S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION A VERWOERDIAN CONCEPT AS CLAIMED BY THE WHITE DA LEADERSHIP? - At the last census the count was 51.7 million people in South Africa of whom 4,5 million were white persons and 47,2 million were persons of colour. Two weeks ago the Goldman Sachs 20-year review on South Africa report found that 85% of black people remain locked in the poorhouse and over 87% of white people were in the upper middle-class and super wealthy bracket. We have one of the most unequal societies in the world where structurally it is impossible for the majority of people to be able to embrace opportunity competitively with an unfairly advantaged minority. Our society is defined both by class and colour as the late great Ray Alexander Simons and Jack Simons once wrote. After 20 years of a non-racial democracy, the Goldman Sachs report shows that despite amazing advances by the ANC government, the inequality legacy and the paradigm of class and colour born out of colonialism and Apartheid remains a dominant feature of present day South Africa. This is the background to a very dishonest debate taking place within the Democratic Alliance today as it unravels at the seams. At the heart of the debate the DA leadership says that it is opposed to the transformation tool of Corrective or Affirmative Action which it proclaims is black Verwoerdianism. It proclaims that it believes in an ‘Equal Opportunities’ approach. Underneath this seemingly innocent title is an insult to black members of the DA and to all persons of colour in South Africa. The conservative libertarian DA falsely parading as liberals are hoping to panel-beat its black members into submission to accept its argument that Affirmative Action is Verwoerdian race classification and that their opposition to Affirmative Action is not the white protectionism that really lurks behind their protests. They refuse to embrace any forms of corrective action that recognises the co-relationship between class and colour in South Africa. Transformation is not on the agenda in the DA. Notions of ‘Equal Opportunity’ on an unequal stage together with a notion that the solution to inequality is a trickle-down effect from the tables of the rich is the key foundation of DA conservatism. Like the laager mentality of whites under Apartheid the DA manipulate every universal argument with their own peculiar racist logic. Whether one agrees with Affirmative Action or not, Affirmative Action is not a Verwoerdian concept, but has appeared in various forms globally in places like the USA, Malaysia, the UK and elsewhere. It was not invented by the ANC nor by Verwoerd. What is attributable to Verwoerd, to Oppenheimer and Suzman are the twisted notions of equality that found expression in Apartheid on the one hand and , the ‘Qualified Franchise’ on the other. The DA still think in a manner that suggests that the approach to be taken in South Africa should be a 50% - 50% balance between white and black interest. This is behind their notion of ‘EQUALITY’. For the DA they have a deeply ingrained notion that the 4,5 million minority population ought to be seen as representing 50% of South Africa’s 51,7 million people. This is the real backbone of the DAs opposition to transformation. You see this in the power make up in that party and you see it clearly in the make-up of the Western Cape Cabinet – the only province where they have power and in town councils where they are in control. ‘Equal Opportunities’ sounds like a pretty egalitarian or liberal notion. Amongst individuals on a level playing field or with sprinters, equally handicapped, on the same starting line of a race it kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? However when applied at an auction for a scarce commodity where one bidder is a millionaire and the other is a pauper, then ‘Equal Opportunity’ to bid cannot be seen as anything more than a cruel joke. ‘Equal Opportunity’ of the latter sort has become the party standard of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s version of a libertarian conservative party, sometimes confusingly described as ‘liberal’. The word ‘democratic’ in the title is a red herring. This alliance is made up in the majority of the old Apartheid National Party rump, a group of the more conservative elements of the old Democratic Party after the group of six liberals left its ranks back in 1990 to join the ANC, the old Independent Party, and the later Independent Democrats – the only black component of an otherwise unrepentant line of what could be called white ‘verligte nationalists’ (enlightened white nationalists). The DA traces back through to the United South African National Party (UP) when a breakaway faction was formed by mining magnate Sir Harry Oppenheimer in 1959 called the Progressive Party. It was a white racially exclusive conservative libertarian party that argued for a ‘qualified franchise’ for propertied and educated black people. It was opposed to the non-racial Liberal Party formed in 1953 and forced to disband in 1968. It also supported the banning of the Communists and a clampdown on black opposition organisations considered to offer too radical a solution. Harry Oppenheimer had resurrected an older political party of Cecil John Rhodes – the Union Progressive Party which was based on the concept that business and mining offered the path to wealth and progress in a United South Africa. What has changed? A close look at the present party leadership debates which alternatively sees each calling the other ‘conservative’ and each falsely claiming that only they hold the holy grail of liberalism can only be described as laughable. They are all a bunch of libertarian conservatives and are insensitive to their new found black constituents who are treated simply as voting fodder. Talk of EQUALITY from this perspective is deeply racist. Lets get away from the white noise of a mindless minority debate and explore where the real debate may be. There is room for debate as to whether we have got the formula right for redressing past and present injustice and inequality – ie: how corrective action should be formulated and improved to best achieve transformation. But the facts clearly show that transformation is needed – affirmative action is needed. This is the complete opposite to any Verwoerdian Apartheid ideology and for white South Africans to be accusing black South Africans of Apartheid really takes the cake. Absolutely no shame! There are two areas where I see room for debate….. I believe that the artificial separation of persons of colour into categories where ‘coloured’ and ‘black’ are treated differently is a division which does no favours to building black unity which OR Tambo fought for in his UNITY IN ACTION campaigns. All socio-economic studies show that those various social and ethnic African communities labelled under an umbrella term ‘Coloured’ are living under the same conditions as other African communities labeled ‘black’. The middle class is really tiny. There should just be a recognition of all persons of Colour as being historically oppressed and disadvantaged by white overlordship and advantage – and this historical reality must be addressed. I say this regardless of a recognition of Apartheid divide and rule tactics which tried to pit one against the other. Division of persons of colour should never be codified and institutionalised. Affirmative Action must include all persons of colour. Secondly if we want to tackle the deep ethnic divides in South Africa we should seriously look at addressing the provincial demographics – often delineating ethnic boundaries. Affirmative action as the recent labour court case has shown needs to take provincial demographics into consideration. A simple a uniform provincial policy across all provinces could greatly assist in going forward. For all persons of colour only, under a system of recognising that all affirmative action is there for all persons of colour to redress disadvantage of the Apartheid legacy, each province could provide for at least 20% of positions to be filled by persons of colour from under-represented black ethic groups in that province. Thus for instance in the Western Cape this would mean that all black people inclusive of those labelled ‘Coloured’ would benefit from Affirmative action, and that special attention will also be given to amaXhosa, baSotho etc who are not proportionately the largest groups. In each different province it would provide for opportunity in accordance with that demographic and it would aid greater integration and cohesion and remove ethnic competitiveness. This would be a departure from the present paradigm and would build national unity and integration amongst all persons of Colour and at the same time address the legacy of white domination which is still alive and well as all studies show. No person of colour should be pitted against the other. Persons previously classified as Coloured should not be forced away from their other African brothers and sisters into the arms of the white right.. Both the 1919 and 1958 ANC constitutions, contrary to much misinformation on this subject, as pointed out by prof Jack Simons at the Kabwe Conference, accepted Coloured persons as Africans with full membership of the ANC - as evidenced by the leadership positions held by James la Guma and John Gomas. We have to some degree dragged some aspects of Apartheid into the future with us and, the DA, Solidarity and other conservative and right wing elements are capitalising on the divide and rule tactics that they have always used. The really stupid and insulting debate in the DA is a road to nowhere. Real debate on vexing issues however, should be welcomed
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 14:41:29 +0000
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