Racism and state corruption in South Africa have a mutually beneficial relationship, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
The partners to this relationship will most definitely deny their incestuous relationship, but they are the heads and tails of the coin.
They need each other to flourish.
In a twisted way, the South African corrupt and the racially bigoted would have no defence for their behaviour if the other did not exist.
Many of those who packed for Perth immediately after 1994 did so because they had no positive expectation from a black government.
They might not have voiced it in as many words, but they probably looked around the continent and concluded that black governments were unable to rule.
Unfortunately for us, many of those who got into government went out of their way to prove the Perth packers right.
Only an outright deaf, blind and severely mentally handicapped person would deny that many of those who found themselves controlling the levers of power post-1994 saw this as an opportunity to enrich themselves by any means necessary.
Many of those who had previously looked at politics as a vocation beneath them suddenly became interested as they saw membership and, critically, leadership in the ANC in particular as a vehicle for accumulation of personal wealth.
In no time we had what Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi captured perfectly when he said: “We are heading rapidly in the direction of a full-blown predator state, in which a powerful, corrupt and demagogic elite of political hyenas will increasingly control the state as a vehicle for self-enrichment”.
So how is white racism to blame?
Even if black people wished to think of apartheid as past them, they still wake up to stories of women beaten up and thought to have been prostitutes, men beaten up while jogging to their workplace and realise that the past is present.
The continued exclusion from the main economy, the poor representation on the employment equity charts and the many incidents of people being assaulted for the peculiar crime of walking while black, reminds many black people why a powerful black-led political formation is a necessity if the wrongs of the past (and the present) are to be corrected.
They look around and realise that despite its flaws and weak record in fighting against corruption, they remember an ANC that was once selfless in the restoration of black people’s dignity.
They realise that if things can be as bad as they are under a black-led government, they would probably be worse under a white-led one which was itself not exactly a model of prudence and impeccable governance.
That is why many of the political hyenas are quick to remind those unhappy with their track record that “the Boers will take over” if they do not vote for the ANC.
The ANC can only use this ruse because they know that the people they speak to continue to experience racism regardless of whether they are peasants or billionaires.
The party knows that many in their constituency know how it feels to be treated like a lesser person, to have your skills or abilities doubted for no reasons other than your skin colour and your business acumen doubted and reduced to your being politically connected.
It is moot to argue, as the DA would, that it is not a white party but the most demographically diverse formation in South Africa because in politics perceptions matter and the dominant perception is that Hellen Zille leads a white organisation.
The greedy in the ruling party ruthlessly exploit this for their benefit. They know that accusing your accusers of racism might not always be factual but it is nevertheless always reasonable, and therefore always available as a true motive for their interest in your affairs, especially if they are white.
That is why some can with a straight face counter any argument about the levels of state looting with a line about how whites looted even more when they were in power or how white privilege was built on what the UN called a crime against humanity.
The solution to this is to treat the two as mutually symbiotic. It is to see them both as cancers that keep South Africa from fulfilling its potential.
Regardless of who you think started it, racism and corruption are our problem today. The only ones who can be happy with the status quo are those who use it to enrich themselves or to remain politically relevant.
We can point fingers as much as we like, but we deny them at the peril of South Africa’s future.
Just as one does not wait for one symptom of a multi-symptom illness to be cured before starting treatment for the others, racism and predator state inclinations must be eradicated together.
* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is editor of The Mercury. Follow him on Twitter @fikelelom
The Mercury