Piccolo Teatro

The Politics Of Helplessness

As I sat with my iPad on my lap to write this article I went blank. All the points on the article I was to write disappeared from my head. All I had was a feeling of helplessness. The same feeling I had growing up at KwaNdengezi whenever I heard the unmistakable drone of the hippo which was almost always followed by gunfire, and then screams, and people running in all directions. Its the same feeling I would get as my mother woke us up to sit on the floor in the bathroom of our semi detached home. Its the same feeling I would get in the morning as I walked to school on the streets splattered with blood and even a corpse or two and listening to stories of who was picked up by the SADF and the Police last night and who was killed.

I’m sure I’m not the only Black person who gets this helpless feeling when looking at the current state of affairs. One simply can’t shake the feeling that we are being persecuted again. That black people are again made to feel powerless and inferior in their own country. That the law is never on our side. And that sadly, the white man still has power over the black man.

On the one side we are battling a Governmet which we voted into power but which is increasingly failing to meet our expectations. A government that’s gradually grinding to a halt because of rampant corruption and being crippled by friction within the ruling party. Black people feel helpless because they pinned their hope on this government that’s led by a movement that did such a sterling job leading their fight against apartheid. They are helpless, not because they can’t leave the ANC but because they have no alternative.

This helplessness though greatly emanate from the evident campaign by the White Inc to continue to undermine the black population including the government led by the majority blacks. They are hellbent on using all in their disposal to protect their privileged lives at the expense of the majority of our population. They seem to be waging a multi faceted campaign which include using the courts to challenge government on any and all decisions, stall economic transformation and land reform. They also use the courts to try and erase the history of the struggle of the black people against apartheid. They use their economic power to sideline black people and the media to confuse, misinform and influence.

The biggest of all is their refusal to take responsibility for apartheid while they expect black people to put their suffering in the past and get on with it. This is impossible! How can one forget when your oppressor still has a privileged life and you don’t? When your oppressor still controls almost all the the facets of your life? The White Inc simply want to erase the history of apartheid and the suffering of black people. The decision to ban a struggle song is part of that. These songs were part of a struggle to overthrow what everyone agrees was crime against humanity. Yes, the song in question might make certain groupings uncomfortable, but the same groupings were the main perpertrators and must live with it! One can not be limited in celebrating victory against a cruel system simply because the former perpertrators feel insulted by words in a song used to overthrow their illegitimate rule over a majority. This is a pure insult.

Afriforum only serves to divide society and instead of protecting their constituency they are hardening the attitudes of the majority of black people against them. All they are doing is showing that many white people are insensitive to the plight of the black people under apartheid and are refusing to take responsibility. The same Afriforum is fighting to the bone against changing of names like Pretoria even though these undermine the dignity of black people and represent the very core of apartheid power.

Government is also not doing much to counter the White Inc onslaught and protect us. I wrote elsewhere on this blog about how some in Government are part of the White Inc and how it is difficult for them to take action against white Inc interests. This leaves the majority of the population unprotected.

This feeling of helplessness slowly fermenting into anger. Its the helplessness of the masses that offers fertile ground for radicalism that will destroy the country. People like Malema have space to operate in because of the likes of afriforum. Anger that will one day soon channel itself into an uprising against whites. This can’t be good for our country but the White Inc doesn’t seem to care. They seem to only care about maintaining their superiority over blacks. Black people will not remain docile forever.

9 responses to “The Politics Of Helplessness”

  1. Tony Harding Avatar
    Tony Harding

    Dear Cde Dube
    I would love it if you could read my book Lekgowa, available in Exclusives. My writing project was to understand my own ‘white identity’ and its relationship to power. In general, the book also looks at how power is constructed and perpetuated.

    1. ncodube Avatar

      Will do. Thank you for all the insightful comments

  2. Bouga Avatar
    Bouga

    I actually somewhat understand where Afri-forum is coming from. For them its about survival. What I do have a problem with is the Black Inc,recognising what their counterpart are doing and just doing nothing but pay lip service to pertinent issues.
    Why don’t we have lobby groups doing the same for our interests. Why would anyone look after interests of something that may render them extinct.

    1. ncodube Avatar

      Bouga, it’s not that I do not see where they are coming from but I’m highlighting that their are actions are driving the country in the wrong direction. They aredevisive and instead of advancing their interests they are simply turning attitudes towards whites into those of anger and mistrust. As for blacks doing their own but, it starts with each one of us, including yourself, doing what little we may to change the situation before it gets out of hand. Like the Darren Scott issue, you talk about us not pressing charges like what Afriforum would have done. The question is, what have you done about it?

  3. Mlu Gwacela Avatar

    Bouga I share that feeling because as much as we can be bitter with Afri-Forum as they feel the urgency to lobby for their kind. It is also true Nco that we as the people with no other option than the ANC look for our own alternative or bring the Governmet to the same court on issues that are not well attended to by the ruling party. The problem is one that the masses have no money to contest these decisions hense they are just made for them.

    The fear of the unknown is also a factor that we have to take into consideration. People like Juju will always have a home in the masses because they speak of things that are bread and butter issues for the masses. It is also disturbing to notice that the whites of this country do not want to acknowledge the ills of apartheid instead they will like to conveniently swip it under the carpert like it never happened and it annoys the hell out of the masses.

    One day Ncosana this will definately boil over and they will smell the music.

    Thanks for these articles mfana they invoke debate for the betterment of our understanding of SA Politics of the day.

    Eita!

  4. Bouga Avatar
    Bouga

    I hear you Mlu, its the victim mentality that I have a problem with. What I’m saying is, we must also use the same avenues to stand up for what we believe in. Darren Scott called his colegue a Kaffir and no one has charged him yet through the human right courts but there was an outcry for about three days about the issue.

    With all the money that the black inc has whether individually or as a collective they could have made him do more then that flimsy apology that we were given.

    Maybe if people understood the roles of lobby groups maybe they would do much more than burn tired and throw stones.

    1. ncodube Avatar

      People like Afriforum and the likes are the reason why people like Malema have space to operate in.

  5. Ntshingila Avatar
    Ntshingila

    Mr Gwacela speaks the truth.I must say theough, the idea of an iPad KwaNdengezi is just absurd.

    1. ncodube Avatar

      Hahaha! Ntshingila, please read carefully. No one talks of an iPad KwaNdengezi here!

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