Here’s why I think we need to talk about Eskom and
apartheid. Firstly, let’s agree that our opinions matter: every article that
deals with apartheid does, slowly but surely, create a Foucaultian style Truth
of what actually happened, which defines how we understand what is happening
now. A narrative about our past, and in turn present, that becomes accepted
fact.
I was there when Jacob Zuma, that gregarious geriatric
hustler who hasn’t paid back the money, told us that Eskom’s kak is apartheid’s
fault. Chester Missing tweeted at the time how ridiculous this was. Because,
after we have bought submarines instead of power stations, it is patently
stupid.
But that, my friend, is only half the picture. Take today’s
Cape Times piece by David Lipshitz. David blazingly details exactly how our
power problems are not apartheid’s fault. It’s a great piece titled “Don’t
blame power crisis on apartheid”, where there is absolutely zero acknowledgment
of what apartheid DID do. It’s a brilliant breakdown of how useless the ANC
Eskom strategy has been. And it has been useless (as far as my ignorant little
brain can tell). However, like with Zelda, time and time again the question of
what apartheid DID do gets misunderstood or ignored. This undermines the
potency of how we can hold government to account, because when they say we are
being biased, it’s true.
A problem is that the memory conversation has been polarized,
so when many white political commentators write, they often seem to assume we
are all in agreement on what apartheid DID do. We are not. Not at all. The
apartheid conversation never really happened in SA. In my view most South
Africans, black and white are clueless about the machinery that apartheid
engaged to extract black labour and wealth that left millions destitute. And
the fact is no significant white leader post apartheid has turned to their
followers and in no uncertain terms explained that their privilege and wealth
(in this, if you are not in a shack, you are wealthy) are a direct product of
apartheid. The argument that ‘I am wealthier just because I work hard’ means
you believe that the millions of black people out there stuck in poverty are
lazy. Kinda racist, eh? It means denial of unequal access to resources, education,
business language skills and cultural capital, etc.
I had one guy on twitter in relation to this saying “I’m not
denying apartheid was wrong”. But if that were the case then you would want an
article on energy, the ANC and apartheid to nail, at least in passing, what apartheid
DID do re energy. Its not so much this one article that gets my beef, but
rather the larger conversation that repeats itself. The facts of historical
inequality are time and time again overlooked. And, ironically, it helps the
ANC get off the hook because it validates accusations of bias.
Black people were for the most part denied any access to
such resources whatsoever. The fact is we have had to pour huge effort into
building infrastructure that wasn’t there before. Online I get tweet after
tweet by white people (not all,
just some) arrogantly claiming that apartheid built infrastructure… the racist
ones insanely try use this as proof of cultural supremacy. Firstly, black
people did the work, at the end of gun, secondly, that work was funded by evil
apartheid employment practices, thirdly, that infrastructure was built to buff
up the cushy, privileged lives of 10% of the population, fourthly, it
bankrupted us, and fifthly, it was also hugely corrupt.
If the conversation about apartheid is to move forward it
needs to actively explain what apartheid did do, so we can really get into what
it did not. This both takes away dodgy politicians’ historical excuses, and
also, as importantly, disrupts the gradual apartheid denial that happens when
we leave apartheid’s impact out of the conversation.
Ps, before the usual right wing nutjobs accuse me of white
guilt and political correctness. 1) Its not about guilt. It’s about putting the
facts on the table so we can move forward. 2) Politically correct is where you
play it safe. I am saying, stop playing it safe. Being brutally honest about
apartheid, white privilege AND ANC mistakes/corruption means pissing off some
very wealthy people.
