June 13 to 19 2008

Remembering June 16

I remember June 16
when children spat at their parents
hurling scorn
before they were cut down like
unripe corn.

They kept coming back
like stubborn kaffirboom seedlings,
I remember
though they bled
they redeemed themselves
in the eyes of history.

They’re coming back
’cause we failed them
Yet again.
They’re coming back
For there’s no antidote
For their pain
and so
Like swirls of dust
On a barren plain
Their torn remains bleeding still.

If you can look closely
Cut through the fog of political speeches
Through shifting veils of trickery
Past barking dogs and xenophobia
Past the poor and weary cursing
Through their skulls
You should remember
Why we must celebrate
June 16 every year.

— Saber Ahmed Jazbhay

June 16 is almost upon us again. And we should consider how history repeats itself. The class of 1976, lionised for the mayhem and murder of those times, have paved the way for their children, the class of 2008. Only then it was apartheid, now it’s foreigners. Whatever the cause, it was savagery then, and it’s savagery now. And as long as we glorify the anarchy of 1976 we shall forever have angry people who believe that they, too, have a just cause, and are entitled to rape, kill and burn whenever something rankles them. —Ron McGregor, Mowbray

We honour the memory of the scores of youths massacred on June 16 1976 in Soweto as they demonstrated against the apartheid regime. There has been significant progress since then, not least through the dismantling of apartheid. But racism continues to plague too many individuals, communities and societies.

This year, June 18 will offer an opportunity to address the problem collectively as a nation and prepare ourselves to review actions against racism, xenophobia and intolerance. On that day, the high court will rule on the issue of South African-born Chinese people who are fighting for their birthright and heritage as South Africans. We are the ‘yellow” in the rainbow nation. We are fighting for our human dignity and equality.

This coincides with the observance this year of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which starts by affirming the equality of all people and calling for all to ‘act towards one another in a spirit of the brotherhood of man”. — Vernon Whyte

We need to find our compassion
The ”beacon of hope” of the African continent has not lived up to its title. We have failed the displaced peoples. These are human beings who have looked to us to shelter them from circumstances in their home countries. It was our responsibility to keep them safe, to take them in and protect their dignities. We have failed. They have been stripped of their humanity a second time by the recent xenophobic attacks. Thrust into makeshift refugee camps, these people have lost everything they worked hard to build.

On the one hand I have been humbled by the outstanding civilian response from South Africans in terms of donations and volunteering their time, services and resources. But on the other hand I see comments by South Africans in newspapers calling for Somali refugees situated at the Soetwater refugee camp to be sent back to Somalia because they are being ”demanding” and ”wasting resources”. I wonder if those making these comments are aware of the conditions in Somalia, or even the conditions in the Soetwater refugee camp, for that matter. Had they been in a similar situation, would they have wanted to be forced back into a country falling to pieces and forgotten by the world at large?

Having walked through the Soetwater camp and spoken to a few of the Somali (and other) refugees, I think I have managed to gain some insight into their collective discontent. The fact that some of the refugee women would rather go back to a war-ravaged Somalia than stay in a subhuman refugee camp is testament to the extremity of the situation in which they are now ”living”. It is dire. They are stuck in a limbo without any indication what the next day holds.

I don’t excuse or condone the so-called ”fake” suicide attempts but I do understand them. Approaching the Soetwater campsite, everything is quiet, calm, peaceful and utterly beautiful, quite a stark contrast to the ugliness and harshness on the other side of the sand dunes. Driving up to the main gate, one would not even say there are 3 500 refugees living in massive, overcrowded and ill-constructed tents just metres away. In fact, not a tent is seen until one is virtually standing in the camp itself. The refugees are not visible; they are out of public sight, slowly being forgotten.

This sense of being forgotten is felt in no uncertain terms by the refugees themselves; a sense of being ”banished” into a no-man’s-land of sorts — abandoned. They are screaming at us to take notice, desperately clinging to what little humanity and dignity they have left. It is up to us to take what action we can and to find the compassion and empathy that binds us all in humanity. — Ahmed-Riaz Mohamed, Cape Town

Zim: almost doesn’t count
It is more than two months since March 29, a day worth noting in Zimbabwean politics, a day when Zimbabweans tried to make the most of the little that remains of their human rights — the right to vote. Vote we did, but yet again our right to vote, like many of our other rights, was violated by the manipulation of the electoral system and the outcome of the election.

On April 18 we commemorated 28 years of independence from colonial rule. Now, at the age of 22, born six years after ‘independence”, I can hardly call myself a ‘born free”. Rather, lot of questions pop up in my about this ‘freedom”. To what extent was it meant to be for all the children of our once-beautiful ­Zimbabwe? Freedom from the enemy so we can be enslaved by our own? Yes, they may have won us sovereignty, but what use is that sovereignty if we are stripped of our dignity?

Sadly, my country, my pride, and my heritage have deteriorated. As Africa Day has come and gone, we Africans must reflect on the paradoxes of our motherland: a continent glowing with natural beauty and bursting with bountiful resources, but at the same time her children suffer poverty and instability because we allow ourselves to held to ransom by our wicked leaders.

We appreciate the role they played in our struggles for independence, but we owe them absolutely nothing! The fruits of ‘freedom” and ‘independence” have been reaped only by a few. The masses remain oppressed and suffering. The masses who, by the way, made these leaders into the ‘great” people they are today. Surely, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So we almost conquered evil on March 29. But ‘almost” doesn’t count. Where do we go from here? I know most fellow Zimbabweans have lost heart, but I urge them not to give up. As the famous saying goes: ‘The darkest hour is just before dawn”. Nelson Mandela also said there is ‘no easy walk to freedom”. As we prepare for the run-off election, remember the words of Edmund Burke: ‘All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” — Bongie Mahlangu Cape Town

I am intrigued by the fact that the media continues to refer to the MDC in Zimbabwe as the opposition, and to Morgan Tsvangirai as the Leader of the Opposition. As far as I can make out, the MDC won a majority in Parliament, and this was confirmed on the recount. They are therefore, the majority party in Zimbabwe. — Ian Booth, Durban

The time has come for the rank and file of Zanu-PF to extricate their party from the destructive forces of its leadership. First they have to accept the reality that the economic meltdown in the country is not a mirage created by outside forces, but a failure of policies pursued for the past 28 years of independence in the name of their party.

The destitute citizens who have to scrape a living in the slums of neighbouring countries are not unpatriotic but have been failed by their leadership. A membership that believes in justice and prides itself as a champion of justice should not stand by while the opposition, which wants nothing other than a test of the real wishes of the people of Zimbabwe, is being arrested and harassed.

If Zanu-PF is as popular as it claims to be, it should embrace a fair election with as many observers as the world can afford to validate its claim. Its leadership should not allow the party to go down in history as the liberation party that went wrong.

This is a window of opportunity that will not come back for Zimbabweans. They need look no further than Iraq to see what could await them. — Wongaletu Vanda

Every state is nationalist
Ivor Chipkin’s legitimate criticism of the ANC’s trademark reactionary form of censure (‘The curse of African nationalism”, May 30) is handicapped by racist overtones. Chipkin is right in identifying the ‘inability to come to terms with — agency” in much African nationalism, but his hypocrisy lies in his limiting this fault to African nationalism specifically, when it is a hallmark of all nationalism.

Examine the history of Europe and you will find in all nationalist movements the seeds of racism and xenophobia, and a tendency to galvanise people using resentment, to reduce present conditions to the ‘machinations of others”, to create a sense of unity and common identity by constructing an insular sense of self: inward-looking, based on narrow and often arbitrary characteristics of race, geography, religion or language, gazing outward only with contempt at the Otherness of all the world not fortunate enough to have been born into the constructed identity.

The curse is that every state is nationalist. Whether it claims to be theocratic, imperialist, or socialist rarely matters. The state always demands from its citizens a pledge to sacrifice humanity for patriotism. The fatal corruption of liberation epistemology into nationalist ideology lies in the process of dehumanisation. All those on the side of liberty must be constantly vigilant that all their actions and words are demolishing barriers and misery, not creating more of the same. — Siddiq Khan

Highway robbery
”Speed kills,” the billboards tell you. ”The death toll on our roads is predominantly caused by speeding motorists.” Peculiar, since logic tells me that just about the only way to die while cruising down the highway at 200km/h is by having a heart attack from the rush. It’s not speed that kills, it’s stopping — because you hit a pothole at 200km/h, burst a wheel and rolled into a tree; or because the wheel of your overloaded taxi came off; or because your intoxicated mind couldn’t tell the difference between green and red.

It isn’t speed that causes the exorbitant death toll on our roads; it is lawlessness, unroadworthy vehicles and pathetic road maintenance. Claiming that speed is the culprit is simply propaganda that justifies the grand-scale robbery of innocent, law-abiding citizens by their own government.

Up until this year, I had never received a speeding fine in my life. This is because, as my passengers put it, I’m ”driving Miss Daisy”. I rarely top 100km/h, mostly because I don’t feel the need to. Yet, in the past three months, I have received no less than three speeding fines, at R100 a shot. Not one of these fines was for a speed of more than 100km/h, and most of them on large three-lane roads with ridiculous speed limits of 60km/h. Now if I can rack up a R300 bill in only three months for driving like a geriatric, what kind of money is the government raking in from other people who drive at normal speeds? And where, pray tell, does that money go?

It certainly does not go towards road maintenance. You can be almost guaranteed that for every metro police car you pass, there will be a tank-trap pothole further on down the road, or a malfunctioning set of robots wreaking havoc on the traffic flow just behind. Road signs disappear for years without replacement, lane markings are completely indecipherable, and disintegrating roads destroy your shocks and tyres.

If the metro police genuinely wanted to curb our death toll, they would dispatch themselves to the real danger zones: hijacking hot spots, dangerous intersections and areas with high concentrations of pedestrians and potential road obstructions. They would target law-breakers: unroadworthy, overloaded vehicles; taxis that fly down the emergency lane or turn across intersections on red robots; drunken drivers that swerve in and out of traffic. By their own admission, the metro police target the speedsters: those innocent people who are simply trying to get to work on time to keep this country’s economy running.

Fight your traffic fines, protest against unreasonable persecution, and observe when real criminals are not persecuted and report it. Appeal to police stations, to the government, to anyone who will listen. If this country is to resolve its problems, it needs to build bridges, not break them. It’s time to let the government know where it is going wrong. — Bronwyn Watkins, Woodmead

Hlophe issue a ruse
Funny how South Africans come together whenever there is a complaint or a march about animal, women and child-protection rights. As a rainbow nation, we cry with one voice about crime, xenophobia and other social ills. But whenever we talk about transformation in this country, finger-pointing takes place. Those with better access to education and other resources (the majority of whom are white), are most vocal in undermining the government. The issue of the Cape Judge President John Hlophe has everything to do with resistance to change. — Siyabonga Seme, University of Zululand

Let us join the call to drop charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma. He has been subjected to the longest prosecution without trial in the history of democratic South Africa. Now sinister forces are hell-bent at peddling the allegation that Zuma has a relationship with Cape Judge President John Hlophe, who attempted to influence the outcome of his three key cases in the Constitutional Court. The Hlophe saga is being used to incite factions to cast aspersions on Zuma’s suitability as the ANC presidential candidate. — Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni

The ruling by the Constitutional Court allowing the state to seize Schabir Shaik’s assets, worth R33,8-million, must be applauded. The public must know that crime and corruption do not pay. Zuma has been saying the government is too soft on criminals. The court’s decision proves that the government is serious about crime and corruption. We must also condemn Judge John Hlophe for meddling for Zuma. This was both unprofessional and unethical. — Albert Mthethwa, Richards Bay

The issue of Cape Judge President John Hlophe has nothing to do with resistance to change, but everything with ensuring the judiciary is above reproach. Judges (whatever their colour) who are accused by the highest court in the land of gross transgressions of the law need to have the accusations fully investigated. If they are found to be true, he or she, black or white, needs to be removed from office.

People should not introduce the issue of transformation (read race) into issues that are not race-based. To do so is racist. What should be paramount is to ensure that those who sit in judgement on us are of unimpeachable character. Without that, you may as well chuck the judiciary down the drain. — Rod Baker, Fish Hoek

Advert is cheap propaganda
A group of South Africans unfortunately endorsed a paid advert in your paper, equating Israel with apartheid South Africa (May 16). We reject that kind of cheap propaganda, easily attributed to Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils. It is frustrating that the South African government allows, under the banner of freedom of speech, repeated hate speech by one of its senior members.

Palestinian broadsheet Al Ayam (May 6 2007) quoted Kasrils saying to Palestinian students at Bir Zeit University that ‘the guns should be pointed towards the enemy”. This is where words of hate turn dangerous.

Moreover, the advert’s use of pictures is nasty. Here is a picture of an Israeli police officer evacuating Shani Winter, a baby badly injured by a Palestinian suicide assassin, on March 21 1997, in Tel Aviv. Her mother was killed in that attack. Just like in Soweto on June 16 1976. — Ilan Baruch, ambassador of the Embassy of Israel

No subsidy
Herbert Adam says The Weekly Mail and Vrye Weekblad ‘were heavily subsidised from abroad and therefore less subject to market forces than their mainstream competitors” (Books, June 6).

The Weekly Mail was the only ‘alternative” newspaper that always had a commercial agenda, selling advertising on the basis of ABC audited sales figures. It was a registered, privately owned business and the money it received, from here or abroad, was in the form of subscription, advertising revenue or shares in the company.

Only certain specific projects were funded — the film festival, book week and training project (which trained a fair number of newspaper editors). It is precisely because the Weekly Mail was not subsidised that it alone survived ­- to become today’s M&G. — Marilyn Honikman, former marketing and advertising director, Weekly Mail/M&G, Cape Town

In brief
Is it possible that South African men are so threatened by the savvy and joie de vivre of foreign men that they have literally tried to chase them away? Most crimes in history have revolved around sex and money. Is it possible that xenophobia started as a reaction to Angolans, Nigerians and Congolese men, who have travelled the world and Africa, dress well, speak well, treat women well, smell good and stick to one partner? Which woman in South Africa would not be impressed? — Gloria Lubisi

Government ‘reintegrating” displaced foreigners into the hostile environments from which they were forced amounts to the denial of refugee protection. It perpetuates a shameful, long-standing state tradition of denying the existence, rights, entitlements and contributions of a black foreign population in South Africa. — Graeme Rodgers, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

I am a South African with Zimbabwean friends. I fail to understand how cops can still arrest and demand money from foreigners after what has been going on lately. Aren’t they supposed to protect them against the xenophobic acts? — Name withheld

Glorious news that Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has joined the growing list of Cabinet ministers who will bow out after the 2009 election. All their departments are dysfunctional, except for SARS — because it brings in money for the gravy train. —Herman Lategan, Sea Point