Mogomotsi Mogodiri
Pretoria - A few days ago, our country woke up to the infuriating news that a neo-Nazi moonlighting as a student urinated on the belongings, including a desk, books and laptop, of a first-year African student, Babalo Ndwayana.
The outrage against this despicable act that happened while we were struggling to heal with the wound caused by another racist Free State University urine incident forced the issue of racism and white supremacy on to the national agenda.
As we have become accustomed to, it was the social media channels that came alive with an outpouring of indignation against what constitutes a blatant violation of a native’s rights to dignity.
The disgusting urine incident is not an isolated case at Stellenbosch University, as reports abound of more than 40 racial incidents having taken place on and around that campus.
As if to underscore its status as a bastion of white supremacy, another racist incident at a function held by that university’s law faculty reportedly took place a few days before.
Given the plethora of racist incidents, it would probably not be far-fetched to assume that AfriForum has been silently celebrating as it has characteristically fallen silent about these human rights violations. These include the ongoing court case of a white supremacist claiming that he shot at Africans because he thought they were hippos.
These incidents are products of the inhuman and abominable apartheid colonialism system.
This is a very obnoxious crime against humanity that AfriForum has consistently and vociferously defended, promoted and glorified, which has inspired and emboldened Stellenbosch University student Theuns du Toit and his ilk.
The so-called civil society and human rights organisations are also conspicuous in their silence. Or is it that they become vociferous if and when their noise is choreographed and sponsored? The less said about the ANC and its alliance partners, the better! They behave like a party afflicted by a crippling bout of “defeated nation” syndrome.
What about AfriForum and its type? Du Toit’s chutzpah of shamelessly stating that “this is what we do to black boys” is clearly not just a moment of racial indiscretion. It mirrors AfriForum’s cheek to oppose the application by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to the Equality Court to outlaw the display of the apartheid flag.
The temerity goes further as AfriForum has approached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in a desperate but futile attempt to get that court to be complicit in preserving and promoting white supremacy.
By utterances and deeds, AfriForum has shamelessly pinned its neo-Nazi colours to the mast and became a midwife and incubator of white supremacy.
The countless racist misdemeanours are an insult to the hitherto landless, poor and downtrodden. AfriForum is steeped in colonial history under the guise of “free speech”.
What AfriForum is senselessly fighting for is not a South African flag. It is fighting for a repulsive Nazi-inspired apartheid symbol for it and its ilk to continue celebrating and perpetuating colonisation, white domination and racist hate.
Having been designed by apartheid colonialists and first flown in 1928, and condemned to the dustbin of history in 1994, that flag represents the white supremacist oppression of South African natives. Displaying it, whether indoors or outdoors, invokes anger and hurt for South African natives as it sends a message that Neo-Nazis within our midst still proudly support apartheid and the atrocities committed in its pursuance.
We need not remind the disingenuous and racist AfriForum of its contradictory utterances. It vociferously protests that singing Dubhul’ iBhunu is hate speech and should be banned.
In the same breath, it fallaciously argues that displaying an apartheid flag should not be banned as it is protected speech. Clearly, AfriForum has perfected the art of speaking through both sides of its mouth.
Superior illogic!
Our lived experience is that our dispossession, oppression, hurt, pain and loss of dignity are ridiculed and belittled.
Meanwhile, we are expected to bend over backwards to embrace (read forgive and forget about) those who are unapologetic, not remorseful and worst still, boisterous about having inflicted untold pain on us.
Given the racists’ unrepentant posture, we probably need to look at what makes AfriForum so cocky and arrogant.
Is it that it is privy to the hitherto secretive Codesa compromises?
Or is it due to the so-called best Constitution in the world that seems to be inexplicably tilted towards all manner of wrongdoers, including criminals and racists?
Worse still, is it that natives were, and still are, hypnotised by the “Rainbow Nation” scam that emphasised “reconciliation” and unsolicited forgiveness at the expense of truth and justice for apartheid victims?
The oppressors have never acknowledged and accepted that apartheid colonialism was not only wrong, but a crime against humanity. Instead, the oppressed were duped into forgiving unrepentant apartheid criminals and their offspring.
Irrespective, no self-respecting country worth its salt can allow itself to be a nest of, and safe haven for, white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are hell-bent on reversing the limited gains made towards achieving true liberation.
The culture of impunity has to be uprooted by, among others, unequivocally outlawing racism. We must also insist on reparations for slavery and colonial plunder in order to pave the way for victims of apartheid colonialism to at least begin a long and torturous journey of healing.
Section 16 of the Constitution states that “everyone has a right to freedom of expression”, but it is not, and cannot, be a licence for neo-Nazis to insult us and, worse still, rub our faces in it.
It is unfathomable that AfriForum not only expects natives to stand idle while it and its ilk rubbish and belittle our pain and suffering.
Who can forget that even after more than half a century, Jews still fight against any inkling of Nazism as it reminds them of their deep pain and suffering?
Why should it be different for the victims of apartheid?
Any gratuitous display of the apartheid flag constitutes hate speech and harassment. It is prohibited by the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.
This law must not only be enforced without fear, favour or prejudice, but we must go further to unequivocally outlaw racism, and the Constitution should be amended to get it aligned.
Our country must learn from Germany. The Nazi symbol, the Swastika, is banned there, and its display is a criminal offence that leads to imprisonment.
The apartheid flag is equivalent to the swastika, and displaying it must also be banned and punishable by imprisonment if we are to defeat the demon of racism and white supremacy.
We should also not forget that Ndwayana suffered the gross indignity due to a racially motivated attack.
Justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done for our country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights to have real meaning, especially for the victims of racism.
Du Toit should not only be expelled, but must be banned from all institutions of higher learning.
The full might of the law must also fall, like a ton of bricks, on him and others.
Since Stellenbosch University is refusing to cut its apartheid umbilical cord, the government must place it under administration, so an independent team should undertake a “demon exorcising” exercise.
Any more equivocation and obfuscation can only embolden racists to continue wreaking havoc and causing untold harm.
Inaction and/or setting aside the ruling that declared the display of a racist symbol as hate speech would also act as an incentive for AfriForum and its fellow travellers to persist with their foolish belief that apartheid never existed.
Pretoria News