South Africa at crossroads

South Africa at crossroads

20/11/03
(READ MTHULISI'S PREVIOUS ARTICLES)
WE had just driven out of Langalibalele, a dingy township in Cape Town with collapsing dwellings, when we soon found ourselves cutting through an affluent apartment district with canals, irrigated lawns and exotic eucalyptus trees like we were in Amsterdam.

The irony is not only a shocking reality but a symbolic sore -pointing to a disturbing case of privilege lying side by side with abject poverty throughout the country.

Evidently South Africa's greatest danger to democracy is not the political mandarins within the ANC and elsewhere but the society's failure to translate its reconciliation mantra into a sound corrective measure to have a positive and transcendent effect across the social, economic and political divides.

The signs are already showing. During the days we were in Cape Town for the Global Communicators Network (GCN) meeting, the South Africans were registering to vote in next year's elections. Many chose to stay away leading to pleas from President Thabo Mbeki.

In Zimbabwe it all began with such small things as apathy. Once they are not combated there is no knowing what these small things will result in.

A day before visiting the high density suburbs we had sailed on a preserved boat once used by the apartheid regime to ferry political prisoners to the historic Robben Island.

There we met with an ex-prisoner Thulani Mabaso who took us around the entire complex showing us the cells of Tokyo Sexwale, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and many others.

Standing by the entrance he motioned for attention exactly like a prison officer. He told us of how one vicious Captain Zeal and his colleague Montgommery had interrogated him at John Vorster Square prison for blowing the Nedbank building when he was just nineteen.

One day the two held him high up in the air blind-folded with hands tied on his back. Two times they let him fall down with a heavy thud like a sack. The pain was excruciating and he passed out.

On another day he went through yet another round of a torture marathon until he defecated and was forced to feed on the excrement. The family was not spared. To this date Mabaso's father is still wheelchair bound and blind from the injury inflicted on him by gun shots when he wanted to see his imprisoned son Thulani.

These were just a few out of many tales of torture inflicted on the African people. It was similar to the incidents of the Boer secret police roasting political activist's bodies while quaffing beer on the sidelines.

Mabaso also showed us the dreaded censor's office which intercepted prisoners' mail and sliced off some paragraphs with a pair of scissors so crudely so that when the letter was handed over to the owner it would have lost all meaning.

"Mandela's idea of reconciliation has had a powerful and shocking impact on white memory that it has swayed his enemies to forget that they wanted him dead"

MTHULISI MATHUTHU

The entire one and a half hours we spent on the small island were a lesson in history. The story of Robben Island is in one way or another the story of the entire planet.

Literally all the races and tribes from the North to the South pole have been hosted in this once God -forsaken island. As we sailed on a straight course back to the mainland I began some soul-searching.

To our right was the magnificent Table Mountain covered in mist reminding one of the Second World War days when it was occupied by the South African army to avert an attack by the Germans.

Ahead of us the Mandela Gateway shone as the little vessel hit wave after wave under an accapella version of the South African national anthem, Nkosi Sikelela I Africa done by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

I thought deeply and critically about the story of South Africa. Much as it has helped beat back evil emotions and intentions it is teetering on the brink of becoming new veneer upon a rough zone. More than reconcile two camps it tends to conceal other people's feelings.

On the Island somebody had asked Mabaso what he felt about Montgommery, Zeal and company. The answer came out like a bullet:
"They should be in prison but because of this amnesty thing they are free and are successful business people in our free South Africa.”

The reconciliation process has been an assault on other people's memories and feelings. It has tended to pretend that other people's anger can be covered by sweet words and propaganda. It has tended to take in anyone and everything (systematically though) to the extent that even the most dangerous racist can afford to hide under their friendship with former President Nelson Mandela.

It has yet to deal with the problems of black feelings in relation with their past and present. Situations where black people will see colour before they see murder or insult are still commonplace in the new South Africa.

Even more worryingly the first president of the democratic South Africa Mandela has been lifted high up to occupy a sacred space. He has become a legend and mythical figure in life. He looms larger than anyone and anything to the point that the story of South Africa as told today sounds censored, exclusionist and dangerous.

Listen to Mandela's story as told by his supporters and you will imagine that there is no poverty in that country or there was never anybody called Robert Sauce, Govan Mbeki, Chief Albert Luthuli and Steve Biko.

Evidently Sobukwe and Biko wouldn't fit in this myth of forgetting the past owing to the unforgettable cruelty inflicted upon them and their militancy.

Their supporters are bitter. One guide of Indian origin at the Island unconsciously bared his soul as he spoke glowingly of Sobukwe of the Pan-Africanist Congress. Those who had never heard of Sobukwe wondered who this man was as we parked by the other prison where he was kept in solitary confinement until he nearly became insane.

A South African colleague confided that their kind of reconciliation seems to fear more for whites than for blacks. It tends to trivialise black memory while pampering white memory hence its popularity in Cape Town where it gives hopes to the white population that there will be free from retribution.

Mandela's idea of reconciliation has had a powerful and shocking impact on white memory that it has swayed his enemies to forget that they wanted him dead. Like a pair of scissors cutting letters at Robben Island it has cut their memories short.

Since apartheid, by its very nature, was a heinous crime against humanity, reconciliation will sound like subjugation, an inconvenience and a permanent bother to Biko's supporters and the rest of the PAC people.

It is reconciliation with weak links, With less to fall back on and more to fall for. To them it sounds a comfortable arrangement to whites than it is to blacks. To them it is the reason why privilege will lie close to poverty.

To them Mandela is also a convenience and South Africa faces danger when they can longer exploit him. His legacy came too early and is perishable. If the South Africans fail to address these problems they might find themselves with a Robert Mugabe in their midst exploiting their mistakes for personal aggrandisement.

Yet South Africa is still a wonderful country in some way. Their reconciliation averted an imminent blood bath and sheer savagery. It was a departure from Nuremberg which was a glaring temptation to a retributive course.

It brought important information before our eyes. Old statues didn't fall in South Africa like they fell in Harare in 1980 for the purposes of history. In South Africa they are beginning to laugh about their prejudices and their fears and hopes.

Pieter-Dirk Uys aka Evita Bezuidenhout's performances say so.

Inflation is under check and the manufacturing industry is functioning.

This wonderful country is endowed with natural resources and is a host to people from all over the world. It has talented international music stars and good clubs especially in Long Street of Cape Town. That country produces and keeps beautiful women and has got international universities.

Their sophisticated newspapers are free to discuss the blemishes of the political aristocracy and none of them have been shut down. Ministers don't appear on television wagging fingers threatening writers and journalists.

Those who have relocated have relocated for other reasons other those in Zimbabwe. Generally South Africa is marketable. Its image is well managed. South Africa can bid to host the World Cup and get seconders.

Depending on how they manage their propaganda and how they preserve
Mandela's legacy South Africa will survive. In Mandela they have a wonderful facility which they can exploit for centuries to come with pride - thuthuma@yahoo.com
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