Die departement van waterwese gaan die watersuiweringswerke in
Bronkhorstspruit, oos van Pretoria, opgradeer nadat drinkwater wat met
ontlasting besmet was, vermoedelik veroorsaak het dat sowat 1 450 mense in
Mpumalanga en Gauteng onlangs deur 'n maagepidemie platgetrek is.
Volgens mnr. Paul Britz, direkteur van distriksgesondheid, was daar 'n skerp
styging in die voorkoms van diarree onder inwoners nadat die chlorineerder
by die suiweringswerke in die laaste week van Januarie oor 'n naweek onklaar
geraak het.
Die chloor was glo op en dit is eers die Maandag besef.
Een van die watermonsters wat getoets is, het besmetting met ontlasting
getoon, maar 'n paar ander monsters was skoon.
Luidens 'n voorlopige verslag deur die Nasionale Instituut vir Oordraagbare
Siektes (Nios) het 1 342 mense in Mpumalanga sedert 22 Ja nuarie en 110 in
Gauteng sedert 25 Februarie siek geword. Die simptome was waterige diarree,
braking en maagkrampe.
Stoelgangmonsters het verskeie patogene bevat, insluitend rotavirus,
Shigella (veroorsaak disenterie) en E.coli.
Dokters en epidemoloë het glo aan die owerhede gesê hulle vermoed daar was
net 'n buitengewone styging in 'n oordraagbare maagvirus of -organisme, maar
die departement het eerder veilig gespeel en begin met ekstra chlorinering.
Die riviere waaruit die water kom vir die Bronkhorstspruit-reservoir is met
ontlasting besoedel.
Volgens Britz is tenks waarheen water van die suiweringswerke aangery word,
behoorlik skoongemaak.
Die water is vir 'n tweede keer in die tenks gechlorineer en die tenks wat
nie bedek was nie, is van deksels voorsien.
Daar is intussen ook met gesondheidsvoorligting in die gemeenskap begin.
Gaan mos nou per vragskip afgelewer word.
Volgens die koerant is dit omdat die 90 bemanningslede wat 2 jaar in
Duitsland opleiding ontvang het ( saamgestel streng volgens die
bevolkingsamestelling) nie in staat is om dit op eie stoom hier te kry nie.
Volgens 'n politikus vanoggend, omdat al die ander bote glo so afgelewer is.
Feit is, is dat die fregatte wat so afgelewer was net leë doppe was, en eers
hier toegerus is. Die duikbote is ten volle toegerus, en heeltemal in staat
om op eie stoom hier te kom met 'n opgeleide bemanning.....
Wonder net hoe lank neem dit om 90 bemanningslede op te lei, as twee jaar in
die vreemde nie genoeg is nie...
--
Groetnis
Annette
'n Kanker is besig om Afrika te eet en ons gewone mense is eintlik nie eers
bewus daarvan nie want ons word nie direk geraak nie. Ongeag van wat met
die politiek gebeur het in die verlede, daar was deur die jare 'n
staatspensioenfonds opgebou deur bydrae van werkende mense en wat bestuur
word namens die Staat vir die gewone burgers van die land. Weens die
omvang van die bedrae geld betrokke, is hierdie nie 'n taak wat sommer sê
aangepak kan word nie. Ongelukkig, weens regstellende aksie, het meeste
van die mense met die kundigheid en die ervaring, die pad gevat
privaatsektor toe want bevordering en hul toekoms by die staatsdiens het
donker geword. Dit het mense in beheer gelos sonder die nodige
ondervinding. Duer die jare is reeds moerse bedrae geld verloor op wilde
skemas waarin entrepeneurs die bestuurders van hierdie fonds oortuig het om
in hul skema te belê....tot nadeel van die delers van die pensioenfonds
natuurlik! Amper sonder uitsondering spring hierdie entrepeneurs uit en
bou firmas op wat skrik vir niks. Die direkteure word magtige salrisse
betaal en ry groot Benze en X5's, dra Armani en volstruisleerskoene. So 'n
paar jaar later verder, is die hele spul bankrot en die Fonds sit met 'n
groot verlies.
Laas week het die franchise houers van Nando's in Windhoek sy gat gesien
en het die fonds sowat R14 miljoen verloor. Die fotos in die koerant van
die toestand van hul uitlate in Windhoek was so erg dat enigiemand wat
daarna nog Nando's koop, moet sy kop laat lees. Sowat van vuil is lanklaas
gesien en op die persele is nooit onderhoed gedoen nie. Dis natuurlik
onregverdig om ander Nando's uitlate te tipeer volgens hierdie fiasko, maar
so 'n beeld by kleef.
Daar word mos nou gestry deur patoloë of die arme siel dood was voordat hy
vir die leeus gegooi was.
Wat maak dit nou saak, die saak is mos nie of dit moord was omdat hy in die
leeuhok gegooi was nie ?
Iewers moet daar tog 'n wet en straf wees vir die wat 'n lyk wil vernietig
sodat daar geen spoor van is nie?
--
Groetnis
Annette
MOET mos waai een van die dae want sy 3 termyne is verby en nou word almal
laat weet dat die man die plekke gaan besoek en enigiemand wat graag wil
bydra tot sy hêppie aftrede is welkom om vir hom geskenke te gee. Dis nou
bo en behalwe die feit dat hy sy aftreesalaris en byvoordele lewenslank gaan
kry plus 'n moerse pensioen, ens, ens. Die bedelaarskultuur in ons land
strek diep. Staatsdepartemente vind dit niks snaaks om briewe aan kliënte
uit te stuur waarin hulle versoek word om skenkings te maak vir die
Krismispartytjie vir die personeel nie.
Adapt and die - South Africa's new motto
___________________________________________________________
Dan Roodt
During the time of National Party reforms in the seventies and
eighties, the cliché "adapt or die" used to do the rounds. Nowadays,
given the highest murder rate in the world, this should be modified
slightly to read, "adapt and die". For the endemic social violence in
South Africa is probably incurable.
Optimists think that violent crime can be solved through better
policing, more efficient courts and more secure prisons. Even assuming
that such improvements were possible under conditions of hard-core
affirmative action, it must be admitted that criminal justice treats
the symptom and not the cause of social violence. The Department of
Correctional Services, for one, has lost 496 out of 500 former Deputy
Directors since 1994, representing most of the intellectual capital in
the department. Newcomers may learn their job properly, or they may
not, but they have to be flown to overseas countries to find out how
prisons work as most of those previously involved in managing our
prisons are no longer there.
South Africa used to have a problem of political violence. It was not
as bad as elsewhere in Africa, but for some reason elicited hysterical
international condemnation. However, actors in political violence are
mostly driven by some sort of creed or belief system. Whether such a
person is a communist, an anarchist, a neo-Nazi or an ethnic or
religious guerilla fighter, he is usually amenable to persuasion or
compromise. Even a group of Muslim suicide bombers might declare peace
if they were given a territory in which to set up an Islamic
theocracy, governed only by themselves and not subject to any outside
influence.
In the same way, South Africa's so-called liberation movements who
were at one time fanatically convinced of the need for violent and
bloody revolution, laid down arms and bombs upon being told that F.W.
de Klerk would surrender power unconditionally. Solving political
violence is often intractable, but not impossible.
Not so social violence. Endemic crime, the breakdown of the social
fabric, a sense of drift regarding norms of good conduct, point to a
far deeper problem. The freedom fighter or urban terrorist is
ultimately rational, despite a value system that normal society might
find idiosyncratic.
But what is "normal society"? It is only the sum-total of behaviours
prevalent in any given society at any given time. The Aztecs,
infamously, practised daily human sacrifice to appease their sun god.
It might revolt many of us today, but to them it was entirely normal.
South Africa currently sacrifices about 87 humans per day to violent
crime, or 32 000 per year. Those are only the ones who actually die.
Scores of others are injured, maimed, traumatised, robbed, raped,
burgled and so on.
In any suburb today an entire history of murders, hijackings, and
other violent events can be written, if only the locals were
narcissistic enough to consider their own history worth recording for
posterity. On the other hand, social violence lacks the charm and
grandeur of political violence as it is usually not committed in the
interest of some glamorous cause like national liberation or world
revolution but simply to acquire some hapless person's BMW or rape his
wife because she happened to be inside.
However, some time ago a Johannesburg newspaper engaged in chronicling
some local history in the suburbs of Westdene and Lakefield in Benoni.
Nearly every resident had a story to tell, an entire litany of mayhem.
Mr. John Gee miraculously survived a shot through the eye, but now
feels traumatised. His wife says, "One lives in fear in one's own
home. One does not sleep. One prays for protection, yet only more
fears come."
But who are the authors of South Africa's social violence? Even asking
this question presents one with a sense of discomfort, because most
violent criminals in South Africa are young black men between the ages
of 16 and 36. As one surgeon who had stitched together at least three
child rape victims, two of whom were infants, said recently, "Probably
white men commit such acts too; it is just that no-one in South Africa
has come across such a case."
Of course, it would be preposterous to say that all young black men
are prone to violence. Judging from our daily experiences in
crime-torn South Africa, however, a sub-section of that population,
large enough to cause more havoc than even a well-equipped guerilla
army of a few thousand men, has taken up practices such as heists,
hold-ups, murders, sexual violence exacted upon women and children,
and so on.
Explanations for such deviancy are manifold. The ubiquitous answer of
it being due to apartheid might have been satisfying if other African
societies never subject to group areas and a homeland system did not
display similar traits. The Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone come to mind.
There is a whole nature/nurture debate around black violence, except
that no adherent of the "nature" side would publicly admit to being
one, for fear of being branded a racist. Even though mainstream
American cancer research has conclusively shown that black men have
higher levels of testosterone than their white counterparts, few would
hazard the notion that this might be linked to their greater
propensity for violent crime.
America has a gargantuan prison population of two million, over half
of which consists of African-Americans. This is despite their minority
status in the USA, comprising only 12% of an overall population
amounting to 290 million. South Africa could neither afford nor
succeed, given the dire state of our criminal justice system, in
jailing a similar number of black male offenders. Currently, only 10%
of murderers in South Africa get arrested and only 6% are convicted.
Any murderer therefore has a 94% chance of getting away with it.
If by some miracle all serious criminals in the country had to be
caught and imprisoned, the prison population would surely treble or
quadruple from the present 200 000, which is already high by world
standards. Not only is such an improvement inconceivable under current
conditions, but it would also be politically unpopular with the ruling
ANC who would be incarcerating large numbers of young black males who
are mostly its own supporters at the polls. Few whites, if any, commit
violent crime and there are only 3 900 of them in prison, mostly for
white-collar offences such as fraud or insider trading on the stock
exchange.
All that remains in the world's most violent society, is precisely to
adapt and die. Twice as many South Africans of all races now die of
murder than of road accidents - even though the road accident rate is
also the highest in the world, surpassing that of Turkey. Crime
extends to trade in driver's licences, so that a large number of
drivers use so-called "bought licences", hardly a contribution to road
safety.
There are some people naive enough to think that "something can be
done about crime" in South Africa, mostly opposition politicians who
dream about diverting funds from arms procurement to policing, but
this would be futile. There are already three times as many private
security personnel as state-employed policemen, and even they do not
succeed in containing what has become Africa's only peacetime killing
field.
"I killed them because they were white." These famous words were
spoken last year by William Kekana, who participated in one of the
most horrendous incidents in which the entire family of Mr. Clifford
Rawstorne was wiped out, consisting of his fiancée, baby, as well as
his own mother. Even this massacre of an entire family would not have
made headlines, were it not for the fact that one year-old Kayla was
executed on her very first birthday with a shot in the head. Needless
to say, the two adult women were first raped before being killed. Both
William Kekana and his accomplice, Charles Fido Baloyi, fell into the
high-risk group of young black (and Coloured) males who commit almost
all violent crime in the country.
South Africa actually has a Minister of Safety and Security, which to
some might seem like an example of absurd humour. His Excellency Mr.
Charles Nqakula, whose official résumé proudly states that he was once
"a waiter and wine steward", has immortalised himself by
euphemistically stating that there was no real crime problem in South
Africa, except that it was "a little on the high side".
All in all, South Africa has got remarkably used to its new-found
status as the crime capital of the world. The high-rise districts of
Hillbrow and Berea in Johannesburg have been officially designated by
Interpol as having the highest murder rate in the world, that is, 600
people per 100 000 population members per annum. Consider for a moment
that such a figure represents 12 times the rate found in inner-city
ghettoes in the United States, often seen as no-go zones by many
Americans.
One British immigrant to South Africa who has survived three car
hijackings, refuses to emigrate, stating that he is now accustomed to
having Kalachnikovs pointed at him from point-blank range. Everyone
knows a relative or friend who has been killed or at least subjected
to some form of violent crime, and no South African can remotely
imagine a society where people do not live behind razor wire,
electrified fences, high walls, burglar bars and similar decorative
props.
Outsiders might find our lifestyle bizarre, but many pundits in South
Africa consider our society to be much more "normal" now than at any
time in the past, which was tarnished by ethnic separation albeit
without the present large-scale violence. At the height of segregation
and apartheid under Hendrik Verwoerd, South Africa was almost as
peaceful as Switzerland but she was immoral. Today we are the
apotheosis of racial morality and political correctness, yet as
violent as the Congo or Liberia. Surprisingly, however, our economy
continues to function amid the carnage. No economist has ever studied
this as far as I know, but not only is crime our biggest industry -
bigger than gold-mining or manufacturing - it also stimulates
consumption as stolen goods are replaced; it is a boon to the
insurance and security industries and ultimately makes surgeons and
undertakers rich. The government earns billions of rands in
Value-Added Tax on stolent goods being replaced with new ones. So
crime pays.
News about killings or shoot-outs no longer elicits the slightest
surprise. It is part of our daily existence, and one assumes the
lethal risks attending to something as simple as going shopping or
driving to work. My wife, for example, has twice been to the local
shopping centre where in the one instance a shoot-out was taking place
in the parking area so that she had to hide between the cars with our
18 month-old son in her arms; in the second case an armed robbery had
just taken place with the robbers casually strolling by with their
guns and their loot.
Everyone knows someone who has been killed, raped or maimed. Just this
week, the wife of a friend and former literary editor of Die Burger,
François Smith, was stabbed to death with a screwdriver in their home
in Wellington, near Cape Town. Her murderer was a 16-year-old squatter
camp resident whose race was omitted by the press but presumably few,
if any whites, reside in his particular squatter camp which is
dedicated to black Africans. Lisbé Smuts-Smith was a well-known
academic and head of the Afrikaans literature department at the
University of Cape Town. Just two weeks ago, another UCT academic,
mathematician Brian Hahn, was attacked by a former student, dr.
Maleafisha Steve Tladi (35). Hahn died in hospital a week later, while
Tladi was released on bail of R500 (about $80).
Two years ago Louw Rabie, a brilliant albeit reclusive geologist and
brother of author Jan Rabie, was beaten to death with a fence pole by
two Coloured men to whom he had lent some money a week earlier. Police
in the small Cape town of Montagu readily caught his murderers because
they happened to have drinking money during the week, taken from his
home. He was 80 years old, but in good health. He is reputed to have
been one of the most brilliant geologists and intellectuals this
country has ever produced, writing copiously throughout his life but
disdaining publication and public esteem. Africans with their oral
tradition are fond of saying that "when an old person dies, a library
burns down". What strikes me about the relentless killings of educated
whites, is that the criminals are indeed "burning down the libraries"
of this country and physically exterminating the intellectual class,
much like Pol Pot did in Cambodia. The media are celebrating youth,
dance, colour, being black and exuberant - as opposed to the quiet
studiousness of middle-aged and elderly whites, the bearers of
knowledge and understanding. Are these learned whites who are being
killed in exuberant, paradisiacal outbreaks of violence simply the
remnants of a civilisation that is being eradicated in the name of
decolonisation? No government spokesman has ever condemned such
killings; so we may assume that the present regime is completely
indifferent to them, where such killings do not enjoy their tacit
support.
Around our local school in the past week there have been two car
hijackings, as well as one murder. It is not really considered to be
an exceptionally violent area. Most of this is not even reported in
the press, because there really is not enough space and ordinary crime
is no longer newsworthy. It needs some further sadistic element to
make the front page, such as babies getting killed or raped, or
elderly farmers being tortured to death. Farming in South Africa is
now arguably the most dangerous profession in the world with more than
1600 farmers murdered since 1994, often in macabre and dehumanising
ways.
To the outside world, white South Africans are congenitally evil. If
our murderers and rapists had been white and their victims black,
Europe or the United States would long ago have sent an expeditionary
force to put a stop to it. At present, news of white suffering in
South Africa inspires the occasional yawn in Western capitals. This is
why a recent article in The Despatch, detailing the rape of a dog by
three black men, gave me some hope that a chord will be struck
somewhere in the coolly indifferent breasts of our fellow-Westerners.
Even if the lives of Louw Rabie, Brian Hahn, Lisbé Smuts-Smith, Kayla
Rawstorne and tens of thousands of others are of no value to them,
perhaps they will take pity on the mongrel bitch in Grahamstown that
was recently raped by three black men. Or perhaps two black men, as
the third one protested his innocence upon being dragged out of the
shack by screaming, "I came here to relieve myself. These two were
raping the dog when I arrived!" Cruelty to humans, especially white
humans, is today a normal feature of our society, just like human
sacrifice used to be in the culture of the Aztecs. Cruelty to animals,
or non-consensual sex with dogs, may still evoke some sympathy, not
only locally, but also internationally. I therefore feel sorry for
Masganda - the name of the dog concerned - who was rescued with a
bleeding vagina and in need of veterinary attention, but perhaps this
lowly creature of uncertain lineage could become a martyr for our
cause in alerting opinion-makers and political leaders of our plight.
Cycling has become a popular sport in South Africa. However, its
practitioners regularly get shot at by gangs of black youths in the
street, so that many of them carry guns and knives for self-defence on
their bicycles. Members of the Johannesburg mountain-bike club were
outraged a while ago when two cyclists, Scott and Lloyd Griffith, were
charged with murder after an armed battle with their four black
assailants, one of whom succumbed to his wounds.
Most of the time, however, whites are helpless victims of crime. The
government has recently passed a new gun law which makes it difficult,
if not impossible, to own a fire-arm. They have also abolished rural
commandos of military reservists entrusted with crime-prevention in
the country, without any police units replacing them. Occasionally the
newspapers carry stories of crime victims successfully defending
themselves against attacks, offering armed resistance. As a result of
the new gun law, this will soon end and we shall simply be able to
hide or flee from our assailants. Defending oneself against a
marauding robber or rapist might be a manifestation of racism, and is
therefore frowned upon as being a kind of "right-wing" response.
Being robbed of one's vehicle or household belongings is now
considered quite normal, and often people ascribe escaping with their
lives to their own astuteness, such as being friendly to the robber,
helping him load the effects into a vehicle, not looking him in the
face so as not to recognise him afterwards, et cetera. A friend of
mine in Kempton Park kept up a reasonable conversation with the
thieves emptying his house, tied up as he was with a gun pointed at
him. He survived, although his elderly mother was badly roughed up and
had to be hospitalised. In other instances, of course, people are not
so lucky and they become just another murder statistic. Then they
simply adapt and die.
*
The first draft of this article was submitted to the British
Spectator, who turned it down about a year ago. I have now updated it
with references to more recent incidents. Probably no mainstream
newspaper in South Africa will publish it, because it refers to the
race and gender of violent criminals, which is taboo here as elsewhere
in the Western world. As George Orwell said, however, "during times of
universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act".
In the interest of drawing attention to the anarchy that exists in
South Africa, the author qualifies his copyright on this article and
invites everyone to post it on his or her website, copy it and mail it
to friends and mailing lists, translate it into other languages and to
distribute it far and wide. The only condition is that no element must
be changed or censored.
A PDF-version of the article which can be printed out, photocopied and
distributed otherwise than on the internet, is available for download
on the home page of www.praag.org.
Is die revolusie op hande?
___________________________________________________________
Dan Roodt
Miskien klink ek dié week onnodig alarmisties, maar gebeure oor die
afgelope paar dae het my onder die indruk gebring dat 'n revolusionêre
klimaat tans besig is om in die land pos te vat.
In die eerste plaas het daar 'n histeriese ideologiese aanval vanaf 'n
groep akademici op Stellenbosch - dieselfde groep wat vir Braam Fischer
se eredoktoraat verantwoordelik was - teen my losgebars. Hulle poog om
my te verhoed om op 12 Maart by die Woordfees op die kampus oor my
boeke te praat omdat ek kwansuis 'n "rassis" sou wees wat in 'n
Engelstalige stuk op die internet "haatspraak" sou verkondig het. Die
naam van die artikel is Adapt and die, en behandel bloot ons
misdaadprobleem, asook die rol wat jong swart mans daarin speel. In die
VSA sou dit geen wenkbrou laat lig het nie.
Sulke histeriese heksejagte op openbare figure soos skrywers of
politici is tipies van onstabiele samelewings soos wat Europa in die
twintiger- en dertigerjare tydens die opkoms van sowel Nazisme as
Bolsjewisme was. Tydens enige revolusie raak ideologiese suiwerheid van
wesentlike belang omdat alle mededingende denkrigtings of sienswyses
teenoor dié van die revolusionêre uitgeskakel moet word.
Ten tweede is daar die huidige betogings van swart studente op kampusse
byna oral in die land. Ek was nog nie self by dié betogings om die
"temperatuur te meet" nie, maar van die slagspreuke wat daar geskree
is, klink uiters radikaal. Op die Mamelodi-kampus van die Pretoriase
Universiteit is daar onder andere gejou: "kill all the whites,
Afrikaans and English", asook "revolution is the only solution".
In die ou dae sou daar seker intelligensiedienste gewees het wat dié
soort dinge monitor. Blykbaar is die gemiddelde kwalifikasie van iemand
by ons intelligensiedienste deesdae 'n persoon met graad tien of
standerd agt in die ou taal. Ons kan dus nie veel vanuit daardie oord
verwag nie.
Die studenteorganisasie wat tans in die nuus is, PASMA (Pan-African
Students Movement of Azania), fassineer my nogal. Blykbaar is dit in
die Kaap gestig en op hul webwerf wat deur die Kaapse Technikon geborg
word, kom mens die volgende interessante leesstof teë:
"PASMA word gelei deur die beginsel van Pan-Afrikanisme, wat die totale
bevryding en vereniging van al die mense in Afrika en in die buiteland
onder wetenskaplike sosialisme beteken. Dié Pan-Afrikanisme word gelei
en is gewortel in, die filosofie van Marxisme-Leninisme (dialektiese
materialisme, wetenskaplike sosialisme en proletariese
internasionalisme) wat die totale bevryding van die hele mensdom deur
die werkersklasrevolusie en die totstandbring en skepping van 'n
klasselose maatskappy beteken."
Ná die stel van sy beginsels, gaan die organisasie voort om sy metodes
te verduidelik, wat die "opleiding" van lojale partylede ("kaders")
behels: "Om net 'n ingeskrewe lid van PASMA te wees, is nie genoeg om
as 'n egte en lojale kader te kwalifiseer nie. Ingeskrewe lede moet
eers opleiding ondergaan sodat hulle as egte en lojale lede van die
party of organisasie kan kwalifiseer. 'n Egte en lojale lid van PASMA
woon die organisasie se vergaderings en byeenkomste by en moet aan elke
opdrag gehoorsaam wees, sonder uitsondering, tensy sodanige
uitsondering aan omstandighede buite sy/haar beheer toegeskryf kan
word. Die organisasie kom eerste. Die opleiding behoort te verseker dat
hierdie houding die kultuur van die organisasie word; lede behoort
PASMA te ken, dit is, sy ideologie, doelwitte, beleid, beginsels en
program en in staat wees om dit met selfvertroue en helderheid te
artikuleer..."
Moontlik gaan dit hier oor studentepret, moontlik nie. PASMA mag
vasbeslote wees om 'n revolusie te begin. Die manier waarop groot
betogings oor die afgelope paar dae landwyd op kampusse uitgeslaan het,
toon dat die PASMA oor organisasie en "egte en lojale kaders" beskik.
Hierdie soort manifestasie van massabewegings interesseer my geweldig,
en ek sal nou verduidedlik waarom. In November 2001 het ek die
sogenaamde "Nasionale Konferensie teen Rassisme" in Sandton bygewoon.
Waarskynlik was daar net twintig blankes in die hele saal, te midde van
750 swartes: een en almal lid van die swart elite wat tans die land
regeer. Telkens as sprekers anti-blanke uitsprake gemaak het, is hulle
met krete van genoegdoening begroet. Tydens die teepouse het ek in
niemand minder nie as Antjie Krog vasgeloop. "Die swart elite maak my
bang," het sy aan my gefluister.
Ná die konferensie was daar sprake dat blankes hulself in die openbaar
moes verneder deur vir apartheid om verskoning te vra by groot
massabyeenkomste. Hierdie plan het my baie onrustig gestem, want oral
waar groot skares opgeruide mense om politieke redes bymekaar kom,
bestaan die potensiaal vir geweld en selfs revolusie, veral in Afrika.
Oral op die kontinent speel jongmense 'n groot rol in die revolusies en
rebellebewegings wat soveel regerings al tot 'n val gebring het. Die
leier van die radikale anti-blanke jeugfaksie wat die blanke Franse
verlede jaar uit die Ivoorkus laat sit het en die krag agter Laurent
Gbagbo se bewind verteenwoordig, is Charles Blé Goudé, die nasionale
studenteleier! Hy sorg vir die skares; hy organiseer die geweld, die
aanvalle en sluipmoorde.
Ons moet ook onthou dat die jeug onder swartes vanweë hul hoë
geboortesyfer ongeveer 40% van die bevolking verteenwoordig, anders as
by blankes waar hulle maar 20% is. Die jeug in Afrika verteenwoordig so
te sê die meerderheid. Daarom is hulle by uitstek die revolusionêre
klas.
Tot dusver was die ANC se revolusie iets wat van bo af gedryf is deur
'n ouerige elite wat eintlik deur F.W. de Klerk "aangestel" is, in dié
sin dat hy en sy amptenare die omstandighede geskep het wat eintlik net
tot een logiese resultaat sou lei: 'n bewindsoorname deur die ANC. Tien
jaar gelede het die gemiddelde swart persoon in Suid-Afrika weinig van
revolusie of "transformasie" verstaan. Maar danksy beheer oor die
massamedia, veral radio en TV wat ook grotendeels aan die ANC in 1994
oorgedra is, is die "opvoedingswerk" sedertdien gedoen. Vandag is die
massa meer as ooit oortuig dat daar groot onreg aan hom gepleeg is en
dat die blankes behoort te boet.
Een van die beste boeke oor massabewegings en skares is dié deur Elias
Canetti met die titel Massen und Macht (Massas en mag). Vir 'n
revolusie om aan die gang te kom, moet daar eers groot skares mense
saamdrom, simbole van die ou orde (soos universiteite, standbeelde,
geboue) moet afgebreek of verkieslik afgebrand word. Canetti bestee 'n
hele hoofstuk aan die rol en aantrekkingskrag van vuur vir die
gepeupel.
Die saad vir revolusie in Suid-Afrika is gesaai, in die vorm van
versugtinge na grootskaalse verandering en transformasie, tesame met
anti-wit gevoelens. Al wat nou kortkom, is die massa-element. Die
huidige gebeure op die kampusse het vir seker die potensiaal, indien
dit wyer uitkring, om die massabeweging aan die gang te kry wat tot
revolusie sal lei. Nie die elite-gedrewe ideologiese revolusie wat ons
tot dusver gesien het nie, maar 'n regte egte revolusie met bestanddele
soos geweld, plundering, vuur en waarskynlik bloed.
Een van my gunsteling politieke denkers is Alexis de Tocqueville. As
Franse aristokraat moes hy die ondergang van sy eie stand tydens die
Franse Revolusie omtrent sestig jaar na die tyd probeer verstaan. Sy
opstel L'ancien régime et la révolution (Die ancien regime en die
revolusie) verteenwoordig steeds die beste ontleding van revolusie wat
daar is. Die groot punt wat Tocqueville oor revolusies maak, is dat
hulle juis plaasvind wanneer die massas se lewensomstandighede
verbeter, veral in tye van ekonomiese voorspoed en groter sosiale
mobiliteit. Voorspoed wek die aptyt vir groter rykdom of bates wat net
deur revolusie bekom kan word
Dink daaraan: die winkels in dié land was nog nooit so vol nie. Daar
was nog nooit soveel opwaartse sosiale mobiliteit vir middelklas- en
veral jong swartes nie. Juis daarom is die potensiaal vir revolusie
tans groter as ooit. Sandton City of Menlynpark se winkelsentrums moet
vir die armes in die plakkerskampe lyk soos Kersvader se slee wat verby
sweef; soveel dinge om net te kan vat sodra die teken daar is.
Ek sou sê dat al wat nodig is vir 'n revolusie soos in die Ivoorkus,
Zimbabwe of watter Afrikaland ook al, om hier plaas te vind, is een
groot, woedende skare van omtrent tien tot twintigduisend mense wat op
loop begin gaan. In Soweto in 1976 het ons 'n polisie- en weermag gehad
wat iets beteken het. Hulle sou so 'n skare kon stuit, met geweld as
dit moet. Ons het dit nie meer nie. Al wat tussen ons en 'n revolusie
staan, is die privaat veiligheidsdienste.
Hoe goed is hulle opgelei? Hoe lojaal is hul werknemers teenoor die
sosiale stand (of ras) wie se besittings hulle moet beskerm?
Moontlik is dit vrae wat binnekort beantwoord gaan word...
Vir wat moet ons toeskouers geld mors. en die span tyd mors om met/teen
Zimbabwe te speel?
Moet hulle nie maar ondervinding opbou om aan ons provinsiale reeks deel te
neem nie?
--
Groetnis
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