Phumelelani Mshumi
As we close off the month of September, we ought to reflect in the context of the reality of Black people today. September will forever be remembered in the South Africa as the untimely fall of the gallant of King Williams Town, murdered in cold blood by the Apartheid police, stripped of his clothes and humanity. Nevertheless, what stood firm was black consciousness, a way of life, his way of life. As black people, we must reflect on what inspiration we draw from Steve Biko.
There is no better time to reflect as black people in South Africa than at the peak of the national crisis, the crisis of the allegations levelled against the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. What should we take from the defiant man as we grapple with the President of South Africa’s hand allegedly caught in a series of crimes? What are the traits that we should insist must be consistent as black people when answering this saga as a people?
A variety of responses can arise around these questions, which can be substantive food for thought. However, a solid political thesis which is undoubtedly a core value aspect, exists. It is a timeless view which is forever necessary for blacks to immerse themselves. It is a view that Blacks will forever identify with and use to reorient themselves. It is a perspective that continuously haunts blacks as long as they exist in the chaos of systemic oppression, the perspective being that, “black man, you are on your own.”
Moving back to reflection. Reflection means that one must not dwell on the one end to reach a holistic overview. Reflection demands a context. In the context of Biko’s words, it means Blacks who are the oppressed peoples of African descent, Coloured people and Indian people. In any defence of ideologically protecting black people, there will always be opposers in us.
Identifying and reflecting on our loneliness, there will always be disparagers about our genuine concerns. We must acknowledge and unapologetically defeat such thinking openly. The idea of being alone, which liberals wish to be entitled to, is not the appropriate way of interpreting being on your own. It is the so-called ‘radical’ liberal view that Biko merely described the state of Black people, never articulating his words with the understanding to push and agitate the black masses to revolt against their standings.
They hold the view that if Biko meant to agitate for unity, he would have said ‘men’ when placing the argument of being on one’s own. He would have been deliberate in uniting the black people through this argument. He would have never sought to say one thing and mean another. One thing we know about Steve Biko is that HE WROTE WHAT HE LIKED.
Why than did he not seek to agitate black people within this argument? The response to this is simple and is closely linked to the very necessity for reflection, the very definition of reflection, which is to have serious thought of consideration, to ponder on an idea enough to accept its validity and soundness. What does black mean as a refection? What does it mean to be black?
Biko argues it is a reflection of one’s mental attitude, the understanding that I am black is the very admission that I can’t possibly be alone in these slums one calls Khayelitsha (which means new home). It is to reflect on your surroundings of your friends, family and partner that, indeed, we are all in this sinking ship. It is redundant to say black “men” to further emphasis the plurality of blacks. It is actually anti-black within this context.
In this context, which is the material context, can one ever be black alone? It is impossible. Try being black alone in a gang-ridden township called Philippi or Mitchells Plain, where the whole township is afraid of a few men who are gangsters. Try to be black alone in a labour system which is white-owned and white-controlled, try being alone under the neglect of the ANC government and further try and crack your head in being black alone under the tyranny of Ramaphosa. It is an impossible task.
In reflecting, one necessarily has to admit that our refuge as blacks is ourselves as black people. We are one thing caught in different traps of white supremacy. The only difference is geography, the different scale which you can be exploited by white rule, but what we are as Blacks is consistent throughout us all. We are but one category of people, and we are alone as Black people. The implicit agitation for Blacks to unite is an inextricable argument of the loneliness of Blacks.
The unity Biko speaks of can be regarded as absolute unity. I argue that today, the new dawn that wears the face of Cyril Ramaphosa, is the exact post which we must unite against, a true personification of what Biko wants us to unite against, the unity of the lonely. A head of state who undermines the institutions established to hold him accountable, the people’s voice, a head of state who runs from the public protector, a head of state who runs from Parliament, a head of state who treats our democracy as a Ponzi scheme.
President Cyril Rhamposa is loose and on the run, on the run from the Public Protector’s accountability measures and even worse, on the run from the unanimous house that voted him into office in 2019, Parliament.
The President of the Republic of South Africa has lost public confidence. In a desperate attempt to protect his hands, seemingly caught in the cookie jar, he suspended the Public Protector. The Public Protector waged “31 questions” around the infamous Phala Phala saga, and in response, the President suspended her. The so-called “Mr Transparency” claims to have responded to the Acting Public Protector but felt it was not necessary for his responses to be made public.
Having ascended to the highest office, the whole country was mobilised under a banner of renewal, renewing the government from the scourge of corruption by being a transparent government that would be determined to expose the garnet of maladministration and corruption. Exactly two days after the Public Protector set measures in motion to hold the President to account, with the said 31 questions on the matter, Busisiwe Mkhwebane was served with a letter of suspension. While the wisdom of the High Court has deemed the suspension to be baseless and unjustified, the public still lies naked and without a Public Protector.
More alarming is that the execution of the suspension was done while the process of impeachment of the Public Protector was ongoing. The process from Parliament to impeach the Public Protector would have allowed her and her office to be objectively scrutinised, and her capacity to hold office would be objectively determined.
She would have been in a process that spells out clearly to the public why or why not she would not be fit for office. As if this debacle was not enough to taint the office of the President, Ramaphosa went a step further to avoid accountability.
The administrative tyrannical approach of the President was further exacerbated when he avoided measures to be held accountable even by a democratic Parliament, an even more legitimate representation of the people of South Africa. Parliament, congregated at the order of the Speaker, more than once disregarded and dismissed questions asked by public representatives about the Phala Phala theft. In the desperate attempt to protect Cyril Ramaphosa, violence was unleashed on the direct representatives of the people in Parliament. Women were brutalised and objectified by ‘bouncers’ who were ready to kill in defence of the President.
In a country mired by Gender-based violence and to not be sensitive to a national plague, in the President’s defence, women in the National Assembly were given a response indicative of Apartheid tactics of responding to political interactions. The President, in using his administrative powers, once again, as the head of administration, has declared himself an enemy of the people, no different than the brutal Apartheid police who tortured Biko to his last breath.
It was white supremacy disguised as administrative rights that the Apartheid government saw it well to kill Steve Biko. Ramaphosa, too, seeks to undermine the public and unleash senseless violence on public representatives, both in Parliament and the Public Protector.
There is no resoundingly consistent view than this statement. The idea that during Apartheid, blacks could be killed at any time for anything, the idea that your blackness could be stripped off you alive through the force-feeding of Afrikaans, the idea that cheap labour is reserved for blacks, the list of describing oppression is indeed endless, the question, therefore, is, reflecting on the Presidents response to both the Public Protector and Parliament, is this not the Apartheid administrative brutality that we experience through President Cyril Rhamaphosa?
Is the black nation not under threat when the voice of the voiceless in Parliament and the Public Protector is being deliberately disregarded by the President? Is this level of disregard not the same as the Jacob Zuma regime?
As we exit the month of the gallant, all Blacks must reiterate Biko’s tune towards the administrative tyranny of Cyril Rhamaphosa and better contextualise his words, BLACK MAN, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN, you are on your own with us, with us as fellow blacks!
Phumelelani Mshumi is a UWC student.
IOL
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