FROM point BLACK. By Kamva T Goba 0ne of the most talked about world views or ways of being conscientious of ourselves and the world we live in, is Black Consciousness. This is conscious of being born black in South Africa and in the world; conscious of being ourselves created with same human attributes as all human beings on earth. As Christians would, we(blacks) are indeed created in the image of God. It is common course that black people were borne and are still born in existential situations that are not far short of being described as capable of sustaining life to its full potential. The situation in which blacks find themselves in, is worsened by the fact that just before we entered the new political era, political parties that were at Kempton Park s negotiation conference agreed and signed for a dispensation that was not capable of transforming for the betterment of black people. In this way we inherited a political system and economic system with its social consequences. Those who agreed at Kempton Park were too happy and in a hurry to become new managers of a system they did not create. Just like all managers, they are called upon to make the system work. We ought to bear in mind that all political and economic systems were created to fulfill certain objectives. A capitalist system in nature, cannot all of a sudden change to a socialist one. We all know which system was signed for at Kempton Park, the capitalist system. We should be reminded that the struggle our forefathers fought so hard was directed to a white racist capitalist system. The white racist capitalist system created institutions, norms and values all with the intention of perpetuating exploitation and oppression. This then meant that the control of economic resources was in white hands, social values and norms were and are still eurocentric. In other words, whites controlled and managed both the political and economic spheres of our country. In 1994, democracy ushered in, this meant that the new South Africa would inherit everything from the previous system, from police force, to the way the army is assembles to the Western type of democracy and the like. Those from whom we inherit do indeed leave behind the documents that prescribe the nature of our inheritance. In the case of the Kempton Park package the vote only earned black people political power and not economic power. During the first democratic elections, many of these new black managers were so excited about the overwhelming support the ANC got, and did not realise that whites bargained for economic power. Economic base of a country is fundamental to eradication of poverty and exploitation, it is still whites who in this regard possess economic power. Economic power unlike political power cannot change hands by a vote, a complete overhaul of the system needs to happen. Unfortunately, the ruling party is not prepared to champion socialist programmes, let alone intervention. By refusing to champion socialism; by refusing to abandon privatization of the only assets we inherited; by continuing to manage a political and economic system whose overall intervention is to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, big business thrive in the expense of the proletariat, the ruling party has declared itself as an opponent to reaffirmation of a peoplehood that continues to be dehumanized by this cruel system. The peoplehood of us blacks. By this implication the ruling party cannot be a partner to parties like AZAPO, PAC and the young EFF, whose objectives are to restructure the society towards a more socially planned economic state. I as a black, born under this cruel existential paradigm cannot continue to support and accept a situation where in Afrikas wealth is still in the hands of colonialist. To paraphrase Steven Bantu Biko, nothing justifies the arrogant assumption, that a group of foreigners can run and control the country of a majority, a country of a black majority that continues to live in squalor conditions years after is has got its supposed freedom . The ANCs economic policy, which is crudely GEARistically inclined, the anti-black NDP promotes capitalism and globalization. I mean you cannot claim to want to create jobs, sustainable jobs, in an economic system that largely advocates for profit first. As a black conscious Afrikan, allow me to use Black Consciousness as a tool of analysis of the current state of affairs in our beloved Azania and I quote : (i) Black consciousness is the attitude of the mind, the way of life (ii) The basic tenet of Black consciousness is that a black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in a country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity. Once a person has chosen to adopt Black consciousness as a tool of analysis, as a way of life, everyday state of mind he rejects all that which seeks to exploit him and in turn creates his own value systems, self-defined for the course of his liberation. Let us fight neo-colonialism. Kamva Tshepo Goba is Member of the Economic Freedom Fighters. He writes at his personal capacity.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:56:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015