Boesak slams ANC on race
31 July 2008, 06:48
By Aeysha Kassiem and Michelle Jones
Anti-apartheid stalwart Allan Boesak on Wednesday night slammed the ANC for bringing back "racial divisions and ethnic categorisation", saying that "the language of ethnicity had been brought back into the speech of the movement" and that the ANC, as the government, had "brought back the hated system of racial categorisation".
He also said that affirmative action had, in some instances, "taken on new forms of racial exclusion, ruthlessly and thoughtlessly throwing overboard the solidarity forged through years of struggle".
Boesak was speaking at the University of the Western Cape on Wednesday night where he delivered the fifth annual Ashley Kriel Memorial Youth Lecture.
The memorial was inaugurated by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the university in 2004, in honour of Kriel, a young struggle hero from the Cape Flats who was shot and killed by security police in Athlone in 1987 while deployed in the military underground of the ANC's then military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
UWC's Main Hall overflowed with about 2 000 people as Boesak entered the hall with new premier Lynne Brown, and they rose to their feet clapping, whistling and cheering.
Boesak said that when he called for the formation of the United Democratic Front 25 years ago in 1983, he had warned then of the "danger" of "flirting with ethnicity".
"It does not solve differences, it entrenches them.
"But this is precisely the tragic situation our country faces today. When one strays from the narrow path of non-racialism, one inexorably moves into the camp of ethnic nationalism. Or one is pulled in. When this happens, we lose sight of what is happening to all of us, because we see only what happens to us in our own little camp - to those who look like us, think like us, talk like us."
Boesak said this made people fearful, among other things.
"That is why, before we know it, we begin to accuse and slander, to maim and kill in a xenophobic frenzy so utterly strange to the deepest heart of our people.
"That is why, throughout South Africa's painfully slow transformation processes, some Afrikaners find refuge in a new Afrikaner nationalism.
"That is why there is a new movement for coloured people... They do not see that if what happened in South Africa since 1994 is a betrayal, it is a betrayal not of 'coloured' people, but of all marginalised, all poor, all destitute people.
"The problems besetting the 'coloured' communities are problems besetting all poor communities right across the length and breadth of this land".
"That is why there are those who call themselves 'African' to the exclusion of all other Africans, including the sons and daughters of the Khoi and the San who were the first to live in this continent and who gave birth to the human race; and of all those white brothers and sisters whose roots are planted in the soil of Africa, who share the lot and the dreams of this continent, who want to be known by no other name than African.
"That is why even the ANC has succumbed to the subtle but pernicious temptations of ethnic thinking, has brought back the language of ethnicity into the speech of the movement and has, as government, brought back the hated system of racial categorisation.
"That is why, today, everywhere we look, it takes but the merest provocation for the ghosts of racism to rise and haunt us, because we have buried them in graves too shallow and too close to home".
Boesak said the flight into the "imagined safety of ethnic mobilisation" was understandable, but "neither safe nor right".
South Africa's problem was not an ethnic problem, he said.
"Our problem is a problem of betrayal of the poor, of a loss of faith in the people, of a loss of vision for the nation. It is a problem of disconnectedness with the people, of greed and hunger for power, of self-deceit and mindless arrogance."
The suffering and patience of ordinary South Africans had been taken for granted and the "time bomb is real and ticking".
Boesak also made reference to previous comments made by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who reportedly said the ANCYL would be prepared "to kill for Zuma".
Boesak said while former president Nelson Mandela had been prepared to die for "the freedom of his people", his first thought had not been to take the life of others.
"But what we hear now, despite all the justifications, is not a willingness to die for the sake of others, but a desire to kill for a cause that is not necessary to kill for, and that Jacob Zuma himself, I am sure, would not want anybody to die for."
Boesak said he saw disappointment, anger and frustration in South Africa today, but also hope.
"Our people are not looking for the politics of instant gratification and entitlement; they are longing for the politics of justice. They are not looking for the politics of self-satisfaction and self-aggrandisement; they are searching for the politics of hope".
aeysha.kassiem@inl.co.za
michelle.jones@inl.co.za
Anti-apartheid stalwart Allan Boesak on Wednesday night slammed the ANC for bringing back "racial divisions and ethnic categorisation", saying that "the language of ethnicity had been brought back into the speech of the movement" and that the ANC, as the government, had "brought back the hated system of racial categorisation".
He also said that affirmative action had, in some instances, "taken on new forms of racial exclusion, ruthlessly and thoughtlessly throwing overboard the solidarity forged through years of struggle".
Boesak was speaking at the University of the Western Cape on Wednesday night where he delivered the fifth annual Ashley Kriel Memorial Youth Lecture.
The memorial was inaugurated by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the university in 2004, in honour of Kriel, a young struggle hero from the Cape Flats who was shot and killed by security police in Athlone in 1987 while deployed in the military underground of the ANC's then military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
UWC's Main Hall overflowed with about 2 000 people as Boesak entered the hall with new premier Lynne Brown, and they rose to their feet clapping, whistling and cheering.
Boesak said that when he called for the formation of the United Democratic Front 25 years ago in 1983, he had warned then of the "danger" of "flirting with ethnicity".
"It does not solve differences, it entrenches them.
"But this is precisely the tragic situation our country faces today. When one strays from the narrow path of non-racialism, one inexorably moves into the camp of ethnic nationalism. Or one is pulled in. When this happens, we lose sight of what is happening to all of us, because we see only what happens to us in our own little camp - to those who look like us, think like us, talk like us."
Boesak said this made people fearful, among other things.
"That is why, before we know it, we begin to accuse and slander, to maim and kill in a xenophobic frenzy so utterly strange to the deepest heart of our people.
"That is why, throughout South Africa's painfully slow transformation processes, some Afrikaners find refuge in a new Afrikaner nationalism.
"That is why there is a new movement for coloured people... They do not see that if what happened in South Africa since 1994 is a betrayal, it is a betrayal not of 'coloured' people, but of all marginalised, all poor, all destitute people.
"The problems besetting the 'coloured' communities are problems besetting all poor communities right across the length and breadth of this land".
"That is why there are those who call themselves 'African' to the exclusion of all other Africans, including the sons and daughters of the Khoi and the San who were the first to live in this continent and who gave birth to the human race; and of all those white brothers and sisters whose roots are planted in the soil of Africa, who share the lot and the dreams of this continent, who want to be known by no other name than African.
"That is why even the ANC has succumbed to the subtle but pernicious temptations of ethnic thinking, has brought back the language of ethnicity into the speech of the movement and has, as government, brought back the hated system of racial categorisation.
"That is why, today, everywhere we look, it takes but the merest provocation for the ghosts of racism to rise and haunt us, because we have buried them in graves too shallow and too close to home".
Boesak said the flight into the "imagined safety of ethnic mobilisation" was understandable, but "neither safe nor right".
South Africa's problem was not an ethnic problem, he said.
"Our problem is a problem of betrayal of the poor, of a loss of faith in the people, of a loss of vision for the nation. It is a problem of disconnectedness with the people, of greed and hunger for power, of self-deceit and mindless arrogance."
The suffering and patience of ordinary South Africans had been taken for granted and the "time bomb is real and ticking".
Boesak also made reference to previous comments made by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who reportedly said the ANCYL would be prepared "to kill for Zuma".
Boesak said while former president Nelson Mandela had been prepared to die for "the freedom of his people", his first thought had not been to take the life of others.
"But what we hear now, despite all the justifications, is not a willingness to die for the sake of others, but a desire to kill for a cause that is not necessary to kill for, and that Jacob Zuma himself, I am sure, would not want anybody to die for."
Boesak said he saw disappointment, anger and frustration in South Africa today, but also hope.
"Our people are not looking for the politics of instant gratification and entitlement; they are longing for the politics of justice. They are not looking for the politics of self-satisfaction and self-aggrandisement; they are searching for the politics of hope".
aeysha.kassiem@inl.co.za
michelle.jones@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on July 31, 2008
Johannesburg
