Despite denying the link between HIV and AIDS, his opposition-baiting, his poorly disguised hatred for the media and think-tanks, and his serious denting of the prospects for continued moderate leadership in SA by completely alienating and angering a large chunk of the ruling alliance and its supporters, I'm a bit of an Mbeki fan. With Trevor Manuel, his economics has been pretty sound - SA hasn't had it this good since the 1970s.
But he's played the race card quite a bit over the years; it's always pissed me off. He's done it again on the crime issue (and not for the first time on this issue), but this time I feel he's gone too far.
In his
ANC Today weekly letter of last Friday, Mbeki discusses crime under the heading "Freedom from racism - a basic human right". Seem odd?
He begins with all sorts of legitimate evidence of continued white racism in SA. No-one can object; large chunks of whites in this country are a lost cause on the whole Rainbow Nation dream.
In a sub-section entitled "The Challenge of White Fears", he quotes Nelson Mandela as saying "The fear-factor has long been a feature of white politics in our country. For long periods, this section of our population has been subjected to the unimaginable terrors of 'die swart gevaar' and 'die rooi gevaar', the 'black' and 'red' dangers (communism in case you wondering who the red people are!)... The danger of an imaginary one-party state that is now being used to frighten our electorate is nothing but a variation on the same theme. The 'gevaar' is cloaked in different words. It remains the same 'gevaar' nevertheless."
Again, there can be no complaints - this IS an accurate portrayal of much of the narrow-minded white POLITICS in SA. But it pertains to POLITICS, and isn't necessarily generalisable. This is important.
Because later on he invokes the same argument in an attempt to redefine reality - one in which crime in SA is not a serious problem. "The matter we seek to discuss, in the context of the struggle to create a non-racial society, is what Nelson Mandela identified as the phenomenon of the re-emergence of the prophets of doom, who 'spread messages about...rampant and uncontrollable crime', conducting 'a massive propaganda campaign...on the issue of crime, in many instances without any regard and respect for the truth.' The question to ask is - why did this happen then, and why does it continue to happen now?"
He goes further: "With regard to the foregoing, the fact of the matter is that we still have a significant proportion of people among the white minority, but by no means everybody who is white (thanks guy!), that continues to live in fear of the black, and especially African majority. For this section of our population, that does not 'find it too difficult to revert to the accustomed world of fear of the future', every reported incident of crime communicates the frightening and expected message that - the kaffirs are coming!
"The colleague in government to whom I referred, Mr A, posed the rhetorical question - why are the Whites so determined to frighten themselves! The answer of course is that they have taken no such decision. Rather, the problem is that entrenched racism dictates that justification must be found for the persisting white fears of 'die swart gevaar'.
"All incidents of crime, preferably broadcast as loudly as possible, provide such justification, as have other issues, such as those mentioned by Nelson Mandela in 1997, and as the impending victory of the ANC in 2004 was used to incite white fears that our movement was about to establish a one-party state!"
Simplified: because some whites are hardened racists, and many of them are opposition politicians, the crime problem is severely overblown (presumably by a sympathetic, racist media (excluding the SABC of course)).
This may be true of POLITICS, Mr Mbeki, and of PERCEPTIONS on both sides of the racial divide (that you are trying so very hard to entrench).
But it has FUCK ALL to do with daily experiences in South Africa. Any enlightened South African, white racist or not, knows full well that crime in predominantly black townships and informal settlements is far worse than any crime will ever be in white suburbs. Which is exactly the point you should be focusing on as President of this country: crime is non-racial, is a serious problem, and affects everyone (directly or indirectly).
Catch a wake-up Mr President. Conflating crime and opposition politics with this sort of propaganda will only take SA further away from Madiba's dream.
Looking forward, the collateral damage from this neanderthal attitude may include JZ getting the presidency. He's already picking up on Mbeki's ivory tower approach, having recently visited (white) families affected by crime. Pure politics, and it may well work. But I hesitate to suggest this may be scary or undesirable, because that will mean I am a white racist too. Nice one Mr Mbeki!
The Doctor.
