Faith Muthambi: Anti-Zuma marches protect white privilege

Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi has slammed last Friday’s nationwide marches by thousands of South Africans calling for President Jacob Zuma to step down from office, saying the protests had to do with “the protection of white interests and white privilege”.

In an opinion editorial published by The Sunday Independent, Muthambi – who has been on the offensive against Zuma’s detractors following his much-criticised Cabinet reshuffle last month – said the marches exposed the hypocrisy of “white-led groupings” who claim to be taking a stand against corruption but were not as outraged at the apartheid government and corruption in the private sector.

She said the co-opting of black people into an agenda that is “inimical to their interests” by these groupings was an old trick.

“It dates back to the epoch of slavery when the slave owners could count on house slaves to whip their own into line. It comes as no surprise to find so-called former revolutionaries in the company of the most racist detractors of a legitimate government.

“Their closeness to white monopoly capital speaks volumes,” Muthambi wrote.

The minister also applauded Cosatu for advising its members to reject all activities organised under the umbrella of the Save South Africa campaign, which has been leading the anti-Zuma marches.

Despite the trade union federation last week also calling for Zuma to resign, it said it would never march with “the agents on monopoly capital to remove a democratically elected government”.

“Indeed, it doesn’t take much to expose the hypocrisy of this newfound activism by these white-led groupings and their claim of taking a stand against corruption.

“These groupings and their black lackeys are deafeningly silent when it comes to corruption in the private sector. For instance, they were nowhere to be found when the Competition Commission found that banks had engaged in corruption, nor did we hear them call on Absa to account for funds that were illegally loaned to it.

“Their moral compass is unaffected by recent revelations pointing out at how the construction industry and the bread cartel colluded in siphoning resources from the country and the poor respectively,” Muthambi added.

She argued that South Africa remains a multiethnic, multiracial and multiclass society, saying the marches against Zuma represented the convergence of white and class interests.

“We are also not surprised that the whole brouhaha around the Cabinet reshuffle has assumed an ethnic character. The noise is restricted to concerns of my former colleague, Pravin Gordhan, who has since assumed a new occupation of being the main attraction and new master of memorial services. My other colleagues have been reduced to a mere historical footnote.

“The invisibility of black people in a racist society is consistent. For instance, there was no white outrage when 44 black people were killed in Marikana,” she said.

ALSO READ:

//

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.