ANC Today

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Volume 7, No.18, 11-17 May 2007

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THIS WEEK:

* Letter from the President: Patriots, revolutionaries and servants of the
people * Government Programme of Action: Practical steps to intensify the
struggle against poverty * White identity in a changing SA / Part V: Under the
African Skies

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Patriots, revolutionaries and servants of the people

Last year we commemorated a number of important anniversaries. These included
the centenaries of the Bambata Rebellion and the launch of Satyagraha, the 60th
anniversary of the Mineworkers' Strike, the 50th anniversary of the Women's
March and the 30th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.

These anniversaries provided us with an opportunity to remind ourselves of the
great heroism it had taken to bring us the freedom that we enjoy today. They
served to encourage all genuine patriots to strive to emulate the spirit of
selflessness and dedication to serve the people that had inspired the millions
who engaged in the historic struggles we celebrated.

Commenting on these anniversaries, the 2006 January 8th Statement of the
National Executive Committee of the ANC said: "The history encapsulated in these
anniversaries communicates the clear message that during its 94th year of
fighting existence, the ANC has a continuing responsibility to mobilise all
classes and strata of our people into united struggle for progressive change. It
must continue to organise and inspire each and every one of these classes and
strata to ensure their involvement in this struggle.

"It must continuously educate these masses, classes and strata to understand and
unite around the programme, strategy and tactics of the national democratic
movement, for the victory of the national democratic revolution.

"It must ensure that its cadres, organised structures and leaders earn and enjoy
the confidence of the people because of the way they conduct themselves as
patriots, revolutionaries and servants of the people. In this way it must
continue to earn its place as the vanguard movement at the head of our country's
process of fundamental social transformation."

Through a most unfortunate oversight, last year we omitted to profile and
highlight the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Treason Trial. This would have given
us an added opportunity to draw on the example of struggle that had been set by
the 156 patriots and leaders who were arrested by the apartheid regime on 5
December 1956 and charged with treason.

As we improved our acquaintance with these individual activists for the
liberation of our people, we would have learnt much about the nature of our
movement and what it means to be a genuine cadre of the Congress Movement.

We would have understood better that to call ourselves true successors to the
liberation fighters who were confronted with the serious charge of treason
requires, even in the aftermath of the victory of the democratic revolution, we
would have to walk in the path of patriots who knew what it means to serve the
people, with no expectation of personal gain.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Treason Trial, an outstanding heroine of our
people and esteemed Member of the Order of Luthuli, Phyllis Naidoo, gave all of
us an invaluable gift for which we must express our profound thanks, and which
must surely serve to bring all of us close to the patriots to whom I have
referred - the 1956 Treason Trial accused.

Last year Phyllis Naidoo published the moving book and labour of love -"156
Hands That Built South Africa: The 1956 Treason Trial". Very appropriately, the
front and back covers of the book are taken up with the famous photograph of the
156 treason trialists taken by the outstanding photographer and member of our
movement, the late Eli Weinberg.

Merely to study the faces on the photograph is to undertake a journey into our
history, reminding us of the obligations on us as current members of the
democratic movement as we walk in the footsteps of the patriots who were
photographed by Eli Weinberg.

On the photograph you will find Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Moses Kotane, Helen
Joseph, Rusty Bernstein, Lilian Ngoyi, Advocate Duma Nokwe, Walter Sisulu, Sonia
Bunting, Canon James Calata, Prof ZK Matthews, Vuyisile Mini, Peter Nthite,
Patrick Molaoa, Dr Monty Naicker, Fish Keitsing, Mark Shope, Frances Baard,
Dorothy Nyembe, Ida Mntwana, Kay Moonsamy, Gert Sibande, Oliver Tambo, Reg
September, Annie Silinga, Debi Singh, Stella Damons, Alex La Guma, Bertha Gxowa,
Joe Matthews, Ayesha Dawood, Billy Nair, Joe Slovo, Rev Douglas Thomson, Ben
Turok, Joe Modise, Yetta Barenblatt, Chota Motala, MP Naicker, Ruth First, Ahmed
Kathrada, Mosie Moolla, Jacqueline Arenstein, Dorothy Shanley, Nelson Mandela,
and many others.

Each one of these and all the others on the photograph represent inspiring
stories of involvement in the struggle for the liberation of our people, which
also convey the clear message of the need to be ready to make the necessary
sacrifices to qualify to be described as a servant of the people.

Phyllis Naidoo tells some of these stories in "156 Hands...", with the
individual photographs of each of the treason trialists accompanying the short
accounts of their lives and their involvement in the struggle. Below follow some
of these inspiring stories.

But before we reproduce some of these stories, we must reflect what Eli Weinberg
said about his famous photograph, which in itself, communicates a message about
the constant need to be daring and creative to meet the objective of the all-
round emancipation of our people.

Phyllis Naidoo reports that Eli Weinberg said: "The story of this photograph
illustrates an aspect of racism in South Africa. I had spoken to the
Superintendent of Joubert Park (in the vicinity of the court) and had asked for
permission to use an amphitheatrically seating arrangement in the park for the
purpose of a group photograph of 156 people. He readily agreed."

However, half-an-hour before the photography session, the Superintendent
discovered who would be in the photograph. "He threw up his hands in horror,
'You are not going to bring all these kaffirs into Joubert Park', and promptly
withdrew permission.

"Within the half hour left to the lunch break of the Court, I hastily improvised
some benches and photographed the accused seated in groups of 30 or 40 in the
same alphabetical and provincial order as in the Court and then prepared a
montage of the resulting four groups."

This story of the 'kaffirs' who were not allowed to set foot on Joubert Park
graphically highlights the national tragedy that ultimately led to a long delay
in the democratisation of our country, thousands killed in our country and
region, and the further entrenchment of poverty and underdevelopment.

One of these 'kaffirs' was Mary Goitsemang Ranta who started working as a 'tea
girl' in Pretoria, getting a job later as a typist for the African Iron and
Steel Workers Union. Later she worked in the garment industry emerging as a shop
steward in the Garment Workers Union.

Having joined the ANC, by 1955 she held the position of National Secretary of
the ANC Women's League and was a member of the National Executive Committee of
the Federation of South African Women. She was one of the organisers and
participants in the 1956 Women's March.

When she was arrested for High Treason, she was held with the other women
detainees in the women's section of the Johannesburg Fort. Ultimately the
charges against her were withdrawn on 10 January 1958. Of her, Gertrude Shope
later wrote: "Unfortunately she did not live to see the fruits of her dedicated
labour, but her memory will remind us of her noble deeds."

Another 'kaffir' who could not set foot on Joubert Park was Patrick Moseli
Molaoa. Born in Alexandra Township he did everything to educate himself,
attending school in Johannesburg, Kimberley and the then Basutholand. Very
committed to youth development, he became a boxer and opened a gymnasium for the
youth of Alexandra.

Having joined the ANC Youth League, he was one of the organisers for the 1952
Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. In 1959, while he was on
trial for treason, Patrick was elected President of the ANC Youth League.

Writing of him Helen Joseph said: "Molaoa was called as a defence witness during
the trial...He gave important testimony on the feelings of the people and the
conduct of ANC meetings at the time of the removal of the Western Areas Removal.
With other victims, he was eventually compelled to move with his wife and family
to one of the municipal townships ten miles from Johannesburg. Following his
acquittal, Patrick obtained a position in the sales department of a large
mineral water factory." While still on trial for treason, he was detained during
the 1960 State of Emergency. By this time his family depended for its livelihood
on funds raised by the Defence and Aid Fund, but this did not force him to
abandon the struggle. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), went out of the country
for training and was one of the heroes who fell in battle in Hwange, Zimbabwe in
1968.

In 2003 he was admitted into the ranks of the Order of Luthuli, "for exceptional
leadership in the struggle of the youth against apartheid and for laying down
his life to attain freedom and democracy for all in South Africa."

One who could be allowed into Joubert Park was the Afrikaner, Jan Hendrik
Hofmeyer Hoogendyk. He fought against Nazi Germany during World War II and, on
returning home, became a member of the Springbok Legion and the Congress of
Democrats, later becoming its Johannesburg chairperson. When he was arrested in
1956, he left his wife with a six-month-old baby.

Writing of him during the Treason Trial, Lionel Forman said: "For a long time
there was no Afrikaans, the language of Strijdom, but the morning was not to
pass without a symbol that there were Afrikaners in the freedom movement too.
'Ja, ek is teenwordig', came the reply when Jan Hoogendyk's name was called, and
the magistrate's head snapped up."

Jan and his wife Jackie were forced to go into exile in Lesotho. Phyllis Naidoo
reports that Lesotho resident Robin Cranko said of Jan and Jackie: "they were
both staunch opponents of the apartheid regime and Jan used to get into flaming
arguments with certain people at the Lancers Inn Hotel in Maseru."

Jan and Jackie introduced a New Zealand pilot, Pat McQuarry, to our struggle.
Later, McQuarry participated in the anti-apartheid struggle in New Zealand and
dropped flour bombs from the air on the players in a match between New Zealand
and apartheid South Africa in New Zealand. Tragically, Jan Hoogendyk died one
day after Nelson Mandela was released in 1990.

Another of the accused was Christina Jasson, who first joined the trade union
movement in her native Port Elizabeth. She later worked with such workers'
leaders as Leslie Massina, Raymond Mhlaba, Wilton Mkwayi, Vuyisile Mini, Frances
Baard and many others. She participated in the 1955 founding conference of the
South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) as a delegate of the Textile
Workers Industrial Union and was elected to the SACTU National Executive
Committee.

When she was arrested for high treason, she was pregnant and her child was born
during the trial. Ultimately the charges against her were withdrawn. She passed
away in 1999.

Ayesha Bibi Dawood was born in Worcester in 1927, where her father was a trader.
She first joined the struggle in 1951 when she served as Secretary of an Action
Committee formed to protest against the removal of the Coloured population from
the voters roll. She campaigned for the success of the 1952 Defiance Campaign.

In 1953 she joined the ANC, admitted by the Worcester branch. She represented
our movement at the Women's International Democratic Conference in Copenhagen,
Denmark. From there, she also attended that year's Conference of the World Peace
Council in Budapest, Hungary and the World Youth Conference in Bucharest,
Rumania. After this she went to India where she met Yusuf Mukadam whom she
married in 1961 after jumping ship in South Africa, staying in the country
illegally.

On her return home, she mobilised for the Congress of the People but could not
attend personally as the delegation from Worcester was blocked by the apartheid
police. Having been arrested with the others in December 1956, the charges
against her were dropped in January 1958, but she was again detained during the
1960 State of Emergency.

When the Security Police discovered in 1968 that Ayesha's husband was in the
country illegally, they tried to recruit her to work as an informer. She refused
and she, her husband and children were 'endorsed out' of South Africa and forced
into exile in India.

She was only able to return to her native Worcester in December 1991, 23 years
after she had been forced to leave the country of her birth. During one of her
trials she said: "It does not matter what race you belong to, we must all pull
together. We shall not retreat in the face of scare stories of Malan and Donges.
They have already lost."

And indeed, thanks to the heroic struggle led by the 156 hands that built South
Africa, Malan, Donges and their successors lost their struggle to perpetuate the
apartheid crime against humanity. Fifty-one years after they were arrested and
charged, we still need to draw inspiration from the example they set, black and
white, women and youth, workers, business people, professionals and people of
all faiths, determined selflessly to serve the people without seeking any
personal gain.

Thabo Mbeki

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GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME OF ACTION

Practical steps to intensify the struggle against poverty

Presentations by government clusters this week show they have responded to the
ANC's call to make this the year to intensify the struggle against poverty.
Briefings by the social and economic clusters highlight a number of areas of
progress since the beginning of the year, particularly in the areas of health,
education, transport, assistance to the poor and unlocking the country's
economic potential.

While working to remove the constraints to faster economic growth that improves
the lives of all South Africans, government is also focused on measures that
alleviate poverty. The briefings reported much detailed work undertaken in
recent months to ensure government policies and programmes achieve their
intended results.

Building on the significant achievements in expanding the reach and
effectiveness of social development initiatives, including the provision of
social grants, the social cluster has set up an inter-departmental task team to
develop measures to reach vulnerable children over the age of 14 years while
continuing to consolidate current gains in income support. As part of the task,
the team is reviewing the outcome of a study into income support for children
between the ages of 14 and 18.

Another important part of poverty alleviation, particularly in the context of
rising food prices, is the contribution government makes to food security and
nutrition. More than six million learners in public primary schools have access
to quality meals. Six thousand food production projects and almost 7,500
vegetable gardens are in place in nodal schools.

A total of 66,000 beneficiaries have been reached in all nine provinces through
the agricultural production packages aimed at improving food security among
vulnerable communities. More than 5,000 small and micro agro-enterprises have
been helped through financial assistance amounting to R41 million.

In pursuit of the goal to eradicate the bucket system by the end of the year,
the number of houses using buckets has been reduced by half, from 252,254 in
February 2005 to 124,593 in February 2007. The programme has been allocated R1
billion for 2007/08.

There has also been progress in the area of health and the promotion of healthy
lifestyles. Most recently, cabinet and the newly constituted South African
National AIDS Council (SANAC) adopted the National Strategic Plan for HIV and
AIDS for 2007-2011 as a framework for the country's response to this major
challenge.

Significant progress is being made in the comprehensive response to HIV and
AIDS:

* 425 million condoms were distributed during the last financial year, * by the
end of March, there were over 4,000 voluntary counselling and testing sites, *
by the end of February, almost half a million patients had received nutritional
support, * by the end December 2006, 14,000 healthcare workers were trained on
comprehensive HIV and AIDS care, management and treatment, * around 240,000
people have been initiated on antiretroviral therapy in the public health
sector.

The ANC recognises that the ultimate success of the struggle against poverty
will depend to a large extent on the development of skills and access to quality
education. This is therefore a priority area for both the social and economic
clusters.

As part of the programme to improve the quality of education, a total of 15,500
poorly resourced schools have been identified through the Quality Improvement
and Development Programme (QIDS-UP) for adequate resourcing to improve learning,
especially in literacy and numeracy. By the end of the 2006 school year, over
5,000 of these schools had received 100 reading books per school to improve
learner reading competencies in the foundation phase. Provincial allocations
have also been increased for the 2007/08 financial year.

Seventy-six percent of the 597 schools targeted for the provision of water
during the last financial year have been provided for, and more than 50% of
2,409 schools targeted for the provision of sanitation have already been
provided for.

Work is also being done under the auspices of the Joint Initiative for Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) to identify and address the immediate skills needs of
the country. Draft service level agreements will shortly be concluded with
sector education and training authorities (SETAs) which will include a target of
at least 12,500 artisans to be registered during the next financial year.

In the economic sphere, interventions are being undertaken to lower the cost of
doing business across the economy and reducing the cost of living, for example,
through better and cheaper public transport. This includes the strengthening of
economic regulator capacity in key industries. Ultimately this will improve the
competitiveness of our key sectors and promote growth and labour-absorption.

Work is also being done to increase access, uptake and usage of information and
communications technology (ICT). This is targeted towards bringing ICT costs
within a competitive range with similar countries and increasing access to ICT
infrastructure.

The phased roll-out of an overhauled public transport network will support
implementation of a fully integrated, mass-transit public transport strategy,
with the first phase focusing on the host cities for the 2010 World Cup. This
includes the project to merge Shosholoza with Metrorail. The Department of
Transport is continuing to implement the taxi recapitalisation programme with
the scrapping of old taxis initiated in all provinces.

The Department of Public Enterprises will be monitoring the implementation and
impact of the infrastructure roll-out. This is important in light of the high
priority of infrastructure roll-out, and the need to facilitate its smooth
progress. The system is being piloted with Eskom and Transnet. The information
on the system is being updated on a quarterly basis.

At the same time, government is also looking at the development of small
enterprises, developing integrated delivery support to small and micro-
enterprises across the different sectors and tiers of government. A task team
has identified ten products for targeted procurement from small, medium and
micro enterprises (SMMEs) by government. The task team has also identified other
key implementation and monitoring mechanisms, including the enforcement of
government's commitment to pay SMMEs within 30 days.

A draft framework for second economy interventions, including possible avenues
for scaling up projects, is being developed. It is important to communicate such
projects to the beneficiaries and an inter-departmental task team has been
established to finalise agreements with private sector associations and state
owned enterprises on communication initiatives. This includes provincial
publications detailing the economic opportunities in the provinces. Beneficiary
workshops will be held by the Government Communication and Information System
(GCIS) in selected provinces. Radio will be used to detail the extent of the
programme on economic opportunities. A television series demonstrating the
extent of the programme on economic opportunities is also planned. Ongoing
research is being used to assess the impact of the campaign at every stage.

MORE INFORMATION:

Government Cluster Briefings, May 2007
http://www.info.gov.za/events/2007/briefingsmay07.htm

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WHITE IDENTITY IN A CHANGING SA - PART V <Book Review : AFY Tau>

Under the African Skies

'Under the African Skies' is the fifth and last narrative of our review of
Melissa Steyn's book, "Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be - White Identity
In a Changing South Africa."

The narrative comprises of three sub-narratives or strands, namely: 'I just
don't know what to do, being white', 'I don't wanna be white no more', and
'Hybridisation, that's the name of the game'.

Their doubts, fears and insecurities about the future of white South Africans
notwithstanding, all but one of the sub-narrators represent a marked departure
from the master narrative discussed in the beginning of the review, five weeks
ago. They acknowledge the implications of whiteness and genuinely seek an
emancipating identity that is non-racial.

In this review, we summarise the characteristics of the previous narratives,
after which we illustrate the main tenets of the present narrative. This is
followed by a brief discussion of what impelled us to undertake the review in
the first place.

Narratives of whiteness

During the last four weeks, we discussed four narratives of whiteness as
discussed in the book, "Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be -White Identity
In a Changing South Africa."

These narratives are:

* 'Still colonial after all these years', which "holds on to a sense of
importance of whiteness..." in which "power is, and should be, in the hands of
whites to influence change along European, 'white' ways..." * 'This shouldn't
happen to a white'. This narrative still clings to whiteness and sees the
changes taking place in the country as having a "disempowering" effect "with
catastrophic implications" to whiteness. According to Steyn, "This is a story
about whiteness besieged, insulted, and victimised by present circumstances,
which have robbed it of its power to control, and even influence the future." *
'Don't think white, It's all right', which sees whites as having lost power and,
as a result, envisages options of "new forms of subjectivity within a more
inclusive structure". The essential characteristic of this narrative is that it
does not encourage or discourage the abandonment of white identity as ordained
by colonial and apartheid power relations. * 'A whiter shade of white' avoids
acknowledging and confronting the personal - and therefore collective -
implications of South African socialisation. Steyn calls it "a narrative of
denial: engaging in thinking about one's own racialisation is blindly
terrifying".

As indicated above, the present narrative under review, 'Under the African
Skies', conveys hope for the country as it attempts to deal honestly with the
implications of whiteness, our racist past and present, in search of a non-
racial tomorrow.

It is worth noting that the non-racial narrative, however defined, is not new in
South Africa. The struggle against apartheid itself, as with our nation building
commitment, represents a narrative in favour of an inclusive identity. The
history of our struggle is replete with examples of the heroic role played by
white patriots against racist oppression. Therein lies yet another narrative,
arguably more revolutionary than the one we are reviewing, which, though a
significant step forward, is incomparable from the non-racial narrative forged
in the struggle against apartheid.

Below we discuss the tenets of the narrative, 'Under the African skies'.

'I just don't know what to do, being white'

According to Steyn, this sub-narrative consists of feelings of ambivalence and
duality, a measure of not knowing whether one is coming or going, so to speak.
The narrators do not always know how to negotiate the terrain of the unfolding
process of change. A secretary who belongs in this province of the narrative
captures the sense of loss in which one gleans her desire to move ahead when she
says that her whiteness "is a position of artificial privilege which is being
challenged strongly by an emerging black consciousness". As she sees it,
"whiteness now caries the stigma of apartheid much as in Nazi Germany with
'Aryans'."

The narrators tend to appreciate identity as a social, rather than as a natural
pre-ordained, fact (about which nothing can be done). Because of this, argues
Steyn, they have the possibility to master a sense of perspective "on the way in
which the changes impinge on them personally".

Their confusion and fears aside, some of the communicators of this narrative
demonstrate a genuine desire to move forward. An academic development officer
confesses to the importance of a "positive shift", and wants to "work hard to
break down the stereotypes because, as he puts it, he wants to be seen in "the
'complex' me, not the label."

About this process, Steyn remarks: "A willingness to take on the implications of
one's racialisation into 'whiteness', and to cooperate in dismantling the
structural privilege it entailed, can be painful and lonely. Feelings of
inadequacy and alienation are inevitable, but are not the last word. No one said
it would be easy."

But there can be a sense of regression, a theatrical showmanship, whose benign
manifestation serves to obscure more than it illuminates. This is represented in
the next sub-narrative discussed below.

'I don't wanna be white no more'

The oracles of this strand of the narrative are consumed by the guilt of the
crimes of the past. Rather than engage honestly with guilt, they project an
outward posture of non-racialism, which is false. They romanticise blackness in
ways that are insulting to the very black people with whom they profess to
identify. (In short, they love black people more than black people love
themselves.)

The purveyors of this narrative will tend to evince the supposedly politically
correct statements, accompanied by what they perceive to be politically correct
actions. In his book, "Lords of Poverty", Graham Hancock provided a detailed
illustration of supposedly helpful, but actually disastrous, approaches adopted
by international donor agencies in the developing world. Whether or not one
agrees with his analysis of the reasons behind the problems within the agencies,
Hancock highlights manifestations of the romantic mentality to which purveyors
of this strand of the narrative are prone.

Citing the response of the aid community to the Somali famine of the mid 1980s,
Hancock says, among many other shocking things, "Amongst useless drugs designed
to remedy the ailments of affluent patients, the poor and hungry, in what is one
of the hottest countries in the world, have also received frostbite medicine
shipped from Minnesota, electric blankets, and huge consignments of Go-Slim soup
and chocolate flavour drinks for dieters."

He adds that "Laxatives and anti-indigestion remedies are other favourites
amongst agencies that provide humanitarian relief to the starving." Of some of
the agencies, Hancock says, they are "riddled through and through with notions
of compassion that are, as one observer has put it, 'inherently ethnocentric,
paternalistic and non-professional'."

And so, a narrator of this strand of the narrative in Steyn's book professes:
"Whiteness is boring - superficial and very thin in comparison with the
black/brown spirit - rhythm, joy, love, kindness, simplicity -and everything
that counts a great deal." Deep down this perception of blackness is a colonial
representation of the African as nothing but an exquisite entity, a sub species
that provides peculiarities as a source of permanent wonder. Like the aid
workers in Hancock's "Lords of Poverty", this is inherently paternalistic and
racist.

'Hybridisation, that's the name of the game'

The narrators of hybridisation demonstrate a healthy and honest attempt to come
to terms with whiteness and seek to forge a truly non-racial identity that
accords with post-apartheid ideals. They understand the socio-historic genesis
of whiteness. Unlike the previous narratives, they do not seek to hide their
racial socialisation and consciousness and find the unfolding process of change
as liberating and enabling them to move forward.

Although he has some demonstrable misgivings about the future of his children, a
lecturer confesses to feeling good about the process of change. He is "more
healthy [and] free of ... guilt". Contrasting the old and new South Africa, a
management consultant says "It was possible to grow up in South Africa and be
totally disconnected from the way the majority lived and coped and to create a
separate reality. The effects on me as a white woman relate more to being linked
to an atrocious system through colour and therefore association, and the
emotional and mental consequences of that have affected me. Black South Africans
suffered more, though, in every way."

Yet another respondent, a mathematical statistician has this to say: "I realise
that many white people are claiming ignorance of anything before February 2,
1990, when De Klerk unbanned the ANC. Blacks began remarking about the 'new
skins' white South Africans were offering to one and all. Whites try to
ingratiate themselves by claiming to have always been non-racial, to have never
voted the National Party, to have always had black friends etc."

The ability to confront the past, even their complicity through acts of
commission and omission puts these narrators in good stead to grapple with
change. It involves having to acknowledge that their advantage as white people
was occasioned by a social system founded on the racial subjugation of others.

Steyn says of these narrators, "losing dominance does not simply equate with
personal defeat, though it certainly is the end of the story of whiteness as the
Master used to tell it." She adds that "The process requires renouncing the role
of the white master on the continent, foregoing the assumptions of a God-given
place on the continent, recognising the legitimacy of Africans ... dismantling
the edifice of South African whiteness and finding humility."

At an interpersonal level, it involves levelling questions of power within human
relationships, such that Steyn depicts the narrators of the present sub-
narratives as honest brokers of interpersonal relations among their fellow non-
white humans.

The last word goes to the consultant: "When encountering or experiencing
relationships, one looks for commonality rather than difference - I have taken
on more Africanness through my friendships and become less 'white'. Through this
process, I am becoming more aware of my own identity, and my internal/less
obvious/developed racism and prejudices. I am acquiring more of a feel about who
I WANT to be in the New South Africa."

Conclusion

Five weeks ago when we began this review, we pointed out that the ideal of a
non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa has guided our movement since
its inception. It is an ideal for which many of our people died.

We also observed that the attainment of a truly non-racial society requires of
all South Africans to engage, constantly, in dialogue about its nature, its
implications in practical daily life, in our interactions as fellow South
Africans in different walks of life.

Throughout the five weeks of the review, we consistently returned to what we
believe is an unhelpful tendency in the attainment of a non-racial society,
namely, the resistance to discuss race and racism as a social category. We
observed this growing tendency in public discourse that finds expression in
newspaper columns, books, the airwaves and the persuasive industries as a whole.

In keeping with this tendency, we note that media reporting about this review
and the book, "Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be - White Identity In a
Changing South Africa", was only covered in the Afrikaans press with a deafening
silence from the English Press including media houses that have effected black
economic empowerment transactions and are now part owned and managed by the
historically oppressed.

Furthermore, we are aware that none of the local book publishers have considered
publishing the book despite the fact that it concerns itself with an important
feature of our country's transition. None of our local book distributors too
will distribute the book, demonstrating a deadly stranglehold on the production
and distribution of ideas.

To this end, we are obliged to ask questions about the democratic commitment of
our persuasive industries including the very remedial policy measures needed to
effect change.

And so the question, and the issue, of hegemony remains!

The legacy of apartheid engineering in South Africa today is still what Ashley
Montagu calls "an endemic disorder", in his monumental, "Man's Most Dangerous
Myth: the fallacy of race". Montagu coined this phrase in 1942, during the years
of Nazi tyranny.

In page 58 of his book, he quotes the Scottish philosopher, David Hume, who
wrote in his "Treatise on Human Nature" as follows:

"I am apt to suspect that all negroes, and in general all other species of men
... to be naturally inferior to the white ... No ingenious manufacturers among
them, no arts, no sciences ... Such a uniform and constant difference could not
happen, in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original
distinction between these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are
negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of which none ever discovered any
symptoms of ingenuity."

At the time when the apartheid republic of South Africa was declared in the
early 1960s, the time of the Sharpeville Massacre, and the resumption of the
armed struggle through the formation and actions of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Phillip
Tobias, one-time Head of the Department of Anatomy, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, explained the meaning of race as "a national neurosis of the
obsessional variety".

Epilogue

Where is the progressive intelligentsia that is willing to join Melissa Steyn to
counter the present day David Hume's? What magic wand shall we use to inspire
all South Africans honestly to admit and accept that objective racism and
subjective racism remain potent factors in the physiology of our society?

What cataclysm must occur to convince all of us that recognition of the reality
of entrenched racism in our country is the fundamental precondition for the
success of the struggle to eliminate race as a defining feature of our humanity?
What impulse will compel all of us to listen to the words - he who has ears to
hear, let him hear!

** "Whiteness Just Isn't What it Used to Be - White Identity in a Changing South
Africa", by Melissa Steyn: State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. 2001.

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