Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Was Steve Tshwete a hired gun with no bullets?

I like sport and for weeks I have kept quite about my liking of sports because I have feared that within the euphoria that has gone on over the last few weeks about that team called the "Springboks". You see I call it that team because quite frankly from 1995 when I took notice of its existence it never appealed to me as a team worthy of representing this nation, when they flopped at the 1999 and 2003 World Cups I subsequently felt like it was a sign, more like the "broderbond" will realize that it was time for change, unfortunately this hasn't happened.

I am reminded of a time when minister of sport Steve Tshwete was dubbed "Mr Fix It" by the media, I had an inkling that our beloved ANC was finally recognizing the problem and were dealing with it head on, but need less to say "Mr Fix It" fixed jerk sh*t to this day we still waiting for the report on how it went with the qouta systems that he so glorious introduced and commissions of enquiries were set to work out what the real problems were and nothing has come off that either.
I could easily have let this slide you see but I got enraged when the current minister of sports minister Fikile "Razzmatazz" Mbalula (funny how their nicknames always tell you what they are in for)  told all and sundry that this team, with 90% white people is the reflection of our rugby and however who doesn't support it must basically go jump!

 Well this got me thinking that, if I voted for the ANC to mainly implement societal transformation, how can this politician tell me to go jump when he has conveniently forgotten his mandate as set out by me? How can for a trip to New Zealand he sell out 47 millions blacks and force feed them a team that is not reflective of their country? how can he sleep easy in business class on that flight for his ( I bet his taken his wife)  Kiwi jamboree take kind to the fact that there are still currie cup teams in the country that field 100% White teams? How can he claim that this is all good when there are stories of racism coming out of rugby fields and clubs across the country? how can he sign this off when in fact the Soweto Rugby Club is not allowed to win its matches in the Gauteng league purely because they are Black? How can he allow us to be duped by this mirage called Peter de Villiers who 3 years ago promised US a much more representative team and now he has forgotten color and only see rugby players? How come when we have to find a decent Black prop for the Springboks we have to cross the Limpopo and search Zimbabwe because the aren't dedicated training programs that allow our Black players to wear that green and gold in positions either than wing? Where is the Black mans BEE or AA in rugby because you have it in politics? Why is he signing off on rugby being a reconciliatory factor when it was never whole? How come he is not jumping up and down when Banyana Banyana, who are largely representative of our nation qualify for the Olympic games for the first time, yet he is a willing cheer leader not only for the Springboks but for the equally lilly white cricket and netball national teams?

But I quickly realize how minister "Razzmatazz" can do this, its because he is a member of the ANC and they are running riot messing up our country, the fact that the springboks jersey and merchandise is manufactured in China at a cost for job loses for black South Africans working in the textile industry is not a problem to him- because what is his cheer leading line again?

"Moer hulle bokke" feels like when P.W. Botha said it during apartheid!

Fact that there are no dedicated development programs in rural and township communities of our country spearheaded by our government contributes to the perpetual influx control of blacks in to former white sporting codes and the ANC as usual is the driving force behind these and this is not only in sports, its in everything, Banking , Mining, Health, Infrastructure development or Architecture and Engineering, there is a lot more of issues one can raise with the ANC on their inept and corrupt ways of handling the running our nation, its worse than an under-storked spaza shop in Phillipi!

So having had all these thoughts in my head, and as I walk past a beautifully (tender) built Steve Tshwete education complex in Zwelitsha, King Williams Town, I cant help but feel how this ANC politician who did nothing for our democratic emancipation is immortalized in our history(even with a whole municipality named in his memory), the people inside the walls speak of him each day when they describe where they work (hoping they do work, considering the state in which the ANC has allowed the education system in this province, its a mess that stinks like the veld if not the open bucket toilets our kids are made to use in schools) while no one in institutions speak of real african intellectuals and change drivers.

So Minister "Razzmatazz" while you are there jolting and kissing ass, please cross over to Australia and book Kylie Minogue for your sports awards concert next year because that what you do right? You are a fun guy, you bring "Razzmatazz" ask Brandy Norwood you even gave her an african name!

I wish the Springboks all the bad luck in New Zealand, I hope they get out of the World Cup as soon as the knock out stages begin, so that the Afrikaner Media can blame the black man Peter de Villiers and remind him that even if he doesn't see color they do and next time I hope SARU can get a white man as coach who would at least feel guilty that he didn't select the only on form Black rugby player in our country Lwazi Mvovo, who can assure Elton Jantjes that just because he had two off games doesn't make him a non springbok, who make all the injured white springbok players (who are all in new zealand) know that if you are injured you cant make the team let alone the plane to an international tournament, who can give all the Black kids who are playing other rugby positions hope that they don't have to play wing to be future Springboks after all 16 years since 1995 we have only 6 black South African players to speak off  that made an impact to this team and they all wings, in my opinion!

So to answer my question, Was Steve Tshwete a hired gun with no bullets? yes he was, some body needed to shut the Blacks up and he did, so what is Fikile Mbalula then? He is just disco lights in a crowded room providing the illusions that everyone is dancing, African revolutionaries know time will catch up with the ANC and they will soon be a memory not so nice to keep.

“We are fighting for the noblest cause on earth, the liberation of mankind….there is only one race, the human race. Multi-racialism is racism multiplied.” - Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe 


Vuka Darkie 

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Care to look for Biko?


The pseudo-intellectual conversation with permanent alcoholics.

Over the last couple of years I had been contemplating taking a tour to the eastern cape not that I haven’t been to the eastern cape, I have many times before but in all this time I made a point not to go to King Williams town not only the town but Ginsberg, you see Ginsberg is where Steven Bantu Biko, first emerged for the world to marvel at.

I don’t know Biko, but I know he was brutally murdered 72 days before my first birthday, something I am still holding a grudge with no one about, I have thought long and hard, struggled to reconcile why if this man never showed aggression against anyone, never encouraged violence in his ideals, thoughts and teachings, why then he had to die such a brutal death?

A couple of months ago something changed my life, I had moment of anger and said something I should have said a long time ago, I raised my issues around the “new oppression” that creative arts workers were enduring in the hands of mostly Jewish theatre producers, something that was blown completely out of proportion and me out of a job, and at this point I questioned myself, what I was, what I wanted to be and what I want my people, my children to remember me for, and this brought me right back to Biko about why he died,  about how he died and most importantly  what his death has  given to me, yes selfish as this sounds, to me I ask myself?

And I realize that there can only be one question to answer these questions, ‘What have I done to uphold Biko’s ideals?’


The answer is simple nothing, after hard and long struggle years I have simply wanted to be part of the rainbow, I have just wanted to be a happy go clappy, over indulging, materialistic rainbow nation man. I like many, have become an addict of oppression, I thrive on it, I eat at fancy places with fancy people and reckon this is the life, I live in a rented luxurious apartment because the bank doesn’t trust me enough for me to own one and I am happy because this is the life, I work with oppressors that have kept maids and gardens boys without the comforts and benefits they enjoy from the state and I justify it by saying they are liberal?

So I finally decided to take that journey I decided that I was going to go out there and I am going to look for Biko, not the idea of him, him the spirit.

Contrary to what most might have thought about the spirit, I felt I wasn’t going to seek it from a badly crafted bust at his house number 698 Ginsberg or at the Memorial Gardens where the body or Biko lies, or the Biko Bridge in East London or the currently being built Biko’s center and am glad I didn’t find it in this human art effects commemorating his name.

I did find the spirit though, the spirit of Biko is in the people all over the world but more so in the people of Ginsberg, they own Biko, they don’t need to be reminded who he was because each day they pride themselves with being the people of BIko.  I saw a street vendor with a badly erected stall and badly written graffiti, declaring “honorable Bantu Biko” that I for the first time saw the spirit, a little later I went out for a beer and a discussion that started off as electioneering talk ended up being about how mis-informed people are about the teachings of Biko and this achieved with drunk professionals of this place and not that they are drunk for today, no, they are drunk everyday that’s how they interface with their current reality.

 You see people in this place never knew it any different, when Biko was alive in this place they thought he was a trouble maker who continuously brought the attention of the special branch to the place and now that he is gone they find themselves trapped in this pseudo-intellectual areas full of alcoholics and poverty.

I then ask myself what would Biko say? How would Biko deal with this sense of hopelessness and misfortune?  And then I realize that we haven’t done enough to change the situation, we have become passengers in of our own destiny, which I realy find as an anti-Biko like behavior.

We haven’t created a Mozart like feeling that Salzburg has created for kids growing up there or a Van Goch like feeling that Amsterdam has created for kids growing there, we haven’t created an environment that speaks of Biko the philosopher, the father, the teacher and yes dare I say it the spiritual guider espoused.

The efforts of the Biko foundation must be encouraged and supported however not at a spectator level, we need to engage young people especially of King Williams town in its entirety then later the eastern cape followed by the whole country, we need to encourage a spirit in them of independence and ideals that would ensure that we stop graduating drunks that can only talk politics at bars, that only aspire for a German sedan, a Tuscany apartment and Italian clothing, we need to aspire to encourage a belief that highlights the contributions of all our leaders and the beliefs they died for.

So what am I learning from my permanent sabbatical in this town? Nothing I didn’t know really, but this reinforced the bitterness that has grown throughout the country.  It has sought to highlight why Phillip Tatane had to die such a brutal death, why his kids have to uphold his ideals.

It reaffirmed to me that with all the service delivery protests, the gap between poor and rich growing by minute, the unemployment levels ballooning and the gravy train increasing speed with fat cats on board, that we have sought to believe in nothing, we have allowed ourselves to be led blindly by people who stand for nothing, hence to this day our history is still not being written by us, otherwise our kids would know that a world without ideals is a world not worth living in.

We need change and we need change urgently and the first step to this change would be to tell our history accurately, let us tell accurately the history of people regardless of tribe, clan or political movement let us tell our history as a people not as spectators defined by the  island off the coast of cape town, let us tell the history of Biko and and the Black Consciousness movement, let us tell the history of Sobukwe and the Pan Africanist Congress, the history of Sekhukhune and the Bapedi people, the history Tiyo Soga, Sol Platjie  and the black intellectuals in the time of colonialism, the story of the sinking of the  SS Mendi and black heroes on board and stop defining our history to 99 years of a political party because until we have ideals to live for we might as well die for nothing.

You are either alive or proud or you are dead, and when you dead, you cant care anyway. And your method of death can itself be a politicising thing” ‘- Biko, I write what I like.

End.

Matjamela Motloung  © 2011