Won’t join criticism of activist Jordan
DEAR Pallo Jordan
This must be a particularly difficult time in your career as an activist and astute intellectual. So please pardon me for imposing an unnecessary burden on you.
The media reports last weekend were damning on your person, but I refuse to join the bandwagon and rubbish a life lived in the service of the downtrodden in South Africa.
You have spent your entire life fighting for disenfranchised blacks and you continue to do so in the contemporary democratic South Africa.
You have selflessly spoken for the poor, even at the risk of being purged by the powers that be. This to me is the ultimate sacrifice bigger than mere qualifications.
There are scores of educated people who remain trapped in narrow accumulation at the expense of the majority. These people are chief executives and chartered accountants in corporate life whose existence is driven by the exploitation of black people.
None of these people have the courage to question poverty wages and the hopelessness that characterises black life, something you do every second minute of every day. Dr Blade Nzimande is one such example of the many sellouts in the struggle against exploitation of blacks despite his unquestioned academic credentials.
People like Nzimande do everything in their power to consolidate and defend the interests of capital like they did nicely in Marikana. So this begs a question: what exactly do these celebrated qualifications measure in a capitalist South Africa?
Furthermore, there are many white plumbers who work as managers in the corporate world and our municipalities, yet no one says anything about them because they are white. Perhaps we must call on these media houses to conduct a skills audit of all white people who became managers and chief executives before ’94. Not all of us take these racist reports seriously because they mean nothing in the struggle to restore the humanity of black people.
These reports are an extension of the racist belief that blacks are incapable of academic and economic achievement.
They are actually designed to deviate our attention from the day to day struggles of our people for which you are an advocate. Dr Jordan, we are indebted to your selfless contribution in society and wish you well in your future endeavours.