The hypocrisy of SA

As we have seen with the falling of Rhodes not so long ago - the young minds at UCT and other institutions want rid of the remnants of colonialism and Apartheid. Although the manner in which they have gone about it has left many questioning the tactics – the results speak for themselves. If the youth speak and act, things can happen.

Now I see the point from the side of the student, and although I believe that there is a place for these statues – there is also a place for healing and rebuilding – I just hope that the statues are not destroyed along with our past. Good or bad, it is still the immovable and irreplaceable past of a nation that is the mortar for which we can build a skyscraper of a future. Or at least I believe.

Now, this article is not about the statue issue, neither is it about who is right or wrong in the many issues around it. It is about something that I believe is fundamentally wrong with the youth whom have chosen to act so publically against Rhodes and all those who so clearly oppressed and curtailed the development of a nation. 

Over the past few weeks we have seen a rise in xenophobia – one that is only matched in its severity by the devastating attacks in 2008 (remember them?)

If not, here is a picture to remind you…

(This is Mozambican Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, being burnt alive during the 2008 xenophobic attacks)

Now, back then, we never had the dual issue of the statues and rebuilding of our nation through the removal of reminders of our ‘colonial past’  - so I can forgive the students of the time for not acting up on this horrific situation.  But now, we have a movement in our universities that clearly has had success in getting something done. But where are they now? Where are they when we see images and videos of our African brothers and sisters removed from their shops, kicked, punched,  beaten in the street, their shops looted and pillaged in scenes reminiscent of many genocidal and mass carnages of the past? Why are our so called revolutionary students not picketing outside the government buildings demanding an end to this violence?

Are our neighbours not worthy of demonstration? After all – is it not them who believe that mass action through resistance of an ideal leads to change? Where then are you now young man who stood atop the statue and painted it in solidarity with the idea that no man should be given the right of a statue if he was responsible for the barbaric treatment of another man or woman?

The answer is – he is nowhere to be found. In all the carnage and sadness that litters the streets alongside the burnt out tires and broken glass from our neighbours' spaza shops. The arguments are not up for discussion here. I do not care what “South Africans” say the reason is.   (I use that term very lightly as I am a South African and I do not stand nor believe in the destruction of another man’s life in order to send a message) I do not care nor do I think it is something that needs to be solved with a panga or a sjambok. But alas, does our young protestor who stood so defiantly at the foot of Cecil Rhodes’statue feel the same way? Why is she not standing outside with fake blood on her hands demanding an end to the brutal beatings and forced removals (remember when last that term was used!) of her fellow Africans?

If those who have written so many articles about the righteous nature of the removal of Rhodes are not penning blogs about the disgusting going ons of these xenophobic attacks, if those keyboard activists are not waxing lyrical about the urgency needed to end the violence, then dare I say it, they are hypocrites and what they have written; tripe. You do not need to take a side in this issue to know the difference between wrong and right. What is happening in the streets is wrong.

Cry the beloved country.

- Jason McCall