March 2007

During these past few months I have often been reminded of the centipede. Proverbially this small creature is reported to have 100 legs, and one day while considering the miracle of life our little centipede questioned how he was able to walk, so many legs… and how ever was he able to manage this task so miraculously, so not to entangle these amazing legs in each other. To his horror he found he could no longer walk, his brain having been ensnared in consciously trying to compute which leg to move with the others.

In a sense this has happened to me with respect to writing my blog. There are so many stories and activities in South Africa, so many issues vital to our lives in this magnificent country that I’ve been unable to decide what to write about for a considerable time.

So here goes, my continuing thoughts as a Canadian in South Africa.

Tonight I think that my life in South Africa is like living ‘Alice In Wonderland’. The ‘happenings’ that dominate our press and awareness are so intense. They beggar belief and they beggar the question, ‘what must we learn? What must the world learn?’

Sudan and Zimbabwe are close to our thoughts these days, such craziness, prolonged suffering and unnecessary but predictable nonsense in Africa. Although the UN passed Resolution 1706, which is titled, ‘The Need To Protect’, referring to the cultures and peoples who are being oppressed and destroyed by their own governments, in other words, to act as an international body to reign in offending governments; nevertheless there is no political will to dynamically do so. South Africa, now sitting as a temporary member on the Security Council has voted not only against addressing Human Rights in Burma, but also in Zimbabwe. South Africa forgets all too easily that apartheid would not have ended had it not been for international pressure and sanction. We are free, but we have no interest in helping others win their freedom; this is the policy of our ANC government in foreign affairs.
Our educated public hates this attitude and is deeply ashamed.

In South Africa I can manage to participate, to work for improvement. In Sudan and Zimbabwe, where I do not have the courage to go, we can only pray that the African and world community will one day have a majority who insists and enforces human rights… no exceptions!

I’ve written about crime before, how South Africa reminds me of the American Wild West; I find I must comment once again. This is where I live. This is what I know. South Africa is a developing country, a new and dynamic democracy with western standards for a small portion of the population and African standards for the remainder, about 80% of the population. The gap between the rich and the poor daily widens and the seeming lack of interest or impotence by the general public and the inability or incompetence of the ‘civil servants’ (a term they don’t use) produces not only a seeming standstill for the advancement of the poor, but an actual worsening of living standards in many, if not most cases. This can be shown in the rapidly increasing cost of living far exceeding benefits to the poor majority.

In my opinion the Afrikaans community whose members are by and large rather nice folks, Calvinist church goers, fanatical sports fans, often brilliant, handsome, beautiful and highly skilled; apparently they turned away from their Christian tradition of giving help and support to the non-whites, the labourers who built their physical society brick by brick, “daq vir daq”, day by day, and it appears that with the transformation of government in 1994, the Afrikaners have taken the attitude: “You, the ANC have taken control; therefore these people are your responsibility, not ours”. The significant rise of middle class and wealthy blacks has not resulted in enhancing their compassion, but rather their greed, and thus the rampant corruption and political office for power and money. The new Black elite and professional show little interest in advancing the station of the poor. It is all words, political rhetoric. Over and over you will see that the NPO/NGO(s) have foreign whites fighting for community improvement. This is evident all over Africa. Those who could help are enthusiastically striving for their own wealth, and little else. Christianity, the principal religion has denigrated into a prosperity religion. Get Rich is the cry.

One might describe it as a black gold rush, and may the strongest win, the weak are dispensable. There is little evidence of the awareness that both economically and as a society, for every one individual uplifted, the whole is uplifted.

A sad and vital component of this collective decision to leave the care of the poor to government, which has heavily impacted our present, is that there was no proper education or preparation for the previously disadvantaged black or non-white citizens of South Africa to take responsibility in governing. The result has been rampant incompetence, lack of vision, vital lack of effective education and knowledge, or development of skills on how to run a complex and wealthy country and its many departments. There are some exceptions of course, our internationally acclaimed finance minister, Trevor Manuel being one of them. Had he not been at the helm these years, it is likely a full country wide collapse would already have happened, certainly economically. We are also blessed with an outstanding Bank Governor, Tito Mobweni, who interestingly is an honorary member of Pinelands Rotary Club, Capetown.

Ironically, considering the ANC came in with a social agenda, one sees that since the ‘1994 Transition’, more non-whites have been evicted and forcefully displaced then was the case prior to 1994 under the apartheid government, over one million to date. And the result is that we see poverty every day, so intense I have to fight my natural reaction of fury and rather decide what needs to be done, and more importantly what can I do?

How does one resolve within oneself when visiting and enjoying the many incredible farms, estates and wine kelders in the Western Cape, almost all situated on exquisitely beautiful land, accompanied by multi million dollar dream homes, numerous guest cottages and out-buildings, pools, new 4 x 4’s and flashy cars, while hidden away out of site of the main homes are the cottages of their workers, unpainted, windows broken, children uncared for and filthy. There are exceptions of course, but they seem rare indeed to this Canadian farm boy. Most of the farmers are dedicated church goers, all very strange to me.

The farm worker/residents are in one sense, the lucky ones; they have farm land to live on, food from the garden, even a pittance wage for labour under the hot sun tending the fields. Those who are evicted arrive in the towns and villages with only what they can carry, and often with no identification (which prevents them from any government help). Generally they settle near the dumps or in a squatter camp with plastic and tin shacks in abhorrent surroundings, or perhaps if they are lucky, a five by four meter matchbox house which leaks. As is often the case these people are illiterate and cannot even sign their name. Three of my five man crew sign with an ‘x’. On the farms and in the towns, worker families often started their children as labourers by age 8 or 10, ending any education, poor as it was and still is, and thereby limiting any possibility of advancement.

Old timers from the townships tell me that under apartheid everyone was eating, few were drunk on the street, if a girl fell pregnant she married, and crime was rare. It was safe to walk in the streets and no one worried that their child or baby would be raped, that they would be assaulted or robbed either in the streets or invaded in their home, that a stray bullet would strike down an innocent. Nowadays the drunkenness and crime stymies belief. No one seems to have an answer or for that matter the ability or will to act.

More than a few people within the white and coloured communities harken back to the days of apartheid when order and consistency were the norm along with peace and security. In the small township of 1st Extension Ashbury, home of my domestic, accommodating about 500 souls, there were two separate murders in the last week, both of them ghastly and the brutal rape of a 17 year old girl I know. And these are just the incidents I know about, whereas the majority of the white community has no awareness of these incidents. There is no reporting on any of it. Our local papers do not report crime unless it’s a known white who was attacked. That’s their policy.

Few rapes are reported to police any more, so low is the conviction rate, especially since our former deputy president Zuma was acquitted of rape a year ago in a case where few but his emotional supporters believed him innocent. The defense lawyers do their best to sully the victim and even their communities treat them as soiled and slutty. Almost anything including the victim’s environment, as in coming from poverty or having previous sexual relationships, is used to attack the victim in court and media, while praising the abilities and whatnots of the perpetrator.

And then there are the children. In Mandela Square, an informal shack settlement, I photographed dozens of babies and young children last week, many crying ceaselessly while left unattended in squalid and dangerous conditions. Most of the parents are away at work for long hours in these summer months of the year, picking and packing produce, much of which is destined world wide.

I take photographs almost daily, but on this particular day I took them to utilize as a defense argument. I am presently facing both a municipal stop order and a court order to cease building a quality shack crèche in the Mandela settlement which is now locked up and ready, but unable to offer services while our legal situation is clarified. Old regime municipal officials have been chasing us virtually twice a day for now over three weeks, lots of drama. We’ve given this municipality two weeks to sort out their incompetence and intransigence, following which we will open regardless, and bring in the press. Who in their right mind would prevent a facility in a shack settlement to care for infants who are usually only partially supervised by other young children, who themselves should be in school.

I’m proud I’ve been charged in this matter. The Court date is the 30th of April. Of note, the local municipality promotes shabeens (shack drinking establishments in residential communities) while opposing our crèche. Shabeens are the hot spots for murder, rape and public drunkenness, and everyone knows it. Heaven forbid they be closed. That would mean, as so many fear, ‘they’ would come into town to drink.

My observation on this and many other stalled community problems is that no one in authority seems to think creatively about what can be done. Shabeens are a perfect example. Put proper clubs close by, but not immediately adjacent to the communities. Few of these people drive so they would need to walk. Police would have a much easier time policing drinking establishments and spotting walking drunks on their way home where the domestic violence happens. The townships wouldn’t be one big drunk on weekends. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Won’t happen!

In reflection I recall from my years working with Canadian Indian that those reserves which are successful, are largely ‘Dry’, and their councils largely headed and controlled by women.

Representatives of The Dept of Social Services visited us this week to consult on crèche costs of operation and maintenance and were shocked to learn that in the three distinct disadvantaged communities of Montagu, there is not one official crèche. Montagu is an exceptionally wealthy and advantaged community. In South Africa, children who are not crèched or pre-schooled are rejected by the primary schools as being unsociable, unsuitable and unmanageable. Thus, too many are not schooled at all. There are no truant officers, no enforcement. I observe these children daily and know in my heart that if they do not become acclimatized to schooling and become educated, their future is prison… and our future is increased crime.

This South African crime crisis which grows daily, at least as we are seeing the reports in the national papers and are aware of what is happening in our own communities, is so vast as to stun and destabilize one’s mind. Not a day goes by it seems that some tourist, notable journalist, scientist, politician, musician, NGO activist, creative artist, business leader or celebrity is murdered, and accompanying these reports are the heart destroying stories of raped grandmothers, wives, babies and children, and often as not the victim is also murdered. And these are not rare occurrences; they are happening repeatedly every day, virtually everywhere in South Africa.

Last week a 100 year old white man was stabbed to death in his home for his shoes.
Imagine living to that age and such a thing happens. If he had been a woman, she’d have been raped first or afterwards. Every one of these crimes sends ripples of negative pain and sorrow through the families, friends and communities, a growing tsunami of fear and hopelessness.

In our criminals’ minds, it’s not simply enough to rob a house, hijack a car or mug a person. Rape, torture, mutilation and or murder far too often accompany the act. The crime of course is not just perpetuated by the poor or syndicated criminal; it is also the preserve of our government leaders who with few exceptions are tainted with serious corruption. In addition we have three enormous financial scandals unfolding, including the death of a flamboyant and corrupt businessman, Kebble, who was murdered eight months ago and thus revealed the tip of a truly enormous iceberg permeating business, politics and government to the highest levels.

Our third ongoing national financial scandal relates to one of the country’s leading trusts, Fidentia, headed by one Arthur Brown, a white business crook. It involves the sluicing off of hundreds of millions of unrecoverable rand for his benefit, leaving 47,000 widows and orphans, who as a result of fatal industrial accidents depend on the monthly payments for family survival. Does it get much worse, stealing from the weakest and the poorest, widows and orphans of mining and industry workers?

Add to this corruption our National Police Chief, Selebi, who is also head of Interpol and confirmed pal to leading criminal figures here and abroad. The result is that most South Africans of all colours are not only living with heightened terror and fear for the safety of their loved ones, they are starting to once again lose hope that South Africa will actually become a truly free and democratic first world country. It appears as though we are overwhelmed. It is all rather scary.

But please don’t misread me with respect to the white population of South Africa. I can see that they absolutely love this country, still hopeful for its future, and they deeply desire that democracy will succeed. Were they to collectively give up, I think South Africa would be lost. If only lessons can be learned in time by all.

For now we live with HIV-Aids, super TB and FAS, rampant government and business corruption, the daily scourge of violent crime and the prevailing government policy of ‘denial’. All we can do is hold up a brave face and ‘keep on truckin’, or leave, as many do who can, and sadly with all their skills.

To you, my family and friends reading this blog, I say:
“For now, stay away from South Africa.”

Me, I’m having another glass of wine by the braai.

Till next time,

solinus