SA Rocks

SA is actually a democracy and with that in mind let me ask: What the hell is Julius “Kill them all” Malema going on about?

To quote the genius himself:

We must … intensify the struggle to eliminate the remnants of counter-revolution, which include the DA and a loose coalition of those who want to use state power to block the ANC president’s ascendancy to the highest office of the land.

Uhu… so should we remove our internationally acclaimed constitution at the same time or is that little document OK Julius? There is something in there about freedom of speech I think, but correct me if I’m wrong.

I’m not sure if Malema completely understands the concept of democracy and the role of viable oppositions in a democratic society?

Mr Malema let me briefly explain myself. If you are to “eliminate the remnants of counter-revolution” you will be removing the opposition. If you do that, you are left with a single party state (roughly translated as a Mugabe-esque Zimbabwe government). This is not a good thing Mr Malema. This is not a good thing at all. This will not help our country become more representative. This will exclude more than the white people in this country (I think that’s what Malema means to say), this sort of talk or move will isolate freedom of choice, freedom of expression and inherently take us 40 years in to the past where opinion, choice and freedom did not exist. Do you remember those days Mr Malema?

One of the reasons that SA Rocks and will only grow in leaps and bounds is because we are a democratic state that allows people to be represented in government, that allows people to speak out against their leaders who say that they will kill anyone who opposes their leader, this is the reason that it rocks to be a part of a democracy. It’s a little thing called freedom Mr Malema.

And let me say one thing in closing. I will die before I let you take away my freedom to choose, my freedom to oppose Jacob Zuma, Helen Zille, Mangosutho Buthelezi, You (Mr Malema) or any leader that we might have one day. Considering the past of this nation, it would only be a mistake to take away the public’s freedom to choose a leader, look where it got us in the past.

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Anthea Garman (once a lecturer of mine at Rhodes University) wrote a fantastic post on Thought Leader this week. I don’t want to add too much commentary but felt this post to be a necessary one for the readers of SA Rocks.

Here are a few snippets, but I really do suggest you read the entire post and leave your comments.

Third was Jody Kollapen, chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, taking stock of how little progress we’ve made in internalising human rights, how little progress we’ve made towards that lofty and important goal that “South Africa belongs to all who live here”.

Fourth was Dr Abdulkader Tayob talking in very nuanced and textured ways about the 300 years that the Muslim communities of South Africa have negotiated life here and engaged in various forms of politics, and hearing him carefully push his questioners to think more thoroughly about their black-and-white opinions and to be more willing to understand the complexities of Islamic ideas and thinking.

So, I conclude, the years of legitimate government have lulled us into a silence. Now that we see around us very significant signs of danger, we know (from past experience) that we — the ordinary citizens — have the power of speech and disagreement and that we should use this power.

And here is Anthea’s resolve:

I resolve from now on to end my silence. And to assert: I’m a South African, I belong here, this is my government and my country and there are certain things I do not want done in my name. I resolve to talk, to start conversations, to listen, to seek to understand and to do the work to get into and through complexity and complication. But I don’t think this country is being served any longer by those of us just watching events unfold.

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12 years ago our current president made a moving and motivating speech to his nation-to-be. 12 years on and I feel more African than I ever thought I could. But I fear that some might have forgotten the words that moved me.

Here is an abriged version of President Mbeki’s “I am an African” speech:

I did manage to find a full transcript of the moving speach. Do yourself a favour and read it. Today on African Day, read it and take it on, take it in and make it about your context, your situation and the lives of those around you. This speech unfortunately came from a man who has lost his nation to travel, who has lost his way to keeping up relations with mass murderers and dictators who seem to have some sort of hold over him. This man has lost his way and I think he needs to go and let our African diamond (SA) grow from without his grasp.

Here is my take on the incredible I am an African speech:

I am an African, Mr Mbeki, not you or your brethren. No Longer. You might at one point have been but no more.

We are about the people, the places, the feeling and emotions. You have become too good, too high and too mighty for us. You and your kind have lost your way and been blinded by capitalism and absolute power.

It is us, the man in the street, the face in the crowd, the class that works, that pays, that suffers and battles.

It is us that make Africans African, that make people proud and that make our nations what they are – whether good or bad.

It is us that makes Africa emotional, engaged, heated, enraged, moved and moving, grown and growing.

It is us and we are African.

We are taking responsibility for our brothers and sisters and their actions. We are the ones who stand in the street, sit in our houses, behind our computers and condemn or praise the actions of other Africans.

We are the ones who cannot leave when times get tough, who will not leave when the grapes sour and who refuse to let our nations divide.

We are Africa, we are African and we will not let one man, one ruler, one dictator, one government or one president take that away from us.

We are African and this is our continent.

image found here

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I wish that I had written this post first, but alas Llewellyn Kriel beat me to the punch. To be honest he probably did a much better job than I would have.

I don’t often link directly to a post for the sake of it, but Kriel’s post on Mandela is brilliantly written, poignant and relevant to the core of SA at the moment.

Please do me, yourself and everyone else out there a favour and read this post. It is writing at its best.

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