Quest for a True Humanity 4 the Politics of Truth 10

Issue 2: January 2012

Contents A Quest for a True Humanity 4 The Politics of Truth 10

Intoduction: Quest for a True Socio-Political Developments in Free Speech vs Hate Speech – Humanity – Achieving the Vision 1 South Africa – Reflections on the The Dividing Line 12 Myth of Reconciliation 6 Destitution, Disease, Despair 2 Contributors’ Biographies 14 Quest for a True Humanity Achieving the Vision “We have set out on ecember 18, 2011 Steve Biko’s take on the contemporary a quest would have been Steve body politic would have been. What for true DBiko’s 65th birthday, would he have made of the face of humanity, and thus possibly the year of the New South Africa? How would he and his retirement from the world have described her soul? somewhere of work. For this reason, it In this, the second edition of the on the is safe to speculate that this FrankTalk Journal – Quest for a True distant Nkosinathi Biko would have been a year of Humanity: Achieving the Vision – we horizon we introspection for him, as he took bring you views on the state of South can see the glittering stock of his life. Given his vocation, African society, and how far we have prize. Let us march his introspection would predictably progressed in becoming the nation forth with courage have had a socio-political bias. with a more human face that Biko and determination, The political space of which Steve spoke about. Based on a compilation drawing strength Biko was a part has seen a number of various FrankTalk dialogues that from our common of its principal “isms” turned on their have taken place to date, this edition brotherhood. In heads. In the past, the predominant explores a number of issues that time we shall be discourse was that of socialism were at the fore of discourse during in the position to versus capitalism. In what would 2011: hate speech versus freedom of bestow upon South have been the year of his retirement, speech; race relations; and economic Africa the greatest central banks around the world are inequality among others. Among the gift possible-a more arguing that they need to apply a featured contributors are colleagues, human face.” little socialism in order to rescue friends and contemporaries of Biko; Steve Biko capitalism. Closer to home, the as well as a new generation of thought You may submit an article to us via admin@ principle and devotion of yesteryears leaders and activists. sbf.org.za; or through the FrankTalk blog: has been expended. In its place is We are pleased to share these http://sbffranktalk.blogspot.com/. despicable expediency fuelled by views with you here. We also invite We also invite you to dialogue with us crass materialism. you to share your own thoughts on through facebook http://www.facebook.com/ Endowed with commendable the state of South African society and TheSteveBikoFoundation and Twitter @ insight, topped off with a great sense Biko’s legacy with us throughout this BikoFoundation. of history, one can only imagine what 65th birthday year. 2

their efforts, their value system, culture, religion and outlook on life. Destitution, Today, he would see the task of Black Consciousness as incomplete and call for more revolutionary “fists” to be raised to urge black people to seek Disease, Despair liberation from the psychologically devastating situations of colonisation and apartheid. He would call for ppression is the enemy of next to one another in restaurants the creation of a socialist state that humanity. In its grasp, one and living side by side as friends and would rectify the economic legacies Owitnesses the shattering of neighbours. of exploitation. mankind, self-destruction of the TV programmes Three decades oppressed and oppressor. broadcast proud later, Biko would Oppression is a waste, it is messages about “17 not only affirm the destructive on all fronts; oppression years of freedom.” This call he made to diverts and pollutes the best energies new democracy seems fellow citizens but of man. to have provided answers would do so with At the heart of oppression is an to the injustices of the urgency because economic framework in which one apartheid past. the problems facing group of people benefits from the However, the reality the country and exploitation of another. of the South Africa that other black people Professor Ben Khoapa This false righteousness for the Biko would find today in the diaspora have sake of exploitation causes a peculiar paints a different picture. The years of magnified to a global nature. social readjustment. “freedom” have come to mean years He would also call for an increased The oppressed – now locked into of not dealing with the problem of sophistication in developing tools a dangerous economic framework – racism in this country. of analysis and development of must be convinced that suffering is The integration touted by appropriate paradigms. their fault and that their oppressors government has not reconciled the Like Fanon, Biko had traversed have an unassailable right to racial disharmony of apartheid. a long, painful road of intellectual administer such exploitation. The white neighbour might smile labour and arrived at results that are This framework causes a vicious and greet the black neighbour, but it instructive and inspiring. existential disruption where all of a is clear that a certain relationship still Yet if we leave matters where destiny sudden a native people with their exists between them. stopped him or occasionally quote own understanding of the world – Biko would find what he had always him for convenience, we would be their traditions, rites and rituals – are known – that apartheid was not “petty” eulogising him. It is much more fruitful stripped of identity and handed a new but a separation that pushed for the to build on his works, distil aspects one in which their colonial masters dehumanisation of the oppressed to of his contributions relevant to current have apotheosised themselves and sustain power. The reality created problems and work to further what he they are reduced to an inferior status. by the monster of oppression is a pioneered. These words and sentiments were society ailing from a disease of the Any consideration of Biko and his expressed by Frantz Fanon (1952) mind called “racism.” contributions brings to the discourse and Albert Memmi (1957) and echoed Biko had described Black the effects of that historical scandal by Steve Biko in his lifetime, in the Consciousness as an attempt to infuse and realities that are awakening us context of the search for answers to black people with pride in themselves, to the fact that the “human factor” the slave mentality that was so much in oppression and plans for national of a handicap to black people finding reconstruction have been neglected themselves and seizing the initiative to “Yet if we leave for too long with grave consequences. break the chains that imprisoned them. matters where destiny The evident crises in individual Thirty four years after Biko’s death, stopped him (Biko) identities and collective histories Africans are celebrating their freedom or occasionally quote cannot be ignored. The alarming from oppression. him for convenience, increase in alcoholism, mental South Africa’s step into majority we would be disorders and personal violence rule was a step towards a nonracial, eulogising him. It is in urban and rural areas invite the neoliberal society. much more fruitful attention and contributions of our Things have seemingly changed to build on his works, professional caregivers and other – whites no longer ride in different distil aspects of his a“helping” professionals. buses nor sit on different benches or contributions relevant The last decade has shown use different toilets. to current problems how entrenched old inequalities in One can see black and white and work to further economics and structure of domain walking down the same streets, sitting what he pioneered.” are. Dreams of equality and dignity 3

have not come true for many of our The continuing desertification of “The real importance people and old wounds continue to land, reducing soil nutrients and of the Black fester, more than ever now as the arable land, combines with the Consciousness bankruptcy of an assimilated elite desertification of values and threatens Movement is not and false symbols like flashy cars are social disintegration and even cultural the nature of its understood. extinction in parts of the developing disappearance; it is The high expectations brought world. in the nature of its about by promises of national It is in considering these problems reappearance.” independence and the “war on and seeking solutions to them that poverty” has been replaced by a Biko and his work are particularly generalised demoralisation and significant. cynicism. South Africa has entered a new thousands of kilometres away. It is by no means insignificant that era. It is for this reason that Black This is the new colonialism and it about 800 million of the world’s Consciousness still lives and it requires a new conscientisation. population is so impoverished that reminds us that as Biko so aptly As a young student pointed it constitutes a global “underclass” said: “The most potent weapon in the out to me the other day: “The characterised by malnutrition, hands of the oppressor is the mind of real importance of the Black disease, illiteracy and living in squalor. the oppressed.” Consciousness Movement is not the It has the highest rates of mortality at The call for solidarity of the nature of its disappearance, it is in any age, has health problems and life oppressed is valid and urgent but it is the nature of its reappearance.” The expectancies of less than 50 years also good to realise that the battle has Black Consciousness Movement and a reduced capacity to work. changed. No longer is the struggle of is needed more today than ever This global underclass reflects the liberation against a regime that one before. As the neoliberal ghosts of extremes of a reality for a majority of sees every day patrolling the streets mental slavery drive the oppressed the world’s population. of the townships, checking people’s masses of South Africa into a new Unjust distribution of resources, rapid passbooks. colonisation of Western capitalism, population growth and an increasing The new regime is global, it is a new Black Consciousness needs degradation of the environment have everywhere, checking your credit to return to its mass-mobilising roots forced millions more into destitution, card number, your bank statements in order to continue to give South disease and despair. and determining your future from Africa its ‘human face’.” Poet Don Mattera, Neville Alexander, Liepollo Pheko & Oshadi Mangena at a Alexander, Neville Poet Don Mattera, seminar interrogating the state of SA society. FrankTalk 4

“Steve also cited the need to reduce the material element that was slowly creeping into the African character. These are prophetic words indeed given the materialism that seems to be grabbing and pervading our own Asha Moodley black community”

be accommodated, assimilated and exploited in a system informed A Quest for a primarily by white values and needs. In another article entitled “White Racism and Black Consciousness,” the South Africa with a more human True Humanity face is highlighted when Steve states that, “The stress placed on the values of human relationships by black n reflecting on the state of the dreams and imaginings of the 1960s people has to be restored as well nation, it is fitting that we honour and 70s was a South Africa with a as the high regard for people, their Ione of South Africa’s most more human face. These phrases, property and life in general” and this powerful revolutionaries both in glittering prize, the distant horizon, has great resonance today given the thought and action, Steve Biko; and a more human face, are poetic disregard we see in relation to the in doing so, measure the extent to metaphors for a radically different majority of black people in the country. which his quest for a true humanity South Africa where race, class Steve also cited the need to reduce has been realized–if at all. Writing on subjugation and exploitation of black the material element that was slowly “Black Consciousness and a Quest for people would have no place. Where creeping into the African character. True Humanity,” for the book, Black black people would have come into These are prophetic words indeed Theology, the South African Voice, their own psychically, psychologically given the materialism that seems to sometime between 1967 and 1972, and physically free to define their be grabbing and pervading our own Steve said, “We have set out on a quest social, political and economic destiny. black community. for true humanity and somewhere in So the question arises: did we as So the question: is there a glittering the distant horizon we can see the black people really define our own prize on the horizon? This query is glittering prize. Let us march forth with destiny? Were we coerced into it? somewhat whimsical because we are courage and determination. Drawing Were we opportunistic? now citizens of a “new” South Africa. strength from our common plight While the situation of black people Purportedly equal citizens – whether and out brotherhood,” (I suppose is central to Black Consciousness, black or white – in terms of our much in this day and age we would talk it is clear that the South Africa with lauded Constitution, with the Bill of about personhood), Steve goes on to a more human face includes all of Rights setting out a range of human say, “In time we shall be in a position South Africa’s people irrespective of rights to which we are all entitled. to bestow upon South Africa the colour. However, speaking from an Many would say that these greatest gift possible, a more human analysis of the historical condition of documents and the institutions that face.” black people, as it persisted then in uphold these rights sketch out the It is clear then that the glittering the 1970’s, Steve asserted that the human face of South Africa that prize that pervaded the revolutionary problem, or the thesis, was strong Steve and the Black Consciousness white racism to which the antithesis Movement espoused. In fact, the had to be strong solidarity amongst constitution moves beyond racial “The humaneness of black people on whom white racism discrimination in its articulation of every human being is sought to prey. The synthesis discrimination, and consequently observable in how their of violence, as we in the Black oppression, on the basis of a number country, their fellow Consciousness Movement saw, was of other grounds such as sexual South Africans, a true humanity where power politics orientation, gender and so on. This government and its would have no play. would imply that our experiences institutions recognize This position reflected the notion of race and class subjugation have this.” that the problem was apartheid and made us sensitive to other forms the antithesis, a prescriptive non- of discrimination, which essentially racialism into which blacks would denied human beings their basic 5 FrankTalk dialogue at Durban University of Technology (DUT) Technology dialogue at Durban University of FrankTalk th Presenters Liepollo Pheko, Asha Moodley and Neville Alexander at the Asha Moodley and Neville Presenters Liepollo Pheko, 8

humanity. At the heart of a South endemic violence against women feminism, and so on. We get together Africa with a more human face is the and abuse of children, lack of and still talk about speaking the truth. recognition of and the respect for this education and infrastructure. These There is still uncertainly as to why essential humanity. are just some of the many things we do not speak about revolution The humaneness of every human that we lack in this country. The gap because there is certainly need to do being is observable in how their between the rich and the poor has so. Many of us believe that a better country, their fellow South Africans, grown exponentially and clearly our world is possible, not because as a government and its institutions reconciliation processes have not well-known feminist says, “we cling recognize this; but again, we come dealt with the deep-seated traumas to the utopian fantasies” but because back to the question, is there a of our racist past. we have struggled – many of us most glittering prize in the distant horizon? So, if we accept that these are of our lives – to create an egalitarian, Quite clearly, this question is a signs that we have not attained a non-exploitative, anti-racist, anti- rhetorical one and quells the idea fully human South African face, then classist, anti-xenophobic, anti- that the new dispensation ushered yes, there is a glittering prize; but it homophobic and anti-sexist world. in a South Africa with a more human remains there, on that distant horizon. We cannot stop believing that such a face. South Africa remains, despite We have not yet won that glittering world is possible and attainable, even its new clothes, an essentially prize. It is clear that envisioning the if not in our lifetime. capitalist, patriarchal state. Perhaps glittering prize on that distant horizon the mistake many have made is to speaks to Steve’s realization that the assume that post 1994, negotiations quest for true humanity, not only in ended the liberation struggle. Worst South Africa but the world over, is “At the heart of a still, it seems that the glittering prize a difficult one. The horizon moves South Africa with has been translated literally to mean forward every time you move towards a more human face the self-enrichment that so many of it. Many of us have grown old and is the recognition of our enterprising tenderpreneurs are very cynical at times about the way and the respect for this aiming for. All of us are aware that our things have panned out in this country. essential humanity.” country has a reputation as one of the However, there still remains in us the most unequal societies in the world. belief that society can be changed We are bedeviled by unemployment, radically for the better. We talk about corruption, lack of proper housing, ‘isms’ in that we speak of socialism, 6 FrankTalk dialogue. FrankTalk th Poet Don Mattera at the 8

Socio-Political Developments in South Africa Reflections on the Myth of Reconciliation

eptember is an interesting Atlantic has captured of social inequality. The month in light of several key front pages in every paper will then speak Smoments, including the murder newsroom in this briefly about a race of the heroic Bantu Stephen Biko country. It is doubtful that discourse; because it and the remembrance of the decade the New York Times or is impossible to speak since 9/11 rocked the US’ ‘invincibility’ Washington Post have about socio-economic to the core. This event held the rest equivalent coverage or socio-political issues of the globe ransom to a ‘war on of the death of Biko, in this country without terror’ that has left the sane world and this challenges anchoring them in more vulnerable, untrusting, divided and reminds us that a race discourse

and politically and racially polarised, we have often ignored Liepollo Pheko due to their mutual targeted and frustrated than before. It the memory of the catastrophes, and virtually symbiotic relationship. is an interesting month given the way calamities and holocausts of our own Following that, the paper will speak that we view memory and heritage and times and nations. about a word which has acquired the fact that we are un-remembering, Thus, September is a singularly an uncomfortable fluidity and which or re-remembering, these seminal critical month to remember ourselves. has to be re-constructed and re- events differently and with particular This paper talks about the historical configured- “reconciliation.” That disregard for the many 9/11’s in our context of socio-economic power in relates to the reconciliation of men and own contexts and spheres as Afrikan this country and how that links with the women; reconciliation of our history people. The ‘orgy of grief’ across the on-going and present manifestations and our present; the reconciliation 7

between the truth and lies; as well as in their grinding living conditions “What we have reconciliation between what is now of dispossession; and that the ‘all’ experienced is the and what is to be. included the millions of heirs of three retention of white South Africa’s historic transition is hundred years of this systematic capital domination fraught with moments of audacious dispossession. under the aegis of optimism; an optimism which Tragically, what has instead emerged black political rule, is liberally interspaced with the is a growing underclass and a crisis snuggled comfortably increasingly interrelated feelings of citizenship. This construct refers under the radar of rage, desperation and betrayal. to citizenship as a state of being that of ‘democracy’, These are the scripts which were enables provision, belonging, control unaccountable and written long before 1994, at the and ownership. The ownership of unperturbed by moment that so called democracy discourse, ownership of narratives even the dimmest dawned in this country. In 1994, as and ownership of catalytic self-agency possibility of a shift perceived by many South Africans, are still removed from the Afrikan in their privileged there was going to be a cry of angels, tongue and pen. This is clearly one situation.” the sound of chariots, an orchestra of the problematics that manifests and wonderful choirs welcoming as a crisis in citizenship. According and ushering us into a bodacious to the anti-historical paradigm, white new era of hope, and we would people arrived on supposedly empty ning is testimony to the legacy of regu- immediately see the disappearance territory and black people were lated and legislated movement and it of informal settlements. Where dispossessed and displaced from is imperative that we deconstruct the there were shacks, there would be their own countries. It is the same economics of apartheid. houses. Where there was darkness, story told across the world. It is similar Apartheid did not, for example, there would be electrification. Where to the story of Aotearoa, [now called die primarily because of moral people had been walking to water New Zealand], Australian Aborigines outrage or the liberation struggles there would be pumps and tubs and Native Americans across both and valiant attempts of people like appearing magically and mystically. Latin and North America. What Ntate Biko, Professor Alexander, What we have instead experienced is distinguishes the South African story Ms. Asha Moodley and countless that the script has not gone according is that it has been recast and reframed others. It died because it was no to ‘the plan’. Instead of disappearing as an issue of civil rights rather longer economically viable. It was not completely, instantaneously and than liberation, rather than an anti- profitable anymore and the concept of mystically in 1994, 350 years of racial imperialist war as evidenced by many positive engagement and constructive and economic domination have in battles of resistance as early as 1653, engagement, which those complicit fact become moving targets and months after the arrival of the first in apartheid corroborated with, was much more difficult to detect. In many European settlers. The last hundred becoming too morally disgusting respects race based capitalism has years have seen the notion of race and unprofitable for capital to openly been entrenched and enabled by this based capital used to form a sense remain engaged with. What then dispensation. This is all the more so of Darwinist inspired otherness and emerged from this was that the due to the massive co-option and ‘un- class division, even though it was not hard core anti-imperial struggle was remembrance’ of the growing black named as such at the time. This paper mischievously rebranded as a far elite class. What we have experienced seeks to contribute to the struggle to more innocuous anti -apartheid and is the retention of white capital correct the on-going narrative of the race issue. domination under the aegis of black historical and anti-historical manner I suspect that if anyone asked any political rule, snuggled comfortably of addressing race, class and gender of our current heroes and sheroes under the radar of ‘democracy’, politics in this country today. whether they spent one day in jail, unaccountable and unperturbed by The architecture of race based im- one moment under house arrest, even the dimmest possibility of a perialism and capitalism necessitated lifetimes in exile and risked their lives shift in their privileged situation. This an increased, deliberate and system- for access to beaches and park is a complex conundrum to address atic structural marginalisation of the benches they would probably laugh and yet we speak of a better life for African majority in this country. African with derision. This behoves us to all. This story of post-apartheid South people’s movements were restricted begin to reconstruct and retell the Africa was scripted to be a happy and only linked to the needs of capital obliterated truth about ourselves to one, replete with stories of lives that and capital intensive economic activ- ourselves and to our children: that have qualitatively and substantially ity. This model was ruthlessly applied the South African / Azanian question improved for the majority of people. mentally as well as physically through was and remains the struggle of Clearly the definition of both ‘better’ cheap labour in cities, sub-standard access to resources, land and self- and ‘all’ is far more restrictive Bantu education and the employment determination. than anticipated by the millions of reserves where black people are still It is therefore critical to reconstruct African people who queued up to located in townships, farmlands or peri the discourse on reconciliation away vote, believing that ‘better’ meant -urban areas across the country. Across from liberal interpretations that remove tangible and accessible improvement modern South Africa, our spatial plan- liability and responsibility from the 8 white minority. Reconciliation implies would be spoilt. This rainbow has to The present era is characterised by the one of two things: (1) that there was be continuously bleached and air- current regime, whose possibly good originally a relationship of equilibrium, brushed in order to maintain a comfort intentions on paper have resulted in parity, mutual understanding, respect level free from restitution, justice or very little tangible success in effecting and honour. When we speak of even any obligation of honest reflection a shift in these power dynamics reconciliation it is often related to by a minority at the expense of majority and power relations. This speaks couples who for whatever reasons discourse, majority truth and majority to the reality that citizenship and are not relating well, and who through experience. its substantive, liberatory meaning counsel and communication can be It is therefore important not only to have not been addressed sufficiently. reconciled. speak about reconciliation between South Africa has signed up to major (2) Reconciliation also assumes people, but reconciliation between the supra-national agreements such as that both parties own proportional past and the present. Our economic the World Trade Organisation and the responsibility for the damage or status tells us that the past is still with Trade, Development and Cooperation unhappiness caused, and agree to us. One of the truths of the last 17 years Agreement [with the European Union] an appropriate undertaking to correct is that on average, the African majority that were negotiated long before and heal the situation. Instead, in in South Africa is 12 or 13 percent 1994. These agreements are critical to this country, we have accepted worse off than they were before 1994; the protection of the socio-economic a false construct that insists that and that the minority population are status quo; and most unfortunately reconciliation is something that can a similar proportion better off than the majority of people in this country happen even though social, racial they were before 1994. The rich are are unaware, uninformed of the and economic inequalities were, richer and the poor are poorer and implications of such arrangements. and are still, completely ignored; this poverty is both racialised and Far more people need to be aware and where the perpetrators of gendered. The majority of people in that South Africa is in the grip of race-based, capitalist and political this country are Afrikan people and particular trade agreements at the oppression were granted amnesty of those, the majority of the indigent World Trade Organization for example, without accountability, liability or are women. Despite this, there are that these measures reduce our Afrikan redress. This is self-evident in the very few sufficiently cohesive and countries to facilitating states and our method with which the Truth and coherent structural interventions to leaders to consultants whose job it is Reconciliation Commission (TRC) bring women and African people away to hold the door open for unfettered conducted its proceedings. The from the margins into the centre of the access by western interests into our TRC consolidated the interests of economic narrative. Instead, the policy markets. For this reason, it is critical capital by failing to subpoena the and transformation discourses are to reconcile the past and the present, large multinationals that subsidised dominated by the insistence on utilising and to understand that there is an the apartheid regime for decades; instruments such as Black Economic on-going narrative between the past and by allowing apartheid architects Empowerment (BEE). Despite the and the present, and that of necessity like PW Botha and FW de Klerk to many additional B’s and E’s to denote it must always be interrogated and thumb their noses at the process or enlarged beneficiary base, it is still an tested for veracity. to be undeservedly rehabilitated as effective mechanism of entrenching In order to reach the core of the ‘visionary statesmen.’ Instead, the minority rule with the complicity of basic architecture of our memory process opened up painful wounds the new Afrikan oligarchy. In truth, and history, we need to locate and and arbitrarily assigned a monetary the economy has not substantively relocate these dilemmas within a value of R7 000 to somehow absolve transformed nor transferred power, discourse and narrative of truth. To a perpetrators from responsibility and and it is not changing complexion. great extent, BEE for example largely to assuage the experiences of a This is evidenced by the consolidation distracts us with the acquisition of small group of people who suffered of an existing and new oligarchy; under the colonial apartheid regime. and this oligarchy is strongly linked Even Judas would have expressed to and enabled by a political agenda. “Reconciliation contempt at this offering of the The troubling trend and growth of an without knowledge of proverbial thirty pieces of silver. interfacing relationship between party the self, knowledge of When we speak in various contexts politics and the politics of financial/ history, understanding and spaces, I believe that it is capital power augurs very badly for this of the mechanisms important to address reconciliation country. of the economy and within the economy. Professor Sampie Reconciliation should also mean the the mechanisms of Terreblanche was calling for exactly beginning of reconciling between the political discourse – this when he proposed the ‘Truth and past and the present in the context where the outliers are Justice Commission.’ The idea was of what was and what is now. The diverting us from roundly rejected by the new government past is characterised by the reality core issues of this and capital interests who deemed that that black people were marginalised incomplete liberation foreign investors would be averse to in this country economically, socially, struggle – is a doing business in South Africa and that politically and educationally and that dangerous and false the script of the new rainbow nation this marginalisation was legislated. reconciliation.” 9

dissent, the death of disagreement and the death of popular discourse to expose contradictions in South Africa. In this state of un-reconciled reconciliation how do we speak about heritage and or even celebrate it? This re-telling of our history and deconstruction of truth is again officiated by the Archbishop. Archbishop Tutu officiated the TRC and he is now officiating the death of memory in this country, the death of a viable political history by placing key moments of our history on a braai and allowing them to literally and figuratively go up in smoke. How are we going to redeem our education system when young peo-

Prof Ben Khoapa, SBF board member & moderator of the 8th FrankTalk dialogue. SBF board member & moderator of the 8th FrankTalk Prof Ben Khoapa, ple are not able to identify the trajec- wealth for a narrow proportion of the League. These outliers contribute tory of struggle? When children of 11 society. This is not a surprise when to the dumbing down of the general and 12 years of age can barely spell we recall what the prophets such as political narrative in this country and ‘apartheid’? It is absolutely critical to Nkrumah long warned us about; the remove attention from critical trends state that our languages are being co-option of the Comprador class unfolding in our country. This is a decimated and torn from our scream- into the white capitalist agenda. The space where it is a risky and perilous ing mouths. How and what do we then dilemma of citizenship is also linked undertaking to speak about what reconcile with? Reconciliation without to the dilemma of trust, particularly people like Biko and Sobukwe were knowledge of the self, knowledge of in the current South African context. speaking. It is becoming dangerous to history, understanding of the mecha- The crisis of eldership as evidenced love our country and still speak against nisms of the economy and the mech- by some of the reprehensible conduct some of the questionable judgments, anisms of political discourse – where of school teachers towards female appointments and tender processes the outliers are diverting us from core students, or the crisis of families that that we see headlining our news weekly. issues of this incomplete liberation fractured family units. This continues How do we reconcile the space for struggle – is a dangerous and false to bear bitter fruit of separateness, constructive dissent, of constructive reconciliation. The falsehood that has perverse and skewed male and inclusion and the space to disagree, become ‘reconciliation’ must be revis- female identities as part of our without being branded a ‘counter- ited and redefined to deliver us from psychoses. The end of apartheid did revolutionary?’ In the interests of that the sinking sand on which we stand. not end gender violence and sexism, necessary space, it is imperative to We must rather stand on the clarion but the expectation was that these claim back the state as the defender, call to self-determination articulated by evils would steadily lose power –they the protector and the trustworthy Biko, and chart a course fitting to the have not and instead the so called vehicle of our common aspirations men and women who, like Ntate Biko, liberation era has presented us with and of our common values. It is for left us before the call was fully heard an anti-feminist, post Beijing backlash us to define and redefine how we and heeded. that gender desks and government intend to respond to the desperate Mayibuye i-Afrika, Mayibuye i-Azania. policies cannot contain. need for plurality and to the growing The on-going notions of entitlement voicelessness of our democracy; are reminders that identity is at stake, voicelessness that is becoming “...on average, the including white rights and white privilege entrenched by particular legislation, Afrikan majority in that accuse the African majority of judgments and appointments that South Africa is 12 wanting too much, too soon and seek threaten to silence us. or 13 percent worse off absolution from any obligation to cede The consecutive appointment of than they were before any wealth, power or privilege. Trust in not one, but two questionable police 1994; and that the the state has largely been lost by many commissioners is one such example minority population people as evidenced by voter apathy, of our tongues being silenced by are a similar community insurrections, protracted shock. There are more civilians dying proportion better off wage disputes and endemic at the hands of the police now than than they were before corruption. There are many outliers there have been since 1994 and in 1994. The rich are richer that are intended to distract us from the last few years, there has been an and the poor are poorer the issues at hand, one example being increase in civilian deaths. Andries and this poverty is the chaos and on-going spotlight Tatane was not the only casualty; both racialised and placed on the conduct of the Youth Tatane is a metaphor for the death of gendered.” 10 The Politics of Truth Participants in the state of the nation FrankTalk dialogue. Participants in the state of nation FrankTalk

his paper begins you can imagine, to unite with a ruling party that is firmly with a personal the liberation movement entrenched; but one that is fractured Treminiscence both inside the country for a number of reasons. Even about Steve Biko, as well as outside. That though there are many different class who with his comrade was the mission. Steve interests vying for dominance within Peter Jones, was literally died in pursuit of the African National Congress (ANC), arrested in August the unity of the people of it is clear that because the ANC, like 1977, virtually directly South Africa, of Azania, similar parties throughout the world, on their way from my and it is something that makes similar compromises for similar house in Cape Town. we should remember: reasons, it is locked into a paradigm

At the time, they were Professor Neville Alexander that Steve’s death was of rule that is determined by the neo- on their way home to King William’s not only unnecessary or brutal but liberal economic orthodoxy that is Town in the Eastern Cape. Although that it was martyrdom, a sacrifice for prevalent across the world. Steve and I were at that time both the unity of the liberation movement. The fact is that the paradigm of under house arrest, we tried to What we see today in South Africa rule is informed largely by the need meet; but for a number of reasons is a mockery of that. This article will for foreign direct investment and the we did not. Some of them are very therefore look at the big picture, and maximization of exports. Due to that, poignant reasons and some of them will try to provide a type of navigation the ANC is locked in that paradigm of are reasons which have led to a lot of system to try and see where we are rule, no matter what it says, no matter personal regret. actually heading and whether we can what it does, that is the determining The important thing is that Steve reach that destination, the glittering factor. The strategic positions are was on a mission to help various prize. held by international and national groups of people in the country at When we examine the present capital in this country. There is no the time. All of it underground, as situation, we see that we are faced question about it. 11

All of this is happening in an for a very simple reason. The fact that “It is about getting international economic climate from a past which was informed by the people to understand marked by a deep, growing struggle for a true humanity, they now what is actually recession. The United States has have to accustom themselves with happening in the been in recession for the last year but neo-liberal barbarism. The brutality country; revealing and it has not acknowledged this. In this of this is a philosophy that says “I am exposing the truth, worldwide recession, any belief that the purpose of all life. I am what it is so that people see the export led development in South all about. You give me and I might give power that they have Africa is going to save us economically you back but I am not obliged to.” in changing things. is a pipe dream. The latest economic That is the struggle in these parties That is what is meant statistics from the Reserve Bank and it is the reason why those who by the politics of demonstrate very clearly that things have a modicum of decency in them truth.” are going down and they are going to are falling away. They are splitting stay down for a long time. away by either dying away or doing At the global level, there is a counter some small enterprise. In this way all dynamic emerging in South-South these parties are no hope parties. They times. We cannot continue speaking Cooperation that we in our country cannot become neo-liberal parties in the language of the 19th century. largely associate with BRICS (Brazil, and by attempting to become one, There is a need to find a new set of Russia, India, China, South Africa), most of them are either going to end metaphors in order to get people to formed to increase the possibility up as the Independent Democratic understand what the truth really is. of more space for independent Party (IDP) did inside the DA or inside Unless you are fatalistic and say that sovereign states that may be able to the ANC, which is virtually the same human beings are greedy, brutal, and leverage more power from those who thing today. domineering by nature, all of which is have in the past dominated – mainly However, the aura of liberation untrue. People die for others and that the North: Europe, North America, continues to give credibility to the alone, whether you are a mother of a Australia and so on. ANC, which it deserves. It was the child that is threatened by death and The second point that this paper mainstream of the liberation struggle you are willing to die for that child or makes is that the real beneficiaries and there is no question about that. whether you are a soldier willing to die of the compromise of 1994 are, This gives it the dominance that it has for your fellow soldier, disproves any besides the white capitalist class who and that is the reason why the most idea that human beings are simply now have open sesame across the effective opposition today is inside greedy and self-centered. Human whole African continent – something the ANC and not outside. It is the beings are as pliable as anything else they never had before, and indeed reason why the Congress of South and that is what we need to believe. many South African companies have African Trade Unions (COSATU), the That is where we need to start. become multinational in that sense South African Communist Party We talk about truth in this set – the black middle class, even if it is (SACP) and other groups inside the up because we need to recapture a hire-purchase middle class. The ANC are more effective than the DA, the state and this we can achieve middle class that can be toppled IFP or any of the other parties. While without taking power. By changing back into the proletariat. It is crucial this is the case, their attempt to turn the world in this way we are actually to understand the value system of the ANC into a socialist movement is capturing the state. There are a few that middle class because that is not going to happen. They are going attempts currently in South Africa to where the leadership of the country to be shifted aside one of these days. get people once again into believing is coming from today; a middle class Hopefully not in the brutal way that in the credibility and the viability of the that has become so degenerate in its it has happened in other countries struggle against the capitalist system. value system, it has forgotten what it where communists were liquidated To get people to believe that there is is we fought for, how we fought for by the capitalist class inside political an alternative. it, how we suffered for it. This is part parties. In Indonesia, almost a million In doing this, we need to get to the of the reason that we cannot turn communists were decimated for the point where people want to believe that the ship of the state around to face very same reasons. there is an alternative and are prepared a different direction. This is what is There is a global dilemma of in a passionate way to fight against meant by the politics of truth. socialism. The credibility of socialism capitalism. To get them to fight against When we look at the position of the was lost with the collapse of the Soviet post-apartheid capitalism with the ruling party, besides the Democratic Union. This is because in the eyes of same passion and commitment which Alliance (DA), which is openly the party most people, the Soviet Union was people like Steve Biko demonstrated for capital, there is the Congress of the actual existing socialist example, in their lives and death. the People (COPE), you have Inkatha and when it collapsed the credibility It is about getting people to Freedom Party (IFP), the United of socialism collapsed. This does not understand what is actually happening Democratic Movement (UDM) and mean that socialism as a revolution in the country; revealing and exposing you have a few other smaller groups has had its day; instead, the point is the truth, so that people see the power and all of these are no hope parties. to find a way back into that way of that they have in changing things. All of them are divided, fractured and thinking that is more relevant to the That is what is meant by the politics 12

of truth. It is about accountability; community where households do not that because of patronage and the about getting people to understand, have literature, they are empowering fear of losing jobs, people are doing for example, that big firms pay less themselves and the entire community. things that they know in decent times for electricity per unit than what an There are many ways in which they would not think of doing. An ordinary household pays. This is communities can do this and it has to atmosphere and environment of fear because capital and foreign direct be done systematically. It should be is once again polluting this country. investment remain supreme. This coordinated into a movement. It is the fear of being made poor is the kind of truth that we need to This work is not about lamenting, overnight and being ridiculed. expose to the people of South Africa. complaining and condemning. It is The management of dysfunctional This needs to be done to demonstrate about empowering, doing things local and provincial governments accountability, to deepen democracy ourselves, and taking charge of our such as the Eastern Cape and and to get public participation in the own lives and there is a lot of pressure Mpumalanga needs to be explained politics of this country. on us to do this. to the nation. In this way we will be There is still time to redirect the ship One of the attempts to do this able to demonstrate the possibility of of state which has turned to be a ship is a Truth Conference which came an alternative. This has to become of fools. It is a ship of fools and we have together in Durban a year ago. a movement of people that will to turn it around. Public participation Processes like the Truth Conference put pressure on government and will help this country get to that are the way to go. That is the way if government cannot deliver, this horizon, the distant glittering prize we are going to empower ourselves. movement will have the courage to that Steve Biko spoke about. This has Through such initiatives we will make change their government. to be done properly by getting people information available to the public Today we live in a democracy and to understand that when they form on issues such as education, the we must exploit every possible legal a neighbourhood watch and when public health service, the delivery angle to get to the things that we they establish a reading club in a poor of energy and job creation. If we want. Not by way of violent revolution expose this truth we will show that certainly, not at this stage, but “This work is not intellectuals are not people who have rather the empowerment and self- about lamenting, gone to universities but people who organization of the urban and the complaining and understand how society is structured rural poor. Through the use of the gift condemning. It is and how it works. That is what an of formal education as well as access about empowering, intellectual really is. to books and information, those who doing things ourselves, This does not mean, however, have this gift can make it possible and taking charge of that this movement should be anti- for those who do not. Through this, our own lives.” government or anti-ANC. There the urban and rural poor can be are people within the ANC and empowered. It is our task. It is our inside government who are equally duty. We have to expose the truth. committed to this. What is needed This truth is what will liberate us. is to come together. The problem is Free Speech vs Hate Speech – The Dividing Line Last year I attended a FrankTalk events that lead up to the question posed Dialogue Session hosted by the the SBF-hosted event, was far too obvious: Steve Biko Foundation entitled Free save to point out the the “dividing line” is Speech versus Hate Speech, What topical significance: blurry and dependent is the Dividing Line? This session some of Eric Miyeni’s on contextual factors was held in the wake of the public statements in the such as history, intent, fall-out that erupted from an article Sowetan article were perceptions, etc. I by Eric Miyeni that was published in actively debated as was more interested the Sowetan newspaper in the weeks having flirted with in a debate that might leading up to the FrankTalk event. or crossed the line consider how the so-

This article sparked what came to be between free speech Hilton Johnson called Fourth Estate known in many sections of the media and hate speech. was able to internalize and respond as the “Black Snake” debate. It is not I personally had my reservations to this complexity in a way that takes the purpose of this piece to recount about the FrankTalk dialogue’s title some responsibility for the role that it the details of this article or the related because I felt that the “answer” to plays in contemporary South Africa, 13

TV commercials (e.g. Castle Lager’s sporty portrayal of some utopian place where South African men of all races collectively cheer for our sporting heroes, beer in hand of course) that depict a multiracial future that very few of us have actually ever seen. I think there are many of us that sincerely yearn for this future but the barriers between us – the mental ones being the strongest of these – often appear so impregnable that we are left to reflect on sporadic and symptomatic outbursts in the media or distant court judgements as some kind of symptomatic representation of FrankTalk dialogue. FrankTalk

th the anguish that we collectively feel at what has remained unsaid between

Mrs. Ntsiki Biko & Ms. Arun Naicker with Umtapo participants Ntsiki Biko & Ms. Mrs. at the 8 us. We know where we’d like to go something which I feel has not been Africans had equal access to the but we have no idea what that means spoken of nearly enough. Nonetheless, courts. It should be patently obvious for our day to day behaviours, so we the SBF Dialogue Session served to that this is not the case, thus elevating resort instead to violent vomiting on raise some important points, and in certain minority sections of society’s make-believe stages and random a round about way spoke to these “rights” (i.e. the economic elite who are disconnected judgements delivered issues. mostly white) above those of the ma- by arbitrators supposedly appointed Firstly, the debate highlighted for jority of South Africans, mostly made to speak on our behalf. me the many ways in which the up of poor, black people. These issues I am convinced that we have country’s media and it’s courts – as could very well be thrashed out in the historically been so successfully the two major channels within which courts in a society where very little in- socialized to defend – and therefore this debate appears to currently play equality exists, but we live in one of the maintain our separate “ways” that we itself out in – frequently and selectively most unequal societies on earth. This are somehow still paralysed by the hide within neo-liberal discourses thinking neglects, for instance, the fear of losing our identity if we engage that are most often adopted from countless hate speech incidents that freely. Worse still is the fear of shifting “Westernised” contexts that have are still perpetrated against poor black our identity to a more collectively very little in common with dynamics South Africans on a daily basis. These representative place to begin with. confronting contemporary South types of incidents will not receive the When we are able to constructively Africa. This allows the key protagonists same publicity, and therefore engage- confront these perceived “threats” to within these channels to somehow ment, as those perpetrated against the our sense of self, we might be ready absolve themselves of taking into white minority because victims often to expose ourselves to the many consideration the context within which do not have access to the channels alternative realities that constantly they actually exist and operate. In other within which this publicity or debate is and concurrently play themselves out words, there often appears to be an currently generated, namely the media within our society, thereby creating intellectual, or even emotional, “cop and the courts. more of the kinds of spaces that out” that takes place in terms of the Secondly, and most importantly, will allow us to truly and collectively way we think about concepts such as what the SBF event showed me, engage our pain (read our past), free speech and equality before the law more than anything else, was just and therefore begin to adopt the in that we appear to subconsciously how much we are actually crying out behaviours we need to realise that apply the global legitimacy and for engagement around these issues seemingly elusive vision for our thinking subsumed within these in the first place. For the purpose of future. This is critical if we are to truly concepts to local contexts within analogy, I was made to think about break the poisonous cycle of social which the inherent structural and other the obese person who knows they “othering” that still pervades our inequalities that still characterise our need to lose twenty kilograms in the society at so many levels. But don’t society are not adequately taken into medium to longer term but who is take my word for it. Just ask one of regard. completely incapable of visualising the millions of Zimbabwean migrants Let us consider a practical mani- what that means for them at their currently living in SA, many of whom festation of this tendency. During the next meal. In South Africa we are may have escaped to our country FrankTalk dialogue it was rightly point- constantly reminded of the South from desperate poverty and brutal ed out that engaging issues of hate African societal vision for harmonious persecution, what it feels like to now speech/free speech within the South integration, whether that be through find themselves in the midst of all this African legal system could only be short-lived sporting events that are unresolved pain. genuinely considered fair if all South cast as “nation building” or through 14 Contributors’ Biographies

Nkosinathi Biko trialists and their families during their Professor Neville Alexander Mr. Biko is the Chief Executive Officer mammoth trial in 1976 and 1977. She Professor Neville Alexander was born of the Steve Biko Foundation. He is a commenced work as a researcher for in Cradock in the Eastern Cape Prov- founder member of the board of trust- the Black Community Programmes ince and graduated with an MA in ees and chaired the Steve Biko Founda- in King Williams Town in 1977 and German from the University of Cape tion for the first five years. Mr. Biko grad- worked with Steve Biko and Thami Town. He joined the African People’s uated from the University of Cape Town Zani. She was detained later in the year Democratic Union of Southern Africa where he pursued a Bachelor of Social under section 6 of the Terrorism Act which was established in 1960. How- Science (Economics) and a Postgradu- for a year and half. On release at the ever, he was ejected from APOUSA in ate Diploma in Marketing Management. end of 1978, was banned for 5 years 1961 and with Kenneth Abrahams and He studied Property Development and and restricted to the district of Es- others formed a study group of nine Finance through the University of the court. She returned to Durban in 1982 members in July 1962 known as the Witwatersrand. He is also a published and has since been engaged in anti- Yu Chi Chan Club (YCCC) which was writer and speaker and has given lec- racism, anti-classism and anti-sexism replaced by the National Liberation tures on the international circuit. work. She is currently the chairperson Front (NLF) of which Alexander was of the KwaZulu Natal branch of the a founder. From 1964 – 1974 he was Professor Ben Khoapa Socialist Party of Azania, a member imprisoned on Robbin Island. After be- Professor Khoapa has a distinguished of the Board of the Umtapo Center, a ing released he has done much pio- career in higher education in both member of the Editorial Advisory and neering work in the field of language South Africa and abroad. Over the Management Boards of Agenda and policy and planning in South Africa past thirteen years, he has served in also a Board member of the Refugee and since the early 1960s he has been various capacities at the DUT and its Social Services. Asha is currently em- influential this respect. His most recent predecessor. As Vice Chancellor of ployed as the office Administrator of work has focused on the tension be- Technikon Natal, he led the institution the Legal Resources Centre in Durban tween multilingualism and hegemony into the merger with ML Sultan Tech- which is a public interest law center. of English in the public sphere.He is nikon. His international work experi- currently a director of the Project for the ences include being Associate Pro- Liepollo Lebohang Pheko Study of Alternative Education in South fessor in the School of Social Work Liepollo Lebohang Pheko is Execu- Africa (PRAESA) at the University of at the Grand Valley State University tive Director at NGO think tank the Cape Town. in Michigan, USA and Visiting Profes- Trade Collective. She is exploring sor at the National University of Leso- social accounting tools for measur- Hilton Johnson tho. Professor Khoapa obtained his ing instrumental behavior as it affects Hilton Johnson has a Masters Degree PhD in Social Welfare from the Case women, the environment, low income in Forced Migration Studies from the Western Reserve University and his communities, employees and other University of the Witwatersrand and MSc in Social Administration from the social and development indices. She a Bachelor of Commerce Degree School of Applied Social Science in is a policy analyst, social entrepre- in Economics from the University of Cleveland, Ohio in the USA. In addi- neur and social activist. She is also South Africa. He currently works as an tion, Professor Khoapa is a member of the Africa co-convener of the World independent development consultant various professional associations from Dignity Forum and is part of the Af- focussing on transformation manage- being President of the Durban YMCA rican Social Forum Secretariat. Ms ment, stakeholder analysis, commu- to a member of the Board of Trustees Liepollo is also co-owner and Director nity engagement, strategic facilitation, of the SBF. His publications and pre- of a development consultancy called and capacity building. His current sentations are numerous ranging from Four Rivers which has consulted and previous employers include Idasa matters pertaining to social work, edu- with the United Nations, SADC, sev- (The Institute for Democracy in Africa), cation, cultural diversity, social change eral government departments and The Consortium for Refugees and and poverty and inequality. His work NGOs in the areas of organizational Migrants in South Africa, The African on the life and thoughts of Steve Biko development, environmental impact Centre for Migration and Society and has received wide acclaim. assessments, agenda mainstream- various members of the FirstRand ing, programme development and Group. His work over the past 12 Asha Moodley evaluation, policy formulation, mod- years has spanned the public, private Asha Moodley graduated with a BA eling and assessment and statistical and social sectors and actively seeks from the University College for Indians analysis. Four Rivers has a decidedly to establish strategic partnerships for at Salsbury Island, majoring in Eng- alternative approach to ethics. She the purposes of advancing key devel- lish and Psychology. She joined the also writes essays, articles, commen- opmental outcomes, particularly cen- South African Students Organization taries, freelances and has contributed tred around the role of migration and (SASO) and the Black People’s Con- to two books on international trade. democratic governance, both locally vention (BPC) and assisted the BC and regionally. 15 Acknowledgements

The Steve Biko Foundation thanks Umtapo Centre, Durban and the The Open Society for South Africa all of those who contributed to Durban University of Technology for their generous financial support this issue of the FrankTalk Journal (DUT) for co-hosting the Durban- of the FrankTalk initiative and and the following partners for their based FrankTalk dialogues and making this publication possible. support: providing images.