It’s time to get down and dirty
IS it racist to be really, really annoyed that there are so many utterly incompetent black people appointed to positions for which they are completely unsuitable? I can already hear the collective splutter and sighs this question is evoking among our noble liberal elite and other idiots, but it’s a genuine question indicative of a genuine debate we should be having in this country.
As a white South African born and raised in apartheid privilege, I am well aware that my every utterance about race is bound to be dismissed and ridiculed, at best, or used as kindling for yet another firestorm of righteous indignation.
But historical privilege aside, I am a South African first and foremost, and I claim for myself the right to ask these questions and encourage these debates because, God only knows, if we are not going to start talking about the destructiveness of affirmative action and reverse racism we might as well just give Julius Malema his wish and instate him as the next president of the republic.
I recently discovered – much belated, I know – the joys of Trevor Noah, and if there is one person who deserves to bypass all election niceties and just be installed as president, it’s him.
Not because he would bring any specific political, executive or managerial skills to the table – then again, which politician does? – but rather because he is one of the few South Africans fearless enough to spark a debate about race that doesn’t begin and end with hand-wringing apologies.
Not a day goes by that we are not regaled with some new tale of corruption or incompetence that is flushing millions of taxpayer rands down the proverbial toilet. The Buffalo City Metro mayor’s inexplicable travel bill seems to be a case in point, but sadly this is but the tip of the iceberg, and by no means the most insidious example of free-for-all government spending.
It goes without saying that not all government corruption is committed by black people. Whites have proven amply capable of fleecing the taxpayer and dipping into whatever cookie jar is going.
But it is an inescapable fact of the new South African political arena that senior government managers are predominantly black, and that much of the corruption that is taking place – and being allowed to take place – is not because every government manager is a thief, but rather because so many managers are so clearly in over their heads and utterly incapable of executing the kind of control that would begin to turn this tide.
Which brings me back to my original question: Is it racist to deduce that an over-zealous application of affirmative action has created a monstrous system of government incompetence and inefficiency because, at a base level, too many incompetent black people are appointed to positions they have no business occupying?
My partner travelled from Johannesburg to East London this week and found herself seated next to an American couple who, among other topics of conversation, worried about what the ANC might do when Nelson Mandela dies.
Theirs was the mistaken belief that Mandela’s wise counsel would be sorely missed, and that the ANC might find itself rudderless in his absence.
Sadly, our country has been rudderless for quite some time, not because Mandela has not been in a position to be our moral compass, but because our leaders stopped looking to him – or anyone else – for moral direction long, long ago.
I wouldn’t dream of trying to speak for Nelson Mandela, but I have no qualms about channelling Trevor Noah for a moment, and in any event, I suspect they may be coming down on the same side of this debate about race politics.
We have all been cowed and shamed into having only half-hearted and politically correct conversations about race, when what is desperately needed is a no-holds-barred, let-it-all-hang-out debate about the elephant-in-the-room link between affirmative action, incompetence and corruption.