Charterists rejected BC to run SA into the ground
SA’s people plugged their ears to reason in the early 1990s and preferred to follow the mirage of a mystical “equal society”. Just as it is difficult to find a whitey who supported apartheid these days, everyone is shocked at outcome of the choices they made then.
The essence of the Pan-African struggle was the handover of the land stolen through colonialism so that Africans can have their own “office” from which to implement their own development programmes. Africans continue to brush aside this roadmap to progress.
Black Consciousness (BC) was about curing the long-term psychological effects of oppression and to remind black people that they are not inferior and have the capacity to achieve what any other human-being can achieve.
Black people seem to believe they are actually not equal and that the unravelling of their human potential is a pipe dream.
The charterist view was that we should pressure whites to allow us to have a part in running the country. That they should allow us into their schools and universities, build their shopping malls in the deprived areas they created to oppress us where unfortunately most of us reside, give us stakes in businesses they have created etc.
Obviously the charterist leadership was at the front of the queue to receive such stakes, hence the new millionaires in the new order were charterist leaders. Black people seem to have been excited by the prospect of brushing shoulders with white people and the prospect of living like whites do.
It was so obvious then that the charterist view would transfer inequality into the “new” order but black people chose to go along with the promises. Worse, they believed everything would be done for them. When BC adherents wanted black people to come together to discuss their bottom lines to negotiate on, the Patriotic Front idea was sabotaged.
Their idea of having all people in the country vote for a constituent assembly that would write the constitution was cast aside as the charterists made deals alone with the oppressors and imposed a constitution on the rest of us.
Remember that the oppressors had a mandate from the white population both in terms of being a government and the referendum conducted in 1992 but black people never had an opportunity to choose who should write the constitution they were to live under. Neither were referenda held on African cultural beliefs that needed to be incorporated into the constitution to make everyone feel that he/she is part of the supreme law.
When BC adherents boycotted the talks on the grounds that they were not taking place among authentic representatives of the people but people selected by the oppressors they were labelled spoilers.
The 27 years of such a settlement, with charterists running the show, has proven that the charterists’ ideas are not able to uplift society or create a country anyone can be proud of.
The fact is, black people will never progress unless they follow and adhere to philosophies and principles that are meant to elevate them and guarantee their development.
Neither will they ever get anywhere by choosing leaders that have no time for them but only for their political cliques.