RACISM, COLOURED PEOPLE AND BLACK NATIONALISM

I WAS shocked by the article ‘Manuel slams ANC spokesman on ‘coloureds’ remarks’ (The Namibian, 3 March) for being such a racist article itself! While addressing a racist incident in South Africa, the journalist made some disturbing racist statements:

1) The article refers to ‘… a mixed-race group of people.’ This is the language of the mentally-challenged apartheid ideologues and the fascists with their delusions about ‘racial purity.’ Some of the recent incidents in Windhoek show how mentally challenged the racists are. The question of racism remains relevant to us in Namibia since we are dealing with the same kinds of issues here.

2) ‘Coloureds – descendants of the British, Portuguese, African tribes and others – were forcibly concentrated in the western region…’ The coloured people were subjected to the Group Areas Act, but were never ‘forcibly concentrated’ as they have always lived in that region. It would seem that this racially-challenged article was written by some journalist who clearly does not understand the history of southern Africa. The historical fact is that most coloured people originate from the Khoi-San, while the descendants of Malay slaves make up the second biggest group in this tribal/ethnic category. The tribal label ‘coloureds’ was invented by British imperialism (to cover up its mineral theft) and perpetuated by apartheid (to continue the looting).

3) ‘…coloureds have helped the opposition Democratic Alliance take control of local government.’ In a democratic society, people can vote for whoever they prefer. Only an autocratic mindset expects coloured people to only vote for one political party. The coloured people in the Western Cape are split right down the centre in that the middle class support the ANC and the working class does not. It is primarily a social class issue in the context of high unemployment in that region.

The ANC’s secret economic negotiations with the apartheid regime agreed on downgrading the secondary industries (especially clothing) and this led to massive job losses in the Western Cape.

The coloured working class has not forgiven the ANC for this betrayal. In any case, the Western Cape has a long history of modern left-wing politics (since 1934) and the people there have never been impressed with black nationalism. So, the insinuation in the article that coloured people in the Western Cape are racist for not voting for the ANC is far-fetched. Since when does black nationalism represent real liberation when it seems to be only interested in going on with the plundering? Perhaps black nationalism is so invested in these tribal categories to cover up its own looting.

For the record, it is mainly due to the voting of ‘white’ South Africans in the Western Cape that the right-wing DA is in power there and it is interesting to speculate about how come the media focus on coloured people. Is it easier to scapegoat a small group perceived to be politically and economically weaker? In the Northern and Eastern Cape, the coloured people vote for the ANC because of different political dynamics. So, maybe one cannot generalize about this issue.

We should also say to Jimmy Manyi and all the black nationalists of southern Africa: there is an ‘over-supply’ (like commodities?) of coloured people in the Western Cape because their ancestors have lived in southern Africa for 15 000 years! We want black nationalists to get rid of their oppressive idea that they are the only true Africans.

Jimmy Manyi, as an example of a black nationalist, does not grapple with the real causes of unemployment and ends up making racist remarks. Besides dehumanizing and degrading coloured people, Manyi promotes a divisive and potentially violent discourse. His statements reveal the disastrous nature of racial affirmative action instead of social-class affirmative action. Black nationalism does not have the answers and represents a danger to progress with its social conservatism.

With regards to the title of this questionable article, it might also be noted that Manyi is not an ANC spokesman, but a South African government spokesperson. ‘Spokesman’ is such a sexist word. Besides being sloppy journalism, this article is factually incorrect and outright racist.
What a pity that the name of the journalist was not printed.

Finally, we should say again that our refusal to accept tribal/ethnic labels is part of the ongoing struggle for social justice in southern Africa. We should build anti-racism. Non-racialism remains our great contribution to humanity.
J B Cloete
Windhoek

Manuel slams ANC spokesman on ‘coloureds’ remarks

JOHANNESBURG – A powerful member of the African National Congress yesterday accused the new government spokesman of making racially insensitive comments that echoed the injustices of the apartheid era.
The fallout could hurt President Jacob Zuma and his African National Congress who are facing local elections in May.
Economic Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, the former finance minister, said spokesman Jimmy Manyi brought shame to the dreams of Nelson Mandela and tarnished the non-racial policies of the ANC by making disparaging remarks in a television interview about a mixed-race group of people classified as ‘coloureds’.
“I know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and he had fought against black domination,” Manuel, himself coloured, said in an open letter quoted by the Star newspaper.
“Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you,” the letter said.
Manuel was not available for comment and Manyi told the Sapa news agency he would not comment. His remarks were made in 2010 but sparked a national outcry after they were posted on YouTube last week.
The ANC has called Manyi’s comments, made before he was appointed government spokesman last month but while he was a leading official in the Labour Ministry, “unacceptable” but has not asked him to step down.
Manyi, appointed to help Zuma’s government prepare for the polls and push expensive job creation programmes, said in the television interview that there were too many coloureds in the Western Cape - the area that includes Cape Town.
Manyi, speaking in his capacity as a government official and the president of the Black Management Forum, an organisation created to help non-white managers, said coloureds should “spread in the rest of the country ... so they must stop this over-concentration situation because they are in over-supply where they are”.
He then said the concentration in the Western Cape “is not working out for them”.
Coloureds - descendants of the British, Portuguese, African tribes and others - were forcibly concentrated in the western region under apartheid and have mostly remained there 17 years after the end of the racially oppressive system.
The ANC controls all of South Africa’s nine provinces except the Western Cape, where coloureds have helped the opposition Democratic Alliance take control of local government.
Coloured South Africans constitute about three million of the country’s 50 million population made up mostly of blacks. Whites make up around five million.
In his letter Manuel, respected for his role in the fight against apartheid, said Manyi, a black, had “the same mind that operated under apartheid”.– Nampa-Reuters

Press release: Outright discrimination against Coloured community nothing new

The coloured community of South Africa has recently been in the spotlight as a result of some inflammatory and exceptionally offensive statements by prominent ruling party representatives and journalists (Jimmy Many, Kuli Roberts). One can be forgiven for thinking these pejorative and demeaning perceptions of the Coloured community in South Africa could not possibly hold any real currency in the public sector, however, local non-profit organisation SAME (the South African Movement for Equality) says otherwise...and the group says it has conclusive and damning proof. SAME has in its possession conclusive and damning proof which shows that the institutional and disdainful disregard of the coloured community of South Africa is nothing new and is instead an entrenched and systemic malaise that extends deep within South Africa's public institutions, most notably, the SABC (the South African Broadcast Corporation). “Since 2008, SAME has been involved in discussions with the SABC at the highest level over the continued and outright exclusion of coloured South Africans from enjoying equal access to public broadcaster facilities. The coloured community of South Africa, a legal and census defined population group which accounts for 9% of the South African population, is the only census defined group for which the SABC continues to provide absolutely no specific and targeted public broadcaster radio services to, as is the case with every other census defined group. The constitution speaks of equal access to state resources, yet the SABC still does not provide a national radio platform for the coloured group” says SAME chairman, Ronald Dyers. “This media exclusion fuels the feelings of disenfranchisement and gives tangible credence to the coloured community's claims of exclusion and discrimination by the ruling party”.

“In October 2008, SAME entered into discussions with SABC management at the highest level and while a signed undertaking and course of action was agreed upon to remedy the media exclusion of the coloured community from state broadcast facilities, the coloured community still does not have any national radio station and very little in the way of targeted television programming” says Mr Dyers.

“Is it any surprise then that the coloured community in South Africa continues to feel excluded and shut off from the mainstream while even the public broadcaster is guilty of exercising the most pernicious and blatantly visible form of discrimination against a highly vulnerable and irrefutably disadvantaged minority group in South Africa?” says Dyers.

“Government may try to do damage control by distancing itself from the deeply hurtful statements of Jimmy Manyi and the subsequent response by Trevor Manuel, however, it is clear that the anti-Coloured sentiment within government extends to the highest echelons of state apparatus and is a seemingly accepted modus operandi for state bodies, particularly the SABC”.

“SAME would like to call on all progressive and equality loving South Africans who wish to build a more integrated and representative South Africa, to join SAME in its pursuit of equal access to state media for the coloured community and to bring an end to the SABC and the ANC government's hurtful and extremely prejudicial exclusion of the Coloured community from enjoying the edifying fruits of state media facilities. We have a responsibility to uphold our constitution and to empower the youth within our communities to ensure that government does not pay lip service to its espoused ethos of non-racialism on the one hand, while on the other hand, continuing to practise a most vile and regressive form of discrimination against one of South Africa's most vulnerable minority groups. Clearly, it seems that in South Africa, in the ANC government, some groups are more equal than others”

http://www.same.org.za/component/content/article/1-latest-news/49-press-release-outright-discrimination-against-coloured-community-nothing-new

Kuli Riberts article Sunday World - Jou ma se kinders - Eish, I miss daai lippies vannie Kaap

Jou ma se kinders - Eish, I miss daai lippies vannie Kaap - Sunday World (South Africa) 27 February 2011
Bitches Brew Column: Nomakula Roberts

Being from Cape Town, I miss say I miss Cape coloured women.

When I was young, I used to love playing with their silky hair and wished I could get rid of my kinky course variety.
"What’s wrong with you?" asked my friend while applying skin lightener.
"Black is beautiful, why would you wanna be any other race?"
I ignore her and her weave and go back to my dreams of being yellow and speaking like I’m singing.

Coloured girls are the future for various reasons:
They will never leave dark foundation on your shirt after a hug;
You will never run out of cigarettes;
You will always be assured of a large family as many of these girls breed as if Allan Boesak sent them on a mission to increase the coloured race;
They don’t have to fork out thousands on their hair as they mostly have silky hair that doesn’t need relaxers or weaves;
They always know where to get hair curlers and wear them with pride, even in shopping malls;
You don’t have to listen to those clicks most African languages have;
They are the closest thing to being a white woman and we know you black men love them as they look like they’ve popped out of an Usher music video;
Their bruises are more obvious than ours, so if you hit her it will be easier to see;
They don’t have to send their sons to initiation school, where they stand a chance of getting a horrendous infection and even dying.

My friend disagrees with me about coloured women.
She insists that black guys don’t date crazy people.
"What?" she says. "Coloureds are nuts because:

They drink Black Label beer and smoke like chimnys;
They shout and throw plates;
They have no front teeth and eat fish like they are trying to deplete the ocean;
They love to fight in public and most are very violent;
They’re always referring to your mother’s this or that;
They know exactly what Tik is;
They love designer clothes;
They love making love, and leave even the randiest negro exhausted;
They walk around in their gowns and pyjamas during the day.

What is wrong with my friend? I wonder.

So what if folk walk around in their gowns and pyjamas during the day, especially since they will eventually go back to bed?
Why waste washing powder?

Shouting is also sometimes necessary, especially when you speak to folk like Jimmy Manyi, who might not have a clue what he is talking about.

Designer labels are mostly made in the Cape, so why should they not love them?

Referring to one’s mother should also not be an issue, unless a monkey gave birth to you.

Besides, reminding you of your mother shouldn’t be a bad idea. Call her now.

What the hell is wrong with loving sex? Should they hate it?

Just because my friend is a lousy lay doesn’t mean the entire coloured nation should not like protected sex.

Knowing what tik is doesn’t necessarily mean one is using it, I told my daft friend.

Saying they are violent is also a generalisation.

I know plenty of coloured fraudsters and coloured Hari Krishnas.

Of course I miss coloured people. Which other race do you know that is more obsessed with naai masjiene. Oh, and I don’t mean sewing machines.

Besides, only in the Cape would you hear somebody screaming out: Jou ma owe jou hond sex geld!"

(keeping a copy before it gets deleted)

Our Big Brother – South Africa

South Africa used to be our colonial master. The ant-apartheid struggle in South Africa was also our struggle. Many of us have family on both sides of the Orange River. We import most of our consumer goods from South Africa. Our money, the Namibian Dollar is directly equal to the Rand. All, but one, of our banks is South African owned. These are facts we must accept, there are the good, the bad and the difficult things in this relationship.

The Good
Namibia is a member of the oldest custom union in the world, namely the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU). The members are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa.

Being part of a customs union means that all goods brought into the Union will face the same amount of customs duty. More importantly, all goods produced by any member will not face duty when sold in one of the other member countries.

In effect this means a company can choose to produce in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Gaberone, or Oshakati and have the same access to all the consumers in our countries. The only difference is in the local labour or services, transport costs between markets, and the quality of life in each of these locations.

So, Namibia should have an active investment promotion policy to:
a) attract companies wishing to penetrate the southern African market; and
b) encourage South African companies to open factories in Namibia

To do this will mean preparing a comparison list to other localities in the region, and making sure we are the first choice in all regards. It is important to remember that all aspects, such as the quality of education available to children at the investment location, can be pivotal in decision-making by the management who have to relocate.

SO HOW BIG is the Namibian Market? The Namibian market consists of more than 200 million people – all residents of SACU are our market.

The Bad
Just like any big brother, South Africa can sometimes use its muscle to bully the smaller states in the Union. This can lead to companies “protecting” their markets by using dumping for example to prevent a business from being able to establish itself locally. Because of a larger range of products, companies can also insist retailers do not stock any of their competitor’s products. This has happened in the case of candles, toilet paper, cement, school desks, to name just a few.

Namibia must use the facility (already written in the SACU agreement) to protect its infant industries.

At the same time, I must warn about the measures sometimes used to protect local industries. In the early 1990’s the government enacted regulations to stop empty glass bottles from leaving Namibia. This was to protect our local Namibia Breweries. It was possibly a good measure, but inadvertently has led to a pollution problem. If you investigate any of the glass bottles being thrown away, you realise bottles are all from foreign bottlers. The reason, only Namibian Breweries offers a refund and reuses their bottles – the others cannot take the empties across the border.

The Difficult
Our dependence on South Africa also means that when something goes wrong there it affects us directly. If the World Cup is held in RSA, we receive indirect benefits, but when there is a political problem, we also receive the negative coverage.