If apartheid never hurt the under-40s then affirmative action, BEE should also not affect them, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Pretoria - I am not sure what Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said before and after the now infamous quote wherein she is reported to have said people under the age of 40 would no longer qualify for state-provided houses – RDP homes.
Sisulu was quoted as saying she didn’t know of a country that gave free houses to young people.
“Free housing in a few years will be something of the past. (Young people) have lost nothing (to apartheid). If it is not clear – none of you (young people) are ever going to get a house free from me while I live”.
We have learnt the hard way, particularly from probably the most famous words ever said by a court – “generally corrupt relationship between Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Durban businessman Schabir Shaik” – that the mere fact that a statement has not been corrected or denied means it is true.
I am prefacing what I need to say because I hope the minister was misquoted or as seems to happen to people of her station, quoted out of context.
For if it were true that Sisulu said what she was quoted as having said, it would mean not just an end to RDP houses. It would mean the government, by extension the ANC, would have ended its expressed bias towards the poor, black people in general and Africans in particular as has been its character for most of the 102 years of its existence.
A lot has been said about how Sisulu’s statement shows disregard for the poor and blames them for their poverty.
The other side of the fence has hailed her for having the guts to stop the culture of entitlement that according to those who hold this view, characterises the poor and those who regularly vote for the ANC.
I believe Sisulu’s views are not only right wing, anti-poor and anti-black, they are extremely ahistorical.
They would have been less embarrassing coming from a new convert to the ANC, but they are shocking coming from such a struggle thoroughbred that she is.
If the words were not attributed they could easily have been mistaken for a Solidarity or AfriForum position.
If what Sisulu is proposing reflects the views of the government and the ANC that deployed her, it would affect not just the poor who depend on the state for housing, but also the black middle class and the black wealthy.
If black people under 40 were not adversely affected by apartheid, as the minister implies, it must also follow that white people of the same age are not beneficiaries of apartheid and therefore should not be prejudiced because of it.
It must also mean that women – black or white – under 40 can also not blame apartheid for their plight in our unequal society because apartheid was not just about dispensing patronage and opportunities on basis of colour, but also of gender.
It would be nonsensical or inconsistent for a government that thinks everyone under the age of 40 has had the same life chances to proceed and enact laws that promote employment equity and black economic empowerment, unless the laws are amended to include a clause that has a cut-off date for those who can benefit.
It must also mean that places at universities reserved for black students should be scrapped and universities can choose anyone they feel qualifies for a berth without having to consider what Sisulu’s colleague Blade Nzimande thinks of it.
Of course all this might make Sisulu a new hero to opponents of affirmative action and black economic empowerment who believe that these measures are a form of reversal of white racism.
Perhaps Sisulu has been hanging out too much with her nephew Shaka Sisulu whose organisation is called Cheesekids – township slang for privileged children as evidenced by their access to that delicacy called a cheese sandwich.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of black people under 40 are waiting for the promise of 1994.
They are waiting for the quality schools and education that will ensure that they do not need to wait for the state to provide housing for them.
The poor I know and their children do not want to depend on the state for their upliftment.
As Sisulu’s cabinet colleague in charge of labour matters will tell her, the numbers of black people and of women in positions of influence in the corporate South Africa are far from where they need to be.
I sincerely hope Sisulu reconsiders her position and instead lobbies her cabinet and party colleagues to ensure that there is a greater political will as evidenced by quality education up to tertiary level for all, especially the poor, to ensure that we get to a generation where no able-bodied person regardless of their age, even considers the state as a source of a decent home to live.
* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is executive editor of the Pretoria News. Follow him on Twitter @fikelelom
Pretoria News