I have said it before and I feel I must say it again.
Who knows, perhaps the more I repeat the same thing, perhaps people will finally listen.
And by people, I speak of those running our country.
South Africa is a smouldering tinderbox, just waiting to erupt into flames. White this, black that, but never any word from government about creating a united South Africa. Alright, so from time to time a few words are mumbled about unity and the ‘Rainbow Nation’.
But just like a rainbow, this nation is rapidly disappearing with the rising heat.
To add fuel to the already growing conflagration, we have ministers advocating racist policies or ideas. Recently, a certain minister passed on the following advice to land claimants – do not sell your land back to white people. For goodness sake, who cares? As long as a fair and equitable price is agreed upon between buyer and seller.
Then we have comments from our very president, saying land was stolen by settlers. This is not helpful, and in fact simply creates and reinforces a growing notion of division.
We have university students protesting across South Africa. The situation is untenable. It is only a matter of time before a life is lost. And where has our president been? Has he even address parliament about this growing problem? Heaven forbid he actually go to the sites of the protests and actually speak to the protestors.
And what are some of the protestors demanding? Dropping Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, even though (at the University of Pretoria at any rate) there is no stipulation forcing any student to study in Afrikaans. In fact, the Vice Chancellor said exactly that – students at UP have the choice of studying in either English or Afrikaans. Not a single student is forced to study in Afrikaans. It is a matter of personal choice.
What I completely agree with is the notion of offering classes in an indigenous African language. After all, it is a proven fact that students perform better when studying in a mother-tongue language.
The students are, rightfully, calling for the correct application of South Africa’s Constitution – which states every person has the right to be educated in a language of their own choice.
Unfortunately, the students delegitimise their own argument when they call for the complete abolishment of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. In this, the students are now performing the very same act that started the protest in the first place.
But then again, universities have largely been left alone, to try and wade through this mess with very little assistance from government.
One university has been shut down indefinitely, following the destruction of several buildings.
Damage is expected to run into the millions.
But where is Blade regarding this? Where was our president?
One cannot help but start to think that this destruction is actually being tacitly endorsed by government.
More and more people, on social media, are calling for a race-based civil war. Perhaps I am simply overreacting, but any time people start advocating civil war, I sit up and listen. I don’t like it, I find it unsettling.
But of greater concern is that we citizens appear to be more concerned about this than our president. Interesting that somehow, nothing has been said about these desires for civil war. But then, I suppose it is difficult for the president to say much about this when the leader of the ANC Youth League also made a passing reference to wanting a civil war.
I find it fascinating to observe what is currently happening in South Africa and comparing it to Germany following WWI.
In that time, following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had a number of ‘punishments’ levied onto it.
Enter a little man who didn’t like this. This little man, who used his time in prison to pen his memoir, felt that someone should be blamed for the state of Germany and its citizens’ woes.
This little man began blaming a minority group within the country, placing the entire country’s woes onto the shoulders of a minority.
Yes, I am speaking about Adolf Hitler who began ascribing all the woes of Germany onto the shoulders of the Jews, while conveniently forgetting about the blundering errors of the government in power. The self-same government that led the country into WWI.
When Hitler reached the pinnacle of power, he was able to mass-produce literature, complete with splendid rallies, where he ranted and raved (like the lunatic he was), and blamed the Jews for everything.
And we all know the ending to this particular piece of history.
Fast forward to 1994, and the world watched in stunned silence as 800 000 people were massacred in Rwanda, over the space of about six months. Once again, the ruling party in Rwanda blamed another group for all its woes.
Fast forward to 2016 and once again we watch in stunned silence as a minority is blamed for all the woes in South Africa.
I will readily admit, to all and sundry, that Apartheid was an evil system – and wrong on every possible level.
But can Apartheid be blamed for today’s corruption, theft, poor service delivery, maladministration, Nkandla, Nene-gate, Eskom, no water, rampant crime and a ridiculous exchange rate? I don’t think so. The blame for this, and so much more, falls squarely onto the shoulders of the current ruling party.
I will end off with the following: ignore the lessons history has taught us at your own peril. I can only hope there are enough intelligent people left in South Africa to pull us back from the brink of the abyss.
If anything, we should learn from the past of South Africa and realise that division and racism will get us nowhere. In fact, it will lead us deeper into the abyss. What government should be advocating, on a daily basis, is unity between us all – working together towards the common goal of a prosperous South Africa.
