”If our minds are ruled by destructive emotions, by self-centredness,
with little regard for others, we won’t be happy. As social animals we need to
work together. With friends around us, we feel secure, happy and our minds are
calm. We’re physically well too. When we’re filled with anger, fear and
frustration, our minds are upset and our health declines. Therefore, the
ultimate source of happiness is warmheartedness..”
26-02-2015, the morning of my 39th
revolution around the sun. I got a call from a Pops, this was odd because he
had already called me earlier in the morning to wish me well. Pops sounded a tad uneasy and this was unlike him.
He said he needed assistance in finding a lawyer. You see ma and he, (more ma, since he retired, he had been relegated to
taxi driver, a very supportive one I might add) operated a crèche in a township
called Ga Rankuwa in the North West, perhaps the first using English as a
medium of instruction in the area. It started with one student and through pure
dedication, commitment and the delivery of quality; they managed to grow it to
over 90 students at its peak. The parents, with the help of the teachers, had
called an irregularly constituted meeting, involved child welfare, department
of social welfare and the police. The parents were unhappy with the quantity
and the quality of the food being supplied to their kids. Yes this was a
feeding scheme and not a place of learning (Sarcasm). The meeting was conducted
largely in Tswana, being of Ghanaian descent, my folks had no inkling of what
was being said. The police then asked the parents, what have you decided…WTF?! The
police stood by and did/said nothing when arson to the property and harm to
their person was being threatened. The supplies were raided, because apparently
it was the parent’s funds used to purchase these goods! Where are our rights as
South African citizens my folks asked the police, to which one of the parents
responded you are from Ghana you must go back to Ghana. It became all too clear
what this was about.
For retired folk in their 70’s, sure they could
eke out a living from this business, but hardly, bearing in mind the daily
200km commute, premises rent, salaries, offering these kids 10hrs of day care, 3 meals and most importantly to
be given a good base from which they can launch into schooling life all on substantially less than it would cost you to fill a small
hatchback’s petrol tank. It wasn’t about the money… it gave them something
meaningful to spend their days doing. We had asked them to stop a few years
ago, to which my mother answered “…and then what will I do”. Imagine, One
evening you lock up, go home, next day you come back and 18yrs later, you have
nothing… because someone feels they can just take it. A week later all the
parties at the first meeting held a meeting invited the folks to attend. They
apologised unreservedly and asked the folks to return and run the crèche, but
taking into account the anger and hate demonstrated by all parties, the lack of
appreciation for their effort, and worst of all working with employees that
were all too happy assist the ‘mutiny’, it became clear that this home they
knew was not really their home…SAD end to a pretty positive effort, but in
hindsight, given what has been happening over the last few weeks, perhaps a
blessing.
For over 20 years I have walked past this ‘tribute’
to an evil yet hugely productive part of what is now the
infrastructure/businesses that South Africa still relies on. In 1983, life in
Ghana was no walk in the park. You couldn’t even buy toilet paper, we (older
folk, I was still a youngster) had to queue for even the most basic foodstuff
and there was no guarantee you would get it. This memory is still clear in my
mind to this day. But it was even clearer in January 1994 when after a 20hr bus
trip I was finally at UCT, my marks were enough to get me into a BCom, just J, my
parents had moved mountains to make sure child no 3 got to tertiary education.
You see that is the benefit I have. Colonisation was bad, but one positive
thing it did leave was highly educated Africans, who knew and valued good
education, the same cant be said of apartheid. Not everyone gets to go to
university let alone UCT. There is no trust fund waiting for me. Folks
retirement plan was me at university getting that degree and qualification. It
was the ONLY opportunity I had to be all I could be! Up and down that hill I
trudged every day, rain or shine (before moving to Smuts ofcourse), walking
past this thing that would in 2015 be at the centre of many peoples hate and
anger. I paid it no mind. None! BComm (accounting and IS major) graduate,
CA(SA) 3 years later. That’s it and that’s all. That stone thing was never
going to help me achieve my DP or pass my exams. That PGDA had to be achieved. It
was the least I could do for myself and my folks, who gave up plenty so we
could be better than they were. Voluntarily moving to South Africa in the 80’s,
as blacks, were they mad?!! Maybe, but very glad they were mad, because look at
us now
Killing of foreigners and destruction of
their businesses, add to that the racial lines that seem to have been drawn as
a result of the attack on the statues, just highlights the brokenness of the
world we live in here. Xenophobia is just a fancy word to mask the despair of
many. A phobia relates to a fear of, there is no fear here, just contempt and hate.
This country is beautiful. Friends for life,
my first hotel stay, my first crush, first holiday, first drink, rugby, first
girlfriend, passed matric, obtained my degree, qualified as a professional,
learnt to drive, my first car, first house, first job, greatest failure…all
happened right here. This country made me. This country is angry. This country
is violent. It is all we know. We see what happened in parliament a few weeks
ago. Mindset is I don’t like it I will destroy it. I want it I will take it.
Zero accountability, if you have the means of course.
I know my past all too well, but I am NEVER
going to let it own me or dictate my future. However, in spite of growing up as
a FOREIGN… BLACK man in South Africa, my circumstances were different to the
average black South African. What I am trying to say, is that it is very easy
for us to sit in our ivory towers and tell people how to behave or be or react
to circumstances we cant even remotely appreciate. Over the last few months I
have been trying to understand a whole lot more, educate myself regarding the
bad old days. I’ve read about Cecil John
Rhodes and Barney Barnato etc., watched documentaries relating to Robert
Sobukwe, what some people believe Nelson Mandela should have done, a play about
the TRC etc. I knew the old regime was bad, but hearing accounts of
breasts/testicles being slammed shut in drawers, people being suffocated and
hung upside down during this process. People being taken in the middle of the
night, dragged behind cars, bodies and bones burnt using acid etc. That is some
inhumane pooh right there and then we complain about people being stabbed
because they are ‘different’. We tell people to get over it and move
on….Seriously?! We are a broken nation, this violence, this anger, this hate,
it is the base upon which this potentially lovely nation was built. We assume
that just because uTata dubbed this the rainbow nation and was the poster child
for such nation, all was well…it was never well!
In as much as the past is to blame for most
of our current woes, we can’t change or influence the past. We can however influence
the now which will impact the future. Were it up to me, I would focus on
building a better now. Wait it is up to me to build my better now.
In my humble opinion and with respect, our
somewhat bleak ‘now’ lies squarely at the feet of the powers that be. You see
there are very few instances where a revolutionary party goes on to be a
successful developmental party, and I stand corrected because I am not a
political scholar. I think what the ruling party now needs is some regeneration
from within.
The mighty South Africa’s GDP growth in 2014
was 1.5% forecast for 2015 is 2.1% (Economic research obtained from Investec),
unemployment is at 24.3% as at 2014 (Stats SA), 13.6% of 50mil people live in
informal settlements (StatsSA) etc. given all of this, tenders are offered to
the connected people. I read that a R631mil tender was awarded to a company
linked to family of President Jacob Zuma, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe,
and Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu. Substantial payments are
alleged to have been made in spite of little work being done. Further more I
read that there were 88 of these toilets built and only 1 stood after the
rains! I read of R2bn being spent on presidential jets. Luxury German cars
everywhere. My question is, in a society like we currently find ourselves in,
even if the ‘handbook’ allows for this, how can you in good conscience go ahead
and splurge like this?
In a society where the economy is growing,
infrastructure is working, people can see that there is hope, who would
complain about R260mil for a residence? R2bn for jets? Who would want to kill
another because they went and bought airtime from town at x, brought it back to
the hood and sold it at x+y? But then again in such an environment, I doubt the
powers that be would have much desire for such things…
