Black Monday’s prejudiced march wrong as blacks worst victims of crime

CLOSET racists are coming out of the woodwork. Social media is awash with messages, from what I consider misguided people, inveigling support for “Black Monday”.

Thousands of people are murdered every year. The Cape Flats has been declared a war zone; children have been killed in gang-related violence in Helenvale (PE), In Glebelands (Durban) and in Gauteng. In addition, there have been political killings on the coastal area near Bizana and in KZN.

According to crime statistics, there were 19 016 murders in South Africa over the past year, which means about two murders every hour – for an entire year. This indicates that South Africa is an extremely violent country. So why single out farmers? Is there a relationship between economic deprivation and crime? Is the increase in poverty over the last few years related to the upsurge in the levels of violent crime? Have the closet racists chosen the easy option and conveniently punted for “race” as being behind what they’ve labelled as “farm murders”?

This call was made to wear black to support “white” farmers, forgetting that SA has one of the highest murder rates in the world. The highest murder rate in the country is on the Cape Flats (Cape Town), where one of the marches took place.

The minister of police has requested the assistance of the army, ill-advised as that may be, to quell violence. Children are affected by these acts of violence. No child or learner can learn under these circumstances. Yet children dutifully, when circumstances permit, attend school.

Despite adverse conditions of poverty (even malnutrition), joblessness, the degradation of township or shanty town life, a minority of these children manage to persevere.

Stats from News24 indicate that 3.6 per 100 000 “white” people are murdered per year in SA. This is less than the world average of 6.9 per 100 000 people per year and similar to that of Europe, at 3.5 per 100 00. The national average for our country is an unacceptable 31.8 per 100 000. So the problem lies in the “black” communities. These statistics lead me to believe that this campaign is race-based.

The hoisting of the old flag is an emotional issue. To some among the oppressed, it is like a red flag to a bull. To burn the “new” flag is just as emotional an issue. Can you expect anything else but to assume this is a racist issue? The hoisting of the old SA flag is an act of vengefulness. This just demonstrates that no reconciliation has taken place in SA and this Black Monday was a racist demonstration.

In 2012, farmworkers were killed in strikes that spread rapidly in the Boland and the Western Cape. They were striking for a minimum wage of R150 per day. That translates to R3 000 per month. How can a family live on that? The official minimum wage (and no family can exist on this) is R3 500 per month. When the farmworkers went on strike, they were met with teargas, armoured vehicles, rubber bullets and in some cases even live ammunition.

Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s head of community safety said, “I think what is very important about today is that we realise that without farmers there is no future in this country”, and “We cannot allow this to continue the way it is.”

Why do they have a “community safety” head? What should be said is that without farmworkers there’ll be no future in SA. Also, the follow-up quote is a threat – yes, they are propagating violence.

Allow me put this matter into context:

Farmers are in the business of making money for themselves, not producing food for the nation. Food production is but an ancillary, a means to an end. In vast areas of the Rûens (Western Cape), wheat has been supplanted with canola, which now is more lucrative. While canola is needed, wheat products are the staple food of the majority.

The farm owner does not produce food for the nation; he sells the food produced by the workers on the farm. The farmworkers cannot even afford the food they produce.

We certainly don’t want to quell violence. We want to eliminate violence but then we should eliminate the causes of that violence.

We do so by eradicating the degradation of township/shantytown life, by eliminating poverty and inequality. We do so by providing equal, free and quality education for all. We do so by providing decent, planned housing and thereby creating a stable community. Further, we do so by providing utilities and affordable transport for every household.

Isn’t this what the struggle was all about?

Petersen is the joint secretary of the New Unity Movement.