LINES DRAWN IN THE SANDY WASTES TO WHICH WE WERE RELEGATED
I AM not a political or social commentator, nor am I an investigative journalist or an academic researcher. But we cannot live above, or outside, or despite our experiential lives. What we experience moulds us in various ways, some positive, some negative. It is within this context that I write this week’s piece, loosely informed by the writings of the West Indian psychoanalyst and social philosopher, Frantz Omar Fanon.
He argues neurosis is socially generated. And we have become a neurotic nation. Decolonisation will of itself have to be an act of violence. A nation seeking its freedom and identity in the process of decolonisation will fall back on its national culture, which is always the collective thought process of a people to describe, justify and extol their struggle for liberation from the European contagion. We find a voice like George Herbert who cries: I struck the board, and cried, “No more….” (The Collar).
In 1994, we voted for a collective rejection of the racist policies of the Nationalist Calvinist Herrenvolk. The world had, prior to that, engaged with and rejected slavery, the denial of women as equal citizens, child abuse, armed conflict and many other humanitarian movements designed to construe for every inhabitant of this little blue ball falling through space a decent shot at happiness and recognition. We moved through threats of global warfare towards dialogue, détente, glasnost, conferences, national and international treaties and a host of other social strategies to achieve equity as viable human beings.
Now we have spoken again. This time the battle was a silent one. And that one, may I suggest, is the dangerous one. The turnout during the latest election was the result of deep intellectual introspection coupled with a dangerous dose of passion which echoed the poet I quoted earlier.
Enough! No more! We have drawn lines in the sandy wastes to which we were relegated when the fairer ones appropriated the greener pastures and privileged spots. But our lives of misery on the Cape Flats and other areas of human denudation have clearly-drawn lines in the sand.
No more top-down governance. We will be a part of the revitalising process. The psychic violence will come in the small battle-fields of coalition because the numbers for the “ruling class” are miserable. Non-delivery of service after vote-gathering promises will be the area of conflict. Voters must now deal directly with the names on the ballot-paper. We know who they are. And we must tell them clearly that bureaucratic dalliance, red-tape, nepotism, fancy procedural footwork and plain, naked horse-trading and the protection of oxygen-thieves is a thing of the past.
There is an ominous note of sanctioned silencing of whistle-blowers and witnesses before commissions. We will be watching. The SOEs must be unbundled and cease being cash-cows for those who rule by numerical force or dubious principle. The US constitution had demonstrated a constitution is an organic organ that can be changed by amendments and other such ancillary strategies. The school system and curricular gruel that is passed off as education must be revisited.
We need to stop straddling, with 3% Blacks sleeping with the tax-paying Whites and ignoring the voices and needs of over 40 million in the citizenry. Civic rules regarding housing, sanitation, health services, care of the aged and disabled must become real issues that are visibly addressed. The agonies of one-size fits all in public hospitals must be thrown out. National health should be a priority.
As for the miscreants who are roaming freely after disastrous careers as failed liberationists, they should be reduced to ordinary citizenship and then try and milk the citizenry for their legal obligations. The list of areas that need panel-beating is too long for my available space. But hear this. The people of South Africa have spoken. Enough is enough. We are a nation. Let’s act like one and hold the people in Parliament accountable.
We have struck the board. We cry: No more!