councilor.org
| Source | Thomas Shelley |
| Date | 99/05/01/21:44 |
| /* Written 12:35 PM May 25, 1998 by jshell@netcom.com in igc:labr.all */ /* ---------- "jhurd_dsa-doc: John Pilger on South" ---------- */ > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 23:19:09 -0600 (MDT) > From: Shelley Thomas > Subject: jhurd_dsa-doc: John Pilger on South Africa: has the ANC sold out? > > I don't know the accuracy of many of the things that Pilger is saying, and > I think he is a bit harsh on the ANC, but it is a very interesting > article, and I thought you'd want to see it. > > Tom > > > > John Pilger on South Africa: has the ANC sold out? > > JOHN PILGER's documentary Apartheid Did Not Die was shown on British and > South African television on April 21. On April 17, the Johannesburg-based > Weekly Mail & Guardian published an article in which Pilger described his > first visit to South Africa after his banning 30 years ago. Both the film > and article generated enormous controversy throughout South Africa. Below > is an abridged version of the Weekly Mail article. > > In 1967, I was banned from South Africa for "embarrassing the state". I had > been smuggled into one of the secret hearings of the Race Classification > Board where, in Room 33 every Thursday morning, apartheid's horrific > quackery was on display, its moral and intellectual mutation made to appear > normal, with forms and regulations and decision-making based on "criteria". > > Here, suited officials, men of dour, fraudulent respectability, took > evidence: scribbling, whispering and now and then leaning down from their > magistrate's bench in order to study the texture of a human head of hair > and peer at the whites of human eyes. > > After due consideration, "racially borderline" people were classified or > reclassified "according to appearance and acceptance", which meant a ticket > to a lifetime of privilege or humiliation. Black-skinned people needed not > apply. > > Stepping off the plane 30 years later, I read about the white businessman > who had sent an anonymous fax to a black trade union leader, calling him a > "kaffir, arsehole and trash". For this, he was fined and publicly shamed: a > normal act of justice in a civilised country, yet inconceivable until > recently in South Africa. > > Among the black majority there is a new sense of pride that gives meaning > to ubuntu, the traditional spirit of humanism expressed in a distinctly > African notion that people are people through other people. This is not > without the usual frailties, but the evidence of its resilience is > everywhere in South Africa; and those seeking optimism about the human > spirit need look no further. > > Few whites go into the townships. For them, beyond the multiracial images > of the "rainbow nation" -- now celebrated, sadly, not by the power of the > people's epic story but by consumerist propaganda -- they are in another > country. Here live those whose blood, sweat and tears forced the pace of > change and who, wrote Allister Sparks, South Africa's great chronicler, > "could feel they were proclaiming their equality and that their strength of > spirit could overwhelm the guns and armoured vehicles waiting outside". > > These are the people to whom Mandela said their "hopes and dreams are about > to be realised". It follows that they ought not to have merely an > expectation of a better life, but a right to one. > > This right is still denied and South Africa is still not theirs. What is > clear is that "reconciliation", to which Mandela has devoted himself to the > applause of most of the world, provides little more than a facade behind > which apartheid continues by other means. The question remains: > reconciliation for whom? > > In 1994, as election day approached, white South Africans hoarded food and > fortified their houses against the feared "takeover" by domestic servants, > the homeless, the unemployed and the black masses. Four years later, the > servants are still serving, the squatters are still squatting (and still > being evicted by white-led paramilitary police), and the majority are still > waiting -- while the "madams" and the "baases" experience no real change in > their privileged way of life. > > Fly into any South African city and the divisions are precise and > entrenched. Johannesburg offers the most vivid example. On one side, there > is Sandton municipality where, in fortified splendour, live some of the > most pampered people on earth. > > Enclaves like Sandton are apartheid's unchallenged bastions, from which 5% > of the population control 88% of the nation's wealth. This grotesque > imbalance of power has not changed and is not likely to. They, not the > majority, have been rewarded by democracy and "reconciliation". > > What is amazing to me is the degree of restraint exercised by the majority, > given the flaunting of wealth by a minority. About 2 kilometres from > Sandton, literally across a road, is Alexandra. Half a million people live > here, squeezed into a 2.5 square kilometres. When it rains, the polluted > river floods and houses collapse and the roads run like caramel. > > When I was there it was stinking and dry, with a flock of aproned women > frantically trying to pick up the stranded rubbish; the spick and span > state of people's homes is a wonder. On the hill are two great "hostels", > like prison blocks: one built for men, the other for women. Apartheid's > planners designed them as a cheap labour pool; everybody else was to be > "removed". But the people of Alexandra resisted, and stayed. > > Mzwanele Mayekiso grew up in Alexandra and, until recently, was head of the > local branch of the South African National Civics Organisation, whose > boycotts and direct action during the 1980s helped to bring down the > regime. "Most people over there don't know we exist", he said. "I mean, > literally. Our women go over as domestics, our men as labourers and > gardeners. No one asks where they return home to. Nothing has changed. > > "Long before Mandela was released, the old regime had already dismantled > the trappings of segregation. They left intact the most important part, > which was always economic apartheid; and this has been adapted and > reinforced by the ANC government. I think we are being designed like the > United States: divided by class, which generally means race. We are even > learning to speak the new jargon of separation, with the majority of people > referred to not as the heroes of our struggle, but as an `underclass'." > > Before F.W. de Klerk announced the un-banning of the ANC and Mandela's > release on February 2, 1990, he and the white establishment had reached a > kind of gentlemen's agreement with the ANC, following secret meetings, that > accommodated the fears of the old order and the demands of the > "international community". > > The US, the British and the World Bank made it clear that South Africa > would be "welcomed into the global economy" on condition that its new > government pursued orthodox, "neo-liberal" policies that favoured big > business, foreign investors, deregulation, privatisation and, at best, > offered a "trickle down" to the majority who were to be shut out of the > economy. > > Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's successor and one of the transition > negotiators, told me that the ANC had "no choice at all" but to accept a > series of "historic compromises"; otherwise there would have been a > "bloodbath" and "great suffering across the land". > > Certainly, at the time, the perceived threat was from a far-right third > force. But if such a threat existed, it turned out to be far less important > than the more subtle machinations of de Klerk and his colleagues combined > with the ANC's willingness to make the "historic compromises". > > As for the "great suffering", while it is true that there was no civil war, > the political decisions made by the ANC, which relegated the needs of the > majority, have ensured the continuation of great suffering by exclusion -- > in the disastrous housing and employment policies and the absence of a > minimal strategy for redistribution. The reason for this is partly > historical. The ANC was always a party of compromise, seeking in the > beginning "a place at the table". > > People were misled; in 1990, the ANC leadership made clear it would do its > utmost to honour the spirit of the 1955 Freedom Charter, which declared > that the people "shall share in the country's wealth. The minerals beneath > the soil and monopoly industry shall belong to the people. The land shall > be shared among those who work it. There shall be houses, security and the > right to work." > > The ANC, said Mandela, would take over the great monopolies, including the > mines, and the financial institutions. "That is the fundamental policy of > the ANC", he said. "It is inconceivable that we will ever change this > policy." To his people, his words carried the moral weight of a leader who, > as Anthony Sampson, Mandela's biographer, has written, has "a moral > influence which no politician or newspaper dare challenge". > > However, on his triumphant travels abroad Mandela spoke with a different > emphasis. The ANC, he said in New York, "will reintroduce the market to > South Africa". The "market" in South Africa has a long and bloody history. > As Basil Davidson has written, "economic invention" lay at the root of the > organised racism that distinguished the British Empire long before the > Boers declared apartheid as official policy in 1948. > > As prime minister of the Cape in the late 19th century, Cecil Rhodes, the > great liberal benefactor, encouraged the dispossession of Africans and > their "removal" to cheap labour reserves for the gold and diamond mines. > The Oppenheimers, who ran the Anglo American company, also had beneficent > pretensions. While declaring himself an opponent of certain aspects of > apartheid, Harry Oppenheimer's tentacular empire grew rich on the brutal > migrant labour system. > > When it was clear, in the 1980s, that the regime of P.W. Botha was doomed, > big business changed its allegiance to the ANC, confident that its > multinational interests would not be obstructed and that foolish promises > about equity and the natural resources "belonging to all the people" would > be abandoned. > > Since the ANC has settled into office, Margaret Thatcher's infamous TINA > ("there is no alternative") has become the government's touchstone. The > policy is known as GEAR -- for growth, employment and redistribution -- but > it has little connection with employment, as jobs are being shed by the > tens of thousands, and even less with redistribution, which seems confined > to changing seats on a gravy train. A government adviser told me: "We refer > to cautious Thatcherism", which sounded like cautious apartheid to me. > > The Ministry of Finance remains in thrall to the orthodoxy of > globalisation; finance minister Trevor Manuel has metamorphosed from > long-haired biker and Cape Flats activist to the very model of a modern > Blairite capitalist, boasting of his low deficit and devoted to "economic > growth". > > There is something surreal about all of this. Is this a country of > corporate hustlers celebrating their arcane deals in the voluminous > business pages? Or is it a country of deeply impoverished men, women and > children whose great human resource is being repressed and wasted, yet again? > > The social cost was stated plainly by Mary Metcalf, education minister in > Gauteng province. She described schools "built deliberately without > toilets" and "with no access to running water within walking distance". > > For every four teachers, there is only one classroom, and no library, no > laboratory, no staff room, no desks. "What is difficult", Metcalf stated, > "is that these historic distortions are being addressed in impossible > conditions of financial austerity". In other words, ANC policy has made > "the provision of acceptable conditions for teaching and learning an > absolute impossibility". > > So dedicated are the born-again free marketeers that South Africa's deficit > is almost as low as that of some developed countries. For this, the ANC has > been honoured by awards from international credit ratings agencies. What > has this to do with a country where most of the children are, as they say > here, "nutritionally compromised" and live in desperate conditions? > > What the ANC called its "unbreakable promise" was the Reconstruction and > Development Program. Two years after the election, the RDP office was > closed down and its funds transferred to the ministry of finance. When he > was minister for housing, Joe Slovo had estimated that half the black > population lacked a secure roof over their heads and that one and a half > million houses would have to be built immediately. > > Nothing like this has happened. The poorest get a R15,000 housing grant, > which seldom pays for more than a jerry-built matchbox. In Ivory Park > township near Johannesburg, "RDP houses" are known as "kennels". > > The Freedom Charter says: "Reconstruction of land ownership on a racial > basis should be ended and all the land divided among those who work it." > Since democracy, little has changed. Wealthy white farmers continue to > control more than 80% of the land, and their existing property rights are > guaranteed in South Africa's new constitution. Out of 22,000 land > restitution cases, only a handful have been settled. > > In the Eastern Cape, where few tourists go, silhouettes of women file > across the saddle of a hill to draw water from a well where cattle drink > and defecate. Most rural people have no choice but to walk up to half a > mile to get water. Most have no sanitation, no electricity and no > telephone, and no work. The shadows you pass on the road are those of > stunted children and their mothers, walking, carrying, enduring. > > At Dimbaza, 70 families were dumped on a waterless, windswept hillside. > Stanley Mbalala, one of the survivors, remembers a forest, which became > firewood during the first winter. They lived in tents and wooden huts with > zinc roofs and earthen floors. Later arrivals had boxes made from asbestos > and cement; these, too, had neither floors nor ceilings and were so hot in > summer and cold and damp in winter that the very young and old perished in > them. A government official explained at the time: "We are housing > redundant people [in Dimbaza]. These people could not render productive > service in an urban area." > > In the centre is a children's cemetery. The graves are mostly of infants > aged younger than two. There are no headstones. You trip over aluminium > pipes embedded in pieces of broken concrete; on one is scratched: "Dear > Jack, aged 6 months, missed so bad, died 12 August 1976". At least 500 > children are buried here. > > By contrast, the grass at 50 St David's Road, Upper Houghton, is green and > glistening from the spray of sprinklers. Houghton is the richest suburb of > Johannesburg. Here, the walls are topped with razor wire and display signs: > You have been warned; 24-hour Armed Response. > > On the night I was there, chauffeur-driven Mercedes and BMWs converged on > an important garden party at No. 50. The guests were white and black, > mostly men in business suits who knew each other and affected an uncertain > bonhomie across the old racial divide. The party was hosted by an > organisation called BusinessMap, which, according to its brochure, gives > "guidance" on "black economic empowerment". > > The guest of honour was Cyril Ramaphosa, former general secretary of the > miners' union and the principal negotiator of the ANC's "historic > compromises". > > Ramaphosa and others have spoken a great deal about "black economic > empowerment" as a "philosophy" for the new South Africa. What this really > means is the inclusion of a small group of blacks in South Africa's white > corporate masonry, which is overseen by the power of five companies > dominating the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This co-option allows foreign > and South African companies to use black faces to gain access to the ANC > establishment. "I am", as one new executive told me, "the black ham in the > white sandwich". > > Certainly, the income gap between whites and blacks has narrowed slightly. > However, inequality among blacks has increased sharply as the new black > elite gets richer and the majority gets poorer. The new apartheid is one of > class, not race. > > The tragedy is that there are immediate, practical alternatives. If the > government kept to the spirit of the Freedom Charter and invested directly > in the majority of people and their "informal economy", it would transform > the lives of millions. With government loans going directly to communities, > run as co-operatives, millions of houses could be built, and better health > care and education provided. A small-scale credit system would ensure cheap > goods and services that cut out the middle men and the banks. None of this > would require the import of equipment and raw materials, and it would > provide millions of jobs. > > Mbeki told me the problem of poverty was an "absolute priority", but he > offered no solution beyond dreams of a "trickle down" effect. He is said to > be an enigma. I found him a straightforward, charming and highly > intelligent free market economist. > > Nelson Mandela is very different, and perhaps he is the enigma. It seemed > to me that his authority and reputation rest on what he represented, rather > than his politics. He has served as a mighty symbol, calming and > reassuring; this has been his remarkable power. He also has the rare > quality of grace; he makes people feel good. > > When we met, he listed for me the ANC's achievements: the supply of water > to more than a million people, the building of clinics, the free health > care to pregnant women and children under six. (To these, I would add the > new abortion laws, which have saved the lives of tens of thousands of > women, whose death at the hands of back-street abortionists was a feature > of apartheid.) > > Then he suddenly changed course and praised privatisation "as the > fundamental policy of this government", which was the diametrically > opposite of what he promised in 1994. He quoted an array of statistics > about inflation and the deficit, while omitting the terrible facts of > unemployment. By the year 2000, it is estimated that half the population > will be unemployed: a bomb ticking to its inevitable detonation. > > He told me he had repeatedly warned people that substantial change "could > not happen overnight: that the process might take as long as five years". > Five years are up next April. Moreover, it has to be said that the rise of > the new elite has not been inhibited by such a time restriction, that their > enrichment did, in many cases, happen "overnight". > > I was surprised that the president failed to see the irony in his statement > that an ANC government, brought to power partly as a result of boycotts and > sanctions, was willing to "do business with any regime regardless of its > internal policies". The west, he said, had no monopoly on human rights, > which were also the rights to health care and education. Amazingly, he gave > as a model Saudi Arabia "where students enjoy benefits I have not seen > anywhere in the world". > > Saudi Arabia and Algeria, both of them serious human rights violators, are > current clients of the billion dollar white-run South African arms > industry, the source of death and suffering in the region, and which has > been reinvigorated under the ANC. On one of his visits to see the dictator > of Indonesia, General Suharto, Mandela offered to sell him arms, too. > > More than 150 years ago the Chartists, the inventors of modern democracy, > said that the vote had little meaning if people's lives did not improve. It > is five years since a wise Mandela addressed this in a speech to South > Africa's trade union movement, which was at the forefront of the struggle > for freedom and continues to draw young, courageous and principled leaders, > renaissance men and women from one of the most politicised constituencies > in the world. > > "How many times", he said, "has the liberation movement worked together > with the people and then at the moment of victory betrayed them? There are > many examples of that in the world. If people relax their vigilance, they > will find their sacrifices have been in vain. If the ANC does not deliver > the goods, the people must do to it what they have done to the apartheid > regime." > > Copyright: John Pilger. > > [John Pilger's latest book, Hidden Agendas (Vintage, $19.95), contains a > chapter on South Africa entitled the "The View from Dimbaza".] > > > Louis Proyect > > (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html) > > > North American Coordinator > Irish Republican Socialist Committees > 2057 15th Street, Suite B > San Francisco, CA 94114 > irsp@netwiz.net > http://irsm.pair.com/irscna/ > > VOTE NO |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho