Address by Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Malusi Gigaba, during the debate against racism in the National Council of Provinces on 25 February 2016
The first-ever Pan African Congress held in London, in the year 1900, which brought together Africans from the African Continent, the United States and the Caribbean, made the clarion call:
The problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the colour line! Indeed, those prophetic words were to come to pass, as the twentieth century dismally failed to solve the problem of the colour line!
We are here today engaged in this debate precisely because of the debt we owe to the ages to solve the problem of the colour line. From the outset, let us make the firm point that the colonisation of South Africa, as that of the other colonies, and the emergence of racism as a global problem, had been spawned by the emergence and spread of capitalism as a global system.
Even to this day, this afternoon, as the NCOP gathers to debate this abomination, we would do well to remind ourselves that:
1. First, the origins and persistence of racism in South Africa was not merely a result of virulent hatred of black people inherent in a core of white South Africans, it is and always has been primarily about achieving and maintaining economic predominance through the dispossession and marginalization of black people.
2. Secondly, the fight against racism is ultimately not about convincing fellow white South Africans to eschew prejudice and their superiority complex and view their fellow black South Africans as equals, but it is about directly attacking the system of racialized property ownership as well as the ill-gotten power, privileges and resources emanating from that system entrenched in our society over many centuries and supported by the colonial and imperialist system,
3. Thirdly, ultimately, the campaign against racism in South Africa is, at the same time, a pan-Africanist and global campaign the victory of which will fundamentally change Africa’s relations with the world and affirm our continent as an equal partner in the global political, economic and cultural system,
4. Fourthly, we must desist forthwith from regarding the recent outbreak of racism as a mere ‘resurgence” of a phenomenon that otherwise had died in 1994; the fact is that racism is still alive and well in our country and there are many South Africans, many of whom sit in these very Chambers as Honourable Members, who are, both overtly and covertly, white supremacists and are involved daily in racial practices; and
5. Finally, not every white South African is racist; there are many who not only abhor racism but are part of the collective struggle to build a non-racial society.
More than anything else, it was exclusive and unfettered access to land, mineral resources and cheap labour power of the black majority that was to play a decisive role in the advent and perpetuation of racism in South Africa in its grotesque form.
To sustain this system, the white bourgeoisie did not merely have to rely on exploiting the labour of the proletarians regardless of race as would pertain under normal capitalist conditions, but had to invent a new political system that would work within a given context of colonialism and that would give the fullest expression to their exclusive material ambitions.
The entire edifice of white supremacy was predicated on this notion that Africans were cheap and expendable labour, beasts of burden with neither a political role nor socio-economic rights, trespassers in white South Africa, belonging in impoverished bantustans, townships, hostels and compounds.
In pursuit of these aims, the successive white supremacist regimes, sought to unite all white groups, especially the Brits and the Boers, and forge them into a single ruling bloc, particularly after the so-called Anglo-Boer War, sought the all-round political defeat of the black population, their splitting into different and disparate ethnic groups in order to preclude their unification even as the different white factions pursued their own unification, and their subjugation, co-opted white workers into the system by offering them exclusive privileges in order to give them a stake and thus offer them something to defend, invented a system of the most brutish political repression and economic exploitation, sustained and supported by a vicious repressive machinery such as KOEVOET and VLAKPLAAS, and sought to instil group fear among its beneficiaries for the future which would include the black majority.
This ensured that even as institutional racism was defeated, as it finally happened in 1994, most white South Africans would remain beholden to the system, determined to defend their ill-gotten power, resources and privileges.
Chairperson,
Racism is the original sin of our Republic.
For four centuries, discrimination based on race, class and gender has been at the heart of the indignity, social division, dispossession and injustice which continues to bedevil our nation.
Accordingly, we have always understood it that the national democratic revolution resolve the three basic and inter-related contradictions of Colonialism of a Special Type in South Africa, that is, racial oppression, class super-exploitation and patriarchal relations of power, which found expression in national oppression based on race; class super-exploitation directed against Black workers; and the triple oppression of the mass of women based on their race, their class and their gender.
To build the South Africa of our dreams, a South Africa in which all of its people are able the more fully to realize their potential, we must accelerate the critical work of overcoming racial prejudice and building a non-racial and non-sexist society.
Despite the demise of apartheid, racism has however remained pertinent in our society. Accordingly, what Penny Sparrow, Honourable Diane Kohler-Barnard and fellow racists have done recently should not have come as a surprise.
Over the years, we have witnessed many racial actions by white supremacists strewn across the country who have still arrogated to themselves the power of God to decide who should live and who should die, and why!
It is easy to dismiss these extreme instances of naked racism as anomalies.
But are they really?
Certainly I believe the vast majority of our citizens, black and white, would never insult or physically attack their fellow citizens of other races in this manner.
However, the perpetrators of these acts did not drop from the sky or have some kind of inexplicable episode which made them act in a way which is completely alien to the value systems and beliefs which they drew from their upbringing.
In fact, I believe that their actions are merely extreme manifestations of a particular kind of racial logic which is far too common, and shared by many, which posits that white people are at the top of a social hierarchy, and deservingly so.
If other races have been allowed to co-exist with whites, they must do so in a way which does not disturb white hegemony. By right of their position at the top of the social hierarchy, white people are entitled to decide who can enter various spaces, and on what terms.
White bodies are sacred and inviolable, black bodies are of lower value, and can be violated and harmed as necessary or on the whim of a white person.
White privilege is vast, deserved and as normal as the fact that the sun rises in the east, and that the apple which falls from the tree falls to the ground.
White people in spaces and positions of power are assumed to be there deservingly and by right. Black people in spaces and positions of power are trespassing unless proven otherwise.
These are the underlying, conscious or unconscious beliefs of the many that explain the extreme actions of the few, some of whom stride these august Chambers with pride hoping that along the corridors they will meet their erstwhile heroes such as PW Botha,
John Vorster and others.
Overt racism in the form of insulting speech and physical violence against black people are among the most visible, visceral and undermining expressions of racism, but they are actually only the tip of the iceberg.
Overt racism is the 10% of racial injustice that lies above the water, that society congratulates itself on identifying and avoiding when it is sighted.
Structural racism – the overarching and interrelated social, economic and political norms which produce and reinforce both white privilege and black disadvantage – is the 90% of the iceberg below the water, which we do not easily see or address.
Structural racism is about power.
It is about the power to decide who will have, and who will not have.
Structural racism was constructed to distort the playing field such that most whites were social and economic winners, and most blacks were social and economic losers.
There is no question that we are still living with the legacy of structural racism.
I do not point this out as an excuse.
The ANC-led government, working with the people of South Africa, have made great strides in undoing this painful legacy.
We need to do more, faster, but we refuse to accept a narrative which says what took 350 years to create, should have be undone in 20 or 25 years. The legacy of structural racism is painful and real.
It is about white families benefitting from intergenerational wealth, passing down money,
land and assets from generation to generation, while the average black family has very little to pass on except poverty.
It is about the fact that statistically, the most likely person to be wealthy and employed is a white man, whilst the most likely to be poor and unemployed, is a black woman.
It is about the average white household’s income being as much as six times higher than that of the average black household.
It is about the spatial inequality in our cities, which reinforces the racial, class and gender disparities that have been so persistent even to this day.
It is about the fact that land – an important factor of production, and the foundation of economic wealth, security and human dignity – remains largely in white hands.
It is about the issues being raised by university students. that black students, even talented students with good matric results, exist precariously at our universities, they struggle to pay fees, access accommodation, and feed themselves at universities, they feel disrespected and excluded by curricula and teaching staffs which remain dominated by white men and yet we expect them to compete on an equal playing field with their white and international counterparts.
Structural racism has thus been the defining feature of social, political and economic life in South Africa for over 350 years, and has only begun to be rolled back by the progressive social and economic policies developed and implemented by the ANC government, demonstrating our unyielding resolve to pursue the vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
In my view, there are three broad areas which we must address to defeat racism.
We must de-racialise and transform the economy, engage in widespread and honest social dialogue, and strengthen legal responses to overt racism.
Chairperson, The Freedom Charter proclaimed in 1955 that “our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities”.
In this way, the Charter linked political freedom with economic and social equality.
The ANC’s 1969 Strategy and Tactics said that:
“In our country – more than in any other part of the oppressed world – it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation. Our drive towards national emancipation is therefore in a very real way bound up with economic emancipation. We have suffered more than just national humiliation.”
As I have explored already, black South Africans continue to be disadvantaged economically and socially in ways which many white South Africans not only are not, but also do not even understand or appreciate, judging by the nature of the conversations and debates we have.
Therefore we are adamant and unapologetic, that the most critical task before us is radical economic transformation.
Much as a lot has been done to drive a radical transformation agenda in the economy, we acknowledge that we need to do more, faster, and deeper to drive the change and achieve the goals of the Charter to ensure that all share in the country’s wealth.
Chairperson,
The next area which is important for our efforts to defeat racism is honest and sustained social dialogue.
We have to have conversations with one another and make the effort to understand one another. This includes both government-led efforts on nation building and social cohesion, as well as the myriad daily interactions and conversations between South Africans from all walks of life, led by civil society organisations.
This is not a once-off or programmatic intervention; it is however a long term, generational process. We need to engage in honest conversations with one another, however uncomfortable and painful they may be at times aimed at producing the all-important and abiding result that will be in the very best interests of our country and future generations.
We must not allow the challenges of the time, the provocation of the moment, to detract us from the path already set by our forebears to create a non-racial, non-sexist, united, prosperous and democratic society as our answer to the racial agenda of the supremacists, what Anton Lembede and Steve Biko referred to as a human and humane civilisation.
Such conversations about nation-building and social cohesion must, address issues of class exploitation and gender inequality, the newest South Africans, those who have recently immigrated to our country and their offspring, who have roots in Africa, Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
We cannot engage in an honest conversation about transformation, equality and just ice, when many of our white brothers and sisters refuse to acknowledge white privilege.
Some individuals and organisations among us, seek to sidestep these fundamental issues, seeking rather to construct an ahistorical, farcical and false narrative of white victimhood, persecution, and the lugubrious concept of reverse racism.
Chairperson,
We must strengthen our legal responses to racism.
This means using the mechanisms currently provided by our Courts and Chapter 9 Institutions to address instances of racial discrimination, and we must be bold enough to consider introducing additional measures.
The eyes of the world are watching how the New South Africa shall respond to the provocative actions of the few in a manner that still affirms their faith in the justness of our struggle and historic correctness of our vision.
The way we react to this racial provocation will go a long way to convince the younger generations that our strategies and tactics have thus far been correct and that we were right to pursue the path of reconciliation.
But we must also hasten to reiterate it that at the very heart of this reconciliation effort is the addressing of the historic injustice of apartheid-colonialism and the affirming of the material interests of the majority of South Africans for long the outcasts in their land, marginalised from political and socio-economic involvement, but the pillars and mainstay of our freedom! We must hold accountable all individuals and organisations violating the dignity of fellow citizens through racist speech or physical violence.
We need to respond firmly and harshly to such individuals or organisations. Ultimately, with respect to racist speech, as I have argued already, we must address the social and economic differences which underlie and produce white privilege and black disadvantage, if we are to defeat racism, and usher in a non-racial society.
Individual racism, while painful and deplorable, is but the tip of the iceberg.
However, we must draw a line.
Black people are the majority in South Africa.
South Africa is an African nation in Africa.
After centuries of military, social, economic and psychological violence, we are adamant that black South Africans will not, and should not, tolerate racist insult or degradation of any kind.
In Germany it is a crime to deny the fact of or impact of the Holocaust, and to use anti-Semitic language, because that society appreciates the moral clarity and gravity of that period of its history.
In that critical area, free speech is overridden.
Let us define the racists outside the bounds of the acceptable.
Let us say to them that you can think what you like, but when you enter the public sphere, if you insult someone racially, you will be charged, fined or jailed if need be.
I thank you.
Malusi Gigaba - Speeches and Writings 