Oh dear, maybe I am turning into a version of that uber thin-skinned man called Thabo Mbeki (being absent from South Africa for a while can do that to a person, I suppose). How else to account for the deep irritation I felt when I read that FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, “awarded South Africa’s organizers of the Confederations Cup an encouraging mark of 7.5 out of 10 on Monday”, but warned there is still work to do to improve transport and find accommodation for next year’s World Cup.
The statement seems rather patronising to me. Is it my imagination or is there more than a hint of Afro-pessimism in such remarks? Oh, you Africans are not doing too badly – all things considered. You might just be able to pull this off. I am sure Blatter did not give Germany – a European country – 7.5 out of ten after they hosted the Confederations cup. But I guess they are European, so they did not have to demonstrate to the headmaster that they were going to host a successful world cup. After all, the Germans were efficient enough to exterminate 6 million people in a very short while – just what one can expect of good Europeans.
But one should keep a level head, I suppose, and not bridle with indignation when those lovely people from FIFA give us a patronising pat on the back. Yes the same FIFA who forced Cape Town to build a R300 million stadium near the Waterfront, far away from informal settlements, so that TV viewers would not have to see the poverty that is part of our daily lives.
Sometimes it is important to listen to other voices as well and to see ourselves through the eyes of others – even when their gaze has a tinge of the imperialist about it. One may even learn something or be reminded of something one knew but which our own media is too sloppy to pick up on. A case in point is a report on crime in South Africa published in the New York Times today, which starts:
The two robbery suspects had already been viciously beaten, their swollen faces stained with rivulets of red. One of them could no longer sit up, and only the need to moan seemed to revive him into consciousness. The other, Moses Tjiwa, occasionally stared into the taunting crowd and muttered, “I didn’t do anything.”
The suspects were awaiting the final cathartic wrath of the mob, the torment of being burned alive, wrapped in the fatal shawl of a gasoline-soaked blanket. Then suddenly they were saved from that hideous death by the brave intervention of a local politician. “Let the police handle this,” he implored.
As usual, the police arrived late on that recent evening, and many in the mob angrily objected to their being there at all. Finally, one police inspector shouted: “Get back or I’m leaving this place and never helping you people again. I hate Diepsloot!”
Crime in South Africa is commonly portrayed as an onslaught against the wealthy, but it is the poor who are most vulnerable: poor people conveniently accessible to poor criminals. Diepsloot, an impoverished settlement on the northern edge of Johannesburg, has an estimated population of 150,000, and the closest police station is 10 miles away.
To spend time in Diepsloot over three weeks is to observe the unrelenting fear so common among the urban poor. Experts point to the particularly brutal nature of crime in this country: the unusually high number of rapes, hijackings and armed robberies. The murder rate, while declining, is about eight times higher than in the United States.
In Diepsloot, people usually bear their losses in silence, their misfortune unreported and their offenders unknown. If a suspect is identified, victims usually inform quasi-legal vigilante groups or hire their own thugs to recover their property.
The debate on crime in South Africa has been hogged so thoroughly by the elites that it would be easy to lose sight of the reality depicted by the New York Times report. One way to respond to this, is to deny that crime is a problem or that anything those irritatingly patronising foreigners say might be true. This is what Thabo Mbeki did for a while, famously mocking the notion that walking to the SABC would get one mugged only days before a soap star was mugged outside the SABC offices in Auckland Park.
But maybe it would be better to ignore the patronisng attitude of the foreigners and just get down to the business of addressing the problems. Who cares what foreigners say or think. It is what South Africans experience every day that counts. We should address crime – and all the other problems – not to impress foreigners but to build a better life for ourselves. After all, unlike those snooty bloody foreigners, we actually live here.
What on earth does this have to do with your point?:
“After all, the Germans were efficient enough to exterminate 6 million people in a very short while – just what one can expect of good Europeans”.
The holocaust is not held up as a model of efficiency by Blatter, or other Europeans generally. For someone who spends so much time taking apart stupid statements by others, you really should know better. Perhaps an apology is in order?
By the way, I thought your point was perfectly made by the preceding sentence.
Yes
Prof, what did you expect? Last time I was back in the West was more than five years ago. At that time one of Canada’s national papers did a large spread for four consecutive Sundays on South Africa. It was absolutely frightening and made me hesitant to return.
The developed international community is appalled by our crime, corruption, poverty levels, Aids and foreign policy. Can we fault them for that?
I agree, lets not fix it for them, but for ourselves and South Africa. But where’s the will to lead the way? And where but for limited pockets, is the caring support from those who have it all, both black and white?
well i think South Africa did a great job with the Confeds cup. Hell even we americans were impressed but i am pissed off on how we played in the finals 2-0 against Brazil wtf happend…..so upset.
P.S you guys are to hard on yourselfs. There will be critizism just take it constructively. This is the first time this is happening in Africa your not exactly pro’s at holding fifa world cups now are you, how many times have you hosted this event?? just enjoy the attention and relax.
Pierre, Tim is right. Unless you were being ironic, this is one of the silliest things you have said.
And no, Blatter was not being an “Afro-Pessimist.” Be assured that, were he dealing with any given South American country, or say Vietnam or Indonesia, he would be just as presumptious.
Tim, I was being sarcastic, wanting to point out that people with this Eurocentric world view always expect the worst of Africa (or, yes,Michael, another developing country), but ignores the horrific stuff which have emanated from Europe. It’s a smugness not born out by the facts.
I objected also, Pierre, because use of the term Afro-Pessimistic” is often a symptom of toxic defensiveness and foolish denialism. Sadly, Africa does indeed have the worst poverty rate, infrastructure, educational systems, public health, literacy rate, of any continent. This tragedy of Africa should never, ever be denied. Let it rather be headlined in every newspaper, shouted from every rooftop, and taught at every school and university on the globe — until something is done about it.
If the Germans are considered ‘efficient’; what pray was the Hutu/Tutsi efficiency rating?
Or what about Islam’s self confessed:
These figures area rough estimate of the death of non-Muslims by the political act of jihad.
Africa: 120 million Africans
Thomas Sowell [Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture, BasicBooks, 1994, p. 188] estimates that 11 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic and 14 million were sent to the Islamic nations of North Africa and the Middle East. For every slave captured many others died.
Christians:
The number of Christians martyred by Islam is 9 million [David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-10] . A rough estimate by Raphael Moore in History of Asia Minor is that another 50 million died in wars by jihad. So counting the million African Christians killed in the 20th century we have:
60 million Christians
Hindus
Koenard Elst in Negationism in India gives an estimate of 80 million Hindus killed in the total jihad against India. [Koenard Elst, Negationism in India, Voice of India, New Delhi, 2002, pg. 34.] The country of India today is only half the size of ancient India, due to jihad. The mountains near India are called the Hindu Kush, meaning the “funeral pyre of the Hindus.”
80 million Hindus
Buddhists
Buddhists do not keep up with the history of war. Keep in mind that in jihad only Christians and Jews were allowed to survive as dhimmis (servants to Islam); everyone else had to convert or die.
10 million Buddhists
This gives a rough estimate of 270 million killed by jihad.
Source: Tears of Jihad
Nor is it very popular to mention the underlying Jesuit (as in Black Pope, Jesuit General, to the White Pope, who does his bidding)… Catholic and Papal Phallic Masonic Forces, involved in the the Nazi Holocaust… for after all Location of Vatican-Nazi Death Camps in Poland Have Hidden Meaning; and here you can view the pictorial hidden Sacrifice to Moloch ‘Final Solution’ Pentagram Meaning…
When religions worship phallic symbols as fertility goddesses.. and children as economic, sexual and socio-status ego products… then….. like Sec. of Defense McNamara said… High birth rates require high death rates…
Who wants to live on a planet of 40 billion???
Who benefits financially from laws where there is no physical victim? Lawyers???
What would happen if tomorrow all laws that did not involve a physical victim, were scrapped and rulled ‘legal conduct’… ?
Prof, please tell me, you got more pressing legal and psychological and philosophical enquiries for ‘constitutionally speaking’ than this petty pathetic crystal fragile ego shit?
Pardon my bluntness..
Lara
FIFA’s 7.5 might be slightly patronising, but it is not entirely devoid of truth. We are doing OK, not great. As with all things SA, we manage to pull things off in the face of petty politics. There were problems that we need to address and there is no use denying it. I have a bigger problem with our “culture” of revelling in mediocrity than I do with condescending foreigners. We will achieve great things when we trade our propensity for melanin worship, for better values.
I do think we should care what foreigners think. We want investment and we want tourism. Nothing has to be problem-free, but we have show that we are addressing issues honestly and efficiently. Forget about trying, we have to start doing. Our current friends (terrorists and communists) aren’t really contributing to our welfare other than supporting one or other stupid policy. It is a ship of fools and we can do better.
We do not have to be playground buddies with non-radical nations, but we can be a lot more civil. The Americans got it right. Lawlessness is a problem and the corruption in our courts isn’t helping us at all. These problems can be fixed in a short time if we choose to do so. The irony is that corruption and degradation in our society is so rife that even an unschooled, immoral idiot can make a difference.
Well Prof., what a good article and as I have said before that when my side of the divide commends you, the other side will definitely lambasts you and they pretend to be neo-objective whereas they are putrly territorial.
Mdu, I noticed your use of the term ‘divide’. I hope you can accept that disagreement need not necessarily give rise to animosity. Sometimes it can engender better understanding and even tolerance and mutual respect.
To throw my two cents in: I respect the Professor’s willingness to fly the flag for this country. I also think there is a difference between sound analysis on the one hand, and scorn on the other. And where people tend towards scorn or patronising, well suffice it to say that I would to exception to that in much the same way as you and the professor have done.
However, I do think that rookies in a number of pursuits have to deal with measures of scrutiny that may chafe sometimes. And when it comes to hosting footie world cups, rookies is precisely what we are.
So with respect, I think the Professor has been a little over-protective this time.
Leigh, point taken with regard to “divide” if only it offends but I meant it innocouosly in a true sense of bloggers who are divided.
Thanks for the clarification Mdu. And you are right insofar as the term ‘divide’ can be used in an innocuous sense. So no harm no foul.
Mdu, I think you should be careful to praise Pierre on this point. Indeed, some may call Pierre a racist to imply that the Germans were more efficient than the Hutu. As Francis suggests, the Hutu managed to kill a larger proportion of Rwanda’s population in a less time — using little more than pangas.
The two robbery suspects had already been viciously beaten, their swollen faces stained with rivulets
of red. One of them could no longer sit up, and only the need to moan seemed to revive him into
consciousness. The other, Moses Tjiwa, occasionally stared into the taunting crowd and muttered, “I
didn’t do anything.”
The suspects were awaiting the final cathartic wrath of the mob, the torment of being burned alive,
wrapped in the fatal shawl of a gasoline-soaked blanket. Then suddenly they were saved from that
hideous death by the brave intervention of a local politician. “Let the police handle this,” he
implored.
As usual, the police arrived late on that recent evening, and many in the mob angrily objected to
their being there at all. Finally, one police inspector shouted: “Get back or I’m leaving this place
and never helping you people again. I hate Diepsloot!”
Crime in South Africa is commonly portrayed as an onslaught against the wealthy, but it is the poor
who are most vulnerable: poor people conveniently accessible to poor criminals. Diepsloot, an
impoverished settlement on the northern edge of Johannesburg, has an estimated population of 150,000,
and the closest police station is 10 miles away.
To spend time in Diepsloot over three weeks is to observe the unrelenting fear so common among the
urban poor. Experts point to the particularly brutal nature of crime in this country: the unusually
high number of rapes, hijackings and armed robberies. The murder rate, while declining, is about eight
times higher than in the United States.
In Diepsloot, people usually bear their losses in silence, their misfortune unreported and their
offenders unknown. If a suspect is identified, victims usually inform quasi-legal vigilante groups or
hire their own thugs to recover their property.
?? let’s see if elinks can post this ??
Ah, let’s just forget this “Eurocentric” nonsense please?
Of course the man’s going to rate South Africa. He’s looking out for his investment, and 7.5 out of 10 is pretty darn good. This “Oh, look at the poor little Africans doing so well” says nothing about Blatter’s “eurocentric patronising” but everything about our inferiority complex. (I assume we’re using the word “patronise” in the sense of condescension.)
Is it patronising when an insurance company assesses your credit risk? Is it patronising when your lecturer marks your paper?
Crime here sucks. It is much worse than, say, Western Europe. That’s a simple fact of life. That’s where we are.
So let’s quit whining about how pathetic we feel because someone dared assess our country, and actually go out and make a positive contribution please?
Frank Shearar you are right, may be we are taking it too far, may be Blatter was just being honest without an oita of condescension,especially when you recall that he endorsed the vuvuzela which is now fast becoming accepted by the likes of Der Kaiser, the German soccer boss.
Frank Shearar // Jul 1, 2009 at 10:56 am
I agree, 7.5 is good.
I also beleive that 7.5 encourages the good to be better, where a score of 9 encourages the good to become complacent.
Frank Sherar – like mili Ii must agree 7.5 out of 10 is good, very good. At most South African Universities (unlike primary and secondary schools, where the figure is slightly higher), 75% or higher is regarded as a distinction (cum laude). For the country to have achieved 75% in the books of FIFA, the first time around and despite the rife crime, is therefore very good, and can hardly be regarded as ‘patronizing’.
Et Al,
Is it possible that Jackie Selebi is going to be our ‘next’ Police Commissioner?
OK elinks seems to handle this URL; but I pasted wrongly – sorry!
> But maybe it would be better to ignore the patronisng
> attitude of the foreigners and just get down to the business
> of addressing the problems. Who cares what foreigners say
> or think.
ANC leadership, especially COSATU, know that bad foreign publicity
effects foreign investment and trade and thus the employment of
their constituents. Which is bad news for the ANC leadership.
The interaction between the nodes-of-the-network is reason why
we, [1st worlders] are promoting global:
* democracy – ANC voters can put pressure on their leaders,
and throw them out, like TM; to be replaced by a new-one
who promises to fix the problem – ha ha ha;
* free-press – so that ANC voters can read that foreigners won’t
pay to rescue Zimbabwian population, and they will get the same
treatment if/when they follow the same behaviour.
Of course I don’t for 1 second believe that PdV doesn’t know this.
His article is mere tongue-in-cheek fishing – to get his reader’s
thinking.
======================
Now PLEASE someone give me some feedback to my query [no. 32],
of “On (judicial) transformation, racism, bigotry and power
Posted on June 28th, 2009 by Pierre De Vos” @
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/?p=1164#comments
Mdu, I am aware that in posting this blog I am departing from the core thrust of the present exercise. I would like to address my views to you here purely because this is where you and I had our last exchange. And an admirably civil, if brief, exchange it was indeed.
I wish only to say a few words about the impression you make as far as I am concerned. Far from being an attempt at inducing antagonism, I mean to pay you a compliment.
I sometimes wonder whether you experience a tension between the dictates of your heart on the one hand, and the suggestions of your considered judgment on the other. I wonder about this because I think it reasonably fair to say that if your loyalties reside anywhere, they would probably rest with, broadly speaking, the pro-ANC camp. Forgive me if I have this wrong but that is merely my honest impression.
Now despite your apparent support for that camp, I have noticed that when you are refered to arguably more convincing views, you consistently moderate your positions so as to avoid trying to argue the unarguable.
If I am right about you, then I would commend the courage you show in revisiting positions which you are perhaps emotionally inclined to back but brave enough to scrutinise. And I shall try to do something of the same.
Like many people who post on this blog, I have had some tedious encounters with some particularly belligerent people. And while one may well treat such encounters as opportunities to practice restraint – afterall, patience is widely recognised as a virtue – I must say that seeing people behave like that is distressing. I think you show that even deeply held views need not be beyond reproach.
So with respect, very well done indeed and I look forward to our future exchanges.
khosi // Jul 1, 2009 at 12:47 pm
You see now what your beloved Thabo Mbeki has started?!
Thanks Leigh for that compliment and you are right about my being pro-ANC, but the thing is you may agree with a certain viewpoint at first glance and someone else like, Frank Shearar, comes up with an opposing but reasonable view, why not jettison your initial view, except when you just want to be stubborn, as sometimes I succumb to that as well.
Mdu, well said.
I have been an avid reader of this blog and have thoroughly enjoyed the articles written by Pierre. But this one disappoints me. A rating of 7.5 is good, its a lot more than I would have rated SA with its inadequate transport system, crime and well empty stadiums for the first few Confed cup games.
I further object to the comment with regard to German efficientness. As many commenter’s before me have pointed out, in the context of world history it was not that efficient but nonetheless a comment like that should never have been made even if meant sarcastically.
Just like the 1995 world cup was a great event for SA in that it united the country in support of the Boks so the last world cup held in Germany was the first time since the atrocities Pierre makes light of that the Germans showed National Pride. Hitler’s state ran on National Pride and ever since WW2 the Germans have been very wary to show national pride. But the 2006 World Cup saw Germany unite with Pride behind their efforts to host the World Cup and also behind their Team.
I find it unfortunate that the Holocaust even featured in this article, bearing the above in mind. It was an unwarranted and unfair stab at German history.
It’s about punishment for the bad, I think Chris, like when a child used too get out of hand a while ago you could give him persistent punishment, even if the behaviour has stopped, you could constantly rimind him of the behaviour and keep on punishing indefenitely. Beautifull punishment
Here in SA we feel different about punishment, our law schools teach us about the different theories about punishment, amongst others: sanction as a means to rehabilitate in understanding that the crime must be punished not the person, sanctions as to repay the crime as in death penalty for a murder and sanctions as a means to discourage a person from doing crime, like in India where a persons hands gets chopped off for theft.
As president of FIFA Blatter was simply doing his job. The Confederation Cup is a trial for the World Cup and he shared his finding. A bit of a leap of logic to get to the Holocaust!
Yeah Pierre I agree, your comment about German efficiency was a little too much. It made the entire Holocaust seem belittled despite what it did to humankind.
I believe we need to be more careful of what comes out of us especially when it comes to serious issues like the one your comment belittled. The same can be said of the crime called rape which is sometimes belittled by women themselves.
Sne, point taken.
Agreed – Prof, that was out of line in my books – the Holocaust was a terrible thing, and 99.99% of Germans today desperately wish that it had never happened, much less in their own country. That being said, this point has already been made, so no need to labour it.
As for Blatter’s remarks, I don’t see anything wrong with them. 75% is considered a first class pass at university, what’s wrong with getting 75% for the Confed Cup? And as has been said, if he’d given us 90%, we may get complacent…I know that at school, during matric mock exams, we were marked extremely harshly to skrik us wakker for finals – and it worked for most of us.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with paying attention to what external sources say to us. Just today there was an article on http://www.cnn.com about SA’s rape epidemic. These are views that the world has of us, which impact things like tourism, foreign investment, emigration, etc. While we should not run around trying to put out every fire, we should be mature enough to view every significant criticism, whether local or foreign, with objective eyes and debate the merits of these things.
To simply dismiss, for example, Blatter’s comments as “afro-pessimistic” and “imperialist” is the head-in-the-sand mentality that resulted in the monster that the previous government became. Remember all the statements about how crime wasn’t bad, HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, etc etc? We need to be mature enough to accept criticism, and to deal with it. And foreign viewpoints are beneficial in that they are removed from the situation, so (hopefully) most of the time they can be much more objective and insightful than the commentary of people who live in the thick of things as it were. Again though, both viewpoints are important.
We need to fix things ourselves, for ourselves, but to simply dismiss any foreign criticism is a childish mindset – if there is merit in what people say, then let us debate, argue, and address things that need to be addressed.
I m 100%PdV on this one. Even the German comments are very relevant, it is moes the TRUTH, so?
Pierre, I generally enjoy your blog and insights (even if I don’t always agree with you) but I think this one is really not one of your best.
Firstly, I think you are being excessively sensitive to what Blatter may have said. I don’t read anything patronising in it. If anything, Blatter has been the most solid supporter of Soutth Africa (at least publicly anyway) even in the face of self-doubt by many South Africans. The way I read his comment was as an encouragement to South Africa in the face of that self doubt.
Secondly, your comments on German efficiency are entirely untoward and unjustified in the context and indeed, downright offensive. Nor do I buy your explanation as to why you made it; I think it was simply a moment of poor judgement on your part (which we are all guilty of at times). There is hardly a nation in the world without some reason for shame in its history. We ourselves have many such instances in our history (apartheid is only a single instance). The modern German bears very little or no responsibility for the actions of his forebears.
Yes, you are getting thin skin like Thabo the Traveller for the wrong resons. FIFA is a global multinational and all that counts for them is the $$$$ so rather take them on on these grounds than lambasting the Germans for the holocaust. I was born in Swtizerland and I am getting a bit tired of hearing this all the time when a South African wants to diss the Germans or the Swiss; the holocaust or the Jewish gold it is then. It would be nice to know the salaries of Blatter and consorts, but I guess they are confidential. Or would the SA government try to render FIFA a bit more open and accountable?
We could dismiss their critism by calling them racist yes no? That would be less constructive though then asking why we are still paying the man who disgraced INTERPOL a salary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/africa/30safrica.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Diepsloot&st=cse
Thanks Lara
and take a look at this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8125822.stm
looks familiar?
Friend,
Yes, it sounds very familiar. Sounds like Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro, Gorbachev…
Well the point here is simple: did Germany get a score at the end of hosting the Confed Cup in 2005? Or was it assumed that they were perfectly on track and ready and therefore did not need an on-going evaluation, because, after all, they are a “First World” Western European country. If Blatter did not rate the Germans, as I suspect he did not, then that is where Pierre finds fault. Nevermind the perhaps off the mark Holocaust comment, but his point remains and no one is addressing that.
I think that the soccer was a great success and I think that they will do just fine with the World Cup next year, you know we did host the Rugby and we managed that just fine so I can’t see there being a problem next year , just the fact that the transport problems could be a huge issue with the Gaugtrain not looking as though it will be complete and hopefully all the road construction will be completed by then too.
Energie Vasquez – You appear to be right about what ticks Prof De Vos off. However, as far as I can remember, Germany was rated after the Confed Cup – but they had by then already completed the outstanding work on the stadiums and they have for years had a public transport system and low crime stats where South Africa is nowhere near to. So the points scored in the rating were irrelevant and were not made public.
On the other hand – the ‘last month’ rush in Athens to be ready to present the Olympics there a few years ago highlighted the fact that, whenever a country has been successful in its bid to host a big international sports event, there must be some kind of rating system and contingency plans in place in case that they fail to produce. That is what this rating was all about – and I think that SA passed with flying colours – as I’ve said earlier – 75% is a distinction.
Pierre’s attitude to ‘foreigners’ in this post feels to me a bit of a throwback to a previous era, when the old regime used to moan about why the whole world was on its back about apartheid. After all, it only meant ‘good neighbourliness’ – didn’t it??
It’s true that there’s Afro-pessimism, but there have also been periods of Afro-optimism. It’s true that Europeans are often patronising towards Africa, but it’s also true that during apartheid the majority of South Africans experienced a level of international solidarity that I think is probably unparalleled anywhere in the world. And during the transition, South Africa was, as Archbishop Tutu has said, regarded around the world as a ‘beacon of hope’. Sadly, that perception of South Africa is changing.
Last year I met with Sudanese human rights activists who were interested in learning about the ways in which other African countries had dealt with their abusive pasts. Several of those activists declined to follow the South African example because, they said, South Africa had a lot of problems – they cited the uginess of the attacks on foreigners living in South Africa and the levels of violent crime.
More recently, I met a Somali man who asked what was wrong with South Africans. They had behaved ‘like animals’, he said, towards some Somali people he knew who had lived in South Africa but had now left.
Pierre mentions the US news report about the levels of crime endured by so many people in townships. That surely cannot be news to him. But what will be horrific to foreign readers is not just the level of crime, mentioned in the report; it’s also the fact that people who are merely suspected of being criminals should be beaten so badly by vigilantes that their faces swell and bleed, and that they even fear being ‘necklaced’. This is of course not news to most South Africans, and that may be why it doesn’t provoke comment on this site; but that in itself is a terribly sad sign of what is now perceived as normal in South Africa.
There is a new generation of South Africans now who didn’t live through apartheid. What is their future?
Mamphela Ramphele has recently spoken of the problem of so many people being ‘unemployed becasue they are unemployable’ How can the legacy of Bantu education be overcome for those who experienced it? And how can the education system best deliver now for young people?
There are so many good and impressive things about South Africa. Judge Hlophe and Paul Ngobeni may well be souls damaged by apartheid, as Pierre noted in another of his posts; but they aren’t alone. And the question so many people inside and outside South Africa are now asking themselves is whether that terrible legacy of apartheid, which is so obvious and all-pervasive in every aspect of life and discussion in South Africa – even on this blog – can be overcome. Hitting out at ‘snooty foreigners’ really isn’t the answer.
Prof,
In some of your earlier blogs you may have alluded to some incriminating statements by Judge Hlophe.
What exactly did Hlophe say or do that suggests an element of guilt on his part?
I can still remember when that Kiwi sold his Confederation’s vote to the Germans before the last World Cup,Zapiro’s cartoon showed a German WW2 tank driving roughshod over a South African ,and there was no cute fightless bird sticking his head from the cockpit.So what do we do when his Swiss majesty condescends us,we blame ze German !