No place for Indophobia in SA
THE Indian must not be attacked because of his inclination for industriousness and business acumen.
It is a fact that working hard – and smart – is in the DNA of Indians.
For many years now, Indians across the globe have been making their presence felt by excelling in a broad range of career spectrums.
A relatively large percentage of Nasa scientists and cardiologists in the US are Indians.
There are more Indian chief executives of multi-national companies than any other nationality after Americans, according to Standard & Poor’s index.
Sundar Pichai is the chief executive of Google.
Then using my Indian brother’s Google, I found that Satya Narayana Nadella is the chief executive of Microsoft; Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is the chief executive of Pepsi; Rajeev Suri is the chief executive of Nokia; Anshu Jain is the chief executive of Deutsche Bank; Ajaypal Singh Banga is the chief executive of MasterCard; Rakesh Kapoor is the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, a multi-national producer of health, hygiene and home products; Shantanu Narayen is the chief executive of Adobe Systems; and Sanjay Mehrotra is the chief executive of SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions.
What gives Indians a proclivity for hard work?
It is my guess that Indians have a sense of responsibility towards their families.
To provide their dependants with a better lifestyle, they have a never-ending urge to earn more. And working hard is definitely not a bad thing.
Indians were brought to South Africa more than 15 decades ago because the Zulus had little interest in farming white settlers’ land. The local labour force was “inconsistent and indifferent”, according to historical records.
Sugar farmers, who were desperate for labour, proposed the importation of indentured workers from India.
This resulted in the Coolie Law of 1859, which made it possible for Indian workers to be brought to Natal for a five-year contract.
It was not all sweet for the Indians once they arrived.
They slogged from sunrise to sunset, six days a week.
Rations and wages were often withheld. Their accommodation was so bad you would not keep pigs in it.
Indians endured a life of hardship and sacrifice in a strange land. There is no denying that it was on the backs of Indian indentured immigrants that the sugar industry of Natal was built.
And Durban owes its growth into a bustling metropolis to sugar barons such as Tongaat Hulett, Illovo and Crookes Brothers.
After completing their period of indenture, Indians continued to work hard to build strong family units and placed high value on education and building their own schools when the government hoped to subjugate them by keeping them illiterate.
Through the decades, Indians have excelled.
They have progressed from peasantry to privilege, risen from the ranks of struggling tenants to wealthy landlords, from being unskilled to proficient.
Vivian Reddy started Edison Power with R500 and a bakkie.
Today the Edison Power Group is the largest electrical company in South Africa, employing 2 000 people with a multi-billion rand turnover.
Reddy is presently building the R3.1-billion Oceans mixeduse development at Umhlanga Rocks, which will include the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Durban property mogul Saantha Naidu gave up selling insurance to run his first hotel just over two decades ago.
Today he heads the Coastlands group of luxury hotels, which includes the iconic grand old dame, The Royal Hotel.
In the early 1990s, Rajen Reddy was running a service station. He yearned for a bigger challenge and through dint of hard work, he established KZN Oils in 1998.
The multi-million rand turnover business supplies fuels and lubricants to Portnet and related industries.
Many Indians contributed in no small measure to the Struggle for a democratic new order.
They went to prison and some even lost their lives, so that their children could enjoy a brighter future.
They have provided strong leadership in politics, commerce, industry, education, religion, culture and social welfare.
Today the Indian community, possessing of a good education, entrepreneurial flair, capital and a strong work ethic, is contributing to myriad facets of everyday life in South Africa.
It must also be noted that all through the exceptional journey from servitude to passive resistance to democracy undertaken by Indians, they regarded themselves as part of the struggling masses.
They made common cause with Africans and fought a united fight for a non-racial society.
The Indian pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
That is why it rankles me each time some unenlightened political upstart makes judgemental remarks about Indians being favoured and accorded undeserved privileges.
At the weekend, the ANC Youth League’s eThekwini region spokesperson Thulisa Ndlela said there was growing concern that Indian business owners were being given advantages over their black counterparts by the provincial government.
Indophobia
The ANCYL is of the view that Indians dominate government deals in eThekwini and the province.
The youth league is also concerned that the majority of government tenders for construction are awarded to Indians and “very few blacks”.
At its provincial elective conference in Durban, ANCYL president Collen Maine, accused Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan of being an impimpi (spy) for monopoly capital and said Gordhan must step down.
He told delegates that Gordhan must be dealt with in the same manner as spies were before 1994. Many traitors were tried by kangaroo courts and executed.
What Maine must realise is that Gordhan’s political credentials are impeccable.
When Maine was still sucking a dummy, Gordhan was in the thick of the onslaught against the racist regime by working in the student movement and civic structures, being detained three times by the apartheid government and spending four years in the underground structures.
Because such utterances come from the youth sector, I discount them as witlessness that can be cured by being better informed.
Ndlela and his cronies will do well to study the ANCYL’s Basic Policy Document of 1948, which states that while Indians have India as their mother country, “thousands of them have made South Africa and Africa their home”.
“As long as they do not undermine or impede our liberation Struggle, we should not regard them as intruders or enemies,” the document states.
Perturbing assaults on the legitimacy of Indian success have also come from the EFF.
During interviews for a KwaZulu-Natal Judge President in 2015, EFF leader Julius Malema told High Court Judge Shyam Gyanda, who was one of the candidates vying for the position, that Africans in KZN felt Indians were dominating life in every sphere.
There have been many anti-Indian songs aimed at provoking hatred among Africans.
In 2002, playwright and composer Mbongeni Ngema released AmaNdiya, which expressed confrontational sentiments about Indians.
“My fellow countrymen, we need courageous men who will take on the Indians,” one verse said. The song was banned from public broadcasting and Ngema was forced to apologise.
In 2014, township rap group AmaCde’s song Umhlab’ Uzobuya (The land will return) was banned from being broadcast as it made sweeping, disparaging statements against Indians as a “race”, calling for Indians to return across the Indian Ocean or face consequences.
In May 2013, the Mazibuye African Forum caused a stir with an open letter by member Phumlani Mfeka to Newcastle mayor Afzul Rehman, saying Africa was home of indigenous African people and Mr Rehman should consider embracing India as his home.
Only last week, Indians in Zimbabwe became whipping boys when Zanu-PF Harare provincial political commissar Shadreck Mashayamombe threatened to expel all Indian nationals.
Mashayamombe said on Facebook: “Something must be done with this Indian community in Zimbabwe. Firstly, they don’t bank their money, secondly, they don’t develop their estates, thirdly they don’t want to marry our sisters, and fourthly, before independence they used to be given special treatment as compared to blacks.”
By setting its sights on expelling Indians, Zanu-PF appears to be following the well-trodden – but largely discredited – path of Africanisers such as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who hounded out Indians in the 70s through similar racial and economic unrest.
While they may have concerns about their future, like all minorities, most Indians are proud South Africans.
They subscribe to Steve Biko’s definition of blackness, which includes Africans, Indians and coloureds.
Indians know where they came from. They are painfully aware that millions of their brethren are leading a life of struggle and are doing whatever they can to help.
It is not true that Indians are milking a cow that they did not feed. Hence there is no place for Indophobia in South Africa.
Indians are not a dispensable commodity.
Yogin Devan is a media consultant and social commentator. Share your comments with him on: yogind@ meropa.co.za