One would have thought that after apartheid had spent 46 years defining race, there would not be much left to say. Four main groups were recognised: Africans (elevated from "Bantu"), whites (mainly Afrikaans and English), coloureds and Indians, and sub-groups like Malay, Griqua, Chinese. Writing this race categorisation into statute and enforcing it in law was difficult, as a 1969 act, amending the Population Amendment Act, suggested: "It shall, in the absence of proof that any person who is not a Bantu is generally accepted as a white person, be assumed that he is generally accepted as a Coloured person." Read that again, and then admit that the apartheid government really tried.
The 1996 constitution recognised 11 language groups (nine African, one Afrikaans and one English) and the ANC leaves it at that. But it finds the collective term "blacks" (non-whites) inadequate to express what it really has in mind, which is to rank the entire population politically/racially with Africans at the top. The designation of other population groups is partly racial and partly based on contributions to the "liberation struggle." This is social engineering on a scale which makes the old apartheid structures look like fine filigree work.
Why has race categorisation flared up suddenly? Partly because a new regime (Zuma's) has taken over; partly because ANC activists want to clear away the debris of apartheid and of the Mbeki period and formalise the new structures; and partly because a "buffoon" called Julius Malema (president of the ANC Youth League since April 2008 following an election beset by irregularities) wants both the public and private sectors to grasp the new rules once and for all, and obey them.
So who is Malema and what is the ANCYL? In his book, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, William Gumede writes: "In the 1940s and 1950s, the Youth League, led by men of Mandela's stature, spearheaded the radicalisation of the ANC. Those days are long gone, and the ANCYL has become the playground of yuppie politicians who drive smart cars and live the high life, using the league as nothing more than an entry point to big business and national politics...The ANCYL has become a doorway to central government. Under (Malusi) Gigaba the league was at Mbeki's bidding when it came to unsavoury tasks such as public attacks on critics and smear campaigns against dissenters. For his reward, Gigaba was appointed deputy minister of Home Affairs."
Has much changed since 2005, when Gumede's book was first published? Revision in 2009 would confirm that the ANCYL decidedly has "street muscle," delivering at short notice street marches, demonstrations, intimidation outside High Courts, etc. Julius himself said his organisation was prepared to take up arms "and kill for Zuma." The ANCYL gave solid backing to Jacob Zuma's election to the presidency, and just as much as it contributed to Thabo Mbeki's ascent in the ANC, so it helped bring about his downfall. Repeatedly, the ANCYL is rebuked by Zuma, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, Cosatu, fellow comrades in the Young Communist League, and others for going too far, but it is like water off a duck's back.
Malema's opening came on May 10 this year when President Jacob Zuma presented the first post-Mbeki, 34-member cabinet, and somehow a "cluster" of Indians, whites and coloureds were seen to be in control of the economic ministries, and a "cluster" of Africans found themselves running the security ministries. Julius was outraged. A security minister, he felt, was small fry compared with an economics minister. Whoa, said Julius. Something badly wrong here. But since he is not SA's president (yet), nor even a cabinet minister or a deputy, he had to show caution.
For a while he stood there, angry and open-mouthed. But eventually, if you are Julius and your mouth is open, what do you do? You put your foot in it. In fact, why not put in both feet, which is just what Julius did. Supported by an official ANCYL statement, he explained that he was not asking for a cabinet reshuffle: he and his movement had full confidence in the competence and diligence of the economics ministers, bless them. Indeed, just to have asked what all those Indians, coloureds and whites were doing in such top jobs as economics would have been a challenge to both Zuma and the ANC leadership, and pretty insulting to the new ministers and their respective communities. Also, the ANC had gone on record as saying that "There is no such thing as Coloureds and Indians as they were part of the struggle."
In a lengthy statement on August 27, Julius began to talk his way out of his dilemma (see here). He explained the ranking structure within SA politics, or at least the gospel according to St. Julius. Quoting from the ANC's 1969 Morogoro conference, he said, "the present stage of the SA revolution is the national liberation of the largest and most oppressed group - the African people." Then he turned to that well-worn term "minorities" to distinguish Africans (79% of the population) from whites, coloureds and Indians and give Africans the top ranking they deserved. The ANCYL, in a separate statement, agreed with its president, stoutly reaffirming "the principle of African leadership, particularly on key economic cluster responsibilities in all the spheres of society, including government and private sector".
Julius almost got the best of both worlds: he told Zuma and the ANC leadership that "We, black people, cannot be reduced just to security while the very important issue of the economy is given to minorities." So just what is Julius's position here? If you know your George Orwell, you know the answer: all "blacks" are equal, but some "blacks" are more equal than others. They are the Africans.
Second, Julius and his comrades made it clear that appointments such as those that had been made to the economic cluster, should never happen again. The ANCYL spelt this out: "The principle of African leadership should not be compromised when further appointments are made, as that could play into a racist perception that Africans are incapable of performing key economic roles in government and the corporate sector."
At this point Julius brought "struggle credentials" into the ranking calculation, and here things get a bit confused. OK, Africans are top of the "oppressed" pile, but African women, "particularly in factory floors and workplaces, suffered the most oppression under apartheid." Possibly, white women also "suffered institutionalised exclusion under apartheid...apartheid's institutionalised patriarchy barred white women from performing certain functions and attaining certain privileges within the racially, class and gender oppressive state." Then realising what he was saying, Julius added that nevertheless "black women suffered triple oppression as a class, racial group and on a gender basis."
If apartheid's ranking system was complicated, Julius's is triply so. Without question, he explained, it could not be said that groups "such as Coloureds, White Women, people of Asian origins, including the Chinese were not politically and economically excluded from mainstream South African society. What certainly varied is the extent and degree of oppression, suppression and exclusion in all facets of South African controlled society." Here we go again: most non-whites were oppressed, but some were more oppressed than others, and had to be ranked accordingly.
For a black political leader, formerly assumed by most of us I suspect to be your classic African male chauvinist, to make such an admission was an eye-opener. With a stroke of the pen Julius dethroned the African alpha male (alienating comrades in the ANCYL?). By Julius's measurement, two of the "minorities" in the economics cluster, Gill Marcus and Barbara Hogan, had claims to their top jobs exceeded only by, say, an African woman recruited from a factory floor (Julius's mother was a domestic worker).
The ranking then would be as follows, starting at the top: an African factory woman; Gill and Barbara (Julius is especially complimentary about Gill, Reserve Bank governor); then African males. No mention of Indian and coloured males (Trevor Manuel, National Planning Commission, Pravin Gordhan, Finance, and Ebrahim Patel, Economic Development). As for white males (Rob Davies, Trade and Industry), on another occasion Julius had seen them as "apartheid agents" who should be purged from administrative jobs (opposition leader Helen Zille was an "apartheid spy.").
Second (Julius and others half-explained), by minorities he really meant those who had "struggle credentials." His own credentials began in his pre-teen years, although his present struggle credentials possibly include grappling with the gadgets in his BMW.
So as "minorities" takes on a closer definition it seems that while whites are included (sort of), there are not many of them compared with the serried ranks of Africans, and only a handful anyway who have "struggle" credentials. So whites are in a class of their own - traditionally the "oppressors." To follow through with ANCYL logic, Julius should just have called them "aliens," but then he really would have put his foot in it, which would have been both politically reckless and physiologically impossible, because there were already two feet in his mouth.
Finally, Julius had to answer the blunt question: why were coloureds and Indians suddenly being called "minorities" and not "blacks." He never really answered this question. With a supporting statement from the ANC, he acknowledged that he did not for a moment question the capabilities of the new "minorities" in the cabinet. They were absolutely splendid chaps (and women) in whom the whole ANCYL had full confidence. So what was Julius trying to say? If you know your George Orwell, the answer is there: all blacks are equal, but some are more equal than others. They are the Africans.
No reference is made here to the competence or otherwise of the Africans who (Julius declares) should have been appointed to the economics portfolios, which raises the question - just how well are the various government departments being run at present? Like that shambles called Home Affairs? An answer is available - the opposition Democratic Alliance performs a valuable public service by issuing daily bulletins on the state of the nation, chapter and verse. It should be required reading. It is a wonder that anything in government works.
Whether Julius realises that the entire coloured and Indian communities, not just the new cabinet ministers, might regard their reclassification as an insult to them as a community - well, not bloody likely, is it? But he really rubbed salt into the wound when he said that while no one expected Zuma to reshuffle his cabinet and leave out the "minorities," those appointments should be regarded as a one-off. There should be no repetition of allocating top jobs to "minorities." In future Africans should be appointed. Finished and klaar, as ex-police chief Jackie Selebi would say.
Incidentally, the reason Julius and the ANC gave for the putting Africans at the top of the pile was that young Africans would see Indians in key economic ministries and this would "play into the racist perception that Africans are incapable of performing key economic roles in government and the corporate sector" (implying that lifetime inferiority complexes would be built into the psyches of young blacks). Why, asked Julius, should Africans be left with the "security" portfolios? Immediately, three top Africans hastened to his defence: Lindiwe Sisulu (Defence and Military Veterans), Nathi Mthethwa (Police) and Tony Yengeni (former ANC chief whip, before doing a spell in jail).
This brings one to the present fierce infighting in the so-called Tripartite Alliance (ANC,Cosatu, SACP), and the near-certainty that the local government elections next year will wreak further havoc on ANC politics, and on the election of an ANC president in 2012 (to reaffirm or replace Zuma's ANC presidency). This reminds one again of the warning by Mondli Makhanya, editor of the Johannesburg Sunday Times, that "buffoons" like Julius are not to be underestimated. Also, as media reports confirm, use of the term "minorities" is not a one-off remark by Julius: it is a "raging debate within the ANC's official structures." With Julius trying to reshuffle the whole political pack of cards, there must be quite a few top politicians and public servants wondering how safe their jobs are.
Commenting on Julius's outburst, President Zuma said calmly that Julius was "young and still learning," but he warned that "a debate on race" (which Julius is trying to stir up), "will take the country backwards." So, if before long anarchy starts to lap at the doors of ANC politics, Julius and the ANCYL will be behind it.
No doubt readers of these columns have read the address (here) by Moeletsi Mbeki (the ex-president's brother) delivered at Chatham House, London, last week. It concluded with these words: "South Africa is therefore now entering a new phase of conflict, the conflict between the Black nationalist elite and the Black masses over how to distribute state revenues between them...ANC president, Jacob Zuma, once predicted that the ANC's rule would last until the second coming of Jesus Christ. At the rate at which conflict is growing Jesus may find South Africa a burnt out shell when he returns."
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