Reports from South Africa Focus on Crime and Ignore History

It is ironic that the ANC and the IFP were once closely aligned. Cracks in the alliance appeared in the 1980’s when ANC formed a political alliance with the United Democratic Front (UDF). This is when the term we are all hearing now, “necklacing,” first entered the journalists’ lexicon. The UDF killed opponents of the ANC by placing a tire saturated in petrol around the victim’s neck and then lighting it. Variations of this form of torture have been used on women and children in the Congo. We have seen the results there and death is preferred to life afterwards. In public, IFP deplored the violence at the end of apartheid, but there is significant evidence that some IFP members resorted to violence that was tacitly supported by the South African white police in an unholy alliance to prevent the formation of a South African State. Whispers are being heard now on the blogs and letters coming from South Africa, that it is possible such a “Third Force” is in play once again.

There has been little analysis or discussion of this political rift in the mainstream press. What is generally agreed is that South Africa’s immigration system is in shambles.

The President of the IFP and Member of Parliament, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, posted his response to criticisms of the IFP on the internet, but as of this writing, it has not been reported in the mainstream. It follows, in part:

“The present campaign of xenophobia is a horrendous symptom of this situation which ought not to be ignored, because of its deplorable aspects. The root cause lies in the failure of the State to exercise its legal and moral responsibilities. Our people are neither xenophobic nor mean-spirited. The South African people are hospitable and generous, even when they have little or nothing to share. Their chief misfortune is that of having a less than fully competent Government, which has made enormous mistakes and has stuck by them with steadfast stubbornness, especially in the fields of immigration control and the fight against crime.”

The Economist reports in its May 2008 edition that the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), better known as the Scorpions, will disband in June and merge with the state police. This merger will take place by order of the ANC. In December the ANC met and issued the order at the same time that it elected Jacob Zuma, whom the Scorpions had investigated for years and accused of corruption and fraud, as its new party president—in place of the country's present state president, Thabo Mbeki.

“The Scorpions' high-profile cases, which include those of Messrs Zuma and Jackie Selebi as well as others against big crime networks, have brightened their image as fearless crime-busters. The unit has put a lot of people behind bars,” the Economist said. Jackie Selebi, the chief police commissioner who admitted being friends with a notorious criminal, has been suspended after being charged with corruption.

Research Surveys, a pollster, says that 59% of metropolitan South Africans think the Scorpions should stay separate from the police

Historians, sociologist, economists and writers have been exploring the roots of South African violence since before the days of apartheid. I have met white South Africans for whom I hold the utmost respect as champions of the oppressed. I have met other white South Africans whom I hold in deep contempt for their racist treatment of their black neighbors.

God's View 2007

I can bear solid witness to the dismal conditions in the slums of the townships. My notes from my visit with a hospice group are stained with the red dust of the valley.

“Fear, dust, smoke, and thirst…how will I ever wash the stain of Africa away?” I scribbled.

“Paper-thin, beautiful bodies with skin stretched like parchment over bone whose souls want me to hold them scare the hell out of me.”

Earthly View

That was the writer removed from her safety net. The remaining pages are filled with hope and awe of the ingenuity of the people who live there, tending to their own, and making sure that anti-virals are taken at the appointed hour. There is a photo of me with the white ex-pat hospice nurse after a day spent in the township tending to the sick, the living and the dying. She has her arm around my shoulder, much stronger and taller than I, and she is smiling a broad smile. I am leaning into her strength. I look positively wrecked from the emotional impact of the day, pale beneath my sunburn, with a wan smile contradicting a furrowed brow.

After each visit to homes where death was seated with us, the group of women would pray—sometimes in three or four languages. I am not someone who prays and thus, I would watch and listen. The sounds of community prayer did not sound like Babel. Rather, the sound was a soothing tonic for the spirit that for a time made me believe that maybe, just maybe, death would not win this round. This is the image of the townships that I carry with me and I believe it is a true portrait of the African spirit. The world community cannot afford to allow death in the disguise of political expediency, racial spin, and machinations to win yet another round in this beautiful country.

We should all to take time to cry, cry for the beloved country. Then we should exercise our sword arms and get to work.

 1  |  2  |  3