Whites can't be Africans and foreigners can't be true South Africans

Remember that song: “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way, I can’t wait to look in the mirror, because I get better looking each day?” Have another look, maybe if you had your glasses on, put down the crack pipe and wiped away that smugness, you’d be able to see yourself as others see you.

I’ve been banging the “lose the prejudice and stop labeling everything” drum for what now seems to be a lifetime. This isn’t something I was born with, trust me. I had plenty of prejudices growing up, but my late dad and his career fighting for the underdog in court taught me that judging people is something best left to judges on Earth and a higher being later on.

If I was such a great judge would I, for instance, support Derby County? Dear mother of all things holy. Have you any idea how I’ve suffered? … but I digress.

Yet, my fellow South Africans appear to be wonderful judges on everything including who is allowed to live here, who is responsible for our current plight and who falls into the different categories which seem to exist here.

Rowan Philip wrote a very interesting article in yesterday’s Sunday Times, quoting surveys, on why we are the most xenophobic nation in the world. He says: “Worse, the report suggested that there was the ‘possibility that many citizens may never view foreign-born migrants as citizens’. That’s because an astonishing 65% of South Africans ignored concepts of asylum and naturalised citizenship to say it was ‘very important’ to be born in the country in order to be considered ‘a true South African'”.

Why would the place where a person is born have anything to do with the way we view his citizenship? If a Nigerian-born plumber came to South Africa in 1982 and took out citizenship in 2008, having lived here for 26 years, are you suggesting that he cannot consider himself a true South African? Go and have another look in the mirror, keep the glasses on, but put the spliff down.

Do you have any idea of the number of South Africans living in countries around the world? They’re living, working and even taking out citizenship in those countries. Are you suggesting that they be viewed or treated in the same way as some of you treat the guests in our country? Leave the crack pipe next to the spliff, and take another look in the mirror.

No wonder we had “the whites can never be Africans” garbage recently. If we are so inhospitable to the rest of Africa then this theory is a mere hop, skip and jump away. Is it any wonder that people in this country and from the rest of Africa feel alienated? As I said last week, Africans from the rest of Africa believe that not only are we xenophobic, but stand-offish and aggressive towards them. South Africa is perceived by them to have failed to integrate with the rest of Africa, and is almost a continent on its own.

I believe you would be doing all of us, the rest of Africa, and the planet a big favour if, the next time some super-intellectual tells you why certain people qualify to be South African and then African, based upon the sum of the two right angles being equal to the square on the hippopotamus — you tell them to go and screw themselves. Tell them Traps told you to say that.

The age of job seeking in countries around the world has dawned. People don’t live and die in the land of their birth. My good friend Howard Bird is living and working in Kenya, my mate Jigga Molantao, PSL web editor, lived in England for a number of years and Sarah Britten has just moved to Australia. How would you like to hear stories about our former countrymen and women being treated like dogs elsewhere? You’d be outraged, and with good reason.

Instead of snubbing people, why not have a cup of coffee with a Ugandan find out about where he grew up. Maybe a Zimbabwean, and ask him about soccer or perhaps an Australian, and ask him about sheep (keep your conversation agricultural). That is how the world turns.

Instead of sitting there filled with prejudice and hate read up on how South Africa’s liberation struggle impacted on the planet. Remember the major impact that the international community had on South Africa in achieving its liberation.

What is important to remember is that during South Africa’s struggle for freedom from the apartheid regime, the ANC and liberation leaders and thinkers of that time espoused true non-racism, democracy, the upliftment of our people and all that was good and decent. I would hardly suggest exporting the example we are setting at the moment. Yet it need not be so. We can have the rainbow nation, coined by Archbishop Tutu and set on its way by Madiba. What we need to do is listen and learn.

Firstly to William Gumede in the New Statesman, who says: “The irony is that it is the leaders of former heroic liberation movements who have become stumbling blocks to building a political culture on the African continent based on good governance. The former South African president Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki enthusiastically proclaimed in 1994 that the end of official apartheid was the dawn of a new era. Yet many liberation movement leaders — Mugabe is a good example — still blame colonialism for the mismanagement and corruption on their watch.

Obviously, the legacy of slavery and colonialism, and now unequal globalisation, are barriers to development. However, to blame the West for Zimbabwe’s recent problems is not reasonable. Yet the diplomacy of South Africa, from which most African countries take their cue, is based on this assumption. Initially ANC leaders also bought in to this, but thankfully, on Zimbabwe, Mbeki is increasingly isolated. True to his contrarian and stubborn nature, he still argues that because Zimbabwe was given a raw deal by the British, Mugabe’s regime should not be criticised publicly. In terms of land, for example, black Zimbabweans did indeed receive a raw deal, yet that is not the whole story. The Zimbabwean government was idle for at least a decade and when it finally implemented a land reform programme, this consisted of giving fertile land to cronies who subsequently left the land fallow.

The story is similar elsewhere on the continent. As African liberation movements came to power, their supporters were keen to overlook shortcomings. The feeling was that a new, popularly elected democratic government needed to be given an extended chance. Liberation movements were seen as the embodiment of the nation as a whole.

In South Africa, criticism of the ANC by supporters has always been muted. “You cannot criticise yourself,” an ANC veteran once admonished me. There has also been a fear that criticising the government gives ammunition to powerful opponents. When a top ANC leader, Chris Nissen, broke ranks and publicly criticised a party official’s errant behaviour, he was warned: “Do not wash the family’s dirty linen in public.”

As a journalist active in the liberation struggle, I, too gave in to this principle in the heady days after South Africa’s first non-racial democratic elections in 1994: “Let’s not criticise too much; let’s give the new government a fighting chance.” But that was a grave mistake. All governments must be kept on their toes. The problem for most liberation movements is how to establish a democratic culture.”

Refreshingly, we saw at Polokwane that the ANC does not feel bound to allow liberation leaders a free hand to go on ad infinitum. Even though good progress on transformation had been made under Mbeki’s rule, they were of the view that it was by no means fast enough. As a result, Jacob Zuma was told to take over the baton and move the game forward at a faster pace.

As we are seeing with the attacks, the failure to achieve significantly faster transformation is hurting our poorer communities and that is impacting upon our guests. In addition, the SACP’s Blade Nzimande points out in this piece on xenophobia carried in Politicsweb, it is not only the game plan that needs to be tweaked but many of the players who have, through corruption or ineptitude, let the side down.

What was fabulous yesterday was the way in which political leaders went out to speak to their people. Not only the government but the party were determined to convey the message that they will be looking at grievances.

This has also been true of Helen Zille and the DA, Bantu Holomisa, the IFP and many others as well. As for Patricia De Lille, she is always out there.

This was followed by the president addressing the nation and all who live within our boundaries. He spoke firmly of dealing with criminal violence while at the same time confirming the need to address the grievances of the community — but through the right channels. It was Mbeki at his best: calm, reassuring and determined.

This has been the biggest failing of his presidency in my opinion — the refusal to mix in with the grassroots and recognise the realities on the ground. We saw it in terms of Zimbabwe, which cost us billions and heightened xenophobia, Aids, which cost us many early and unnecessary deaths, and the rewarding of ineptitude without accountablity which has lost us time in the fight against poverty.

As may be seen in terms of the New York Times editorial, the president is now perceived locally and abroad as part of the problem rather than the solution to the country’s current ills. That is a great shame because the president has achieved many positives for our country which are now being lost on some foreign field that is forever Zimbabwe.

His greatest achievement for me and our democracy is the fact that he allowed the removal of a liberation leader by the party and critical analysis, on the leadership and party, by the party itself, media, opposition parties and the public. This bodes well for the party, democracy and South Africa. If we can keep the government on its toes, then the need to rule by military force as is the case in Zimbabwe should be averted.

That is one of the reasons I was against bringing in the army. It is too convenient and easily relied upon in place of good governance. It becomes like a drug — every twitch and you’re reaching for your phone for the dealer.

Mbeki’s greatest failure has been his aloofness and his failing to work with his party in the collective way they desired.

I guarantee that many of the people who are angry with him, softened and turned to those who were with them and asked why he doesn’t do this more often. Why not close the gap that many perceive has opened between us and him.

In yesterday’s City Press they headlined with an article, “Mbeki Camp fights back”.

While this is admirable and shows the tenacity of our president, we can only wonder why the determination to gain the party upper hand was not shown in terms of getting out sooner to the grassroots and dealing with their fears and grievances, thereby easing the tension for the foreigners and perhaps doing away with the need to call in the army.

Keep in touch Mr President.

Yet even with all of the above, I can’t help sitting here and thinking that out of all this chaos (like the theory) will come an order superior to that which we have experienced until now. Pressure from the bottom-up, to do the right things, will achieve, in my opinion, good governance, more workable economic policies and a kinder way in which people interact with each other. Even if it is done begrudgingly at first, it may well see us emerge far stronger and united.

Viva South Africa — now with a welcome for extra strangers — Viva

And that’s not all. This week only, if you buy into our better behaviour plan you get a World Cup absolutely free!

I’ll get me coat.