ANOTHER week, another scandal. This time, the stars are the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and its chief engineer, who reportedly ended up buying the wrong size of locomotive for our train tracks.

Prasa barely had time to deny this when it was also reported that Dr Daniel Mtimkulu isn’t even registered as an engineer.

There are also big questions about his qualifications, since Wits can’t find any evidence that he ever studied there. Then, someone dug up an old interview where he mentioned that he got his doctorate in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The problem is that, looking at when he was born, it would mean he was awarded with the degree when he was just 15 years old...

I’m not going to go into details here, because what I really want to talk about is something I realised while following this mess.

It happened when, once again, the race card was played. Many people started claiming that the reports on Prasa and Mtimkulu were motivated by racism.

These people said there shouldn’t be so much of a focus on the qualifications, or lack thereof, of black professionals in the public service. Now I’m sorry, but that is just another form of racism, even if it’s coming from other blacks.

It’s basically saying you don’t believe blacks can’t meet the same standards as whites, so they should’t be judged by them.

Michael Gerson, a speechwriter for former American president George W Bush, came up with the phrase “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. It’s a more subtle form of bigotry than overt racism, and usually people who are guilty thereof don’t even realise it. They may even think they’re fighting racism. It basically means that less is expected of people of a certain race, so they’re held to a lower standard than the norm.

It gets even worse when it’s combined with internalised racism, where a group of people actually start believing in the racist ideas others have about them. So now we have a situation where a group of people, in this case black citizens of Mzansi, have lower expectations of themselves.

I saw the exact same thing this week during a much smaller scandal, involving three Kaizer Chiefs players getting into trouble for posing for a photo promoting DJ Sbu’s controversial MoFaya energy drink. Some people commenting on the story on the Daily Sun website claimed there was a white conspiracy against Sbu’s drink, and that’s why it’s been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The truth is, of course, that all the drama about the claim that the drink was SABS approved wasn’t started by a group of white supremacists, but by Sbu himself.

He shouldn’t have claimed that his drink was SABS-approved when it wasn’t! But once again, the “soft bigots” wanted Sbu held to a different, lower standard, because he is black – in effect saying that a black man can’t make it on the same level playing field as a white man. Nonsense!

These people are basically saying we shouldn’t expect blacks to not lie about their qualifications or the products they sell. They’ve internalised all the lies the likes of Verwoerd told about them. It all made me realise that we have a lot more to worry about than just the racism coming from the usual suspects.

Let’s say no to apartheid brainwashing and self-hatred. Instead, let’s hold our heads up high and realise that defending someone just because he’s black is no less racist than attacking them for the same reason.

Let me know if you agree or not by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Until next week, salani kahle!

This article first appeared in the Sunday Sun.