Show us the foresight, and prove Botha wrong! President Jacob Zuma
President Jacob Zuma

President Jacob Zuma

Joram Nyathi Spectrum
“And here is a creature that lacks foresight. The average black does not plan his life beyond a year.” “Creature” refers to the blackman, so does “black”. No histrionics yet about racism you hypocrite. I was reminded of the devil’s speech by the events of the past few weeks which almost derailed the Sadc Extraordinary Summit held in Harare yesterday, the focus of Spectrum this week.

Those comments are ascribed to one Botha in an address to the South African parliament in 1985, almost a good 10 years before Nelson Mandela was to become the first black president of the Republic in 1994.

It is a relatively short speech which I love to reread whenever I am bored.

It is rare in these days of political correctness to find people who speak their mind without flinching, without the need to apologise, without a twinge of irony or hypocrisy.

French philosopher and writer Voltaire reportedly asked God at one point, praying; “May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.”

The truth of that statement is that we know how to react when we see a snake or a lion. That’s why generally I love whites who don’t hide their disgust at the sight of black people and make a point of keeping a safe distance unless forced by circumstance to mix.

And I want to thank the white devil for his insights. We ignore them at our own peril, for they bid us be people of “foresight” and to plan our lives “beyond a year”.

Though a repeat of what happened in 2008, the outbreak of Afrophobia against immigrants in the coastal city of Durban in South Africa recently generated so much anger and negative energy, it was like there had been a genocide or a holocaust or pogrom of some kind.

Recriminations flew thick and fast, with people calling for retaliatory attacks against South Africans across Africa.

President Jacob Zuma was accused of doing little too late to stop or prevent the “massacre” of seven immigrant Africans.

His condemnation of the attacks was judged to be inadequate and insincere.

Even among politicians who should know better, suddenly the ICC became a suitable institution to decide the fate of King Zwelithini, even as the AU is set to decide soon whether African should remain a part of that Afrophobic court!

And while protesting that they would not return home to Zimbabwe for fear of an ogre called Mugabe, some had the effrontery to sue their host President Zuma in his own court for not taking proper care of them! Surreal it sounds, its not beyond the hypocrisy of some Zimbabweans.

In the end one got the feeling that given the opportunity, most Africans, whether they had relatives or not caught up in the attacks, would have relished driving black South Africans into the ocean and leaving the racists to enjoy the legacy of their apartheid economy unperturbed.

Afrophobia was suddenly elevated to a key agenda item for the forthcoming Sadc Summit, superseding issues of industrialisation, competitiveness and regional integration, the substantive policy interventions which seek to render Afrophobia an anachronism.

Talk of “foresight” and planning “life beyond a year”! They are simply incompatible with the black man. Alien to a political Zimbabwean.

Give the devil his due for a devastating observation given with burnished candour.

Alien to a political Zimbabwean because our recent history is replete with curses of short-termism.

Land reform, Zim-Asset, investment agreements with China and Russia are immediate cases in point.

Land: It took the white man nearly a century to produce the highest ever figure of 236 million kg of tobacco in this country in 1991/2. Resettled farmers are close to that figure with less than 15 years of experience but they are still treated with scorn and the land reform attacked as a failure.

The highest figure of maize ever produced was 2,952 million tonnes in 1984. We are not factoring the fact of the white commercial farmer using slave labour while banks and other institutions such as IFC provided cheap finance.

The poor black farmer who has recently got a plot of land but has no draught power, no bank loan and has to pay his workers at the commercial rates is accused of either laziness or incompetency.

He should do as well, if not better, than the white farmer. There is no honeymoon for him.

Our intellectuals will go out of their way to demonstrate how astute Smith was to survive the brief UN sanctions imposed on Rhodesia, but studiously deny the existence of illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the EU and America as punishment for the land reform, just so they convince blacks that they are inferior or too corrupt to run a country.

Zim-Asset, Government’s economic development blueprint, has been a victim of cynicism rather than critical interrogation by a people who want to break the shackles of the colonial economy.

This is a framework which can be applied to any economy as a measure of human development.

But in Zimbabwe people expect overnight miracles: asking about the 2 million jobs before the programme is a year under implementation!

Investment agreements to rebuild infrastructure signed between Zimbabwe and China and Russia last year have been greeted with the same cynicism. These are meant to improve energy supplies and transport as key enablers for industrialisation.

But people expect results overnight. In fact, people wanted cash so they could spend.

Then you blame Botha as a racist! Why should he pretend that Africans have “foresight” and can plan “life beyond a year” when we demonstrate everyday that we are concerned only with immediate consumption?

So we come to the Sadc Extraordinary Summit in Harare.

It adopted the bloc’s industrialisation strategy and roadmap to be implemented in three phases from 2015 to 2063 in tandem with Agenda 63. Its main thrust is to promote fast industrialisation, value addition and beneficiation of primary products to increase their market value as a way to fight poverty.

Regional integration is part of the vision. This will allow Sadc countries to increase trade among themselves and to pool resources to fund infrastructural development programmes rather than depend on the goodwill of the same nations which view a less developed Africa as a rich market for their manufacturing sectors.

These are the same nations which are happy to see a divided Africa fighting itself because seven people have been killed in senseless Afrophobic attacks by poor, unemployed youths in South Africa.

That is what we wanted to aid and abet, we people who have no foresight, a people who can’t plan their life beyond a year, a people so easily distracted from the bigger picture of a united, stronger Africa.

The endorsement of that industrialisation agenda was a body blow for some dark forces which were praying for the Summit to collapse in acrimony over the outbreak of Afrophobia attacks in South Africa.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi summed up why this was a landmark event.

Referring to the theme’s focus on value addition, beneficiation and industrialisation, he said; “Never before has any theme of the Sadc Summit outlived that individual summit.

“But in this particular case, the roadmap and strategy which has been prepared span over a period of 48 years,” with the Summit in Harare as a constant reference point.

“Imagine the lifespan if the theme had simply been: Xenophobia or Afrophobia; Africa says No!

Xenophobia or Afrophobia cannot be wished away; the industrialisation agenda on the other hand seeks to address the causes of xenophobia, such as poverty, economic inequalities and unemployment, instead of papering over manifestations through empty platitudes. We need foresight, we need to plan beyond a year to prove Botha wrong.

The task now is to implement the agenda. The Sadc secretariat was asked to come up with costed action plans.

Time is of the essence.

Africa must unite.

So far so good.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey