Racism in South Africa … unconscionably signed off by the ANC government?

In other blog posts I have strongly lamented the fact, and the law, that we have used race/ethnicity/skin colour as the central criteria to redress disadvantage in our transformational model. Under a raft of laws and protocols our Affirmative Action model is predicated on the proposition that, before you can receive assistance to redress apartheid induced disadvantage, you must be Black or accept the label “Black”. Also see ......

I have made the point that we now have a nation that is obsessed and preoccupied, in its psyche, with racial/ethnic difference, with dastardly consequences looming, particularly for our children in their formative years. A reality check is to advert to America, a country we just love to pooh pooh and posture against. The comparison is that, in South Africa, it is absolutely inconceivable that any "non-black" could be considered  for presidency, for a nano second. The Whites in the USA have installed a Coloured president, referred to as "black" in terms of a social construct -- NOT LAW.

I even circulated a New Years Appeal to all opinion makers in South Africa. This was, like the problem itself, simply ignored without acknowledgement.
Regrettably my stance has now been spectacularly vindicated. It has emerged that Jimmy Manyi, Chief government spokesman, made a statement on 9 March 2010 that – it is “very important for Coloured people to understand that there was an over concentration of them in the Western Cape” … and that “they should stop this over –concentration situation as they are in an oversupply situation” where they are and should move out to other Provinces. He finishes by stating the Employment Equity Act is a very good Act. See youtube…

This statement could not be more racist on a very obvious test. Each Province has an ethnic group that is in the majority, such as the Zulus in Kwa Zulu, Natal and the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape. However it is only the Coloured majority in the Western Cape that is seen as a bad problem, so bad as to negate/subvert socio-economic transformation.

A whole people, who have been in South Africa from the beginning, are classified as a problem for South African society - simply on account of their ethnicity.
There is no conceptual difference in this stance and that taken by the 3rd Reich against the Jews … and that led to the Holocaust. In both cases the ethnicity of the people is the objection. In both cases that ethnicity is classified as inimical to national interest. The only difference is that Hitler exterminated the Jews. Manyi insists that the Coloureds must migrate. Did Manyi dream this up as Idi Amin did in August 1972? Given a choice, would he resort to the same "solution" as Amin? Well, it is almost the same. Amin's solution was an expulsion of Indians from Uganda. Manyi's solution is "migration" of Coloured folk.

To see people as a problem for the national interest, as if they are plague carrying vermin, is the worst form of racism. Typically, non other than Zwelinzima Vavi of COSATU, and many others have confirmed this obvious fact. See

Manyi is our government spokesperson. Our government is the guarantor of the Constitution, that includes a Bill Of Rights, ensuring equality before the law. He has torn this up by making it clear that Coloureds are not equal before the law. They must be discriminated against. Unlike Zulus of Xhosa, and other dominant groups in other provinces, their ethnicity is a bad problem for national interest.
 It gets worse. One month after this vile attack on Coloureds, Manyi had this to say about Indians whilst addressing the Durban Chamber of Commerce

 "Indians, we should be having only 3% [of positions on management]. They are sitting at 5.9. I call it the power of bargaining. Indians have bargained their way to the top." This was said during the year that the country was supposedly celebrating 150 years of Indians having arrived in South Africa.  See …
It gets very much worse. Instead of taking action against Manyi, and/or his statements, Government took action in support by drafting an Employment Equity Amendment Bill that will have the effect of forcing migration of Coloureds out of the Western Cape as an estimated +- million of them will become unemployed. 

From this it is clear that Manyi was expressing the accepted view of a government “think tank” or “brains trust,” charged with responsibility to come up with a solution to the “Coloured problem”. The solution is the Bill.
Although government is now backtracking on the Bill, on account of widespread criticism by Unions in particular, this does not remove the truth of the whole saga. Coloureds were officially seen as a problem, purely on account of their ethnicity. Government decided that action needed to be taken. A Bill was drawn up and signed off by the whole of Cabinet, including Trevor Manuel who ironically now publicly labels only Manyi as a racist, but significantly includes the charge that – “I have a sense that your racism has infiltrated the highest echelons of government.”

Idi Amin expelled the Indians. Our government proposed to force Coloured migration!

 The Democratic Alliance could not be more right. If there is any doubt that government is fully complicit is this racism, it is completely removed by the fact that Manyi is still in his job, despite widespread calls for his removal.
 There can be very little doubt that the "anti Coloured" stance is also informed by the fact that they have voted the DA into power in the Western Cape. This exercise of a basic right to choose one's leaders is seen as offensive, unpalatable, anathema in our young democracy.  It is so, even though so many gave their lives in order to ensure we now have that sacred right. The situation could not be more vomitus!

 The Bill is, in effect, a form of pernicious social engineering to ensure that the Coloured vote is diluted to the extent that they become a racial minority in a province that they have been the majority in from day one.

At the time of independence, led by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, South Africa straddled the whole world as a moral giant and example to mankind.  Egged on by wonderful voices like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Mamphela Aletta Ramphele, it stood to lead the world in a new social justice culture of  ubuntu.  Ubuntu was discarded and replaced by a rapacious culture of enrichment by a new elite, trading entirely on the "Black" label. The richer have gotten richer. The poorer have gotten poorer. 

 What is especially pernicious about all this is that Manyi  and government, in the Bill, have linked the Coloured and Indian issue to the extremely emotive issue of jobs. The clear message is that these ethnic groups are prejudicing the disadvantaged Black majority on this score. The historical analogy is when Mugabe linked the emotive land issue to Whites in Zimbabwe. Despite equality under the constitution of Zimbabwe, the Whites were then divested of all rights and victimized at the whim of anybody professing to be serving Black interests.
Many Coloureds and Indians imagined that accepting the "Black" label would provide equality. We should no longer be confused. Coloureds and Indians are not Black and should never have accepted the label as a precondition to benefiting under Affirmative Action and Employment Equity laws and protocols.  They are not accepted as either "Black" or as equal. They are seen as a problem, a very big problem. 

That is the inconvenient truth that is now before our eyes for the whole world to see. We are all Africans. We should be proud Africans. That much is also clear from Thabo Mbeki's epic prose "I am an African". The richness of our ethnic diversity is admitted. We cannot be coerced to deny it. We don't have to be Black to be proud and equal among equals. 

As a nation, we should have insisted that Lady Justice remain blindfolded.

Our President needs to urgently show leadership, faced with this grossest violation of human rights and subversion of our Constitution. He knows all too well what it is like to be "categorized" and victimized. Ordinary branch members of the ANC removed Thabo Mbeki, and chose him, because they saw him as epitomizing victimhood. He carries a brief for all underdogs. He made a solemn promise that he would stand up for those who are most vulnerable and would guarantee accountability.   

If Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma sees himself as the President of all South Africans the least he will do is to fire Jimmy Manyi ...immediately.

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I'm for truth, no matter who tells it.

I'm for justice,

no matter who it's for or against.

Malcolm X

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"To Whites other Whites were regarded as "us", Black folk were regarded as "them" and Coloured folk as "the other”.

It was a huge management problem for the colonial government, and its dominant White society, given the incredible racial diversity and colouring of my people. It remains so to-day despite revolutionary changes in the region.
Since Coloured people are neither truly white, brown nor black, a government obsessed with colour as a basic criterion in the treatment of human beings, is tripped up and confused about what to do. So it resorts to makeshift and unprincipled solutions like artificially defining all "non-white" people as Black. The consequences for us Coloured people are organically induced challenges, ever present, hardly acknowledged; in a minefield of obfuscation".  From the book  - "The Other - without fear, favour or prejudice" published by Lulu.com. 2010.