Fighting racism and brutality by the security forces should not happen at the whim of leaders, but should be a sustained process, writes Mbhazima Shilowa.
On Friday 5 June, President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in his capacity as president of the ANC, gave new meaning to the word impotence.
Here was a leader of a party in government with its alliance partners bemoaning government inaction to combat racism and brutality of the army and police as if they were an extra parliamentary party or a party in opposition.
A party that had championed non-racialism when it was not fashionable resulting in some of its leading light leaving to form the PAC seemed to be only now coming to grips with the prevalence of racism in our society.
A party with countless resolutions on fighting racism since its unbanning and ascension to political power. A party that supported the UN conference on racism held on our shores in 2001.
At that conference held in Durban, Thabo Mbeki, then president of the ANC and the country, said: “…there were many who suffered indignity and humiliation because they were not white. They expected that something would come out of the conference that would signify a united and sustained global drive to help rid them of the suffering they bore.
“Our common humanity dictates that as we rose against apartheid racism, so must we combine to defeat the consequences of slavery, colonialism and racism which, to this day, continue to define the lives of billions of people who are brown and black, as lives of hopelessness.”
What, one may ask, has the party or the government it leads done to implement the recommendations of that conference? Nothing.
An alien from another planet could swear the ANC and its alliance partners had not heard of the incidents of racism involving Penny Sparrow and Vicky Momberg and did not issue any statements or take part in protest against such.
We know they issued a statement about Ishmael Mathenene who was shot by his employer who claimed he mistook him for a monkey. They held protests calling for harsher sentences when Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson appeared in court. The pair had assaulted Victor Mlotshwa, forced him into a coffin and threatened to burn him alive.
This is the same party which has condemned a number of private schools for racism and exclusion, sometimes using the issue of language. Surely, they too are aware of incidents where black children have been sent home because of non-compliance with what became known as “hair policy”.
Ironically, on the same day Ramaphosa and his alliance partners were pontificating on racism, students from Bishops Diocesan College released a memorandum sent to the school about its racist practices. Many more pupils from other schools have shared their experiences on Instagram. Yet, a party in government thinks all it will take to eradicate racism is statements and wearing black on Friday for three weeks.
One of the participants in the sham alliance conference was Blade Nzimande, the minister of higher education, who also moonlights as the general-secretary of the SACP.
Following the incident where white Afrikaner students at the University of the Free State were filmed humiliating five black cleaning staff at the residence, the minister of education established the Soudien Inquiry in March 2008 after the video became public. The findings were presented to Nzimande who had taken over as minister of higher education and training.
At a summit held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology following the release of the report, Nzimande is reported to have said: “The Soudien Report shows racism and discrimination is still an issue. It provides a stark and credible picture of the situation at our universities.”
Yet, here he was speaking about racism as if he had not had an opportunity to play a role in combating it.
Most bizarre and baffling was the sudden condemnation by Ramaphosa of the assault on Collins Khosa by soldiers that resulted in his death and the killing of at least 10 people allegedly by the police during lockdown. Khosa was killed on Good Friday, 10 April, and was buried on 18 April.
The president has since then addressed the nation on a number of occasions and never once mentioned the incident let alone offered condolences to the Khosa family. It was like it never happened.
Yet, the family has taken the matter to court, an action was opposed by both the ministers of defence and police. The soldiers remained in their posts and were only suspended following the ruling of the High Court that they should be suspended and an investigation should be conducted.
Even as he addressed the matter you could see Ramaphosa was simply going through the motions. He had no fire in is belly. It was like someone had pointed out to him that, by the way, just as we are convening this conference and calling on South Africans to wear black in support of #BlackLivesMatter following the killing of George Floyd, we have not uttered a word about the death of Khosa following an assault by our soldiers and 10 others at the hands of the police.
Or someone had pointed out to him it is written in Matthew 7:5, that Jesus said: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
While they may not have died at the hands of white security personnel, they died at the hands of law enforcement primarily because they were blacks. We police black and formerly white areas differently. In the former, we resort to “skop, skiet en donner”, while in the latter we follow the dictates of the Constitution.
The statement by the president followed contradictory statements issued by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
She had deposed a confirmatory affidavit in support of the report handed by the army to the court that the investigation had been concluded and had cleared all the soldiers of any wrongdoing.
It would appear that like others before him, who died at the hands of the security forces during apartheid, “he had simply banged his head on the wall and died after the soldiers had escorted him inside his house” for being in possession of a half bottle of beer inside his yard.
A few days later, Mapisa-Nqakula boldly told Parliament no such report had been handed to the court and the investigation was continuing, a statement echoed by the president that no stone shall be left unturned to get to the bottom of how Khosa was killed.
The minister did not take long to solve the mystery. Stones had been turned and indeed as she had earlier told the court no one could be blamed for Khosa’s death. She regretted having mistakenly told Parliament the matter had not yet been finalised. How could it have been a mistake when she had deposed an affidavit supporting the document of the army chiefs she later told Parliament doesn’t exist?
It is said it is often difficult if not impossible to square a circle, yet it seems the president intends to do so – investigating a matter that the army says is now closed.
As they say in the streets, something will have to give.
He will need to first rebuke the army and minister for a cover-up and put in place an independent probe.
While at it, he should also ensure the full implementation of the Marikana commission recommendations on public order policing.
One of the speakers at that conference of the alliance was Zingiswa Losi the president of Cosatu. Incidentally, she is also a member of Popcru, a police trade union. I do not recall Popcru issuing a statement condemning police brutality and calling on its members to act within the law. Yet, here she, and like the president, has now found a voice to condemn their action.
Unless like Baal, the god mentioned in one of the stories in the Bible, they were in deep thought all along, or busy. Maybe as the prophet Isaiah said, they were sleeping and needed the George Floyd story to awaken them.
I am all for a campaign and action to combat racism and brutality by the police and army. I also accept the ANC being the majority party in Parliament should lead such a campaign. To do so, it will first have to demonstrate through action, being the party in power, that it has the will to enforce existing policies, propose new ones where existing ones are inadequate with consequences for transgressions, including incarceration.
Like other conferences on racism, it will just have been another talk shop to assuage the ego of the leadership who will go back to their positions in government as if nothing has happened. Fighting racism and brutality by the security forces should not happen at the whim of leaders, but should be a sustained process. Knowing South Africans, a week from now we will have moved on to a new story, a flavour for the week, while the police and racists continue as before.
Before that happens, many are unlikely to take heed of the call to wear black on Fridays. If black lives really matter, we shall see justice for those who lost their lives at the hands of the security forces during the lockdown.
– Mbhazima Shilowa is a former premier of Gauteng, trade unionist and Cope leader.
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