October 30 to November 5 2009

Race to the finish

In Bryan Rostron’s silly article, ostensibly about race (‘Race as a value in itself”, October 23), one item stood out: his pretence that Western imperialism’s offensive against Zimbabwe is intended to save black people in that country.

With all due respect, Rostron, when Zanu-PF was massacring thousands of people in Matabeleland (ostensibly to discourage South African destabilisation), the Western imperialist powers did nothing. (Admittedly, they were rather busy propping up apartheid.) Likewise, they connived with or ignored massacres in Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda and Western Sahara — I could go on. Western imperialism is not about helping blacks.

The Western imperialist powers began to show hostility to Zimbabwe only when it responded to the DRC’s request for support against international aggression (under the United Nations Charter). Since the Western imperialists backed Uganda and Rwanda’s invasion of that country to loot the eastern DRC and scupper then-president Laurent Kabila’s plans for regaining control of his country, they imposed an arms embargo against Zimbabwe.

Later Zimbabwe stopped paying its fees to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had imposed an economic structural adjustment programme on Zimbabwe that virtually bankrupted the country. Zimbabwe’s action expressed the spirit of the anti-IMF calls made by Western leftists like, er, Bryan Rostron. The Western response was financial sanctions, which led to spiralling inflation. Western leftists responded with polite applause.

Still later the Zimbabwean government seized white farms. Western imperialists loudly denounced Zimbabwe as evil (while doing business with countries to which such terms truly applied, but which had not seized white farms). We now know Tony Blair wanted to invade Zimbabwe, but was prevented by his master George Bush. Good on George!

Of course, these actions by Western imperialism were not simply racist. They were propaganda to distract their own people and legitimise their crimes. But there was a strong racist tinge to that propaganda. Denying this amounts to covering up for the crimes of Western imperialism and its seedy rhetoric. — Mathew Blatchford, University of Fort Hare

I agree with most of the arguments made by Bryan Rostron and Khaya Buthelezi (‘Do we want a nation of coconuts?”, October 23), though I am not sure either would want me to agree with the other. But both make important mistakes.

Rostron refers to the ANC Youth League and other players of the race card as ‘black nationalists”, but he should note they are pseudo-black nationalists. Using race to advance narrow personal, political and financial interests is no more black nationalism than attacking the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as racist Westerners to hide your own failings is ‘African nationalism”.

Buthelezi’s implication that if you are black and don’t speak your ancestral language you are a ‘coconut” is insulting. We would do well to drop this poisonous usage from the South African lexicon entirely, but what is Buthelezi implying about the many black people in countries around the world who no longer speak their ancestral languages? Are they coconuts? Apartheid ‘askaris” were rarely first-language English speakers. The leaders he slates for ‘crass materialism” are usually fluent in at least one local language.

In short, speaking an indigenous language can be as much a means to exploiting the majority as advancing its interests. — Sean Muller, Cape Town

Khaya Buthelezi, I admire your tenacity in trying to instil a sense of cultural pride in your son. Don’t give up. When I was your son’s age I could read both English and isiZulu because my father started preparing me for school when I was four. He realised the importance of English in my academic career, but also made sure that I could speak and read my mother tongue.

By age six I could recite King Shaka’s praises by heart and read a lot of isiZulu novels and biographies. My passion for Zulu history was ignited and I wanted to know more about my nation. I discovered King Cetshwayo ka-Mpande, King Dinuzulu ka-Cetshwayo and uMzilikazi ka-Mashobane. I learned more about how Shaka was misrepresented by historians.

I was not born in KwaZulu-Natal, but I’m proud of my Zulu heritage. I urge all African nations to take pride in their heritage and to teach it to their children. — Lucian Hlophe, Daveyton

Gateway: there are solutions

Of course I am willing, in response to the challenge by Itumaleng Kotsoane, director general of the department of human settlements (‘N2 Gateway still viable”, October 16) to ‘provide constructive guidance”, but the department needs to realise it has alienated the residents of N2 Gateway phase one, of the Joe Slovo informal settlement and many backyarders in Delft.

Kotsoane writes that the project was initiated by housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu and approved by all provincial housing MECs as a ‘pilot project — to determine whether the pace of housing delivery could be accelerated”. This conflicts with the statement by Marius Fransman, Western Cape housing MEC: ‘With the 2010 Soccer World Cup coming to Cape Town, we have to deal with the informal settlements along the N2” (Cape Times, May 3 2004).

‘The first obstacle arose when white business people in Epping objected to the Joe Slovo residents being moved to that industrial area,” writes Kotsoane. Rather than take on these rich people in court, the department attacked the poor by bringing expensive court action, up to the Constitutional Court, to try to evict unwilling Joe Slovo residents to Delft. Eventually they failed because the Western Cape government called for a rethink.

That Sisulu called for an audit of the project does not excuse the gross irregularities uncovered. Lack of transparency in allocation procedures in N2 Gateway housing in Delft has caused enormous problems.

Kotsoane claims that all defects in N2 Gateway phase one were attended to. This is refuted by the recent Scopa site investigation, which revealed more defects. These were not new: many were caused by moisture because of lack of ventilation ducts.

Let me offer recommendations:
– Ventilation ducts in phase-one flats should be installed and other repairs made.
– Phase-one residents should have their rents reduced as redress for the overruns in building costs.
– The department should negotiate with businesses in Epping to secure land there for relocation of Joe Slovo residents.
– A plan needs to made with Joe Slovo residents on how to solve their housing needs in that area, not Delft.
– The allocation process in Delft needs to be made transparent.
I am willing to meet Kotsoane with a delegation of those affected at any time. — Martin Legassick, emeritus professor, University of the Western Cape

This correspondence is now closed
Tear-jerking Jansen

Jonathan Jansen’s gesture of withdrawing disciplinary charges against the Reitz four and his tear-jerker inaugural address should be seen in context: read his book Knowledge in the Blood (if you can handle the sentimentality) to understand his claim to be some kind of authority on the psyche of Afrikaner youth and their entrapment in a white racist apartheid mindset (‘Free State joins the new SA”, October 12).

Rebecca Adams, one of the abused workers, has a point in seeking to forgive the parents, although how far we are to see their parents and the Reitz four as victims of apartheid is an ongoing debate.

What seems to have been airbrushed from Jansen’s CV is the time he spent at the Oprah Winfrey Academy as ‘scholar in residence”, where he no doubt learned his rhetorical lessons well, as well as during his study stint in the United States. His inaugural speech would not have been out of place on Oprah’s show and he joins her in boosting Kleenex sales. Are sentimentality and tear-jerking going to get us to some kind of reconciliation? – Claire Jackson, Cape Town

Zapiro’s cartoon mocking the venerable and peace-loving rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, professor Jonathan Jansen, is disgusting in the extreme. I have shown it to clients, colleagues and friends, black and white, and they cannot believe a paper of your standing could publish such a cartoon. In my almost 88 years I have never seen the like. — David Kessler, Bellville

Zapiro’s cartoon would have been better with someone like Blade Nzimande or Julius Malema in place of Jonathan Jansen. The ANC appointed Nzimande as part of a strategy to kill the independence of universities. None of them is speaking out against Jansen because they care for the victims of racist abuse. In South Africa people are innocent until they are proved guilty (even when they are racist arseholes), so the university should discipline the Reitz four only if they are found guilty in court.

What’s going to happen is the ANC will call for Jansen to resign. If he does, they win. If he doesn’t, they will go to Parliament and pass a law so that they can fire him. There goes the independence of universities. – Thabile Mange

The stinky Brazilian scam

It seems the architects of the Nigerian scam have been beaten at their own game. Obviously they plan poorly and are less strategic than the Brazilian scammers.

Carlos Parreira left Bafana Bafana when we needed him most — he said his wife was sick (‘King coach or deserter?”, October 23). I’m not fooled. Am I insensitive about this? Yes, of course I’m insensitive. Was Parreira not insensitive when he gave us one of his local coaches by the name of Joel Santana? Completely clueless.

Parreira knew that Santana couldn’t possibly achieve anything — in fact, he knew Santana was going to frustrate us. Why would Parreira refer us to a competent and internationally seasoned coach who could have proved him wrong and prevented his own return ‘by popular demand”?

What a flippant scam. Parreira achieved nothing much before he left. I agree that Bafana Bafana’s performance against Paraguay was impressive, but Parreira did not achieve anything else that was truly significant. I don’t even want to go into what he should have achieved.

Who else is benefiting from Santana and Parreira’s fat salaries? I refuse to accept that no one in Safa is benefiting. I wonder if Parreira received anything from Santana’s R1,4 -million pay. Something is stinky here. — Sefu Sekgala, Tshwane

In brief

I read with interest Paul Trewhela’s letter ‘Hani biography lacks integrity” (October 23). The authors of the biography clearly wanted to give readers a sanitised version of Chris Hani’s life. Not mentioning his role in the 1984 mutiny in the ANC camps in Angola and his suppression of exiles in Tanzania is disingenuous. It is good that the M&G gave its readers a broadened scope instead of a one-sided story. — Sam Ditshego, Kagiso

Your pieces on black hair (October 16) left me with a heavy heart. Black hair is fragile and very hard to manage, so people choose whichever style saves them the daily hassle. It has nothing to do with not accepting who you are. I have worn dreadlocks for eight years and I don’t read anything into how other women choose to wear their hair. — Sibo Khumalo

I hear Germany will be bringing bullet-proof vests for their national team for the 2010 World Cup because they don’t trust the South African security services to protect them. If that’s true, they must be called to order. Remember who started two world wars? It was greedy, stubborn Germany. Now it wants to portray us as a nation of trigger-happy killers. — Mapo Phaahle wa Mokoena, Ga Masemola