Riaan, sal jy omgee om die antie wat die konsentrasiekampwagte so
bewonder het dat sy hul taal as haar eie aanvaar het, te vra of sy
kans sien om haar uit te spreek (in Afrikaans verkieslik) ten opsigte
van dit wat ek hieronder geplak het, en my stelling dat ek dit as niks
ander as 'apartheid' beskou.
Haven or hell?
18 May 2008, 12:04
Related Articles
* Scores flee as Gauteng attacks spread
* Six arrested for xenophobic attacks
* Five die in Joburg xenophobic violence
* Foreigners in Cape fear they'll be next
By Chris Makhaye
On a bustling street in downtown Durban, an argument over a piece of
paper attracts photographer Sandile Ndlovu.
"Makwerekwere awahambe (foreigners must go)," a woman shouts,
insulting Thomas Mtambara and his wife, Remita.
The piece of paper is a receipt for goods confiscated from the couple
and another hawker, minutes earlier, by Metro Police.
Why the confiscated goods have all been listed on the same receipt has
disturbed the Mtambaras - a couple who had to flee from the Democratic
Republic of Congo 10 years ago.
"Let them take it, only God knows," responds Remita, resigned to the
loss of leather boots, jackets and second-hand clothing they sell from
a stall near Durban's Catholic cathedral.
The tense scene is a far cry from the lifestyle which the highly
educated couple enjoyed in the DRC capital, Kinshasa.
Ironically, Mtambara could be helping to develop young whiz kids in
South Africa. He has a masters degree in maths and physics and taught
these subjects for 17 years before taking a job as senior statistician
for the Mobutu government-controlled Immigration Department.
He had to flee in 2003 after escaping from a cell in Kinshasa. He had
been jailed by the first Kabila government which imprisoned - and
killed - many senior Mobutu government civil servants. His wife and
son later joined him in South Africa.
Mtambara has since converted his qualifications from French to English
with the South African Qualification Authority (Saqa), but to no
avail.
Despite shortages of qualified teachers for maths and science in South
Africa, Mtambara has not been able to get a post here. The department
of education turned down all his applications.
This week, as has happened before, the Mtambaras were nearly attacked
in the dispute over confiscated goods. Again Mtambara backed down and
parted with merchandise, lest the arguments turn ugly.
Although the Mtambaras have a street trading licence, Remita keeps it
with her and she was not at their stall when Metro Police conducted a
spot check this week.
"We face discrimination most of the time - from the police, fellow
hawkers, immigration officials... anybody. Giving away these clothes
and jackets is nothing new," said Remetsi.
"Yes, it's very difficult but one has to learn to adapt," said
Mtambara.
Their experiences are shared by thousands of African immigrants trying
to carve a niche for themselves in South Africa. And with the wave of
violence directed at foreign nationals in Gauteng this week, many,
like the Mtambaras, fear that even the most basic of arguments can
easily lead to violence against them.
In Durban's Albert Park - long a crime-ridden area, even in the 1980s
and 1990s - tension between locals and foreigners was palpable this
week.
"We are really scared," said one Tanzanian youngster.
"Everyone has been telling us about what happened in Pretoria and
Alexandra. But what can you do? Sometimes you have to sacrifice
yourself to achieve your dream."
Two months ago, residents held a meeting, voicing anger at hundreds of
mainly Tanzanian foreigners living in the Albert Park area. The
foreigners were accused of robbery, housebreaking, hijacking, making a
noise and dealing in stolen goods.
Letter
Demands were made for the "immediate removal" of foreigners, with
residents threatening to take the law into their own hands.
These tensions prompted Pierre Matate, co-ordinator of the
KwaZulu-Natal Refugee Council, to write a letter to eThekwini Mayor
Obed Mlaba and others, warning that innocent people could soon become
victims of indiscriminate mob violence.
Matate, also from the DRC, condemned a recent incident involving four
Tanzanians who had stabbed a local, and said the refugee council
representing foreigners and refugees in the area would support "any
efforts to combat this criminality".
He also said in the letter that Durban had become a home to many
migrants and foreigners, and that it was unfair to target foreigners
as the source of crime in the area.
He said those committing crime must be charged in courts of law, and
that this would require the collaboration of South Africans and
foreign residents.
But, instead, divisions were emerging that would only suit criminals.
"The tension is growing and it is our responsibility as leaders to
start strategising so that this situation does not get out of
control," he said.
"We run the risk of innocent people becoming victims."
That letter had been submitted four months ago, but little had been
done so far, said Matate. Instead, many refugees and foreigners
continued to be treated as outcasts, not just by ordinary residents
but also by authorities.
This could only worsen the situation, warned Matate in another letter
to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Office of the KwaZulu-Natal
Premier, the minister of justice, the presidency and others.
He said in Albert Park many of the foreigners had trekked down Africa
as youngsters - or even boarded ships as stowaways - to escape poverty
in Tanzania.
"But as economic migrants they also have human rights that must be
protected," said Matate.
Some migrants said they were denied basic services such as health
care. Eric Mutawu, a 22-year-old from Tanzania, said he had gone to
Addington Hospital after a persistent stomach ache.
"They asked me for R20 to open a file and I didn't have it. I asked
them to at least give me Panado or other pain killers and they
refused," he said.
Other African foreigners living in Durban said although they had legal
permits to live in South Africa, they often found themselves at the
receiving end of xenophobia, as well as discrimination from home
affairs, police and other officials.
They said African foreigners were not treated the same way as their
white and Asian counterparts who were welcomed with open arms when
arriving in South Africa.
Emilinia Matore said that she left her job as a teacher in Zimbabwe
and fled to South Africa last year following reprisals against
teachers from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
She tried in vain to get a job in Gauteng. In February she came to
Durban and landed a packing job in a supermarket.
Lesson
"My fellow workers jeer at me and say I came to take away their jobs.
They say employers prefer to hire us foreigners because we are
prepared to work for next to nothing," she said.
"It is very difficult for us because we fled repression in our home
countries, only to find worse treatment by our brothers and sisters
here.
"I never thought I would have to flee Zimbabwe, but it happened. This
should be a lesson to South Africans."
Other Zimbabweans interviewed this week said the prejudice they had
experienced was not confined to poor people battling to make ends
meet, but even came from educated black South Africans.
A Zimbabwean masters student, who asked not be named, said he and his
peers were often treated as outcasts by black fellow students and
lecturers.
"Some ask why we are not studying and working in our own countries."
Joshua Mbonigaba, an economics graduate from the University of Butare
in Rwanda, his wife, Solange, and their 6-year- old son, came to South
Africa to flee the effects of their country's civil war.
Solange, also a graduate in economics, worked at a leading bank when
they left their country. But when they came to Durban the couple could
only find jobs as car guards, which they did for the next six years.
Joshua was recently hired as a lecturer in economics at UKZN's
Westville campus. His job is now on the line since his refugee status
has not been renewed after he reapplied more than six months ago.
"His contract states clearly that he will be employed only if his
papers are in order," said Solange.
"We live in uncertain times."
* This article was originally published on page 15 of The Sunday
Tribune on May 18, 2008
Al die kak van die klomp swartes in die lokasies gaan oor etnisiteit. Dit
kon alles vermy gewees het indien De Klerk ons nie uitverkoop het op jou
koerant se aandrang nie.
Maar ek lag lekker, want nou het ons swart geweld op ander swartes!
So, broer Ferdi, wat dink jy daar van?
Onthou jy toe julle gele en piele vleg het, was ons in die weermag en moes
almal selfs die swartes beskerm!
Nou-ja, daar het julle die ou NNP en kortbroek se uit verkopery saam met die
hol-naaier: FW De Klerk.
Hy's mos destyds van Marike geskei, : Because she wouldn't do Greek" Ha...Ha
...Ha!
Schalk Burger se suster 'weier om 'n slagoffer te bly'
May 15 2008 08:59:51:840PM - (SA)
Sarietha Engelbrecht
Kaapstad. - Sy weier om 'n slagoffer te bly. Dáárom het 'n moedige me.
René Burger (20) haar gister vrywillig geïdentifiseer as die vrou,
waaroor daar wyd berig is, wat verlede week 'n verkragting oorleef
het.
Burger, suster van die Springbok-rugbyspeler Schalk Burger, het in 'n
verklaring bevestig sy is die student wat verlede week in 'n
parkeerterrein by die Tygerberg-hospitaal deur drie mans oorval,
ontvoer en verkrag is.
"Die oomblik wat jy besluit om nie toe te laat dat iets soos hierdie
jou waardigheid en selfwaardering, jou vertroue in ander, jou hoop in
die toekoms en jou toegewydheid tot die land wat jy liefhet vernietig
nie, hou jy op om 'n slagoffer te wees," het sy in die verklaring
gesê.
Burger het 'n verklaring uitgereik deur 'n familievriend, me. Elna
Boesak, vrou van die kerkleier dr. Allan Boesak.
"Om die slagoffer van 'n gewelddadige ontvoering en verkragting te
wees, is een van die mees traumatiese ervarings wat enige vrou kan
oorkom.
"Jy het egter 'n keuse oor hoe jy op hierdie werklikheid reageer."
Volgens adv. Dup de Bruyn, ook 'n vriend, het me. Burger na vore gekom
om 'n einde te maak aan bespiegelings.
"Sy is nie skaam oor wat gebeur het nie. Sy baklei terug en wil vir
mense wys hulle moenie moed opgee nie."
Volgens Boesak het sy haar hulp aangebied en het die familie haar
gevra om as woordvoerder op te tree.
Sy het gesê sy het geweldig baie respek vir me. Burger en haar
familie.
"Hulle lewer 'n ongelooflike bydrae tot die bewusmaking en
de-stigmatisering van hierdie kwessie. Dit het baie waagmoed en
dapperheid van haar geverg om na vore te tree.
"Sy is 'n buitengewone jong vrou. Ek het nog min mense teëgekom wat so
sterk en doelgerig is. René het 'n baie dapper ding gedoen deur na
vore te kom. Sy gaan nie toelaat dat hierdie ding haar definieer nie."
Volgens 'n vriendin wat saam met haar in Paarl Gimnasium op skool was,
is me. Burger 'n baie saggeaarde mens. "Ons was baie geskok om hiervan
uit te vind. René is 'n lieflike mens. Ek kan nie glo so iets het met
só 'n goeie mens gebeur nie."
Die polisie ondersoek klagte van kaping en verkragting. 'n Identikit
van een van die aanvallers is ook uitgereik, maar niemand is nog in
hegtenis geneem nie.
Oorgelaat aan barbare'
May 15 2008 08:40:17:147PM - (SA)
Hilda Fourie
Die bekroonde skrywer André P. Brink het gister uitgevaar oor die land
se misdaadkrisis nadat sy susterskind die naweek deur rowers
doodgeskiet is.
"Dit is onaanvaarbaar dat Suid-Afrika oorgelaat is aan die genade van
barbare," het hy onder meer gesê.
Mnr. Adriaan Steenberg (45), seun van die ontslape skrywer Elsabé
Steenberg (Brink se suster), is Saterdagoggend in sy slaapkamer voor
sy vrou, Leonie (41), in die gesig geskiet.
Hulle woon op 'n kleinhoewe in Leeufontein in die noordooste van
Pretoria. Die egpaar se drie jong kinders, wat onderskeidelik 11, 9 en
8 jaar oud is, het in die huis geslaap toe hul pa geskiet is.
"Ons moet teen alle hoop bly hoop dat iemand beheer sal kry, want dit
blyk dat die regering nie meer die land kan regeer nie," het Brink
gister per telefoon uit die Wes-Kaap gesê.
Mev. Steenberg het gister vertel dat hulle verlede Vrydagaand haar
skoonpa, prof. Dawie Steenberg (68), 'n Alzheimer-lyer, in Centurion
gaan haal het om by hulle te kuier.
Hulle het Saterdagoggend omstreeks 02:30 gaan slaap.
"Ek weet nie hoe laat dit was nie, maar my man het opgespring en gesê
daar is iemand in die huis," het Steenberg gesê. Die verdagtes het
deur 'n venster in die eetkamer toegang tot die huis gekry.
"Adriaan het gesê ek moet langs die bed op die vloer lê. Hy het ook
langs die bed gaan lê.
"Ons het voetstappe op die trap gehoor en my skoonpa wat 'Help, help'
skree. Adriaan het opgestaan om die paniekknoppie te druk.
"Hy was nog half regop toe skiet hulle hom in die wangbeen. Ek het die
vlam gesien en toe val Adriaan."
Terwyl die verdagtes aan Steenberg gesê het: "Ons gaan jou doodmaak,
ons gaan jou doodmaak", het hulle haar met 'n vuurwapen gedreig en
beveel om die alarm af te skakel.
Daarna het hulle haar na prof. Steenberg se kamer geneem waar hulle
haar hande vasgebind en haar skoonpa uitgetrek en sy hande ook
vasgebind het.
Prof. Steenberg het net sy hemp aangehad.
"Een was saam met ons in die kamer en nog twee buite. My skoonpa het
op sy rug gerol en die deur met sy voete toegestamp om hulle uit te
hou.
"Hy het hulle ook met sy kierie geslaan," het Steenberg gesê.
"Hy het opgehou nadat hulle gedreig het dat hulle hom sal doodmaak."
Steenberg het aan die boewe gesê hulle moet vat wat hulle wil hê en
gaan. Sy wou net by haar man kom om hom te help. Toe hulle haar uit
haar skoonpa se kamer neem, het een van die rowers buite die kamer met
'n vuurwapen teen haar negejarige dogtertjie se kop gestaan.
"Sy wou huil, maar ek het haar gekalmeer en na haar oupa geneem."
Die skurke het Steenberg deur die huis geneem en geld, selfone en 'n
skootrekenaar gesteel. In 'n stadium het hulle haar alleen in die
kamer by haar man gelos.
"Ek het sy pols gevoel, maar daar was niks nie. Ek wou net iets vir
Adriaan probeer doen, maar ek kon nie."
Steenberg het nog skote buite gehoor, wat glo deur 'n
veiligheidsmaatskappy afgevuur is, en die rowers het daarna op die
vlug geslaan.
"Dit was onnodig om hom te skiet," het Steenberg gesê. "Hy het geglo
hy was goed vir almal en dat niemand ons sal seermaak nie."
Beeld het verneem dat ses verdagtes wat twee dae later in Mamelodi in
verband met sowat 18 moorde en verkragtings in die
Kameeldrift-omgewing in hegtenis geneem is, met Steenberg se moord
verbind kan word.
'n Huldigingsdiens sal Maandagmiddag om 12:00 vanuit die NG kerk
Kameeldrif gehou word.
DIE ARME BLANKE
Ek is 'n arme blanke,
sieklik en naar en vuil,
stukkend en bijna nakend;
wie sal sij lot met mij ruil?
Weet julle hoedat mij naam is?
Die edelste naam wat jul eer.
Ek is 'n Afrikaner
wat Afrika's naam verteer.
Ek is 'n arme blanke,
die kind van 'n voorgeslag
van dappere, eerbare helde:
word ek deur julle verag?
Ons is 'n honderdduisend,
almaal so goed soo jij;
waar julle spog oor vooruitgang,
spog maar bij ons verbij.
Oupa het saam met sij maters
besluit om op trek te gaan;
oupa het saam met die ander
bij Bloedrivier pal gestaan.
Droogte en pestilensie,
moordlus van wilde barbaar,
alles was vir mij nasie
geen onowerkomelik gevaar.
Hier bij die bronne van welvaart,
hier is ons siekte ontstaan;
hier bij die nasleep van welvaart
dreig ons om ook te vergaan.
Maar gee tog mij kinders 'n kansie,
gee hul tog nuwe moed;
denk tog, die kinders is almaal
kinders van julle bloed.
Gee tog die kinders 'n kansie,
ek is al afgeleef;
ek bid dat die nag mij wil saamneem,
dis al wat ek wetend na streef.
Ek is 'n arme blanke;
ek bid, en ek smeek, en ek vra:
help tog jul eie famielie,
help óns, Suidafrika.
Mense - Moenie se ek het julle nie betyds gewaarsku nie. Hier kom oorlog,
baie gouer as wat jy dink.
Rising Right
May 10 2008 at 01:12PM
Jochrisla Hanekom is pretty enough to bear scrutiny. She has a fragile
build; she's the kind of young woman who people - mostly men - would want to
protect.
But she has the confidence of a warhorse. She condenses her cultural
prejudice: it is about the misfortune of her people. And in the khaki
uniform of the AWB's Brandwag, the 16-year-old plays dress-up as a soldier
for the volk.
"I've been in this frame of mind all my life," she grins. "My father," she
says proudly, "was a kommandant in the AWB, and he's still like that, so
that is how I grew up. This is very important - that we stand together as a
people. All those people who are the same must unite. It means the world to
me."
Hanekom - who is from Krugersdorp - was behind the table selling T-shirts
and stickers, and signing people up for the newly reformed resistance
movement at the long-awaited Pretoria stop of its nationwide roadshow this
week.
Large numbers of the audience were under the age of 35. They wouldn't
remember Eugene Terre'Blanche, their leader, tumbling off his horse or being
denigrated in a sex scandal.
To the children of the right, Terre'Blanche remains more than mere white
flesh. When the 1994 election was won by their enemies, he warned the last
Afrikaner generation of apartheid that things would fall apart. Now he
reminds them of how he told them so.
There is a paucity, to some a void, of credible white leadership in South
Africa, so the youth of the volk have only got Terre'Blanche to fawn and
flatter. It is them who are helping the dairy farmer and ex-convict from
Ventersdorp to make what could be the biggest comeback of his career.
In Pretoria, the youth gathered to immerse themselves in the doom drawn by
their elders, Terre'Blanche's gimmickry of a boere mystic enhanced by the
surroundings. The hall where his supporters met this week is a fortress of
the white right, although you wouldn't know it from the outside.
"We want to rule over ourselves. So bring your brain-power, your might, your
guns, your living God, the experience of your forefathers. I plead with you
tonight," glides Terre'Blanche from the podium.
"Yes," he shouts, "we are back! And if you sign up tonight, tomorrow you'll
have a friend. Do it, sign up, before we get murdered out of oblivion!"
Craftily, the new AWB leadership has conjured up the Brandwag, an apparently
innocuous cellphone club-cum-neighbourhood watch steadily growing a precious
database of names and numbers, readying - says Terre'Blanche - for the
impending battle for their ultimate freedom.
The Brandwag joining fee is R60 for a couple, R50 for singles. Children are
free. Once in, members can order the uniform and have their name embroidered
above the right pocket, under the emblem.
Out in the corridor, Jacobus Herculas de la Rey - the Lion of the Western
Transvaal and unsullied hero of the rising Afrikaner youth - gazes at his
fans from a charcoal portrait.
"I'm a Christian and I feel I know, I understand, this land because of
that," explains Hennie Bezuidenhout, a medical student at the University of
Pretoria.
"My belief is it is the privilege of Afrikaners to bring the word of God to
people on the African continent. So I mourn the fact (we) now have to .
fight for our safety instead of doing what we are ordained to do."
Like Hanekom, Bezuidenhout would prefer to desist from the race question.
Hanekom says she doesn't see herself as racist because, quite simply, "the
Afrikaners are my people, and I belong with them. They stand for those
things in which I believe.
"For some of our parents, like the parents of some of the white children at
my school, it might be different. Some of them have been taken in by the
ANC. But that's over. Just like the blacks, we must now stand together and
finally fight for what is ours."
Hanekom admits that her father's racism might have made it impossible for
her to even consider the possibility of friendship with someone who is not
white, but "I know what they do, the blacks".
"I don't have any black friends, and actually I'm not at all interested in
having any, anyway. It makes me feel uncomfortable."
Gys Kleyn, who is studying dentistry at Tuks, says he comes from a farm in
the southern Cape "so why would I want to sit in some small place like
Orania?"
He says this is the reason why they must engage in the last, supreme battle
for the vast tracts of land that are theirs by law, like Stellaland and
Goosen in the far North West, which were bought by the Boers from the
traditional authorities with cattle in the 1800s. The detested British
conned them out of the land and they never got it back.
Dramatic
But, Kleyn warns amiably, they surely will. The AWB's intention is to make a
formal plea at the Hague for their right to the land they perceive as being
theirs, and, should this attempt fail, the leadership may consider a more
dramatic course of action.
Out in the corridor, a young woman with a baby gazes at a romantic portrait
of a Voortrekker hauling his wagon over the aria of the mountaintop, his
wife and children captivated by his bravery. Inside the room, Terre'Blanche
tells the teenagers about the contract in a suitcase that was all that
remained when Piet Retief and his men were killed by Dingaan.
"God punished us with a government of a De Klerk," he spits and rails, "and
the new order was forced upon us. I ask you: what is it that you want? We're
a pitiful little nation, but we'll never ask forgiveness for apartheid.
Never!"
The air is heavy with guilt, transgression and anxiety. He needs to calm the
audience down, especially the two teenage boys in the second row from the
back.
Terre'Blanche remonstrates with the crowd, the boys taking it to heart:
"What happened to us that we let this happen? We don't have to allow
ourselves to go to nothing. After all . Jesus dies for us, for our sins. The
strangers' might is almighty and strong, but we have the right to be free
and independent."
The audience hummed an echo out of their trance. Some shifted around in
their seats. Then, it was silence again. Breathing was arrogant. But the air
was suffocating: it couldn't wait for the crescendo. The connivance of the
quiet applause was an exhortation for him to continue. So Terre'Blanche
leaned forward, the light in these terrible times.
"It's not about what we do," he clattered, "but what we don't do."
For Bezuidenhout, Terre'Blanche surely has the bravest heart in the land.
The student rose to his feet for the ovation and put his money into one of
the buckets passed around the hall for donations.
"I think about my grandfather," he says, "who was a hard Boer. When his
black foreman died on the farm, he carried him into the house, his face
soaked with tears. That taught me a lot. We're not going to just be crept
out of our own land. We're not going to be crucified. I'm a fighter for
God's Afrikaners, and we will win."
En hier het ons die laaste paar dae te doen met 'n nuwe verskynsel
enaamd - xenofobia.
Ek sal graag wil hoor presies wat is die verskil tussen xenofobia en
rassisme .... Laat ek bietjie dink, is dit dalk omdat dit swart teen swart
is en geen swarte in sy lewe mos 'n rassis kan wees nie. Wonder of die
polisie sterker sou opgetree het as dit 'n klomp wit Suid-Afrikaners was wat
die lot so lekker opdonner hier in Alex.
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