Afri-Forum, a cause for concern

The manner in which concerns were raised around the appointment of the new Chief Justice and, the litigation by Afri-Forum against the singing of certain struggle songs, concern me and deserves some discussion.

First it was with regard to the President Jacob Zuma's nomination Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng to be the Chief Justice. We appreciate the fact that people may have been concerned about some of his rulings in cases involving violence against women, but it appears as if these issues were secondary and a convenient vehicle for attacks on the President.

The attacks on the President's choice followed a litigation to block the President's extension of Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo's tenure. Given that the direction and ethos of the constitution as the protector of the rights that the ANC in the main fought for, cannot be adversely impacted upon by one person. One cannot but come to the conclusion that the critiques were at times crude attempts to undermine the authority and Office of the President.

What may also be at play is the assertion that unelected interest groups are lobbying for key positions in the judiciary and other public offices to be occupied by people that they feel would act in their narrow selfish interests and not people that will seek to serve the public as whole and towards our national objectives.

If one looks at this issue and the legal action taken by Afri-Forum on a struggle song in the Equality Court, then there is a confluence of attempts to use important legal instruments that were set up to promote and safeguard the constitutional rights of all South Africans to promote narrow group interests.

Afri-Forum is described in the media as a civil rights group when in fact, they are a right wing grouping concerned about protecting and safeguarding the apartheid privileged status of white people of our country. The so-called manifesto on civil rights argues for the segregation of schools under the guise of the right to mother tongue education.

Afri Forum has not used their civil right group status to take to the Equality Court radio personalities who have ushered racist slurs or the management of a company that allegedly forced a black woman to strip so that they could verify her sex. It never uttered a word when Scott-Crossley murdered Mr Chisale, a father of three, who had returned to the farm from where he had been sacked two months earlier, to pick up some personal belongings, but was murdered and thrown over the fence and devoured by the lions. Afri-Forum remained quiet.

For organisation's like Afri-Forum and those who support them, black people are used to being denigrated and therefore do not need protection and having their rights advanced at the level of the Constitutional Court and the Equality Court.

In fact, when one looks at who is routinely being taken to the Equality Court, one would be forgiven for thinking that all white people and all white men have never been racist, sexist or homophobic. This is in stark contrast to the reality that all black people, women and gay South Africans experienced before the constitutional democracy that the ANC facilitated.

The ANC with its largely black support has always championed non-racism and non-sexism. We promote sexual rights here and abroad which is why we should actively dispel the deliberate attempts by those who were the champions of the most racist and sexist form of governance to portray themselves as the defenders of rights that we have always promoted.

It is therefore, saddening that there appears to be a lack of understanding by our ordinary people that there are people who were out there to undermine and diminish the authority of the President and gradually rubbish the struggle the ANC has for 100 years of selfless struggle sought to eradicate these most racist, sexist and homophobic tendencies of Afri-Forums of this world. They are using the systems we have put in place to protect defend the apartheid status quo and their privileged status - they are not interested in reconciliation, equality and nation building.

In fact, one of the gifts that we have as black South Africans is the capacity to forgive and that is why it was easy for us to get into a reconciliation mode that was spearheaded by our icon Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. This assisted us to come up with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and not a retributive Nuremburg Trial. We forgive but it would be very suicidal to forget least we would be undermined and be abused and let other people behave as if we were never oppressed and that they have never been oppressors.

Those who were part of the oppressor class do not reciprocate the capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation that we have always demonstrated. That is why the pains our people experience when they are denied the right to be buried on farms where they have been staying for more than ten years, is not newsworthy or protected by the courts.

That is why, the perpetrators of gross injustices such as putting women into dry cleaning machines are given light sentences. That is why, there is easy acceptance of pictures depicting a white man standing over a black child as if that child were a dog, that is why a white rugby player beats up a policeman while drunk and gets away with a R750 000 fine while a black man found guilty of driving under the influence is sentenced to a prison term for two years.

What has Afri-Forum said about all of these things? Nothing because the victims of these events were all black and the rights and dignity of black people are not important in the eyes of these organisations and those who support them. Their actions and ambitions are to undermine black people and their leadership and sadly they seek to use some black people and their organisations to help them.

The issue of gender equality is also very important. There are those that are masquerading as representatives of women when they have never aligned themselves with the struggles for women's emancipation and gender equality. Why have they been so quiet on the issues of transformation of the judiciary before? What improvements have they themselves made in the areas of child maintenance as well as violence against women and children?

What have they done to ensure that women grow in the field of law or even understand the issues of gender equality so that they are not used as the voice of capitalists or they are not used in battles that are not women's battles?

A word of warning to women - we must be very careful of these forces who never raised a finger in the struggle for women's emancipation and gender equality but want to define how the demands and struggles of women should be driven.

The gains we have made on gender equality were hard won and we should be careful of the actions of these latter day activists who are engaged in poor and un-strategic politics that can actually fuel backlash against the gains we have struggled for. The problem of patriarchy is a national and complex challenge and is as difficult to deal with, as is racism. Targeting men as individuals is poor activism and ignorance of the highest order that may mobilise men to close ranks and take our struggle back.

Sexism, which is the ideology of the superiority of men, is like its twin, racism - which is the ideology of white superiority. We need to fight both ideologies with equal vigour and that is something the ANC has always done and will continue to do. It is dangerous when people seek to entrench racist attitudes under the guise of fighting for gender equality which may be an issue at play in the discussions around the appointment of the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

The manner in which racist organisations are using spaces like the Equality Court to advance their narrow issues may result in the masses losing confidence in these institutions and lay the basis for backlash in many areas that we as black women in particular have fought for.

Institutions that seek to promote democracy must be seen as being sensitive to the aspirations of black people too who have historically borne the brunt of bad laws and an antagonistic judicial system. If they are seen only as means to block transformation or protect narrow group rights, they may lose their legitimacy in the eyes of the masses which cannot be good for our democracy.

>> Bathabile Dlamini is an ANC NEC member and Minister of Social Welfare. This article first appeared in ANC Today, the weekly online newsletter of the African National Congress.

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