If one will always have to feel white first, and African second, it would be better not to stay on in Africa. It would not be worth it for this. – Nadine Gordimer
Dear Kallie,
Like you, I am a white Afrikaner who lives in Africa. I was glad to read in last week’s City Press that you identify yourself as “an African with a light complexion”.
I do too. I suspect, however, that we have vastly different interpretations of what it means to be an African Afrikaner in South Africa and on the position of Afrikaners in 2011.
You see yourself firstly as part of a minority group whose constitutional and human rights are being disregarded by the ANC. The premise of AfriForum’s campaigns is one of victimhood.
You regard the Afrikaners as a group under threat, a people whose basic rights to expression, association and movement are constantly being undermined by the black majority.
You want to struggle – in the courts, on the streets and in the legislature.This is a dangerous game, Kallie. You are not stupid, I know that.
So why are you refusing to present to your supporters a fairer, more balanced picture of your people’s position in South Africa today?
Is something more sinister at play? Is scaring people a more profitable tactic for AfriForum?
You know as well as I do that the Afrikaner’s cultural, religious and linguistic identity is not under threat. When I visit the Potchefstroom or Oudtshoorn arts festivals, I don’t see people who are suppressed.
In fact, they look happier to me than they were in 1994.
Have you heard of Afrikaner author Deon Meyer’s phenomenal success? We write what we like, Kallie.
You referred to the right-wing publication Die Afrikaner in your interview with us. Would an oppressive regime, hellbent on suppressing its minorities, allow such a publication to appear?
I think not.
You (and Judge Colin Lamont) use the very narrow definition of numeracy to define minorities. Yes, numberwise the Afrikaner is a minority group.
But even the United Nations, whose Minorities Declaration of 1992 is repeated almost verbatim on AfriForum’s website, recognises numbers can never be the only determining factor when defining minorities.
The UN published a report titled “Minorities under international law” in which it specifically (and ironically) quoted the South African example: “In most instances, a minority group will be a numerical minority, but in others, a numerical majority may also find itself in a minority-like or non-dominant position, such as blacks under the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
Who knows why the ANC’s legal team didn’t make this point in the case you brought against them. I’m sure AfriForum would agree that poor black South Africans are in an even less dominant position than middle-class Afrikaners from Pretoria.Which brings me to crime.
Why does AfriForum focus largely on crime against whites when you know black, poor people are by far the most vulnerable members of society when it comes to violent crime?
I see your old foe, the Transvaal Agricultural Union, admitted last week that farm murders were down by almost 100% in the last financial year.
I didn’t see a press statement from them or AfriForum on this.Isn’t there also a responsibility on a civil rights group to inform its members when things improve?
Isn’t there a risk we’ll have more Johan Nels – the young killer from Swartruggens who believed blacks were actively targeting whites in some form of genocide, and murdered four black people out of blind rage – if organisations like yours don’t inform and educate your supporters about what’s really going on?
Or is there some reason you don’t?
If they are a minority, then Afrikaners must be one of the most powerful, wealthy and diverse minorities on the planet.
Remember apartheid? The system that benefited your and my forbears to such an extent that we are still better off today than our black peers?
Have you had a look at the Sunday Times’ most recent Rich List published two weeks ago?
If you did, you would have seen that four Afrikaners – Christo Wiese (Shoprite), Laurie Dippenaar (FirstRand), Johann Rupert (Rembrandt) and GT Ferreira (RMB) – are included in the country’s top 10 richest people.And did you see who the top two earners were for 2010?
Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson (who earned R627 million) and BHP Billiton boss Marius Kloppers (R77 million) – two Afrikaners.
Did you discuss this with the members of AfriForum?
Surely it is not possible for people from a minority group who are suppressed to do business in their country of birth?
And have you asked Wiese, Dippenaar, Rupert and Ferreira whether they regard themselves as minorities? Have they addressed AfriForum’s membership on becoming a billionaire minority?
It doesn’t seem so when I look at your website.
I only see campaigns against Julius Malema, taxi drivers and Judge Nkola Motata (to your credit, you did commission a legal opinion on the Protection of Information Bill).
Did you see Stats SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for 2011?
Did AfriForum tell its supporters that the year-on-year unemployment rate of white people was the only population group to have decreased?
Did you explain to them that 30% of adult blacks (four million people) are jobless, compared with 5% (105 000 people) of whites?
If not, why not?
I suppose you have to emphasise the “threats” to get your supporters to donate to your “Stop Malema” campaign.
This is speculation, but I’m guessing that AfriForum has close to zero legitimacy today for black South Africans (and thousands of whites).
I am not saying you shouldn’t have taken the Dubula ibhunu case to court, but I’m questioning why you decided to pick that case and insisted on a judgment, even when Lamont was trying his best to push for a settlement.
Even your own “Civil Rights Manifest” argues in favour of settlements.I am deeply concerned about the effect AfriForum’s actions are having on our society and this is why I’m writing this letter to you.
Your actions are having a polarising effect and you need to do serious introspection if you want to be respected as a civil rights group.
Otherwise, you risk being a racist lobby group. Is there any reason AfriForum has no black employees (according to your website) and, I assume, no black members?
Have you considered joining forces with other rights groups like Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers’ movement?
Or even the Landless People’s Movement?
Or do you really only want to represent the rights of (a small group of) Afrikaners, even though your “Civil Rights Manifest” commits you to benefiting “all the citizens of South Africa”?
Do you always have to feel white first, and African second?
Best wishes,
Adriaan Basson
(Rooster : Feeking brilliant.)
17 comments:
Yes, but those well paid white CEO's got there through hard work as well as connections.
Controversial Amsa BEE deal canned
LOL!!
ArcelorMittal SA's much criticised R9.1bn empowerment deal with a son of President Jacob Zuma and the politically-connected Guptas has fallen apart.
Johannesburg - The controversial R9.1bn empowerment deal between ArcelorMittal SA [JSE:ACL] and a firm that includes a son of President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family has fallen through.
"Shareholders are advised that the parties involved in the BEE (black economic empowerment) transaction have not agreed on an extension for the satisfaction of the conditions precedent and that the subscription and shareholders' agreement has therefore lapsed," Amsa said on Monday.
The BEE transaction was unveiled in August last year and aimed to transfer 26% of Amsa's shares to black investors and staff.
Structured so that all the assets of Amsa would have been transferred into a new company, the deal would have seen 21% of the company held by a special purpose vehicle controlled by the Ayigobi Consortium led by Sandile Zungu and 5% held by an employee share ownership scheme that will benefit about 8 500 Amsa staff members.
Shareholding of the Ayigobi Consortium is in turn held 75% by strategic partners including several of Imperial Crown Trading's (ICT) shareholders as well as Mabengela Investments, which is led by President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane Zuma.
The deal was highly criticised for targeting those who were politically connected.
At the time Amsa said it planned to acquire ICT for R800m in cash.
ICT's only asset is a 21.4% prospecting right in Kumba Iron Ore's [JSE:KIO] Sishen mine and the awarding of that right is currently being questioned in court. Amsa did not clarify whether this deal had also been scrapped.
However: the current misery we are suffering in our stock markets is 90% the fault of European and American stupidity.
I think what's great about his article is the simplicity in which he states the obvious truth : Afrikaners are not opressed in the slightest yet they histrionically insist they are. It's a kind of clutching at straws way to find SOMETHING/ANYTHING to bitch about having a black government because none of their predictions came true and the country is thriving. So they with the least amount of sincerity cry wolf and play the victim card. Lame. Grow up as people won't you ?
I'm not in any way offering financial advice here because even if I post as Dachshund, I am still a financial adviser so you can decide for yourself what you prefer to believe and better still, go to a financial adviser who is not going to hit you for huge commissions but will give you honest and professional advice.
But ... but ... but ... the video in this link is worth watching.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/poll/2011/sep/27/shocked-stock-market-trader-alessio-rastani
Islandshark and Ron, two old losers screaming for Rooster because he's ignoring I Luv SA. And then there's Tia Mysoa preaching the gospel according to St. Dick. Tossers, the lot of them.
What Rooster said about losing money when you rush into the dollar is quite correct.
The US doesn't have a real interest rate anymore - their current inflation rate stands at 3.8% while the return on 30 year Treasury Bills is 3.03%. For 10 year Treasury Bills the rate of return is just 1.99% and the 20 year rate is 2.76%. So buyers of US Treasury Bills are lending to the US government at significant cost and risk to themselves.
Expect the dollar to tank. There really is no refuge anymore - except into currencies like the rand where you can get better interest rates.
Don't listen to guys with crap hats and crap beards and crap attitudes who have the hots for sakkie-sakkie and oranges on the aerials of their beaten up Fords. Come read the truth here at Shut up Whitey.
so who is banning comments now? Kwaaaaaaaaa
Oh was that you make false claims about my blog hits and comments ? Why would you expect me to post lies about myself ?
GOTCHA!
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Er....huh ? Been at the sauce ?
Frans Cronje of the Institute of Race Relations responds to Adriaan Basson's open letter to Afriforum. Cronje makes the point that our society is not sustainable because only half of young black men can find work. This can well lead to an uprising by the jobless against the middle classes of all races. By the way, we all realise by now that Cosatu hampers the prospects of young blacks being able to get into the job market at all. We need to get to grips with overregulation of the labour market.
----------------
Frans Cronje notes that while whites do well today, this says nothing of what tomorrow will bring
Letter from Frans Cronje, deputy CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations, to Adriaan Basson, deputy editor of City Press:
Dear Mr Basson,
The criticism that Afriforum now has to fend off is a reflection of the significant impact that it has made on South Africa. That the organization is now under a great deal of national scrutiny is a good thing and an excellent test of its leadership.
However your central assertion (see here) that Afrikaners are not under threat needs some unpacking. Indeed whites in general have thrived since 1994. This is not just a perception but a fact that my Institute can prove with all manner of incomes, employment, and education data. However to say that they are doing well today is to say nothing of what tomorrow may bring.
Our society is not necessarily sustainable over the long term. Inequalities and poverty levels are too high. Only half of young black men work. What this means for the middle classes in South Africa, including Afrikaners, is that the world they are accustomed to may change. One of the drivers of this change will be radical politics that identifies the middle classes, their assets, and their values as targets. This is again not a perception.
The Green Paper on land reform threatens the principle of property ownership that it essential to driving growth and investment. There are powerful political actors who talk of nationalising assets including mines and banks. Some of these same actors sing of killing Afrikaners in a pretty intimidating manner.
Lest we forget that over 1 000 farmers have been murdered although we can only speculate as to why. Even freedom of speech and information that is such an essential component of a free and open society is under threat. These are reasons to be concerned about the future. I suppose that the charge will be put to me that in highlighting these risks I am only trying to protect white privilege.
Tedious as it is I must answer this charge by saying that if the risks I have pointed out come to pass then we will all be very much worse off. The wealthy and the middle classes will lose their assets. More than this however the poor and the emerging middle classes will be denied the opportunity of ever assuming the lifestyles to which many white South Africans are accustomed.
With that our hard won freedoms will be lost. It is therefore not just the Afrikaners who are under threat. That Afriforum chooses to take action with a strong focus on Afrikaners is a point that it must defend. It is also probably much of the reason why Afriforum gets so much critical press.
I expect that many people assumed after 1994 that provisions such as the Equality Act and Equality Courts were conceived with the idea that black victims of rights abuses would seek relief in them. That it is Afriforum that is using these provisions to such great effect might be regarded as an impertinence!
However in doing so Afriforum has devised a powerful formula to use Constitutional provisions to challenge powerful people and the decisions they make. This is a model that we should want to see more of as it is the type of intervention that will help to guarantee that we remain a free and open society under the rule of law.
Frans Cronje
Deputy CEO
South African Institute of Race Relations
Rhoda Kadalie says all too often it's whites who try to negate other whites' constitutional rights. She's got that bang on.
_________________________
Kallie Kriel's off the shoulder response to Adriaan Basson's mealy-mouthed attack on Afriforum is the kind of debate we should be having in our public forums. The politically correct media have condemned Afriforum for daring to take Julius Malema to court for that horrible "Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer" slogan.
Whether chanted in the struggle or not, this song is disgusting. Whether or not Judge Lamont ruled against it, it will remain hate speech. Yet holier than thou Basson insists that Afriforum's lawsuit was inspired by rightwing impulses that further polarise South Africa. What if I argue to the contrary? What if I argue that AfriForum did this precisely to stop racism and polarisation?
It is of course easier for limp-wristed Basson to take on Kriel rather than Julius Malema - the megalomaniac of racism and sexism. Malema's raison d'etre is to divide people. He has done that par excellence even within his own party to the extent that President Jacob Zuma no longer trusts his own cabinet and party.
Pointing out other charges of hate speech brought to the Equality Court by the Sonke Gender Justice Network and the gay lobby against John Qwelane's anti-homosexual diatribes, Kriel asks why Basson does not condemn these organisations equally for defending minority rights? It is not AfriForum that has polarised civil society; it is your double standards, stupid!
Exposés of shoddy reasoning are what our country needs. Public dialogue in the media, as in our universities, is littered with half truths. Journalists write superficially about complex issues and they often lack the courage to take on politically incorrect stances. They will go out of their way to attack white people who take up a cause to defend their rights but will retreat when black people violate the rights of others.
The "woundedness of black people" has become sacrosanct - the untouchable political G-spot! And, if you want any kudos as a white person, then attack your own. This is what the Home for All Campaign and the Wealth Tax debate were all about? The good whites versus the bad whites; the coconuts versus the nuts! In essence, white people are too easily considered not worthy of constitutional rights and the ones who often negate their rights are other whites - the gate-keepers who appropriate the right to judge.
South Africa's universities, equally, are populated with like-minded commissars. It is therefore no wonder that the Humanities are on the decline as reported in the latest Mail & Guardian. Prof Lawrence Hamilton lists a range of reasons for this decline: declining student enrolment; falling graduation rates; decreasing government funding; human resource stagnation; declining and lack of high quality research outputs; and more support for the science and technology disciplines to the detriment of the humanities.
Prof Lawrence fails, however, to mention the more serious reasons for the decline of the Humanities. The culture of political correctness and self-censorship prevalent in faculties of humanities has killed scientific inquiry. Prior to 1994, debate, critique, and engagement between the academic and political enterprises were vibrant, explosive and exciting.
Today academics eschew controversy except if they are sure of populist support. They hesitate to ask the big questions. Few academics read or write even though books and computers are their means and modes of production. Intellectualism is frowned upon; the word ivory tower is used to disparage the life of the mind; voting in faculties and senates are often driven by political rather than academic motives. Our Chief Justice justifies his poor publication record to a lack of passion for writing! If you're black, your refusal to use reasoning is the fault of apartheid.
Time then to get with the times then. This was posted today on businessday.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=156633
Every generation assures the next that they had it better off. The trouble is short of environmental disater that is that's almost never true.
I support Afriforum even though I am not an Afrikaner. I thank God for the vision and guts and perseverance that Afriforum showed in COUNTERING hatred and polarization started by the ANC and their bulldog Malema.
Thank you Kallie and company.
You are not the one being affected by the hatred being reinvigorated by the ANC. If you are too stupid to gather that it is fracturing the nation and the sense of what is right and wrong, to allow people to call people to murder then your blog is just another load of waffle.
You are a classic draadsitter
Post a Comment