Criticism of Zuma not based on race

The writer maintains his criticism of President Jacob Zuma has nothing to do with his race. Photo: Elmond Jiyane

The writer maintains his criticism of President Jacob Zuma has nothing to do with his race. Photo: Elmond Jiyane

Published Jan 6, 2015

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The charge that he holds racist views after pointing out what he believe are flaws does not make him a racist, says Max du Preez.

 

There once was a village where a young mischief-maker amused himself by occasionally alerting people in a loud voice that there was a predator about to attack them.

And then one day he actually did see a beast enter the village, but his warning shouts were ignored because people thought it was yet another false alarm.

The essence of that story is that there was actually a real threat of dangerous predators attacking the villagers; that a warning system was thus essential; and that the miscreant undermined that system by abusing it.

The Office of the President of the Republic of South Africa called me a racist in a statement reacting to my analysis of his track record last week.

This label was then repeated many times over by some of his supporters on news websites, social media and talk radio. A prominent ANC member in KwaZulu-Natal even produced and distributed a photograph of me with the heading: Apartheid Apologist. Others called me a white supremacist, a black-hating Boer and a disciple of Verwoerd.

Several advised me to urgently depart for the Netherlands. (I’m not sure why they chose that location – personally I find the climate there rather unappealing and I don’t speak the language.)

I find these labels stupid and opportunistic as the other set of labels regularly hung around my neck: communist, race-traitor, Afrikaner-hater and ANC sycophant. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose to deny an accusation that one is a racist – or a misogynist or a homophobe. Those prejudices are in one’s heart and mind and only you can really say whether the charges are true or not.

But if your actions or utterances clearly display racism or prejudice, then it is fair to declare you guilty of such prejudice and you will find it difficult to prove that you’re not. I have never written or said anything that can be construed as racist or prejudiced.

If the statement by the Presidency had been vetted by either the president himself or by his chief spokesman, Mac Maharaj, then I would accuse them of recklessness, opportunism and dishonesty. Maharaj first met me in Dakar in 1987 and we had many interactions since. He knows full well who and what I am and where I come from.

My interaction with Jacob Zuma started shortly after that when my then colleague, Jacques Pauw, and I negotiated the defection to the ANC of the former head of the SAP’s Vlakplaas death squad, Dirk Coetzee, with him as head of ANC intelligence in exile.

He, too, knows very well who and what I am – as do most of the older members of the ANC and former UDF leadership.

The fact that I have a record of opposing apartheid and fighting racism of course doesn’t automatically mean that I’m not capable of racism. But without any indications that I hold racist views, any such charge is counter-productive.

My column last week had absolutely nothing to do with Zuma’s race, and all with the way he wields power. It was my honest, considered opinion as a political analyst and citizen.

I have been writing newspaper columns for 14 years.

Regular readers of my writings would attest to it that I am always acutely aware of racial and historic sensitivities, of my own background as a privileged white under apartheid and of the resultant extra burden on me to express myself with a full awareness of the sensibilities of our society.

The Presidency’s statement was thus a cheap way of trying to intimidate me and people like me into silence and withdrawal. It cheapened the charge of racism, leaving the real racists smiling.

I saw proof of this in the many dozens of reactions of white South Africans to my column and the Presidency’s reaction to it.

Most of them deeply embarrassed me in the way they supported my analysis and defended me on the racism charges. They did this for the wrong reasons.

Does that mean I should not utter anything that racists and bigots could potentially agree with? Surely not.

That would be terrible self-censorship and render me useless as a commentator.

We can demand of white citizens to be sensitive and respectful, but we can’t silence them.

Racism is a dangerous threat to our development as a democratic society. It sadly still permeates much of white South African society.

I accept that there is an onus on me as a white South African and beneficiary of apartheid to help combat racism relentlessly. I have done that consistently for the past three decades.

I really don’t care what politicians call me. I do care that the highest office in the land undermined the fight against racism by dismissing my criticism of the president as simply the views of a racist.

* Max du Preez is an author and columnist.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Pretoria News

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