The apartheid debt has led to an undemocratic credit

PLEASE NOTE: This is another article from 2011 that seems to be very much appropriate to circulate again... The apartheid debt has led to an undemocratic credit Modern day South Africa (and its neighbouring countries), is a country torn by its past and traumatised by its present situation. Our land has been in a socio-political comma for almost 20 years now, one that is leaving its children running around like headless chicken and fighting over a meatless bone. Our people are not working for a living, hence the resort to other means of basic survival. The supposed leaders have isolated themselves in high walled mansions and cumbersome speeches and addresses that are of no meaning to the laymen. Our people are infected with deadly and hazardous viruses without cure and engaging in civil wars (intensely uncivilised action) that are fuelled by external forces. A state of deliria. Two major factors have contributed to this:  Failure to address the blatant economic and political imbalance that leads to social ills and human degeneration  Lack of service delivery and a utopian democracy Steve Biko, once wrote on the issue of an egalitarian society delivered by a total liberation plan, he stated clearly,” If we have a mere change of face of those in governing positions what is likely to happen is that black people will continue to be poor, and you will see few blacks filtering through into the so-called bourgeoisie. Our society will be run almost as of yesterday. So for meaningful change to appear there needs to be an attempt at reorganising the whole economic pattern and policies within this particular country”. As if he had seen the future, Biko like Nostradamus before him had detailed what our land would become. The truth is that it would have not benefited the Caucasian minority of South Africa at the time to secede the enforced political advantage and material wealth that they had accumulated. The western world which benefited from this also was not going to readily give up on the golden sunshine of the southern African coastline. So this interest has to be protected, so-called white guilt had to be protected by the 21st century serf in the form of what Mike Muendande calls a ‘capitalist nigger’. Only difference now is that the fiefdom or serfdom has become part of a global market. Salvador Allende was also engaged on issues of post liberation socio-economic redress and political order. His emissions relate to the South African context in that Chile also was completely stripped of its political and economic freedom. He stated, ” We shall have real power when copper and steel are under our control, when saltpetre is genuinely under our control, when we have put far reaching Land Reform measures into effect, when we have collectivized a major portion of our national production. I say ‘a major portion’ because in our programme we announced to the nation that there would be three sectors in economy: nationalized industry, a mixed sector and the private sector. Now then, if these things – affirming our national sovereignty, recovering our basic wealth ad attacking monopolies-do not lead to Socialism, then I do not know what does. But there will be no further doubt as to whether we hold real power as soon as Chile becomes an economically independent country”. Allende resonates with Biko strongly on the basic principle of complete redress being a necessity for egalitarian society. These grounds and principles are very much similar to the liberation drive statutes that were held by the pivots of the American Revolution against Great Britain and its allies in the 18th century. Ironically, western powers often forget history easily and thus they repeat it. I am not one to sympathise with Julius Malema or the policies of the ANCYL, but is blatantly evident that the sudden interest in socialist agenda with regards to redressing the issue of radically liberating the economic and political abilities of the African masses is related to that of Black Consciousness vanguard. It is no secret that SASCO (of which most ANCYL members are graduates of) assimilated the then Biko led SASO stance of, “Africans should work themselves into a powerful group so as to go forth and stake their rightful claim in the open society rather than to exercise that power in some obscene part of the Kalahari. Hence this belies the belief that our withdrawal is an end in itself”. The withdrawal being in this case from imperial forces that hinder the process of affirming our national sovereignty, recovering our basic wealth ad attacking monopolies. One of the reasons why the League uttered query on the Botswana regime is that there are instabilities in the socio-economic authenticity of the mineral mining happening in that country. Again, the only reason why the League shows undivided support on the issue of Zimbabwe is based on the uncompromising manner that ZANU PF reclaimed back economic sovereignty. Can you see the radical elements? The only difference with the current ANCYL sentiments and that of true emancipation are that of creating a truly egalitarian society. The League has no interest nor business in this avenue and that is their ‘Achilles Ankle’. As already described, we are now facing a situation of national comma that has left us status of politically corrupt, economically imbalanced and socially dehumanised, the last thing we need is a front that pulls wool over the people’s eyes painting a picture of a “rainbow country”, a multi-racial country that is part of the “common wealth”. This is nowhere close to a truly non-racial and egalitarian state. What this situation leads to is an intense sense of individualism amongst people, a sense of separate development where people have given into the globalisation effect. The symptoms of this ‘deep sleep’ are malpractice in governance, lack of service delivery and divided political direction amongst elected leaders of the people. There is no way that a once united people under oppression can now emerge as various divided fronts aiming at being an African sovereignty claiming and affirming economic power and political will that is undiluted by neo colonial syndromes. Our situation is that of a poor local social situation with ridiculously elevated international status. Southern African gold, diamonds, platinum and other commodities are sold(given away..snatched really) everyday internationally through a foreign exchange, while the people who work the land, are left living in inhumane conditions in informal settlements, no ‘shacks’ in fact , while on the other side of Sandon City our ‘heroes’ of the struggle dine with the Queens’ envoys. The apartheid debt is a heavy load to pay off in a time where we chose to accumulate undemocratic credit. Sibusiso Mnyanda 8 September 2011