A call to activism

In his highly readable narrative history, The Afrikaner; biography of a people, Professor Hermann Giliomee writes as follows:

“The bargain that was seemingly struck in 1993 – 1996 turned out to be quite different what Afrikaners [and other minorities] had assumed it to be. They had thought that the minorities would largely be left in peace by the government. Now it appeared that, while they would not be subjected to any persecution for their political views, their opinion did not count for much. They had assumed that as the main ratepayers they would retain a reasonable measure of control at municipal level, but they were soon confronted with a growing loss in the capacity of the state to deliver services.


"In 2007 the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe stated that at any one time more than 40 percent of the technical positions at municipalities were vacant. Solidarity’s Dirk Hermann pointed out that the authorities kept these posts vacant if no suitable black person was available, preferring affirmative action to service delivery.” (2003: 702)

Former President Mbeki [indirectly] justified this state of affairs by quoting chapter 2 article 9 (2) of the Constitution, which states: “To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other, measures designed to protect or advance persons or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination, may be taken.” (2003: 706). In effect “representivity coupled with the ANC doctrine of African leadership, meant that the members of minority groups were prevented [in perpetuity] from reaching the top no matter how competent they were.” (2003: 705)

• As long as most members and supporters of the Jeffreys Bay Ratepayers’ Association remain trapped in a mindset of passive acquiescence rather than becoming activists for good governance, matters are unlikely to improve. -- Barry Vosloo.