Freedom Charter nightmare
2005-07-04 09:55
The celebrations last Sunday to mark the 50th year of the adoption of the Freedom Charter brought
back to mind the sheer terror and intimidation under which some of us used to live, because we
had the cheek to question the document.
That was not the terror and intimidation of the special branch, but the bully-boy tactics of some
people who today are among the big shots in this country.
We dared to differ and to pronounce our differences of opinion quite loudly, and for that we
were branded "amaZimZim" (adherents of the Black Consciousness philosophy) and
"aboSandlani" (supporters of the Pan-Africanist ideal).
I remember one Sunday afternoon in Rockville, Soweto, when my close friend and colleague Joe
Thloloe and I were leaving what had been a rather heated political rally in Regina Mundi Catholic
Church.
A bunch of scruffy youngsters approached us and blocked our way.
The Charterists
Their leader was a
very dark, gangling fellow with bloodshot eyes. His arrogance and lack of respect epitomised the
chief characteristics of what we used to term "amaVarara" (the Charterists).
The gangling chap, whose eyes continue to mark him out quite clearly, approached our car and
inquired rudely: "What shit are you guys going to write tomorrow?"
I started to say something, but Thloloe slapped my thigh to shut me up even as the rest of the
young hoods pressed themselves close to the car.
He answered the questioner: "Get the papers tomorrow and see what we will have written,"
then moved the car slowly away. Not running away, but moving off in disdain.
The gang of provocative little bastards remained rooted to the spot.
Three months later I heard that Bloodshot Eyes had skipped the country and was in Zambia.
A
couple of years later I was told he was a guerilla unit commander. Five years ago I ran into him in
downtown Johannesburg, and he told me he was a legislator.
The Charterists were riled by our uncompromising attitude towards the Kliptown Charter: we
were adamant in our rejection of its very first line, namely that "South Africa belongs to all who
live in it, black and white."
Our viewpoint was that the thief and the rightful owner could not both
lay an equal and legitimate claim to the goods in dispute.
Sadly, both the BC groupings and the Africanists have not done well at all in the elections, but to
my mind it is all a matter of poor organisation and tactics rather than the correctness of the
Kliptown Charter.
'Neither impressed, nor convinced'
So when president Thabo Mbeki claimed last week that the ideals of Kliptown would all be
fulfilled, I was neither impressed nor convinced.
All the goodies in the country promised by the
constitution and the Kliptown document are, so far, the sole preserve of whites and the handful of
ruling party elites.
The hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of tin-shack communities across the length and breadth of
SA give a damning lie to all the platitudes that were being celebrated.
Another platitude, "There shall be work and security", is equally false.
There are no jobs
except, again, if you are a lackey of the ruling elite.
The army of teachers, nurses and university graduates walking the streets is ample testimony of
the failure to deliver on platitudes.
Professionals, such as nurses, are leaving this country by the
plane-load every month to seek a living elsewhere, because their own country cannot employ
them.
No security
And there is no security, except if you are a politician with a platoon of bodyguards and drivers
at your command, with a posse of security men and women stationed around your house.
Otherwise for you and me there is no security; ask the hijackers, rapists, murderers and
wife-bashers who all do as they please in this country.
One could go on and ad nauseam on, but I believe the few examples above support my claim that
the "ideals" Mbeki was talking about last Sunday are an unattainable dream for millions of black
people in their country, while white immigrants come to Utopia when they arrive here, thanks to
the government.
Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.
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