South Africa through the Eyes of our Fathers

Let the story start with a quote from President Jacob Zuma -

As a citizen of this country, I've got to be honest to the people of South Africa.    Jacob Zuma

Novelist Peter Abrams quoted.

For me, personally, life in South Africa had come to an end. I had been lucky in some of the whites I had met. Meeting them had made a straight 'all-blacks-are-good, all-whites-are-bad' attitude impossible. But I had reached a point where the gestures of even my friends among the whites were suspect, so I had to go or be forever lost.  Peter Abrahams

That is just the start, South Africa referred to as a ‘Rainbow Nation’ and a majestic country filled with vastly different cultures continues to realize the inequality, destruction, crime and tolerance of a democracy turning into a socialist rule. Perhaps the best way to describe the conditions of this country is to look at quotes from famous people and recognize the truth of their words.

President Mandela was not a hands-on president at any time.   

F. W. de Klerk

South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. Thabo Mbeki
 

I have always thought that the rapid economic development of South Africa would in the long run prove to be incompatible with the government's racial policies, and recent events have tended to confirm my opinion.  Harry Oppenheimer  

I am hopeful about any future for whites in this country, but not entirely optimistic.   Helen Suzman

For myself, I believed that that 13th of March should see a fight to the finish, cost what it might! for if Bloemfontein was to be taken, it would only be over our dead bodies. Christiaan Rudolf de Wet

Naturally our Government would not consent to such terms, and so the war had to proceed. Christiaan Rudolf de Wet

Mark Gevisser, a South Africa has written about President Zuma and other issues relating to  South Africa. The quotes I found interesting are :

“This week, Zuma was quoted as saying, 'When the British came to our country, they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way.' But the serious critique of Zuma is not about who is a barbarian and who is civilized. It is about good governance, and this is a universal value, as relevant to an African village as it is to Westminster. If you are unable to keep your appetites in check, you are inevitably going to live beyond your means. And this means you are going to become vulnerable to patronage and even corruption. That is why Jacob Zuma's 'polygamy' is his achilles heel.”  ― Mark Gevisser

“Even if Zuma was to develop the authoritarian impulses of a Mugabe, he would be checked—not least by his own party, which set a continental precedent by ousting Thabo Mbeki in 2007, after it felt he had outstayed his welcome by seeking a third term as party president. The ANC appears to have set itself against that deathtrap of African democracy: the ruler for life.”  ― Mark Gevisser “Remember one thing as South Africa prepares to go to the polls this week and the world grapples with the ascendancy of the African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma: South Africa is not Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, no one doubts that Wednesday's elections will be free and fair. While there is an unacceptable degree of government corruption, there is no evidence of the wholesale kleptocracy of Robert Mugabe's elite. While there has been the abuse of the organs of state by the ruling ANC, there is not the state terror of Mugabe's Zanu-PF. And while there is a clear left bias to Zuma's ANC, there is no suggestion of the kind of voluntarist experimentation that has brought Zimbabwe to its knees.”  ― Mark Gevisser “There is one key area in which Zuma has made no attempt at reconciliation whatsoever: criminal justice and security. The ministers of justice, defense, intelligence (now called 'state security' in a throwback to both apartheid and the ANC's old Stalinist past), police and communications are all die-hard Zuma loyalists. Whatever their line functions, they will also play the role they have played so ably to date: keeping Zuma out of court—and making sure the state serves Zuma as it once did Mbeki.”  ― Mark Gevisser

“What in Mandela was seen as an almost saintly ability to conciliate could, in a lesser man, be read as weak-kneed populism.”  ― Mark Gevisser

Read more on his blog -

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1015394.Mark_Gevisser/blog

The above quotes define the seriousness of the justice system, the defense and President Zuma. In past articles stories relating to the corruption, state of the country and the ongoing inequality have been told honestly and all based on information from reliable sources. Yet, there are the sceptics that refuse to believe the truth, turn their ears from hearing the truth, close their eyes to see the truth and continue to claim that South Africa is indeed under good governance.

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.”  ― Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

“At the time of his death, Biko had a wife and three children for which he left a letter that stated in one part: “I've devoted my life to see equality for blacks, and at the same time, I've denied the needs of my family. Please understand that I take these actions, not out of selfishness or arrogance, but to preserve a South Africa worth living in for blacks and whites.”  ― Steve Biko “He would not mind hearing Petrus’s story one day. But preferably not reduced to English. More and more he is convinced that English is an unfit medium for the truth of South Africa.”  ― J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace 
 “It's very difficult not to come across as a white supremacist when there are so many black inferiorists around.”  ― David Bullard  “Religion and nationalism? I defecate on the altar of religious conviction, and wipe my arse on the flag of national pride.”  ― Ian Martin, Pop-Splat
“A culture of secrecy is like the bad stench created by cat pee—it is very difficult to get rid of.”  ― Pierre de Vos 
“The spirit of Hendrik Verwoerd still haunts this country and the internet, a zombie stumbling around feeding off the grim life force that is intolerance and racism. Every time we get bitten, or as in the case of this column, take the bait, we create more hate-filled zombies.”  ― Chris Toper “The business of reading and interpreting the Bible in South Africa is a tricky one! The Bible is everywhere and in the hands of many, including the pain inflictors. ~ Mogomme Alpheus Masoga”  ― Gerald O. West, Reading Otherwise: Socially Engaged Biblical Scholars Reading with their Local Communities  “I think, of course, all politicians have a sense of their own image, but he had it in an unusual extent. And, when I first knew him in the '50s, when I was living in Johannesburg, I thought it was too much. I thought he had too theatrical a sense, like he was too much of a showman, and I wasn't quite sure what lay behind it. I was quite wrong, of course, because as soon as he went—before he went to jail, when he made two great speeches, it was already clear that there was a great deal behind that showmanship.”  ― Anthony Sampson  “I don't think that, when future generations look at the apartheid struggle, they will see it as quite the momentous literary cauldron that recent history has suggested. In fact, as well as recording the struggle for human rights, the literary account, which Gordimer has kept so faithfully and truthfully, may be seen as something of a storm in a teacup. Of course it was true that South Africa preserved in much-condensed form all the nasty prejudices and cruelties of an earlier age, and so it was of particular interest to the liberal West. How, it wondered, could something so obscenely and obviously wrong persist? But this was also obvious to every educated white person in South Africa. Certainly, in my family there were never any misconceptions about the nakedly discriminatory nature of Nationalist rule from 1948 to 1994. Those of us who left had many motives, but one of them was a reluctance to spend our lives attacking the indefensible, particularly in Marxist terms. The point I am making, and have been making for a few years, is that white South African writing rode a wave, whether consciously or not. The big issues that it tackled were in fact long since resolved: The South African Afrikaner government was a blind appendix loosely attached to the western digestive system.” ― Justin Cartwright

Need I say more and in closing perhaps the words of Alan Paton sums up the entire story.

 “As Alan Paton said, 'Ah but your fucking land is beautiful'.”  ― André Brink, Devil's Valley

Personal note from Laura

As readers are aware, I write for several different channels, and often receive comments relating to my work. This comment posted yesterday on the GLV is perhaps from somebody, who obviously does not want to hear the truth. My writing is always researched and sources are added for verification.

Anyway, I believe the world is filled with people expressing different views and opinions and freedom of speech is allowed in a democracy. It is obvious the items posted on the blog relating to situations in and around South Africa are frowned upon.

Can you imagine if the critic read some of the above quotes and stories posted on the internet, how dreadful the truth would be.

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Comment:
This South African Journalist is known for her hunger for sensation.  She wrote so many articles ridden with untruth, false and untested information that she and some of her informants are in the process of facing serious slander, crimen injuria charges and claims it is a wonder she remains arrogant in continuing to write articles without verifying the facts.
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