“This racism has defined us who are African and black as primitive, pagan, slaves to the most irrational superstitions and inherently prone to brute violence.” — Thabo Mbeki 2001
“In my daily life there’s no one else that I feel threatened by except black people.” — Anneli Botes 2010
When I first learnt what Anneli Botes had said I kind of liked it for its refreshing honesty because, while many who share her thoughts and fear live in our midst and pretend otherwise, she spoke from the heart. I felt she had opened a sore that would heal better for being opened wide rather than remaining artificially closed. They are shocking words but someone has to say them.
Of course, she was followed by her brother in contempt for blacks, singer Steve Hofmeyr, who feels that blacks are killers, have contributed nothing to the development of this continent and have a sense of entitlement. He fell short of blurting out : “I hate blacks.”
But I am starting to feel that, because we have been told by the Human Rights Commission that the comments might be racist but are not hate speech, we should all let up and sigh in relief.
I am compelled to disagree with those who are saying that, because we have a recent racist past, we should not be surprised or make a hue and cry about this kind of racism. I feel strongly that we should be outraged and, while we may not force anyone to be non-racial, we must preach that this kind of attitude has no place in the society we are trying to build.
We must find a way to go out to the street and demonstrate our hurt, anger and upset at the undermining of the non-racial project. Where are those petitions? Where are the editors who contemplated shutting out Julius Malema from the media space when we were being so shaken by what he was saying? I am not saying we should do likewise but that at least conveyed strong emotion.
Racism is a sore point in this country. White South Africans feel they should not have to carry the baggage of past apartheid rulers because they never supported racism (even if they kept voting the National Party into power for so long). They also feel that by promoting employment equity and affirmative action we are implementing reverse racism.
There is also a sentiment, advanced by Hofmeyr, that blacks, because they were discriminated against in the past, believe they are entitled to everything for free in order to compensate.
But for black people, what is the point of the statutory repeal of racism if the power and economic dynamics remain the same? For as long as blacks remain economically at the lower rungs of the ladder, it means very little that racism has been outlawed. In the workplace white people are still very much in charge and black people generally continue to live in squalid conditions in the townships. And it is worse when the likes of Botes and Hofmeyr spit on their suffering.
Ours is a mature democracy and it is very unlikely that our race relations will sink to the levels experienced in Zimbabwe — which brings me to the subject of former president Thabo Mbeki. Besides his handling of the Zimbabwe issue and Aids denialism, the former president was most often crucified for his strong views on race. In his analysis of the South African media he saw racism in the criticism directed at him for his soft stance on President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean leadership; he saw white people who were worried about their kith and kin in the country and that the same kind of land grab could happen later in South Africa.
In the Aids crisis, he saw white people who were “convinced that we are but natural-born, promiscuous carriers of germs, unique in the world, they proclaim that our continent is doomed to an inevitable mortal end because of our unconquerable devotion to the sin of lust”.
These views reflected very badly on him, given that he had succeeded Nelson Mandela whose main mission was to pursue reconciliation between races and, in particular, to assure whites that they still had a future here even if the black majority had taken over.
He may well have been dogmatic in looking through race blinkers at any critical comment directed at him. But very soon someone, some prominent and less controversial figure than Malema, will again start preaching Mbeki’s mantra that reconciliation cannot be realised unless it is accompanied by the fundamental transformation of the entire socialeconomic fabric of our society.
If we allow Botes and Hofmeyr to get away with this, we are in fact creating a fertile breeding ground for some populist character to champion the fight against the comfortable racists in our midst. We may well live to regret our casual attitude.