In the comments of my article http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Apartheid-the-Army-and-me-20130204 that was published yesterday a few issues were raised that need some clarification. Some members of 32 Bn that did not know me or of me queried my claiming membership.
Just to set that particlar worry to rest. I was a conscript that served at Omauni from May 1983 - December 1984, I was no hero but just a REMF as I have heard us folks that made sure you had food, uniform, ammunition and working weapons. I worked in the Armory with Art Nulty, Piet Nortje was RSM at the time and Wilhelm Ratte was CO. I was involved in Capt Rattes "Bushman project" at Ohikik, I spent many months there teaching San kids their 3 Rs and mostly hygiene, The little buggers had a fear of soap and water.
One of our running jokes as single men with no contact with ladies was that when the San woman started looking good it was still Ok but when they started smelling good it was time for a break in the States. I think I will spend more time writing about my experiences in the Bush at another time.
Someone was mightily offended by the line "Apartheid has never left this country and I fear it never will. It has merely changed management." He accused me of equating AA and BEE with Apartheid. I vociferously deny this. AA and BEE are not the cause, they are a symptom. Equating a symptom with a whole disease is not at all bright. Imagine if we equated a runny nose with Bird Flu. That just wouldn't work.
All of these symptoms lead me to say that Apartheid has not left the building. The leadership of our government make speeches about the "Wit Gevaar", Whites own all the land, Whites control the economy. Replace whites with Jews and we could be listening to a madman in 1936 or even 1944.
In a "non Racial" Country every time I fill in an official document I am asked what race I am. If we were non racial it would be immaterial, I lived in the buiteland for 4 and a half years and not once was I asked what colour my skin is. That sounds non racial to me.
I was battling to pay University fees, and my child prodigy was refused the right to enrol until all arrears were paid, I was told by the administrator of the university, (the same one that denied my kid access) of a student that owed the university 5 x what I owed by the end of his studies, His case was treated differently because of his race and that came from the horses mouth.
One of my young genius's friends is studying law, despite being from a long line of doctors and having achieved 9 distinctions in matric because the Indian quotas were filled for the medical schools. Not only white people are being disadvantaged by the government. Specific quotas exist for specific race groups.
Charities in Predominantly white areas servicing white recipients were being excluded for funding because they had no BEE credentials. The DTI actually created a policy making white recipients of charity of lesser import. We are talking about children that are placed in homes by the courts losing funding because too many of them are white. Seems like discrimination to me. Companies could lose their BEE status for supporting these charities rather than township charities.
A few years back I visited the Police station in Nelspruit to lodge a complaint. The service was shocking so I decided to call on the the station commander to bring his attention to it. His attitude was not at all polite, He had a go at me because of my white elitist ways . I paraphrase: "If you are so unhappy why don't you emigrate?" were his words.
It also upsets me that some think they are more African than others. You see when we focus on the difference, Bigotry becomes acceptable, and Apartheid is at it's root bigotry. I am South African, a lowvelder with roots that go back more than a hundred years. When will I be African enough for you? I know I am not a European, I couldn't hack it out there.
As I said AA and BEE are just more symptoms of the disease.
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