How people suffered after the defeat of Apartheid government

By: Lindokuhle Mnisi

For many South Africans in their imaginations the succession of the African National Congress (ANC) as government and defeat of the apartheid regime (in 1994) was going to make life easier and make resources accessible for everyone. When ANC took power, many people thought the struggle was over and it was the beginning of great things in their lives. The agenda that was introduced in their minds was that the ANC was a party that fights inequality within the colour bar and it caters for all, but today, after 18 years of freedom in the country (democracy era) there are people who feel neglected and failed by the ruling party.

People who experienced the struggle seem to be the ones who are not enjoying the benefits of the past struggle. The victims of the traumatizing circumstances of the past feel like strangers in their own nation. They only read about freedom and equality in the media. They are bombarded with “false” information about the greatness of the new South Africa and are also exposed to empty promises in rallies. They look at the history being told in many different sophisticated ways by people who were victimized by none, people who came from foreign countries (some regarded as leaders that went to exile) and now occupy higher positions in huge companies, government and some are in parliament too.

People identify differences within the ANC. The ANC that existed back in the days and the one that live today are totally different. The policy-makers are not seen as the true reflection of the Africans that people anticipated. The votes people put have taken the country to the route it is going today and not everybody likes it.

On 16 June (today known as June 16, Youth Day) I took a trip to Soweto, the township where the youth of 1976 started the Soweto Uprising and stood firm demanding an immediate ban of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. This is the area where many young people were shot and some killed (roughly 176 black youth) for what they believed in. The place where people like Hector Pieterson lost their lives to the South African brutal police that used rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of angry protesters. Veterans like Tsietsi Mashinini led the uprising (even though many young people who celebrate and commemorate the day don’t even know who he was).

As I was searching for a story to tell, I left Zondi Township and went pass by Mofolo Park where there was a huge event for the day, celebrities were entertaining about 7000 young people who attended the event and they were also advised about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. I passed by and went to Maponya Mall in Pimville but couldn’t find anything interesting. I then went back to Zondi where I managed to find a grandma (gogo) who was so vocal about her history and how it has transformed to be what it is today.

I conducted a long interview with her trying to find out exactly how she has suffered in the past and whether she is enjoying the new South Africa she is living in today. So sadden by the information she gave to me, I couldn’t handle it so I listened to her. From time to time she would ask me not to remind her of what happened in the past as it was bringing bad memories in her mind. But all she was concerned about is the comparison between the apartheid regime and the democratic government.

Below is the in interview with Moreen Hlatshwayo (70years) where she expresses her views

The many comrades that died fighting for liberation, freedom, equality and other rights that South Africans enjoy today wouldn’t like the conditions that people are living under, today.

On the issue of the people from neighbouring countries, she said “How can you wake up from the dust and find many people on top of you? The worst part is that the people (foreigners) come with suggestions. They gain access to places we were never allowed to enter. I thought the world was coming back, I would get access, but they took over. I had a big factory in town, sewing. When the people came back from exile, in neighbouring countries, we were kicked out of Hillbrow to allow foreigners to make business. They messed up our business. They went to the shops we were sewing for and reduced their prices to kill businesses. I had to come back to the Township, and they stayed in the City”

“I started working at Hillbrow since 1983 when I left a factory. I wasn’t allowed to work in the city but I worked under a white madam. And I left the business in 1999 when foreigners took over our businesses.”

“People who were supposed to get the presidency are Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi “Gatsha”. He was one of the people who questioned the reasons for foreigners coming to South Africa. He wanted to implement a policy that would prohibit overcrowding in SA by foreigners who came to this country with the purpose of making business. The ANC sidelined him. He was removed as home affairs minister.”

Asked if she agree that the people who went to exile were going to fight for liberation she said “No, who were they fighting with when we were fighting here in South Africa.”

 “Now they are enjoying millions and fighting together. We see people like (Julius) Malema fighting for power and we ask ourselves where were they (hiding) when we faced reality here”

“Apartheid regime was better than today’s government. White people ruled better. Blacks would get arrested for not working, if you are seen in the township not working you would get arrested or they would give you a job in their yards. Whites were torturing us but they gave us food to eat. Today we are tortured more than back in the days.”

Today we can’t go to public toilets because we get killed and robbed.

People who suffered the Soweto Uprising are neglected today by the ruling party.

“PAC deserves to be the governing party. They fought for Black people. Tsietsi Mashinini was not ANC, he was PAC. Tsietsi is the one who led the Soweto Uprising in 1976. Our mothers who were boycotting with Mandela went to drop their ID books at Pretoria. PAC also matched to Pretoria for the ban of the pass laws. They went to submit their ID books. If it wasn’t for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife) who pushed the agenda of the ANC, ANC would succeed. Mandela got popular because of Winnie.” PAC was sabotaged, and I’m happy now that they treat her like a washing towel.

“Winnie told people that Mandela is in prison, he was fighting for the rights as you fight for the rights. Mandela have never beaten anyone, he never killed a white person. He was just a lawyer for the congress.”

“If you read the bible, you’ll remember when the children of Israel when the encountered challenges on their way to Egypt, they said it was better in Egypt because we were eating and drinking. That’s why we are saying, the white rule (apartheid) was better. You wouldn’t find a person unemployed. They were torturing us but they gave us something to eat and live. There were job opportunities; you would even get arrested for not working.”

Sobukwe died for nothing, those are the people who fought for the nation.

“I don’t know why we vote for the ANC, we vote for them so they can torture us going forward.”

 “When ANC and IFP fought, they (IFP) destroyed all the hostels. The ANC was trying to protect them and block them.”

“I respected the orders of the struggle comrades. When they ordered us to stay away, I did that even though sometimes my bosses would shout at me and sometimes fire me,”

Important comment made by a young person, David Mbekezeli Mabaso, on the 16^th June.

“For us young people in the townships, we don’t even know what democracy is and what it means. People who know what it is are in parliament eating money and pushing nepotism.”

“Everybody who gets power think of torturing black people. Blacks are stupid, not stupid because we are stupid but because blacks are always victimized by everybody including blacks,”

“The government should focus more on subsidizing people. If they can take an initiative to sponsor people for example; the government can take the tax money and give it to Eskom so that people won’t be required to buy the expensive electricity today, we should be only paying half prize at least.”

An increase of Bullying at school is problematic

By: Lindokuhle Mnisi

@LindokuhleMnisi

 “We are aware of bullying taking place in our school but it is not on the peak level,” said Amos Dimande, a school principal at Phumzile Primary School where a number of learners live in fear because of the bullying taking place in that school.

Learners go to school every day with an intention of learning but get traumatised by the bullying they experience. A group of learners from the primary complained about bullying they encounter every day in their school. Under fear of being attacked again, one of the learners who are victims of bullying at Phumzile Primary spoke to Rekord and pleaded not to be mentioned by name. He explained how he have been beaten on a countless number of occasions and got his money forcefully taken from him by an 18year old boy who is doing grade 5 in the school.

“Please do not reveal my name because Mavusana (real name Vusi) will beat me up again. He is known by every learner in the school that he is a bully,” said a learner.

“He forcefully took a R30 I was carrying for me and my siblings, then he beat me up... but I could not report to the teachers because he disrespects them too. If you report they do nothing to him then he comes back to beat you again,” the learner added.

Another learner spoke about a boy by the name of Nhlanhla Ntshinga who fought with a teacher in the school. According to this learner he also witnessed an incident where a gang of bullies locked themselves in a classroom with girls. When he heard the girls crying he walked in and the boys started beating him.

The school principal at the school acknowledged that bullying is their major problem but said they are dealing with it. “We deal with it through the school base support team. We also invite social workers and pastors but if it gets serious we involve our local Community Policing Forum (CPF) to come and give advice,” said Amos Dimande, school principal.

Dimande said some of the learners live in fear as they are scared to report if they become victimised. “Some of the learners are afraid to speak. Some of the things happen behind our backs so we cannot detect what is going on. We only deal with issues that have been reported,” he added.

Is Citizen Journalism a threat to professional Journalism?

By: Lindokuhle Mnisi

Citizen journalism is the fastest growing form of reporting in the entire world and it poses a threat to professional journalism. Citizen journalism is an emerging form of journalism that is radically different from traditional journalism in philosophy and in practice. It does not need a qualified person to do the reporting but it needs a resourceful individual who is willing to communicate anything to the people. Citizen journalism correlates with developments in digital technology: rapid global growth and use of the Internet.

The developments in digital technology are great improvement in the entire world. Life in the 21^st century becomes easier everyday because of the advancement in technology. The form of communication has become an easy process as people manage to speak to families and friends across the borders on Earth. With the enhancement of technology on the picture, citizen journalism has emerged and is becoming a challenge to professional journalism. Citizens tend to take over the work done by qualified journalists because of the accessibility to technology/internet. Anybody is now able to communicate with the world and inform people about things happening around them, journalist’s job becomes threatened.

The easier accessibility of internet across the world has given anybody a chance and platform to be a journalist (citizen journalism) and puts a challenge to professional journalism. A normal person with access to internet can witness a burning house at a small town (such as Ermelo), and that person will take pictures first and then ask around what caused the fire, then the next five minutes he will write on a facebook status or twitter. That would have been a front page story for a community/national newspaper, but because people have already seen the pictures and already know the story behind the burning house they will not buy then newspaper.

Social media is also the biggest challenge to professional journalism as it allows anybody to communicate to with the public. Facebook and Twitter are the fastest growing social mediums where millions of people meet to discuss issues. Anything that is happening in this world is trending on these social mediums. When there’s a soccer match at Loftus Stadium, people who have not gone to watch the match will not wait for tomorrow’s paper of a bulletin to know how the game went because citizen “journalists” will have already broken the news via the social networks. That puts professional journalism at stake.

The increase in the number of “Start-Phone” devices threaten professional journalism and hence promote citizen journalism. These phones have cameras with video cameras and they make it easier for any person to take pictures and footages and upload to their blogs, websites or even on the social media. These phones have internet access and email, any person is able to forward something to the next person and it spread to the whole world.

Many media houses have taken a resolution of creating online websites for their publications so that their journalists can be able to publish/report stories immediately as it happens. To avoid being outdated, they have decided to pressure the journalists to act faster than citizen journalists. Now citizen journalists are also able to forward what they have witnessed to the media house of their choice. If a person collides with a story, they can take pictures and forward them to any media house.

Hit back!!!



The Hit Back cartoon.



About the cartoon

This cartoon (Hit Back) is a critique to all the people who fail to see the good side of the ANC president, Jacob Zuma. Most of those people are the white “monopoly capital” as the ANCYL normally call them. On the left hand side there are a bunch of them singing “a dick” when Zuma ask what they see when they look at him. On the bottom of the cartoon (left) it is Brett Murrey, the white guy who reworked a beautiful painting and messed it up by exposing the genitals of the man he referred to as Jacob Zuma (calling it The Spear). Murrey is laughing when his fellow white men says they see a dick on Zuma. Next to him it’s another cartoonist that I like and respect very much, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro). Zapiro’s latest cartoon, published on the Mail&Guardian newspaper, was swearing and insulting the president, calling him “a dick” (he shouts “can’t you see?). All these people forget one important fact, that they are all colonialists who came from the west. They come here to insult our leaders for the purpose of making an income. They are all foreigners in this country, extreme racist and selfish white minority.

#I’m not racist, it’s a “Hit Back” cartoon. We call it satire in “their” language.

Who is being satirised?

On this cartoon white people are being satirised. Brett Murray and Zapiro are also among those labelled as foreigners.

The story behind the cartoon

This cartoon comes after the recent Zapiro’s satire (cartoon) that was published by the Mail & Guardian newspaper. On this cartoon, Zapiro, drew an erected penis and referred to it as Jacob Zuma. On the left hand side he sworn at Zuma and even called him a “Dick”. Zapiro was also taking over from where Brett Murray left. Murray, on his “Hail to the king” exhibition, he did a painting that exposed a man’s genitals. The man portrayed in the painting was Zuma. This cartoon then is the response to the people who see a “dick” on the president.

Parents’ silence on the Limpopo Textbooks shenanigan

By: Lindokuhle Mnisi
@LindokuhleMnisi

What are the parents of the Limpopo children saying about the textbooks fiasco? My perception is that "parents in the rural areas don’t even understand the real significance of education. They don’t know the values of education. They just think a child has to go to school to meet and play with children of their age." I might be wrong. But I suggest that parents have to be taken for a campaign and lessons to inform them about the relevance of education (especially those parents in the rural areas)

For those that may think that the statement above is derogatory as one of my facebook friends says, don’t be stereotypic about this, open up your mind and think in a wider view then you will get my point. On a comment on my facebook status, Alpheus Duda Sontaga says “I never thought I would hear u utter such derogatory words. Before I comment on the issue of "what Limpopo parents are saying about the textbook saga" please assist me to see in the same eye as you. If I get you well, you are denoting that Limpopo in itself is a rural province - the whole of it, again parents in the Limpopo Province are illiterate and don’t know what education is and its values? Where do you get such a perception?” he wrote, ending his comment with #angry.

Agree with me that this Textbook crisis stroke mainly the schools in the rural areas of Limpopo. And people who are affected mostly are in the rural areas. Limpopo is not a rural village altogether but now we are talking about this issue focusing on the rural victims. The point I am making is that the parents of the affected children are so quiet about the issue, it is only a national public outcry and those parents are benefiting from that outcry.

How many campaigns have you seen, in the villages that aim at informing parents about the significance of education? This question is relevant for all provinces. Education in the rural areas is not the same as the one in the township or urban areas. The levels of understanding and the perceptions about education differ from parents from this camp to the other. Resources can be brought to the discussion to say, the lack of resources in the rural areas result to parents not knowing what education entails. Most parents in the rural areas are not educated and therefore they can't fully encourage their children about education, because they do not understand its significance.

My view still stands to say “people who are supposed to express grievances, mostly, about the Textbook fiasco are the parents, but they are not.” That is why I suggest that parents have to be taken for a campaign and lessons to inform them about the relevance of education (especially those parents in the rural areas). Parents have to be taught and trained about how to encourage children about education. Even if the parents are not educated themselves, they need to know the values of education. They need to stop thinking that education or going to school is moral thing just to keep children off the streets. Schools are not places for keeping children entertained every day. Schools are not for eradication of boredom. But education has more to that.