Our leaderless leader, President Jacob Zuma, and health union and ANC leader Fikile Majola and many others, for that matter, who contribute to the “blame” debate, got the linguistics related to meaning, wrong.
As a result of misinterpretation, Zuma went on record to remind Planning Minister Trevor Manuel that, “to suggest that we cannot blame apartheid for what is happening now, I think, is a mistake, to say the least”. And Majola, in a vicious diatribe and scathing attack, responded in similar vein.
If they read and interpreted Manuel’s pronouncements correctly as they were intended, they would have understood that what he in fact said was that “we cannot continue to blame apartheid”.
Read like that, as the intended and designed purpose of its meaning, the inference is that what confronted the ANC, at the beginning of its tenure 20 years ago, was a brutal system of ideas and a manner of thinking out of step with the rest of the world.
In comes the ANC, and quite correctly breaks down a rigid ideology with a replacement government redressing the imbalances of the past. So far, so good.
But over the years, at some point, maybe on former president Thabo Mbeki’s watch but definitely with Zuma’s election, the rot sets in.
Both Zuma and Majola missed the point, and Sizwe Pamla of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union throws his lot in, making the same mistake, through lack of insight and misinterpretation of the facts.
He accuses Manuel of being disingenuous by wanting South Africans to pretend that apartheid never existed.
So what is the brouhaha all about? The former minister of finance told a public servants’ conference that, yes, apartheid was largely responsible for the inequalities that exist today but, and herein lies the quintessential essence, “the government cannot continue to blame apartheid for our failings as a state. We cannot plead ignorance or inexperience. For almost two decades, the public has been patient in the face of mediocre services. The time for change, for ruthless focus on implementation, has come.”
With those words, Manuel did not deny the legacy of apartheid nor its existence, as spun by the above trio.
All he said was that, while acknowledging the role played by apartheid, we cannot “continue” blaming apartheid. He did not deny the effects of apartheid on the South African society. Manuel was succinct and articulately perspicuous.
Mr Manuel, as much as I commend you for your criticism of the government as an extant minister, your pleas will fall on deaf ears. As long as this country is led by a venal and exclusive group of people sharing the same shameful interests, the status quo will persist.
Stan Sandler
Claremont