Many years ago, Chief Mongasuthu Buthelezi’s secretary and representative in Johannesburg, Gibson Thula and his wife were guests of the US State Department.
I was at the University of Texas, Austin at the time. I was asked to host them during their off periods and to escort them to their various engagements.
In gratitude, the Thulas hosted me on my research trip to the University of KwaZulu, Natal.
Jacob Zuma was on the verge of returning to power after his dismissal from the office of vice-president of South Africa.
The English educated president Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008) saw himself as a philosopher king and treated Zuma with contempt, largely for being “earthy” and “native like.”
Zuma, a self-educated man, married to four wives, was comfortable in his own skin, as well as in his native language, manners, songs and myths of his people.
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Now enter the white narrative. The white narrative was that such a person should not be allowed to become president of South Africa. He will “spook the Europocentric financial universe.”
The reader will, by now have grasped the theme of my letter.
The new African rulers of South Africa, saw their main task as satisfying the needs of the Eurocentric financial world and allowed themselves to be dictated to by Nick Oppenheimer of Anglo American and the Johann Ruperts of South Africa.
They saw their identity as lying in Europe, rather than in Africa. This, in academic lingo is called self-imposed slavery by consent.
Here is an example. The Freedom Charter (1902) said that South African land shall be shared by those who work on it.
Today, as we speak, 30 years after independence, the land issue has not been tackled.
The African national Congress has been told that the Eurocentric financial universe will not tolerate a re-arrangement of the land issue.
The whole reason de etre for the independence struggle has been laid aside, leaving 80 percent of the land in the hands of 12 percent of the population.
The ANC, therefore, responds to a different drummer from that which calls the people to a dance.
A leading sinner in this situation is Thuli Madonsela, former public prosecutor and now professor of law at Stellenbosch University. Thuli is married to a public relations wizard, Richard Fortner, a legendary Anglo-Saxon publicist.
The loss of support for the ANC in recent elections can be laid at the feet of two things.
The ANC was conflicted as to where their identity lay, in the Eurocentric world led by the US and its western allies or whether to create their own identity which lay with the non-western BRICS nations.
By failing to definitely choose a side, president Cyril Ramaphosa (2019-2024) found himself on the firing line from both the US and their financial backers as well as loss of confidence from black supporters.
The issue needs emphasis. If South Africa’s identity lies with the US and its allies, the Henry Kissinger doctrine (1967) applies.
The production of South African minerals must serve the needs of the US and its military machine.
Minerals are sovereign finite resources and if exploited with disregard for future generations, 50% of the population remains impoverished while their wealth is shipped to Europe.
Anglo-American Company relocated to London in 1994 soon after South Africa achieved independence.
The narrative goes further. All Africans are corrupt. Any African who is rich must have acquired his wealth by stealth.
In addition, any attempt by African influencers to carve out media and financial empires is associated with state capture.
If this narrative is accepted, the only acceptable black families are those who pay homage to the Oppenheimers (mining) and the Ruperts (grocery chains).
The Economic Freedom Fighters propose a totally new recalibration of wealth towards a non-subservient black class.
There is yet another serious cause for misunderstanding in South Africa.
Despite the sacrifices made by the African countries towards their liberation, South African blacks have cheated themselves into believing that they are not African.
While they abuse African immigrants to South Africa, reading the London Times will reveal advertisements for expatriate engineers and health personnel. These same personnel can easily be recruited from Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe at less cost.
Corruption
The ANC, according to the narrative, is being told that any association with Zuma’s party of the EFF will lead to corruption.
The three parties constitute 65 percent of the vote, or 260 members in a 400-member assembly.
The Democratic Alliance (a white party) has persuaded many blacks that without their leadership, South Africa is doomed.
There is a lot of talk about corruption in African countries but I have not seen any of them take measures designed to put an end to this scourge.
My son taught school in China for a while. In a nearby town, excessive rainfall washed away a newly built school while an older school remained stable.
The Chinese officials arrested the builder of the new school for using insufficient cement and hanged him. There was no appeal.
A punishment used in the Emirates is the loss of a pension for corrupt officials. So, a policeman taking a bribe of US$10 for a traffic offense, as happens in Zimbabwe, faces the loss of a lifetime pension and obviously the disruption of his family as well.
Such punishments need not be exercised on a daily basis. A few public examples are sufficient to demonstrate the seriousness of the issue.
Memories are short lived. South Africans are being asked to believe that whites and apartheid system were free from corruption.
South African blacks half believe this narrative, that apartheid was not as bad, and having half lost their identity, their heads have been filled with water, they have nobody to blame but themselves if they find themselves back in an apartheid situation by a new name.
*Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot. He can be reached at mufufkaken@gmail.com. He writes from the US.