20 OPINION SUNDAY TRIBUNE MARCH 20 2016 SUNDAY How atrocity garnered global solidarity

TRIBUNE OMORROW we observe Human the atrocities that accompanied its fair that we, in a democratic South of Zimbabwe, Syria, Palestine and Rights Day in – a day repression. A general language of MY Africa, offer the same support to other Somalia, and the frightening levels of Twhen the Sharpeville brutality human rights that forgets that in the oppressed people just as it was offered repression in those countries. took place. We continue to face a real world it is always actual people View to us. In some way, it seems that Zuma is number of human rights abuses in the that suffer and resist, ends up being Once again we observe Human the subtle and well packaged more contemporary Sharpevilles of the an empty concept better suited to Rights Day in South Africa with sophisticated oppression we world. In many other countries, people dreary conferences than the difficult oppression intensifying in many experience in South Africa is better continue to face mainly state brutality practice of actual solidarity. Imraan places around the world, especially than the brutal violence, war and here to – from Zimbabwe to Palestine to Syria. It is true that we have much to in places like Palestine. We continue overt denial of human rights that In South Africa, some of our celebrate when we look back at how Buccus to see images from there, and these we see in many parts of the world public holidays have become rituals far we have come since 1960, but we have reawoken many to the horrors today. So, as you reflect on the observed with predictable solemnities need to be very vigilant about the another great lesson. The apartheid of the oppression visited upon people complexities of modern day human stay and, afterwards, equally predictable police and those in authority behaving state assumed that news of its crime by the Israeli state. Israel continues rights, spare a thought for all the recriminations about poor attendance illegally towards the vulnerable, as wouldn’t travel beyond the township. to impose a blockade on Gaza, leaving modern day Sharpevilles around and media coverage. There is nothing has been in the case in a number of It assumed it could act with impunity the majority in poverty. So, when the world – from Harare to Gaza RESIDENT did not unusual about this. Around the incidents, especially in light of an against people whose lives had one thinks of human rights abuses, to Homs. The solidarity that our look like a man under attack when world the powerful have tended to increasingly militarised police force. little value to them. But news of the one should also think about how struggles received from around the he addressed Parliament this week. use the struggles and suffering of And we need to be equally vigilant massacre rushed around the world the Israeli state machinery denies world after Sharpeville hastened the P like wild fire. It was the beginning Palestinians food, fuel, water and end of apartheid. Surely we have a Instead he looked calm and very much in the past to justify their power and about the epidemic of xenophobic privilege. What this means in practice violence that we witnessed in recent of the end of the apartheid state’s access to hospitals and medical care. moral obligation to stand firm with control. is that the essence of what is being years. We inhabit an imperfect liberal international credibility. If the lesson of Sharpeville is in part oppressed people around the world. Zuma has good reason to feel confident commemorated is forgotten and the democracy rather than an out and It was a local event that became a lesson in how a local event becomes * Imraan Buccus is senior research because he has support where it mat- event is remembered only as a step in out dictatorship and so our task an international scandal, with major an international scandal that changes associate at Auwal Socio-Economic ters most – the ANC’s national executive the story that the powerful tell about is to nurture and defend what has long-term national consequences. national history, it becomes important Research Institute, research fellow in committee. their ascension to power. been gained, rather than to simply The international solidarity against for us to think of human rights in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN Make no mistake. In South Africa seek to break down a system. That is apartheid that developed afterwards the context of people oppressed by and academic director of a university Anyone can criticise Zuma and call for we must never forget the details of certainly worth celebrating. played a key role in the eventual tyrannical regimes further afield. On study abroad programme on political him to be kicked out, but, as things stand, that struggle in Sharpeville, and But the Sharpeville massacre has triumph of the ANC in 1994. It is only Human Rights Day, one can’t not think transformation. only the NEC can remove him. If the NEC took such a decision it would recall him – the fate former president suffered. However, Zuma has well and truly TONGUE entrenched himself in the NEC. & He has the support of KwaZulu-Natal, a region that commands respect because CHEEK it has the most ANC members. Zuma also has the backing of the so-called Premier League – Free State Dennis Premier , North West Pather Premier and Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza. He also has support from the ANC Youth League, the Women’s League and Our eyes the Military Veterans’ Association. With such support, the reality is that Zuma is not going anywhere. have been It’s not a judgement of whether this is good or bad for our country, it’s simply a logical assessment of where we are. opened

T’S hard to meet someone more Life after he goes refreshingly frank than retired IConstitutional Court judge Zac Yacoob. Whether addressing a public audience or writing an article for HE current goings-on have to be publication,Yacoob tells it like it is – taken in the context of the ANC’s raw and cleansing, ruthlessly honest Tnational conference, which takes and free of any enhancements, place next year. embellishments or sweeteners. It probably has something to do The ANC will elect a new president with the fact that he’s been blind and this person is likely to become the since childhood, as it’s an oft- next president of the republic should the repeated idea that blind people can party win the general elections in 2019. compensate for their lack of sight Two names that have come to the fore with enhanced other abilities and perceptions. are and Nkosazana I’ve known him, off and on, Dlamini-Zuma. More recently, Jeff for many decades, since our days Radebe has also been mentioned. together at Salisbury Island in the Interestingly, Ramaphosa and Dlamini- 1960s, and have always found him to Zuma have steered clear of the latest be as candid as a dove is white. Take his speech in India recently mess, although both sit on the NEC. (an edited version is published What’s important is that the winner elsewhere in this newspaper today) restores the party’s unity. For almost when he focused on the sensitive a decade, people have moved or been issue of race relations in South moved because they fell out of favour. At Africa. He spoke straight from the heart. Criticising a recent book least two new political parties – Cope and which portrayed Mahatma Gandhi the EFF – were born out of divisions. We’re all learning and growing daily controversially as a racist while It’s a situation that has not only affect- in South Africa, Yacoob said this ed the ruling party but has also had a was only true for a certain phase profound impact on our country. Unity means inconsistency, so in the life of Gandhi who grew and In one of the frankest assessments of the state of race relations in our country, be it. If there is a choice learnt as he went along and began within any other party that governs is between being honest with to understand better the importance vital for the well being of the state and retired Constitutional Court Justice Zac Yacoob admitted that when he was yourself and consistency, of black people in South Africa and the people who live in it. young, he was both racist and sexist. This is an edited version of his recent honesty is the only way to of their suffering. go, both as a lawyer and in Then came his candid speech at a conference at the National Law University in New Delhi, India all spheres of your life. confession. When he was young, he If you feel you are held racist and sexist views, to the superior because of your extent that he believed whites were OR me the starting point of being Desai and Goolam Vahed makes the enough to get there. After quality education, because superior and Africans inferior. As a good lawyer is to be a good, point that Gandhiji was a racist and all, all the important people I came you are of a higher class or because a young man, he also held the view TRIBUNE TEAM Fgenerous person who understands that he didn’t think of the African into contact with were white. you are a man, just understand and that women were objects in one way people and who has empathy. majority at all. At the time, in line with what I acknowledge it and begin to work or another, and that they only got This is because lawyers deal with This is true of a particular phase experienced around me, I believed through it in your own mind. Begin raped because they asked for it. clients, and must show compassion of his life and Gandhiji would be the strongly that women were objects. the struggle of your own growth. Now that’s a startling confession, EDITOR HERALD first to admit it. He never believed he I believed wrongly that women got The journey to becoming a better coming from a celebrated anti- Aakash Bramdeo Mervyn Naidoo and a desire to improve the human 031 308 2316 031 308 2386 condition. So good people make the was perfect. He learnt and grew as a raped only if they asked for it and human being begins with you. This is apartheid lawyer, political activist [email protected] [email protected] best lawyers. human being as he went along. that a man could do to a woman something extremely important that and former judge. ASSISTANT EDITOR SM But that is not all. In modern He went to South Africa as whatever he wanted. Gandhiji taught us. He admits it was only later that Carol Campbell Buhle Mbonambi terms, apart from being sympathetic, a lawyer and was initially only And then began my own And for me it’s also fundamental his own “difficult and painful” 031 308 2220 031 308 2395 a good person is of necessity non- interested in the promotion of the development – my own very slow, to being a good lawyer. A good lawyer personal development began and [email protected] [email protected] racist and non-sexist. Indian businessmen who had brought careful development that I share with is not static, but must be flexible. But he learned how to grow as a human NEWS DESK TRAVEL It is important to understand him to South Africa. you today because it is relevant to the more important, a good lawyer is being and see every person as an Annie Dorasamy Brendan Seery that none us is perfect in these But Gandhiji changed. By 1908, topic of being a good lawyer. And it is never impervious to the truth. equal. 031 308 2378 011 633 2290 respects. We are all learning as we he had begun to understand the relevant to the topic of why Gandhiji This speech was edited. Today, his views on a wide range [email protected] [email protected] go. Mahatma Gandhi too shared this importance of African people and was a good lawyer. * Zac Yacoob, who studied law at of social and political issues are [email protected] Tribune fax: 031 308 2357 CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Subscriptions characteristic of humanity. recognise their suffering. He saw It was a hard struggle. It is very the University College for Indians canvassed by important opinion- Frank Chemaly 031 308 2022 Many of us believe, for example, the need for a non-racial, non- easy to talk about equality, but it is at Salisbury Island, practised as an makers and continue to hold sway 031 308 2372 fax 031 308 2440 that consistency is a very important sexist society. He acknowledged difficult to incorporate these values advocate for many years, representing in the highest court of the land. [email protected] Switchboard: 031 308 2911 value. This quote from Gandhiji and admitted that he had been into your life. I must confess that I many prominent anti-apartheid What Zac did was to accept that SPORTS EDITOR CLASSIFIEDS: makes an interesting point. wrong in the past, recognising his found growing into a person who activists in high-profile political cases, apartheid’s insidious tentacles Simon Osler 0860 238 377 “My aim is not to be consistent inconsistency. truly understood that everybody was including the Delmas Treason Trial, had penetrated very deeply into 031 308 2319 fax 031 308 2444 with my previous statements on a The idea of inconsistency as a equal extremely difficult. the Operation Vula Trial and the the psyches of all South Africans, [email protected] [email protected] given question, but to be consistent result of growth, change and learning Though I think I finally got there, so-called Durban Six in negotiations irrespective of their race, class or with truth as it may present itself to understand change in society is I found the idea of respecting every with the British government, when skin colour, and affected their lives, to me at a given moment. My words vital to our humanity and makes a human being regardless of who they they occupied the British Consulate attitutudes and behaviour in one and deeds are dictated by prevailing good lawyer. were and where they came from in Durban in 1984 in protest against way or another. conditions. There has been a gradual I will give you my own example. difficult to internalise. I learnt with apartheid and unjust laws. No one was left unstained. evolution in my environment and I When I was young, in 1967/1968, I difficulty not to be influenced by a He has served on government, While some people have been more react to it as a satyagrahi (someone was both sexist and racist. I believed person’s appearance, but to judge university, civic and legal forums committed and diligent about Sunday @Sunday Tribunenews who believes in truth and non- whites were superior and African everyone as an individual. And the throughout hisdistinguished ridding themselves of this stain, Tribune TribuneSA @inl.co.za violence).” people inferior. notion of women being equal was career and retired as a judge of the others are still struggling. They will He says consistency has no value I didn’t understand that… black the most difficult of them all to Constitutional Court last year. have to work harder at internalising in itself. We are human beings and people could not afford soap and internalise. He was speaking at a conference their old attitudes and prejudices we change. We all have weaknesses water, that they had no home to live I therefore say to each and every organised by IDIA ( Increasing and begin to see people as fellow but we grow out of them, and lawyers in, that African people had no access one of you, particularly young Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal human beings, regardless of who must grow out of their weaknesses to education. people, to strive not necessarily for Education) which seeks to find ways they are and what race they belong PRESS OMBUDSMAN too. That is what Gandhiji’s life And I thought that we as Indians consistency. A good lawyer strives to reach out to students from poor and to. The Sunday Tribune subscribes to the South African Press demonstrates. –and I am ashamed to admit it – could for what is right. A good lawyer under-privileged regions in India and Thanks, Zac Yacoob… I can see Code that prescribes news that is truthful, accurate, fair and The South African Gandhi: be as good as whites one day if we strives for truth. A good lawyer is for sensitise them to law as a career. clearly now! balanced. If we don’t live up to the code, please contact the Stretcher-Bearer of Empire by Ashwin tried harder. And I wanted to try hard honesty – and if going for honesty [email protected] Press Ombudsman at 011 484 3618 or 011 484 3619.