Objections raised by shrill voices to Robert McBride as head of Ipid smack of racist vindictiveness, says Ike Moroe.
Bloemfontein - The current frenzy of condemnation of Robert McBride (recommended for the position of the director of the Independent Police Investigation Directorate) should be a cause of serious concern for the majority of South Africans who believe that apartheid was a crime against humanity, and that reconciliation should be the basis of our rebuilding of a new non-racial society.
The objections raised by shrill white opposition voices to cabinet’s recommendation smacks of racist vindictiveness.
It is hurtful because it is an open and clear illustration of how the opposition is hypocritical on the terms of our democratic breakthrough, which urged reconciliation over vengefulness.
McBride bombed the Magoo bar, and was sentenced to death by a racist apartheid court, serving the cause of an apartheid constitution.
However, he was released through democracy negotiations with the apartheid regime, and went on to make a full disclosure to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which granted him full amnesty.
During his trial, and during the TRC amnesty hearings, he never denied his actions, and his testimony has always been consistent that he carried out that operation, not as an individual outburst of anger, but as a soldier of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and targeted that particular bar because of its mainly apartheid security personnel clientele.
Regardless of the dignity, pomp and brouhaha with which our Constitution was adopted by all parties in Parliament, regardless of the opposition’s calls for vigilance against its perception of everyone else’s urge to undermine the Constitution, regardless that reconciliation was made the basis of our national unity, and regardless that it seemingly benefits our white compatriots, the very beneficiaries of the hurtful centuries of racial oppression, It is mainly the opposition speaking in the name of our white compatriots, who besmirch and violate the very principles of the Constitution, on which the promise of our national unity should be based.
McBride does not have a criminal record against his name, and possesses the necessary qualifications, personality strength and honesty that befit a suitable candidate for the position of the head of Ipid. But the fact that as a member of MK he bombed the Magoo bar, in which white lives were lost, has placed him under a sinister spotlight and perpetual trial by media.
That this has always been a deliberate orchestration was also clear in the utterances of one of his past lecturers. When asked for a comment by the media, Johan Burger, a former apartheid police official, said: “He has the necessary qualifications. But he has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons”.
The fact is: no court of law has found him guilty for all those “wrong reasons”. In the only instance where McBride was found guilty, since he was granted amnesty by the TRC, he won the appeal against that conviction, which means his name was cleared of any misdoing.
However the trial by media continues, and Burger, his lecturer who attests to his academic qualifications, seems to be unethically leaning his weight to the hypocritical voices of the opposition.
Because the heroism of McBride was just in a just war of liberation, against the murderous apartheid regime, one would not like to even compare him with the likes of the apartheid killers, who failed to make full disclosures and yet still walk the streets of this country as free people.
Johan van der Merwe, who participated in torture and ordered the torture of detainees; Dr Wouter Basson, who administered lethal poison to freedom fighters; Barend du Plessis, who killed innocent black people when hostilities had been ceased; are free, and never hog the media space, because the privacy of their lives as citizens is respected.
The murderers of Steve Biko, Imam Haron, Mapetla Mohapi, and countless others remain untouched and are hardly mentioned by the media. They undoubtedly enjoy the freedom of economic activity, and now and then re-emerge as expert analysts, or as leaders and operatives of mercenary outfits.
One can only observe that the leaders of the opposition, and those who served apartheid and have successfully reimaged themselves as experts in the civil society, still hold a huge grudge against McBride. They systematically mount attempts to transfer their grudge into his personality, with the sole aim of destroying his integrity.
The vengeful nature of the opposition, and the opportunistic character of some of the black parties represented in Parliament, adding their voice to the condemnation of the recommendation to appoint McBride as head of Ipid, is a hurtful reminder that our freedom is here, but those who disrespect our democracy when it suits them, are also here.
We must not allow hypocrites who have an agenda of racism and opportunism to sway us from our efforts to build a non-racial and just democracy based on the Constitution of the Republic.
* Ike Moroe is a policy analyst, member of the ANC NEC sub-committee for Political Education, special advisor for Free State Premier, a former banned journalist and NEC member of the South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.