Skin colour does not dictate character content

Death certainly brings families, and in this case, a country together.

3 deaths this past week made national news and quite rightly so. In a country where violent crime is never far from any doorstep, death is something we have almost become immune to. The deaths in question were 3 white men. 2 were decorated sportsmen and the other a man who transcended everything that divides our cracked society.

In James Small – who a Sunday newspaper chose to conduct a ‘hit piece of a front page’ on, it was the white folk who knew they had lost an iconic rugby player. He was the 3rd member of the legendary ’95 World Cup winning team to have passed on, but his circle of influence was limited to that sector of the populace.

The 2nd death, a violent one, took the life of former football player, Marc Batchelor. What made Marc unique is that he is perhaps the only footballer (white at least) to play for all the ‘big 3’ – Pirates, Chiefs and Sundowns. That’s a bit like your playing CV including having played for Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

By and large, local football has a limited following among whites, hence Marc’s death did not resonate with too many – save for a few snide remarks about him ‘getting what he deserved as he mixed with the underworld’. Comments were probably made by the same people who vilified Rapport for their Small expose. Black folk were quick to send tributes to Marc, remembering his on field exploits.

Johnny Clegg’s death – which in hindsight is the only one of the three tragedies that we should have expected given his condition – is the one that shocked us the most. Johnny transformed all boundaries: culturally, politically and musically. Not many South Africans have achieved that.

One of my old friends, with whom I shared a love of listening to Capital Radio 604 in ‘those days’, had this to say: “You never heard any k*k about Johnny. Only good”.

Listening to Capital in the early 80s on scratchy medium wave, we were startled to hear Africa by Juluka. We had not heard stuff like this before. Sure, SABC played Margaret Singana and Lettie Mbuli, but now this raw, deep African stuff with English and Zulu lyrics…

And then of course came Impi – a song of special significance to our area, as it is an anthem honouring the bravery of the warriors at Isandlwana. Johnny was a visitor to the area in around 2011 while doing a documentary on Isandlwana.

Humble, polite, inquiring, knowledgeable, he was all a good South African should be. ‘Skin colour does not dictate character content’. Once we all see society like that, we all would have achieved our own crossing to something better.

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