the delegates will accept a motion against emotionally charged name changes that attempt to delete white (in most cases Afrikaans) history and, for the sake of reconciliation, support a dual name system for South Africa, which will make Tshwane-Pretoria acceptable just as KwaZulu-Natal has already been accepted. This will add a new sense of belonging, with both minority and majority being accommodated, and remove a major source of irritation.
You have a huge task ahead at Polokwane. The Afrikanerbond extends a hand of friendship to the delegates and the newly elected president to say: accept the Afrikaners and the Afrikaans-speaking people. Our history as Afrikaners dates back more than 300 years. We are part of Africa, we are proud South Africans, and we are here to stay! We share a common desire to make South Africa work for all.
Jan Bosman is managing director of the Afrikanerbond