Thank goodness for our ever-reliable South African sense of humour during these strange times we’re currently living in. Coming out of the now famous “(Don’t) touch me on my studio” saga on eTV has been various spoofs, remixes and now advertising.
As ward councillor in Pinetown, KZN, I yesterday evening laid a charge against the local SAMWU shopstewards at the Pinetown SAPS for the damage striking Municipal workers had caused to two water meters in the Pinetown Civic Centre precinct. In addition, striking workers trashed the parking lots and streets around the Civic Centre area.
I attempted to lay a charge of intimidation on behalf of the members of staff who chose yesterday not to go on strike but were forced to stop work by a mob of strikers who came into the Civic Centre Offices and intimidated them. The SAPS require more details and witnesses for the intimidation charge to be laid but Municipal workers affected are too terrified to speak to me.
I have distributed letters around the office requesting employees provide me information via email, SMS or slipping it under my door in the Civic Centre. I am sure SAMWU will slip a dead fish under my door as a result.
Municipal Manager, Dr Mike Sutcliffe, has been made aware of the charge being laid and is in support of this action.
Today in Pinetown, striking municipal workers intimidated fellow employees who were not participating in the strike, damaged two water meters near the Pinetown Civic Hall and lay waste to the town by upturning dustbins.
I strongly condemn the actions of the striking workers who have broken the law several times today. I have thus appealed to other municipal employees to disclose the names of those persons responsible for the damage and disruption today. While I am aware employees are fearful of disclosing such information, I am making the opportunity available to them. See the letter below in this regard.
I will immediately be attempting to lay a charge a charge against SAMWU and its shopstewards for the crimes committed. The charges are outlined in the second letter below.
Dear The ANC
There was a time during the liberation struggle when it was acceptable within your organisation for people like Robert McBride and Andrew Zondo to kill in the name of the fight for freedom. During that time also, your organisation sang songs promoting further violence against the racist white oppressors at whose hands so many black South Africans suffered.
The ANC and its Allies fought against a corrupt racist nationalist Government which believed in white supremacy and denigrated black South Africans in both legislation and language.
Our hard won democracy signalled the end of that struggle era and we were ushered into the miracle of the new South Africa under the leadership of Madiba and urged to work together to create a nation where all would prosper. Our Constitution and the rule of law no longer allows the ANC or any other person or organisation to accept violence or killing as a means to an end. Further outlawed was the legislation and hate speech which had been the main instruments of the Apartheid state’s oppressive regime.
How then can it be acceptable to the ANC that a struggle song which uses language of violence and racism should be allowed to be wheeled out of the pre-Democracy era museum and again performed to crowds by leaders as influential as the President of the ANC Youth League?
Nobody will soon forget that there was a song which included the words “dubulu ibhunu” (Ayesaba Amagwala), just as nobody will unfortunately soon forget that putrid K-word which was used to denigrate black South Africans. The fact that these two forms of hate speech should be banned out of use altogether does nothing to deny their previous existence and prominence.
The vacuum of decisive leadership and apparent lack of commitment to the letter and spirit of our non-racial democracy in the past months has left me wondering what the legacy of the ANC will be. Will the ANC be remembered as the liberators of South Africa and the architects of Africa’s first successful post-colonial society? Or, will they be remembered, as ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe will, as the creators of a kleptocracy which betrayed those people who fought and died in its name?
Those of us in the opposition find we are fighting what is now almost certainly a corrupt racist nationalist Government which believes in black supremacy and discriminates against white South Africans in legislation and now condones denigrating them in language too. Is this how you wish to be remembered?
I appeal to you to show leadership, reinforce the non-racial spirit of our democracy, and in the best interests of our future, reorientate your organisation such that your legacy is one you could be proud of when your great grandchildren ask about the ANC and the nation it united.
Yours in South Africa
Warwick Bruce Chapman
People whose politics serve to divide our people by promoting the interests of one group to the exclusion of the rest, especially if they do this along racial lines, have no place in the serious business of charting the future course of our growing democracy.
Julius Malema and others like him are using racism in their attempts halt our nation’s reconciliation and divide us once again. They prey on the desperation of the poor and profit from the support their widely peddled untruths gain among them.
The future prosperity of South Africa is in all our hands. Democracy only works when power is checked. Our democracy craves balance. Your votes will deliver that balance and stabilise the future trajectory of our miracle nation.
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