MANY ALTERNATIVES TO VIGILANTISM

THE TIMES NEWSPAPER
JOHANNESBURG, SA
By Fred Khumalo
Mar 14, 2009

These are desperate times as far as crime is concerned, but our response needs to be measured or we risk reverting to Dark Ages

We all know that far too many people live in misery and desperation SA’s crime levels are a political manifestation of the country’s past

Desperate times call for desperate measures. That, in a nutshell, summarises readers’ responses to my last week’s column on vigilantism.

While many people did concede that vigilantism, badly executed, might only lead to more violence, they generally felt that as a country we had reached a point of no return — and treating criminals with what one of the writers called “kiddies’ gloves” only emboldened the criminals.

One of the writers argued in a disarmingly convincing manner for vigilantism: “The American West during the 19th century became famous for its vigilantes.. . (in the course of the 19th century vigilantes killed more than 700 people and drove thousands out of town or publicly whipped them.

“Many more are killed by criminals in a single year here in South Africa).. .

“In the aftermath of the American Civil War, many black vigilante groups defended their communities against white terrorists, and even today there are many minority groups in the US that have organised vigilantes; chiefly against drug dealers in their neighbourhoods.”

And so it goes on. Having read the contributions, and in spite of all my noble intentions and sentiments, I felt like a whimpering wimp.

There is a palpable anger out there and the responses were just the tip of the iceberg.

Disappointed by an inept and sometimes corrupt police force, people are prepared to resort to vigilantism. Because we have regressed to the Dark Ages, our response to the challenges facing us should, therefore, mirror that regression.

Rather sad, but it reflects the sentiments of people in general.

But what worried me about many of the responses is that they tended to indulge in the favourite South African past-time — finger pointing.

There were those readers who felt that whites were only whingeing now that crime had spilt into their areas as well, whereas in the past they kept silent as the rest of the country travailed under the terror of criminals. This is not the kind of response that I find useful. Gloating is stupid and myopic.

And then there were those who felt that vigilantism — which they argued was a powerful antidote to crime — was failing and would continue to fail simply because black people in this country tend to politicise everything. We politicise our responses to crime, we politicise sport, we politicise the economy, we politicise beauty contests and so on.

The accusation got under my skin, for the simple reason that for a black person in this country, waking up has for a long time been a political statement — from the time we were born to the time we went to the grave. The township hovel that was assigned to you as a black person did not belong to you, and it could be taken away from you at the whim of your white rulers: as a result, waking up in that hovel was a political statement.

If you lived in an informal reserve, every wakeful moment you were aware that you could be forcefully removed from that piece of land at the say-so of some official. Walking down the street was a political statement as you would be stopped by the police and asked for a dompas.

When you went to school, the curriculum that you were exposed to was tailored to serve the interests of those who governed you: why, as Dr Hendrik Verwoerd infamously announced, black children should be educated just enough to be able to carry out white people’s instructions.

And you tell me we are political?

If you were persistent about getting more education than you were supposed to, you still couldn’t compete for the same jobs as white people — there was the Job Reservation Act. And you tell me we are political?

Even when you were a pious soul who wanted to worship God, you were precluded from worshipping alongside people of other races — the Dutch Reformed Church (which got to be called the National Party at prayer), proudly brandished the torch of segregation, providing for racially segregated churches all round. And you tell me we are political?

Even death was made political. One of the most moving moments in my life was a visit to the French graves of our soldiers who fought in World War One. In a small commune called Arques-la-Bataille you find the graves of black members of what was called the South African Native Labour Corps. A few kilometres from there is the town of Dieppe. The white members are buried there.

These men served together, side by side, for the Crown, yet in death they were divided. And you tell me we are political?

The fact that our crime levels had to be where they are now is, again, a political manifestation of our past.

As Antony Altbeker writes in his book A Country At War With Itself: “Apart from our history, attempts to explain violence in South Africa tend to focus heavily on our current socioeconomic indicators, themselves an effect of that history. We all know that far too many South Africans live lives of misery and desperation. The wretchedness of their conditions, so the argument goes, means that many lives are rich only in humiliation, helplessness and petty cruelties that keep people awake at night, angry and resentful.”

A political understanding of this nation is important when one is exploring crime.

Altbeker explores a number of possible interventions, including: “Build many more prisons because a society with high levels of violence is a society with too many people who are willing to hurt others...

“Invest in investigations and prosecutions by rebuilding the detective service and recruiting more prosecutors, magistrates and court personnel so that the prisons are filled. When assessing the performance of the criminal justice system, we must focus less on the number of crimes committed and more on the number of violent criminals convicted.

“Embrace new technology. The techniques of the surveillance state offend many of our values. But so does violent crime. So, if tracing cellphones and cars and building fingerprint and DNA databases can help identify offenders, we should take a deep breath and do it.”

So, you see, there are many alternatives which have yet to be explored thoroughly — and these do not include vigilantism. Further, these interventions do not leave everything in the hands of the police. They are multifaceted in their approach.

Also, these interventions do not discount the fact that we are a highly politicised country, and the responses should therefore take the political history and character of the country into consideration.

But, of course, we do need intense debate on these things.

On the Button: Clampdown long overdue at SABC
Mampone must continue to crack the whip if the message is to be driven into the heads of his team of executives

For a government body that has announced that it is almost R800-million in the red, the SABC should be treating matters of corporate governance with the seriousness they deserve, if the broadcaster is to be trusted with the money it has asked for from Treasury.

The decision by the acting chief executive, Gab Mampone, to suspend two senior executives for what appears to be flagrant abuse of the public broadcaster’s funds sends a loud and clear message: the corporation is taking off the gloves in its fight against corporate arrogance. And it’s about time too, for an organisation that has been floundering from one crisis and scandal to the next, with no resolution in sight.

The general manager of sales for television, Strini Naicker, and the general manager for human resources, Lene Chamberlain, are under suspension.

Naicker has reportedly been singled out by the Communications Workers’ Union for what it deems wasteful expenditure, including R481000 allegedly spent on a 2007 SABC board Christmas party; R175000 on Naicker’s MBA degree, and millions allegedly spent on consultants the union alleges do the job that management is employed to perform.

Chamberlain has been fingered as Naicker’s alleged accomplice.

It would be unfair to judge them before the official findings by the public broadcaster. But the fact that the SABC has asked for a R2-billion loan guarantee from the Treasury illustrates the precariousness of its situation. Against this background, therefore, it is incumbent upon those in charge at the public broadcaster to be extra circumspect when dealing with the finances of the already besieged corporation.

Mampone must continue to crack the whip if the message is to be driven into the heads of his team of executives: wastefulness and impropriety, especially where it relates to public funds and general matters of corporate governance, will not be tolerated.

Guest Opinion:

Empowerment vital to economy and for redress
Opportunistic to call for reversal of BEE, writes Bongani Aug Khumalo

Certain public enterprises, large organisations are shining examples

There have been some shocking misrepresentations of the concept and very essence of affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE) in certain recent party political debates.

Some of the contestants have proposed and even threatened the scrapping of these key national economic restructuring interventions if they win the 2009 national elections. Goodness forbid!

It is great that good sense seems to triumph. Jimmy Manyi has done excellently in media interviews and debates defending the accomplishments of, especially, the last almost 15 years of hard work to democratise the workplace and transform the economy.

Affirmative action and later BEE have been driven by both government and business, in the private as well as the public sectors, and supported by organised business and trade unions, among others.

It is true that there could be significant improvements, mainly in the way these tools to empower people are implemented.

As Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the ANC, put it during a debate, affirmative action is not founded on retribution or tolerance for mediocrity and poor performance.

It has always been inspired by the imperative to redress the imbalances of the past.

Mantashe aptly recalled the Afrikaans for affirmative action, regstellende aksie, which means corrective action.

President Jacob Zuma of the ANC has come out and given the reassurance that in the event of the ANC winning the election and continuing to govern our land, these policies will be retained and even (made to) work more effectively.

He said much work still needed to be done to achieve the cardinal goal of economic transformation. He is correct and deserves to be supported. Through the conscious and concerted implementation of well-crafted affirmative action and BEE policies, blacks can get more meaningful participation in the economy of their country.

Certain public enterprises and large organisations in mining and manufacturing sectors are shining examples of positive workplace change — and of black people and women successfully entering the mainstream economy.

These pro-change policies have worked to the extent that they have because good South African patriots, black and white, with understanding and foresight have devoted energy, time and resources to ensure that they work.

One of the surest ways to undermine the meaning of our freedom and democracy is to deny a nation’s citizens, especially the traditionally disadvantaged, entry into the economy. Our collective mission is to grow the economy and make sure that all our compatriots inclusively enjoy the economic and political security of our democracy.

Opportunism in its purest form, even in politics and business, is not a bad thing. It is in fact good and necessary.

It is only when it is exercised under false pretences, with diminished integrity and in bad faith, that it gets a bad name.

Calling for the reversal and curtailment of economic liberation is the worst form of opportunism. How can anybody afford to flip-flop on this?

Much has been done through affirmative action and BEE, and much remains to be done. This is serious. Any attempt to undercut this drive deserves to be roundly rejected. — Khumalo is the chairman and chief executive of Gidani