New dawn requires a sunset on bias
Narendh Ganesh, “an ordinary citizen”, has written an open letter to newly-elected President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa.
My felicitations on your election as the president of the Republic. I believe it is unprecedented in many respects where a person has ascended to two presidencies in a space of a little over two months.
You have impressed many, including myself, with the grace, dignity and magnanimity in which you conducted yourself upon your election, not least your energy and daring.
The “new dawn” you spoke of reminded me of one Barack Obama in 2008 when he imploringly enamoured the US with his “Yes we can” speech.
He rekindled hope, faith and a renewed belief that his country, deep in the throes of an economic crisis, would turn the corner with a revitalised leadership.
A decade on and a country across the Atlantic is experiencing the same euphoria that the US did.
We now dare to dream.
I must state at the onset that I am no longer a member of the ANC and neither do I support it – only because of its conduct over the years.
In fact, I relinquished my support in 1999, when I realised that what was promised in 1994 – a better life for all – was not consistent with the manner in which the government was going about it.
But like you, I and multitudes of South Africans played our little parts in the fight for freedom.
I recall that in the very city that you took your oath of office, many of my fellow students and I from the University of the Western Cape were engaged in running battles with the security forces of apartheid, hurling stones, petrol bombs or any object that could cause harm, against the might of the Casspirs and Buffels laden with men ready to kill for an illegitimate regime.
I recall also the dark days when the apartheid security police hunted us with a passion to hurt, maim and even kill.
I still bear the scar of an assault by two security policemen who mercilessly pounded a colleague and me with batons on that fateful day that was dubbed the “Pollsmoor March”, as the people of Cape Town marched to Pollsmoor Prison to demand the release of Nelson Mandela.
The resilience, determination and steely will of people persevered against overwhelming odds.
I was there in Mitchells Plain when the United Democratic Front was launched and I was there in Graaff-Reinet when the “Cradock Four” were laid to rest.
I was there at my university listening to Billy Nair as he gave his first public address after being released from Robben Island.
And I was there to lend support when the late Frederick van Zyl Slabbert took a delegation to Lusaka to meet with the ANC in exile.
I mention this only so that a picture is drawn of the expectation that has suddenly been instilled in the multitudes of South Africans who once played their role in our liberation, and your ascendency to the highest office of the land renews those expectations.
Sir, in your State of the Nation address, you invoked the names of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
Two men from two continents, whose paths crossed in a manner of speaking, but didn’t actually – yet they were united as men of remarkable conscience, integrity, fortitude and an enduring commitment to a common brotherhood of man.
Mr Mandela, in particular, led us away from a precipice that could only have meant disaster.
I recall the heady days of Codesa (the Convention for a Democratic SA), when you, together with Mr Roelf Meyer, representing your principals, toed and froed in pursuit of a solution to save a land from impending disaster.
Your statesmanship then belied your calling that was all but written. You demonstrated that despite almost insurmountable odds, your established calibre and pedigree was a portent for better and bigger things to come.
You also invoked the greatness of our constitution. The opening lines, “We the people…” cannot be underplayed or diminished in its truism.
It means what it says.
In this regard, as I hold you to your word, I believe you were sincere, without any feigning, that your duty and promise to uplift the lives of every citizen, irrespective of colour, creed, ethnicity or religion, had value, integrity and honesty.
Whether we like it or not, our country is deeply divided so many years on, and these divisions simply amplify the mistrust, condescension and occasionally near hatred some still harbour across racial lines.
In your Sona you referred to a group of South Africans as “black youth”.
Sir, we are no more black and white, or anything in between – we are the people of this country.
While the inequities of the past demand correction, we cannot afford to hold the present and future to ransom by constantly looking back.
As we compete on the global theatre on all fronts, it is imperative that we enhance the narrative of merit. It has to start somewhere – and why not now?
Patriotism cannot be instilled when people view each other with cynicism, scepticism and diminishing respect simply because of colour.
The youth of today who represent the born-frees must not be allowed to thrive in an environment of inequality and discrimination, for then all we are doing is fomenting and reinforcing a social order that perpetuates and ingrains a vicious cycle.
That apartheid had caused untold damage and destruction to the masses in our land is a given, but you carry an enormous burden, almost singularly at this juncture of our history, to resurrect a social tapestry that has been forced to near damnation.
In an attempt to appease the “black African” voters and demand your pound of flesh from mainly white entrepreneurs, you will be lured to adopt a punitive stance against white monopoly capitalists of the past.
We are merely going to substitute one pernicious system for another, while the poor still languish.
The rapid expansion of black middle-class society is beginning to dominate the South African economy.
On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with this if numbers are factored into the equation – but the biased BBEEE policy of the ANC has spawned all sorts of negative behaviours; for example, the use of black people as “sleeping partners”.
South Africa cannot begin the “new dawn” if it does not effect a sunset clause on racial bias by one class of citizens over others.
After all, everybody pays the same rates and taxes, but most importantly our mantra has to be: “We, the people…”
There will be trying times ahead, but there can be no denying that our short democratic trajectory has imposed an enduring responsibility upon your shoulders, unimagined 24 years ago.
The ills that abound in our country will not be removed suddenly by some incantation.
An almost never-ending myriad ills need instant attention, but pragmatism dictates that there are no overnight solutions.
But the small mercy – a reprieve, if you must – that we have been granted in the form of your leadership must be allowed to flourish with tangible realisations and not idle lip
February 2018 signified a new beginning and much is expected from you singularly – nay, demanded – and any rebirth or “new dawn” can only happen if we are genuinely out with the old, and in with the new.
You enamoured all with the words of the great Hugh Masekela to “send me”.
This must mean something – it simply must.