For Julia
I am too honest for my own good and I have often got into trouble, but I don’t regret it. My driving force is justice. If something is just and true, I will fight for it. I will not say the politically correct thing.1 - Rhoda Kadalie 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted in “Rhoda Kadalie: a strident voice for South Africa’s oppressed.” Cape Argus, 18 Apr. 1997.
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“When I tell people I am Clements Kadalie’s direct granddaughter, they say that, politically, I am a chip off the old block. Not racially, but politically. I find that interesting.”1 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. p. 57.
My mother was what I would call the complete feminist. She had to cope with so many sons, and had to compete with God and the church for my father’s attention, so she became a fighter for her own rights very early on in her marriage. She taught my brothers that they were also expected to perform domestic chores and to be independent. There were no stereotypical gender roles in our family when I was growing up. My mother made it clear that she wasn’t willing to be anyone’s slave. She worked as well. She and my father asserted their rights and responsibilities as equal parents. My mother was one of thirteen siblings, and I think that she learned to assert herself because she came from an impoverished matrifocal household. This is typical of a culture of poverty.
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One Saturday afternoon during the influenza epidemic of 1918 I was in the company of two Nyasaland friends in Cape Town. We were strolling in Darling Street when the Cape Argus, the afternoon daily newspaper, was out in the streets for sale. I bought a copy of the paper, and as soon as I perused it, I began to inform my friends that the end of the [First World] war was in sight, for Sir Douglas Haig had launched his offensive in Flanders. Suddenly appeared a European constable, who pushed me off the pavement, assaulting me at the same time. I informed my friends of my intention to report the matter at police headquarters.
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[C]oloured ICU leaders such as James La Guma, John Gomas, James Thaele, Henry Tyamzashe and Samuel Dunn, and Indian ICU leaders such as Ralph de Norman – as well as Kadalie – dramatically challenged contemporary conceptions of race, rejecting the differences between Ccoloured, African and Indian workers. As recognized by Collis-Buthelezi, “the ICU was the first organization that actively sought and gained the participation of both Coloureds and Natives and tried to articulate a coherent and inclusive black identity”. In doing so, it was a trade union – rather than a congress, party or association – that became the “first organization to name such an identity ‘black’ rather than ‘coloured’.” ICU leaders were never consistent in their descriptors of race, interchangeably talking about ‘black’, ‘African’, ‘Bantu’, ‘non-European’ and ‘native’ trade unionism. And in this sense, the ICU’s interwar notion of race consciousness was different from Steve Biko’s similarly heterogeneous but more specific idea of black consciousness in the 1970s.33 33 Dee, 45. Footnotes omitted.
He created an organization which began with twenty-four members and before it burnt itself out within the decade it laid claim to a hundred thousand members. Inexperience, the lack of success, which bred factions among the leaders and disillusion among its followers, together with the hostility of White society and the State, led to its collapse. But in the light of recent experience in Africa, it is apparent that Kadalie had the misfortune to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. A leader in tropical Africa who built an organization like the ICU after 1950 would have led his followers to an independence which a colonial power would readily have conceded.
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You could say it all began 56 years ago in 1948 in Smart Street, District Six, when I — and also my wife Joan — converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We were later married in Aspelin Street City Mission in 1950. Our marriage office[r] was Robert Stewart, then the senior missionary of the City Mission. He died in 1956 and I received the calling to take over his work at Smart Street and also oversee Aspeling Street City Mission. For the next 25 years I ministered in the District Six area.
Over this period of time, I gained true knowledge and experience of what it means to be a missionary in the service of the Lord. The work of the City Mission in District Six was much more than your weekly church services. It was a mission in keeping with the word of the Lord that says, “We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”. This work involved so many elements: Your regular youth meetings and Bible classes; outreach meetings; open air services; cottage meetings; factory meetings; also burying the dead. It was not only about spiritual welfare, but also about compassion for the material plight of the poor and the destitute. The City Mission has always been practical.38 38 Pastor Fenner Kadalie. Speech upon retirement, 2004.
Rev Kadalie ran two churches in District Six, one in Smart Street and another in Constitution Street. Under Kadalie’s leadership, the City Mission grew into an evangelical movement that incorporated social welfare issues, such as fighting against gangsterism and drugs, providing food and clothing to the poor, running social clubs for the youth and using the church as a centre for community development and social cohesion. As such, he was a community- and institution-builder par excellence.
The City Mission became the receptacle for all those excluded from the mainline churches – the marginal and the alienated. He conducted marriages, funerals, baptisms and burials to all who needed them regardless of their social standing. He broke up gang fights and enjoyed great respect from District Six’s skollies [gangsters], who would shout: “Hey watch it, here comes the Pastor!”
The City Mission was hit hard by the Group Areas Act, 1950. From 1971 to 1979, Rev Kadalie saw his entire parish dispersed across the Cape Flats, brutally uprooted from a vibrant community that included 22 churches, schools, community halls, and a lively cultural, political and artistic life. Powerless against the apartheid state, and as a family itself a victim of the Group Areas Act, 1950, he refused to submit to the tyranny of the Act by following his parish members wherever they were scattered. He set up a City Mission in areas such as Bonteheuwel, Manenberg, Hanover Park and Heideveld [all Coloured townships].
In addition to his extensive church work, Rev Kadalie ran soup kitchens, distributing food to the poor in poverty-stricken areas such as the Flamingo Crescent informal settlement in Lansdowne, to the unemployed men at Kromboom, Lansdowne and Philippi Roads, for 40 years.
With funding from his brother, Dr Victor Kadalie, and sister-in-law, Dr Ruth Kadalie, he built and ran a crèche in Khayelitsha [the largest black township in Cape Town] for 15 years. This crèche provided employment to 19 people and cared for 250 children.
In 2004, a journalist was walking around the Cape Flats and saw a man distributing food, from his combi [minivan], to long queues of indigent people from all colours of the rainbow. She was astounded, interviewed him and discovered that he had been doing this for more than 30 years. This unsung hero was Rev Fenner Kadalie.40 40 Office of the Presidency, South Africa. “Reverend Fenner Christian Kadalie (Posthumous).” Award citation, 2015. URL: http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/reverend-fenner-christian-kadalie-posthumous. Accessed 24 Sep. 2021. Original emphasis.
“My father taught me never to stand back for any man; my brothers or anyone else. That’s where my voice comes from.”1 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Shanthini Naidoo. “Guaranteed Authentic.” The Oprah Magazine, July 2007. pp. 103-4.
I remember those who used to live in District Six, those who lived in Caledon Street and Clifton Hill and busy Hanover Street. There are those of us who still remember the ripe, warm days. Some of us still romanticise and regret when our eyes travel beyond the dead bricks and split tree stumps and wind-tossed sand.
When I was a boy and chirruping ten, a decade after the end of the Second World War … I remember especially the weekends, which began with the bustle of Friday evenings when the women came home from the factories and the men came home late although they had been paid off early — and the feeling of well-being and plenty in our house on the upper left-hand side of Caledon Street near St. Mark’s Church. We lived in the fourth in a row of five mouldy cottages called ‘Buckingham Palace’ by the locals. The first, 201, the one farthest from the church as if by design, was a bluepainted House of Pleasure called the ‘Casbah’. In it lived Mary and The Girls.
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Saturday mornings were brisk, for some men must work and all women must shop. And Hanover Street was crowded and the bazaars and fish-market did a roaring trade. There were groceries to buy on the book and clothes on hire-purchase.
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And in the evenings we would stand in hushed doorways and tell stories about the legendary figures of District Six … or show off about our prowess with the local girls, or just talk about the ways of white folks and how [early anti-apartheid activist] Cissie Gool was fighting for us and showing the white people a thing or two.
The Bloemhof Flats was a municipal housing complex in the District, a community within a community, and a place with its own civic energy via social organisations and sports and music associations. Joe met his wife Audrey there, who was also born and bred in Bloemhof. The block Joe and Audrey lived in after they got married was one of those in the complex that were bulldozed in the demolitions, replaced by a row of garages to serve the remaining buildings that were spruced up and gentrified by white residents, and the whole diminished complex was then renamed ‘Skyways’.
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The entire Bloemhof community, as with the entire population of District Six, was scattered among different townships.6 6 Tom Slater. “Joe Schaeffers’ Honorary Doctorate.” URL: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/tomslater/joeschaffersdoctorate/. Accessed 26 Sep. 2021.
When I grew up in District Six, I remember a vibrancy, there were fish shops everywhere, bakeries. And then, of course, there was a cosmopolitan community of Jewish landlords, Indian traders, Coloured intellectuals, everybody mixing and getting on very well. I cannot deny that there was quite a lot of slum degradation taking place because the government wanted to use the Slum Clearance Act to declare District Six a white area. And so they consciously allowed it to deteriorate. And you must remember … in the seventies, this was a maze of streets with residential houses. My father’s church was up on a hill, in a cobbled street called Smart Street. And when I was a little girl, I stood on the corner of the road, every Sunday night, and rang the brass bell for the parishioners to come to church. So I have fond memories of all the people who lived in that area. These are the only cottages in District Six that have not been demolished. They have had to — with the Group Areas Act in 1965 [see below], they were forced to sell their property. Many of them got next-to-nothing for it because they were forced to move. And then, when they sold, white people moved in. … Where all these garages were, that was like a play pit, a huge play pit for all of the children in the neighborhood. Where that flat is, that was a community center, where we all did ballet, and singing lessons, and in winter everybody got soup, and toast, and God knows what. But every Christmas, they would have pageants, here in the middle, and everybody would attend: Muslim, Christian — anybody. It was the most intact, wonderful community. And that’s all that I remember about my childhood.9 9 Rhoda Kadalie, on BBC Women’s Hour. 27 Jun. 2002.
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In 1961, when the Kadalies left Bloemhof Flats District Six, where they lived, it was not because of the Group Areas Act. It was because my father, Fenner Christian Kadalie, was promoted to Superintendent of the Cleansing Department in the City Council and was transferred to Harriers Road, to oversee the Mowbray municipal wash houses, the pound for stray animals, and other cleansing departments.
When we moved there, Black River Parkway [a prominent modern road] did not exist and that entire area consisted of rambling fields of grass. The pound stabled stray animals, especially from black areas such as Langa, used predominantly for lobola [brideprice].
As children we cut grass for the animals and enjoyed having them to look after. Some of the animals were wild, terrifying and uncontrollable. Others were stubborn, such as a donkey, which always managed to escape by digging deep holes under the stable gate. This donkey was a constant source of amusement to us, but a headache to my dad.11 11 Rhoda Kadalie. “Forced to move from home.” Cape Times, 22 Jul. 2013. URL: http://bit.ly/3UEQNNs. Accessed on 26 Sep. 2021.
Here we grew up very happily, in a peaceful abode, with my father working next door and my mother working on and off as a machinist at the Ensign [clothing] factory.14 14 The factory, in Woodstock, was demolished around 2000. See: Stewart Harris, “Ensign clothing factory, Woodstock.” Flickr, 21 Nov. 2011. URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/myskygarden/6529717773. Accessed on 26 Sep. 2021.
We all went to St Peter’s Primary School, Mowbray, which was about a mile away, and bus fare was one big round cent. Because of the municipal wash houses, the grounds in front of our house were enormous and here my brothers had endless fun playing soccer and cricket. We could roam around freely, playing on the vast open spaces in front of us. Our childhood was idyllic, to say the least.15 15 Rhoda Kadalie, Cape Times 2013, ibid.
We were the only coloured family in this area, and some neighbours were friendly while others watched us with great suspicion, but in the end we became friends. One of our neighbours was a magistrate by the name of Mr Frank. He always introduced himself, as “Frank by name and frank by nature”.
He loved my father, who was also a lay pastor in District Six, and always advised him which topics to include in his sermons, especially hire purchase, which he branded as the scourge of the poor. He raised his domestic worker’s daughter Betty and I remember how amazed I was to hear a black girl my age speak impeccable English when mine was pretty lousy.
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Another neighbour was Rev Crawford, the head of the Presbyterian Church, his wife (who was also called Rhoda) and their two children. He chatted to my father as a fellow pastor, but was often racist. The neighbours across the road, the Cruikshanks, (the husband was an architect) were very aloof and hardly greeted us until I saved their house from burning down.
I came from school one day and saw the roof burning and shouted and shouted until they heard me. This was no mean feat as they had scary, loud dogs. My throat was hoarse, but the house was saved. I remember how disappointed I was when they just gave me a box of [embroidered] handkerchiefs as a gift, for what I considered to be a heroic deed.17 17 Rhoda Kadalie, Cape Times 2013, ibid.
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We were considered privileged by some as we lived in a “white area”, on a big property, with endless space for our big family. We had a garden of orchards – every fruit tree one can imagine, there were enough bedrooms for the children, and as the only daughter for 16 years, I always had my own room while the boys shared rooms.
The wash house next door was an intriguing place. It was the predecessor to the laundry and Laundromats. Working class women, black and coloured, mostly Malay, hired washing facilities from my father, and white people would bring their washing to be laundered and ironed.
Soon we became part of this community of washerwomen and white clients who interacted with my parents and us as children. Among them were famous people, but the one we loved the most was a pianist who came into our house and rocked the piano with long concertos from Chopin to Lizst. Today, he and I frequent the same symphony concerts at the City Hall.
The washerwomen loved us and we them. We were the beneficiaries of their traditional fare during Ramadaan and Eid; we were invited to countless Muslim weddings and family events. They were part of the big family that surrounded us.18 18 Rhoda Kadalie, Cape Times, ibid.
In 1970, my brothers were playing soccer with the white kids in the neighbourhood. It was election time and a National Party member, Mr Carr, was recruiting voters. He walked around, saw my brothers playing and inquired who they were. Within a matter of days we were issued with a Group Areas eviction order. My parents were distraught. With nine children they had no capital to buy a house big enough to accommodate their family.
The council led my father to believe that he was secure in his job and the house but could do nothing against the power of the apartheid state. The prospects of going to a council house on the Cape Flats such as [the Coloured townships] Bonteheuwel, Manenberg, or Hanover Park seemed too ghastly to contemplate, and it was the first time I saw my mother weep. The Cape Flats was vastly underdeveloped and to move from a homely idyllic environment into the unknown was scary for all of us.19 19 Ibid.
During all the years that the Coloureds were on the Common Roll [of voters], it is undoubtedly true that they remained backward and illiterate. The vote was no good to them. Admittedly it was very useful to the [opposition] United Party on many occasions but to the Coloured people it was no use at all.
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It is no good saying that the Coloured people speak English or Afrikaans and that they belong to the same churches as Whites. We know that they are different, and that they react differently and that they will always react differently when mixed together with Whites politically. … We want a white Parliament. That is the unquestionable desire not only of Afrikaans speaking South Africans in the National Party, it is the desire of the vast majority of South Africans, right across the language line. It will redound to the credit and honour of the National Party that it was this Government which gave us a purely white South African Parliament. This act will stand as a monument to the present régime.
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I am satisfied that the proposed new legislation will be a tremendous asset to the Coloured people because for the first time they will have a body consisting of a majority of elected members, a body which will be able to give us and the outside world the genuine voice of the Coloured man.20 20 D.M. Carr, quoted by Griffin Lerner. “Neither Black Nor White: Louisiana Creoles of Color, South African Coloureds and the Struggle for Identity, Nationhood, and Belonging.” Thesis, University of North Carolina, 2015. URL: https://bit.ly/3UvcvmS; accessed 7 Mar. 2022. Quoting: Republic of South Africa, House of Assembly Debates, no. 4, 1968, col. 1366-8. URL: http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/A1132/A1132-C270-001-jpeg.pdf. Accessed on 7 Mar. 2022.
For us it was a great time of upheaval from a secure, comfortable home to a smaller house, new neighbours, and strange surroundings.
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While we were undergoing our upheaval, our maternal and paternal relatives, as well as my father’s congregants, were all served eviction notices.
Over a period of ten years we witnessed all our people forcibly removed, trucks moving in and out of District Six, people not knowing where they were going, the bewilderment of social dislocation taking its toll on mothers, fathers, children, the elderly, the youth, the employed, the professionals, the traders, the owners, the poor and the marginalised.24 24 Ibid.
The Group Areas Act and all the other pieces of racist legislation that accompanied it, became the much-despised great leveller.
With this national scourge of forced removals, we were not special, as we always thought. We were part of the oppressed of South Africa.25 25 Ibid.
“I went to five different schools because of the Group Areas Act. … under protest, [I] went to UWC, which in retrospect I don’t regret, because I think my political formation was achieved there.”1 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. pp. 20-21.
I went to school in Mowbray at St. Peter’s and walked down from St. Peter’s home every day. And at Sawkins Road is a little park. And I played in this park every day, and sometimes met the little kids of the neighborhood and played with them. And suddenly, one day, there was a board up which said, “whites only.” And I couldn’t understand it. And I think it was very painful for my mother to explain to me what that meant. And so I found that very brutal. I would walk my white friends home, and their parents’ would say, “How dare you call them by their name? You should call them, “Miss so-and-so.” And I innocently said, “But they don’t call me, ‘Miss.’”2 2 Rhoda Kadalie, on “Woman Today,” SAfm, June 1996.
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As much as a yearning for university studied on the lower reaches of Devil’s Peak [i.e. at UCT] had been instilled in me, so scepticism and a suspicion had also been inculcated about the meaning and value of UWC. … This was Coloured Representative Council13 territory, close to where the CRC met and where many CRC members lived, and this area was thought to be in a vice grip of collaborationism, that old condition of false consciousness that made opportunists actively work with the institutions of their oppression. But as you drove a little further, and the signs pointed to UWC, the parental instruction was swift and resolute: “Look to your left, and do not look to the right!” For this was a “bush college,” site not just of unequal education, but of inferior education, in a university specially created to produce compliance and mediocrity. And you were implored to look the other way for your own protection, in case you got tainted or infected by this condition. 13 The Coloured Persons Representative Council was a limited legislative body created during the apartheid era. 14 14 Ciraj Rasool. “Full circle: concerning UWC’s academic value.” Premesh Lalu and Noëleen Murray, eds. Becoming UWC: Reflections, pathways, and unmaking apartheid’s legacy. “Full circle: concerning UWC’s academic value.” Cape Town: Centre for Humanities Research (University of the Western Cape), 2012.
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As with many other newly designated Group Areas, UWC was built on land that was environmentally inferior to other parts of Cape Town. It was a treeless wetland area exposed to harsh winds and sun, known as the “bush”, and later to become the Cape Flats Nature Reserve. The establishment of the Flats as a balkanised dumping ground for people after forced removals was also a function of the rapid growth of population, including continued migration to the city of people from small towns and rural areas in what was then the Cape Province.
“As a young, vocal black student, the lecturers quite liked me — this was the seventies at the height of intense political confrontation … I actually raised the questions.”1 1 Rhoda Kadalie. Unpublished interview with Melanie Walker. 27 Oct. 1994.
Though influenced by the American Black Power movement, Biko and his followers developed a peculiarly South African form of Black Consciousness, embracing African, Indian and Coloured students not only into one organisation but also into one self-definition, that they were all black. The ideology of Black Consciousness (BC, as it was known) was projected as the ideology of all non-white South Africans and consisted in asserting black values, black pride and a black challenge not only to the white apartheid state but also to the liberal views of many white sympathisers. BC purported to be non-racial but its appeal to a younger generation was often that it legitimated their rejection of all things white and insisted that they determined their own destiny.
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Ironically, at first the government did not mind: convinced that its troubles came from white communists, it saw BC as a welcome counterweight — and even a partial affirmation of the need for separate black homelands. Moreover, the BC movement did not try to mount an organisational challenge: there were no mass demonstrations or protests and it did not even have a political programme. Its method lay simply in ‘conscientising’ its following through a network of classes throughout the country.2 2 R.W. Johnson. South Africa: The First Man, the Last Nation. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2004. 163-4.
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In all their proud assertions, the authorities had somehow not anticipated that, in building an institution of education, they were creating the conditions in which people could actually become educated.
The other thing the planners did not foresee was that assembling a number of the oppressed together in one place would enable them to organise.3 3 Julia Martin. “An open space.” Premesh Lalu and Noëleen Murray, eds. Becoming UWC: Reflections, pathways, and unmaking apartheid’s legacy. “Full circle: concerning UWC’s academic value.” Cape Town: Centre for Humanities Research (University of the Western Cape), 2012. 26.
Research (University of the Western Cape), 2012. 40.concerning UWC’s academic value.” Cape Town: Centre for Humanities
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The SRC was affiliated to South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) and Henry was the president of both. The task of every Saso member was to “conscientise” as many people as possible — to make them aware that they were black, and that the labels of “coloured, Indian, and African” were racial tags intended to divide and rule the black majority.8 7 Becker, ibid.
If South African Society was not structured on Racism we would not be in the situation we are in today. Had policies pursued by all the White Regimes since 1652 [the date of Dutch arrival at the Cape] not been based on Racism we would not be experiencing this trouble our young people find themselves bogged in at the University of the Western Cape.
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The principle of Separate but Equal did not apply as Black Professors and Lecturers had to earn, “kaffir, coolie, and coon” salaries, and their White Counterparts had to earn higher salaries which their White Skins and not qualifications earned them.
We see the White man’s hypocrisy in telling the World that he is establishing Black Universities when these are areas of a new type of Colonisation.
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There is no doubt that the whole nature and style of running these Universities was influenced by the fact that they were for a voteless and therefore a voiceless people who had no means of effectualising their objections. It is obvious that it was an Educational system tailored by the powerful for the powerless done with the intention of ensuring that these Universities produced “good Kaffirs, Hottnots, and Coolies”.
We hated this “benevolent despotism”, but in the absence of anything else we had to use what was there, despite the simmering discontent within the Black Community.
Is it therefore surprising that young sensitive minds of our youth find this so sickening that they have expressed their indignation in such an unorthodox manner?
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I think we should be grateful for the moderate protestations of Students despite all this provocative set-up in their so-called Universities. I wish to appeal to the powers-that-be to save these young people and this Country by acting reasonably in this particular case. … What Students have done simmers in the heart of every Black man in South Africa, and the only thing they have done is to express it in a dramatic manner typical of Students throughout the world.14 13 Ibid.
In many ways, the University of the Western Cape is ideally situated for crises. It is exposed to all the problems which beset all universities, but some of these are accentuated by the fact that this is supposed to be the only university to serve the Coloured people. Now, the Coloured people are far from being a homogeneous group. There are wide differences in regard to geographic distribution, occupation, educational background, social class and ethnic origin. In the case of White South Africans, some of these differences are accommodated by the fact that their needs are catered for by eleven universities spread over the country, thus allowing students to satisfy their needs as to regional zone, language, social class, tradition of the institution or of the student’s family, and even religion or political orientation. The student can choose an institution to suit his peculiar needs and so, hopefully, some of the crises which would stem from poor adaptation, do not arise.
But at the U.W.C. we gather them all together, urban and rural, English and Afrikaans, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim, middle-class and working class, the English-oriented Natalie and the South West African of German descent, those from well-equipped schools with highly qualified teachers and those from schools with much poorer offerings, those who have acquired relatively easy relationships with white people, and those who have never before communicated with Whites, those from a politically-enlightened background, and those who had never been introduced to the controversies of politics. Surely it would be strange if some hundreds of young people whose lives had been subjected to such diverse influences were to be put together, physically and mentally, and if there were to be no crises and no outward, visible demonstration of such crises.
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Yet crises are not necessarily bad; indeed there are times when they become inevitable, and there are those who might hold that my very investiture here tonight is the outcome of a crisis. If only we could learn to resolve our crises by rational discussion rather than by violence, we might proceed more rapidly towards mutual understanding and general happiness. As a University, this would enable us to place the accent where it belongs, i.e. on people and their individual worth, and on scholarship. Basically, a university is a merit organization, not a democratic one in the sense that issues are decided by a show of hands. The properties of a triangle as taught in Mathematics, or the atomic weight of substances as taught in Chemistry are not decided at a mass meeting, yet it is another of those anomalies of life that material of a high level of objective appraisal is conveyed by and to human beings who are not all equally objective in their approach.16 15 Lalu, ibid., 49.
The [nonconformist, activist group] would describe itself as radical political, often rejecting the motive of upward social mobility as being inimical to the cause of liberation. This, however, leads to great dilemmas, as the same students who will, on the one hand, act as though they deny that they wish to condone any features of “the system,” will on the other hand, when the crisis has passed, seek to be part of the system once more, desiring participation in tests, re-writing of examinations missed, continuation of State and private sector bursaries, etc. etc.
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We must not be insensitive to the ongoing political and economic questions, but neither must we assume the full responsibility for correcting the ills in those areas. We must not betray the youth, or the parents, by behaving in such a manner that we frustrate their desires of upward social mobility whilst enjoying the fruits of such mobility ourselves.
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Let me give an example. Many of our students, influenced no doubt by many ideas gained inside or outside university, reject capitalism, say that they would prefer socialism, identify comfortable living and upward social mobility with capitalism, and therefore by association are left with grave dilemmas as to their own integrity, let alone the integrity of their lectures.
Surely our role should be, if we identify these dilemmas, to bring about some degree of help. … If we have answers why not share them, together with the reasons therefor. If we have no answers, why not share the experience of searching for the answers, thereby creating an atmosphere of intellectual vigour and honesty.17 16 Inaugural Address of Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape R.E. van der Ross. City Hall, Cape Town. 3 Mar. 1975. Jakes Gerwel Archive, Nelson Mandela Foundation.
BLACK STUDENTS, STRIKE NOW! STRIKE AND YOU WILL DESTROY BANTU AND INDIAN EDUCATION. COLOURED, BANTU AND INDIAN EDUCATION MOULDS US INTO SLAVES TO SERVE THE WHITES … THROUGHOUT THE YEAR YOU MUST CONFRONT THE OPPRESSORS. ONLY THEN WILL YOU DESTROY SLAVE EDUCATION AND LIBERATE AZANIA [a radical name for an envisioned post-liberation South Africa]. … NO WHITE WILL GIVE US LIBERATION. WHY WILL HE GIVE US LIBERATION IF IT IS TO HIS BENEFIT WE REMAIN SLAVES. MAKE THINGS BAD FOR HIM. IF YOU STRIKE YOU SCARE HIM. USE VIOLENCE! THAT WILL REALLY SCARE HIM. BURN HIS MANSIONS AND HIS FACTORIES AND INSTRUMENTS OF OPPRESSION (BARS, BOTTLE STORES). CRIPPLE THE ECONOMY. USE VIOLENCE BECAUSE HE USES VIOLENCE. … IF ALL BOYCOTT THE SYSTEM CAN’T DO A THING. ALL MUST BOYCOTT MON 11 & 12 AUGUST. BOYCOTT CLASSES AND END OPPRESSION. DON’T LISTEN TO TEACHERS WHO TRY TO SCARE. DO YOU WANT TO PASS EXAMS AT THE COST OF FREEDOM? FREEDOM IS MORE VALUABLE THAN A SLAVE EDUCATION. … REMEMBER IF YOU DON’T BOYCOTT BECAUSE OF EXAMS YOU SELL YOUR FREEDOM. THAT SLAVE CERTIFICATE MEANS NOTHING.
PASS IT AROUND19 18 Ibid.
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Feminism, to me, wasn’t a Damascus Road, you know, where I suddenly saw the light. I came from a family of seven brothers. I’m the third eldest. And academically as a child I did very well which means that my brothers sort of had an inferiority complex towards me because I was [then] the only daughter, and a clever daughter, and so I didn’t have to stand back. Because I was the only daughter, I was also spoilt rotten. … [W]hen I came to university, feminism became an intellectual thing. At university … I experienced discrimination unlike at home. And I think that was quite a revelation. I was always an outspoken person. I was always quite vociferous and the nice thing about being a student was I could debate with male students equally. I never saw myself as intellectually inferior as a woman — even though I was a woman, I liked being a woman.26 25 Rhoda Kadalie. Unpublished interview with Melanie Walker, ibid.
[I]n so far as South African volkekunde deals in more than descriptive ethnography, it assigns overwhelming explanatory power to the phenomenon of ethnicity, which it conceives in the narrowest, most rigid terms possible. Ethnos theory starts with the proposition that mankind is divided into volke (nations, peoples) and that each volk has its own particular culture, which may change but always remains authentic to the group in question. The entity comprising a group and its culture is an ethnos, which, viewed over time and in relation to its physical and social environment, forms a life-process within which individuals exist. An individual is born into a particular volk; its members are socialized into its attendant culture; therefore they acquire a volkspersoonlikheid (a volk-personality). It follows that the most important influence on an individual’s behaviour in any social context is his ethnos membership.30 29 Rhoda Kadalie, “Woman Today,” ibid.
He genuinely loved his class of 13, of which I was one. Regaling us day in and day out about the Zulus, the subjects of his fieldwork research, he wanted us to know how much he appreciated our views and learnt from us. Though he was often the object of ridicule by students, it was hard not to like him. One of my first essays moved him to tears, in which I disputed one of the readings in our anthropology textbook, which claimed that non-literate peoples resort to magic when they fail to understand the world around them. He inspired me to take a leading role in UWC’s Anthropology Society, taking students on ethnographic excursions and to student conferences.31 30 John S. Sharp. “The Roots and Development of Volkekunde in South Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1981. p. 19.
Proceeding to Honours in anthropology was a logical progression in my love for the subject and my subsequent appointment to Senior Lab Assistant in the Anthropology Department. Soon I started teaching first-years. The classes were huge, and included part-time classes at night as well for professionals who worked during the day.
This gave me lots of power and space to bring about change and transform the department from “volkekunde” to anthropology by demanding diversity in our roster of external examiners, who were mainly recruited from the Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria; we later added examiners from UCT and [liberal, English-speaking] Rhodes University in Grahamstown. The thrust of this change started with seminal debates about the cooptation of indigenous populations by colonialists using ethnography and fieldwork to gain access to the colonized across the globe, moving on to South Africa’s own checkered history of volkekunde scholars advising the apartheid government about “homeland” policy based on reified notions of tribal cultures.
On our campus, the events of 1976 brought forth strong reverberations. Our student body reacted to the events which shook South Africa in a very direct manner. It could not have been otherwise.
…
It is important to note that the students’ problems were not rooted in the University situation in the narrower, academic sense. They were protesting against something else, against the social order, against the political structure, against the economic arrangements in South African society. This is clearly shown by the fact that their first — and, I believe, sincere — reaction to the events following 16th June in Soweto was to ask for a period to hold a symposium so that they might “sort themselves out.” This week was granted, and lectures were suspended, so that they might assess their own position in the South African situation.
Why, then, did the situation change from orderly discussion to campus protest, class boycotts, lecture disruption, and arson?37 36 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by “Guaranteed Authentic.” The Oprah Magazine, Jul. 2007. p. 103.
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The irony [was] that with white males in my department, as much as they were white males, and conventional, they began to treat me as an equal because I was stronger politically, stronger emotionally, and I was also fair to them in a very hostile environment because I could see their good points and I could see their bad points, and present them as human beings … to my [black] colleagues.
…
I would call it the Broederbond campus, it was so bad, and [yet] because those whites who were nice people were apologetic about their existence, it gave us a lot of space to develop, to be vocal.42 41 Rhoda Kadalie, interview with Melanie Walker, ibid.
I’ve known the best of both worlds. I can understand that culture, where it’s coming from, where the resentment lies, and I also understand the disgruntlement of Coloureds on this campus because it’s part of that continuum of that whole culture … I am very privileged to have grown up as the daughter of a township pastor with my roots in that stuff. I can laugh, I can be cynical, I can make fun. There is nobody who can make fun of Coloured people in their presence like my brother and I. And my hairdresser kills herself laughing … because I was telling them, at an autobank [ATM] in a white area you always get notes which are crispy, in a Coloured area the notes are always dirty, filthy so obviously all the shit money goes there. That makes them crack up with laughter, deeply racist, nowhere in the world can you say that kind of thing. So that’s being able to identify. I hang out with these larnie [fancy] whites all my life, live with them, marry them, divorce them, so my life is that contradiction and I can actually be non-racist, or human.43 42 Ibid.
Unlike many university leaders who no longer distinguish between right and wrong, especially in times of turmoil, Prof Van der Ross never lost his moral compass despite the tumultuous 70s and early 80s. The Soweto Uprising and political upheavals that followed were not easy to navigate.
Between the stormy waters of a recalcitrant apartheid state and militant students, Vice-Chancellor Van der Ross acquitted himself with dignity and aplomb, using reason to argue that our methods of protest sometimes weakened our cause and were often counter-productive.
Rather than placate or appease students, he put himself on the front line of the Struggle as mediator, prepared to negotiate head-on with the apartheid government about the historical challenges facing the country. He was an active citizen, he was one of us, readily inserting himself as a participant into the mess of liberation, prioritising reason above anger to get his point across.
Severely criticised by the increasingly militant factions of the student leadership, Van der Ross pointed out that regardless of the criticisms against him, UWC should be judged by the quality of the graduates who emerged from the institution. That, after all, is what a university is about.44 43 Rhoda Kadalie, interview with Melanie Walker, ibid.
“I committed myself to my marriage but there were racial problems between me and his family.”1 44 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted in “Uncle Dick stood at the front line of the Struggle; Respected UWC rector Van der Ross was inspired by ‘life of the mind’.” Cape Argus, 23 Mar. 2018. p. 13.
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“Lesbians Unite in Armed Snuggle”
“A Naartjie in our Sosatie” (Anarchy in our Society, a play on words: a naartjie is a tangerine and a sosatie is a kebab).
“Albie Sachs, the ANC’s one-armed bandit” (This happened later, after Sachs, an anti-apartheid attorney and later Constitutional Court justice, lost his arm in a car bombing [in 1988] by the apartheid government in Mozambique)
“Een Boer; een moer!”
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His father had as a young doctor come out to South Africa with the Belgian Red Cross and installed a little field hospital outside the besieged Mafikeng, corresponded with [Robert] Baden-Powell, who was the English commander in the town [and later the founder of the Boy Scouts], and with [Afrikaner leader] Paul Kruger. … Naturally his children became interested in South Africa after hearing their father tell of his experiences there.3 2 Reader’s Digest. “Tricameral Parliament. Illustrated History of South Africa: The Real Story. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Reader’s Digest Association, 1994. 482.
They were very surprised to meet a German officer who could speak Afrikaans. The general complaints were that the different working groups were not allowed to meet. They wished to play rugby against each other; they wanted to form an orchestra but the instruments which were sent to them by the Red Cross were not dealt out; and they felt very concerned that the Afrikaans Predikant [minister in the Dutch Reformed Church] was not allowed to visit the different camps and that they had no church services while there were ministers among the prisoners.6 5 Phil Nix. “Wolff.” Comment on “Generalleutnant Kurt Wolff.” URL: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=10824. Accessed on 2 Aug. 2022.
To my surprise, General Wolff did do what I suggested, and afterwards he invited me to visit the same POWs again and make sure that they were now satisfied. I did this and I was struck by the great gratitude shown to me. One of those South Africans then said that he was so grateful that he wanted to give me something as a token of appreciation. I then said no, I certainly wouldn’t accept a gift from a poor POW who had practically nothing himself, but he persisted and opened his cupboard and said, “Please, take something -- anything you like!” Then I saw an Afrikaans Bible there, something I had always wanted but which I could not afford in 1937 as a student in SA. I then ask if it will be difficult for the prisoner to get hold of a Bible again, and he says no, it is not a problem at all, and immediately he writes in the Bible “To Lieut Bertelsmann, With wishes of the best. J.A. Joubert, 4021 K.G. No. 76180, Breslau 14/4/44.”7 6 Brigitte Bertelsmann, ibid.
In court, Werner repeatedly had to cross-examine American witnesses for the prosecution who had mistreated his clients. that the poor defendants were acquitted. (Most of the American judges were legal professionals…). This, of course, angered Werner’s CIC (the other defense attorneys didn’t have the moral courage to do the same for their clients and were too afraid of the CIC), and Donlon was angry and wanted revenge. He had the fixed idea that Werner must have been with the defense. If he could prove that to him, Werner would firstly have been subject to automatic arrest and secondly he could have been sentenced to a long prison term for so-called questionnaire falsification, because Werner had denied belonging to the counter-intelligence on all the questionnaires he had filled out.8 7 Werner Bertelsmann, quoted by Brigitte Bertelsmann, ibid. Translated from the Afrikaans.
I was placed in solitary confinement under the strictest security measures, and for three weeks I was interrogated on all aspects of my speech. In particular, the CIC agents hammered on the fact that I had access to prisoner of war camps during the war; for them it was already proof that I was connected to the secret service.9 8 Brigitte Bertelsmann. “Das Wunder am Königstor.” Undated memoir. Translated from the German. Courtesy of Margot Bertelsmann.
I went into Donlon’s office daily (trembling inside, confident on the outside) and was given permission to give Werner something to eat and bring a letter to Werner each day. Of course, he didn’t get the letters (and I always wrote them to suit Donlon’s censorship). But we were able to tell each other something, because the prison officials - exposing themselves to great danger - found ways and means. … On March 16, like every day, I packed Werner’s basket. Of course, I kept imagining how agonizing solitary confinement must be because I had to, Werner wasn’t allowed to speak to anyone and wasn’t allowed to read anything either. But it occurred to me that internationally all prisoners should be allowed to have a Bible. So I fetched the Afrikaans Bible from Werner’s room, which he had shown me earlier, so that while reading he would have foreign-language spiritual food and inspiration at the same time. I put them on top of the basket and when I got to police headquarters one of Donlon’s men took it from me: “Give me that stuff, your husband is under interrogation!”10 9 Werner Bertelsmann, quoted by Brigitte Bertelsmann, speech in Petersburg, ibid. Translated from the Afrikaans.
Three CIC agents yelled at me simultaneously, threatened to mistreat me, and particularly pounded on the fact that during the war I had had access to prisoner-of-war camps. This alone proves that I must have been with the Abwehr. What I stated about the purpose of my visits to the Silesian POW camps they simply declared to be lies. “How can you travel there?” I was shouted at: “Call just one witness!” I named General Wolff, followed by a sneer: “Ha, your own uncle and a war criminal himself. He’s no witness for us! Call one of the South Africans!”11 10 Brigitte Bertelsmann, “Das Wunder,” ibid.
But then I remembered the Bible, and I said, “Wait a minute - one of the South Africans wrote me his name,” and told me how I got the Bible. But I forgot that name too. “Of course,” yelled the CIC agents, “and of course the Bible was lost in the war, you can’t show it either!” “No,” I said, “I lost a lot in the war, but the Bible must still be there, I’ve got it at home.”
And then the miracle happened: the door opened and a police officer brought in the basket of food that my wife was allowed to deliver for me every day and which was always examined by the CIC before it entered my cell. On top of that basket was the Bible that was just mentioned! I just said, “There’s the Bible.” The CIC agents were speechless, dumbstruck, then all three of them pounced on the book at once to see if the South African’s name was in it.
That was the end of the interrogation, I was never interrogated again, nor was I maltreated or sent to an internment camp, and two days later I was released. So I was able to resume my honeymoon and then my practice.”
I firmly believe that an angel guided my steps as I packed up the Bible and stood at that crucial moment.12 11 Werner Bertelsmann, quoted by Brigitte Bertelsmann, “Das Wunder,” ibid.
From 1945 to 1951 Werner Bertelsmann practiced as a lawyer in Kassel, mainly as a defense lawyer before the military courts of the US occupation forces in West Germany. In 1951 he went to Johannesburg and Germiston as legal advisor to German companies. From 1952 to 1959 he was editor and later editor-in-chief of the “Allgemeine Zeitung” in Windhoek, then, from 1959 to 1961, as an official in the administration of South West Africa in the translation office of the Official Journal State information service in Pretoria and at the end of 1964 he was employed as managing director and research assistant at the Institute for Foreign Law at the University of South Africa.13 12 Ibid.
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[I]t was taboo especially in coloured households when you have a boyfriend they don’t get into your bedroom. By that time I was doing my honours [degree], working as a lab assistant, and my parents had built me a flat at the back of the house, and I said to them I am going to bring my boyfriend into my room … and I could see they didn’t like it. And I insisted on that, and I said to my parents, if you suspect me of sleeping with my boyfriend, I can do it in the car. … To have your boyfriend in your room doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, that you will have sex. So that one day, I was a young lecturer … a lab assistant … we had stacks of marking. Richie was in my room and I had lots of marking, and we were marking into the early hours of the morning. And I heard footsteps. I heard my father coming and he said, “Are you still there?” And I said, “Come in.” And he was shocked that I immediately let him in, and he was equally shocked to see Richie sitting [on] that side of the room marking, and me [on] the other side of the room marking.18 17 Ibid, 376.
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The Mixed Marriage Act had been repealed in Namibia in 1978, but that didn’t mean that the people there liked marrying us. The white magistrate didn’t even look at us, and during the ceremony he asked, “Do you, Richard Bertelsmann, white man, marry Rhoda Kadalie, Coloured girl?” He tried to rub it under our noses that we were breaking the law in South Africa and that he hated having to marry us. I wanted to keep my maiden name for feminist reasons. But for political reasons I decided to adopt Richie’s name to rub it under their noses that, “I am married, and you will have to accept it whether you like it or not.”20 19 Rhoda Bertelsmann-Kadalie. “Rhoda Bertelsmann-Kadalie, interview by Diana Russell, South Africa, 1987.” URL: https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3373700. Accessed on 3 Oct. 2021.
Because the Immorality Act had not yet been scrapped, Rhoda and I had to get married in Windhoek, Namibia, where apartheid laws no longer existed. However, because the Act was still on the statute book, and complaints from the public (e.g. neighbours etc.) could lead to prosecutions, it was important for us to enlist the tacit support, or at least tolerance, of our neighbours. So, after we had moved into our house in Observatory, I approached the neighbours, introduced myself and Rhoda, and expressed the hope that we would have good, friendly neighbourly relations.
I started with our next-door neighbour, Billy. Before Observatory became a haven for UCT students, it had been a white working class neighbourhood. Billy, a fairly large, grey-haired man, was clearly a remnant of Observatory’s workers-class past. Squinting over my shoulder at Rhoda, he said: “Ag, man, don’t worry, it’s all right — we all mind our own business here. The two ladies next to you on the other side are lesbians, the guy next to us is a druggie, but don’t worry — we all mind our own business here!”
I was too taken aback to ask him what his “business” was. It later turned out that his wife was an alcoholic. They had a dog that had the irritating habit of going on seemingly endless barking spells, and we could never work out what triggered these. Billy’s reaction to these disturbances was to growl: “Butcher, one more sound and you’re a dead dog!” Needless to say, he never punished the dog, far less killed him; it seems that they were caught up in what the French call a “folie à deux” - a madness two persons (or living beings) share.
The other anecdote I remember also had to do with our (strictly speaking) “illegal” status in a residential area officially classified as “whites only,” though irreversible social and economic factors had already subverted this legal reality. One hot summer’s day, when we had the front door open to allow some cooling draught into our house, a marked police car with a white cop and a black cop inside (both on the front seats, nogal [moreover]) stopped and stood in front of our house for what seemed an inordinately long time. Rhoda and I looked at these guys, waiting for them to approach us. Nothing happened. Eventually I said to Rhoda: “Check that mixed couple of cops. Should we report them?” After quite a while, they drove away; it was obviously more fun (and less dangerous) to intimidate a “mixed couple” than to round up hard-line criminals.22 21 Rhoda Berteslmann-Kadalie, interview by Diana Russell, ibid.
After our return, the police drove up and down the street about five times a day to intimidate us. They would stop at the gate and look at us but not say anything. I remember one night we went to a party and came home very late. We were sitting in the car kissing when a cop car parked next to us. The cops looked at us, and we looked at them, and then we rolled down the window to say, “Hey, what’s this all about?” but they left before we could question them.24 23 “Rhoda Kadalie: a strident voice for South Africa’s oppressed,” ibid.
Richie speaks perfect Afrikaans, and their attitude was, “How could a sweet, innocent Afrikaner like you go wrong?” The police officer was shocked to learn that he had studied at the Rand Afrikaans University. Throughout the interview the officer ignored me. He didn’t even look at me or address me, as if I didn’t exist to him. He didn’t recognize me as the wife of his man. But when they were finished with Richie, the sergeant looked at me and asked, “Do your friends recognize you as white or Coloured?” I said, “I have the kind of friends to whom that doesn’t matter.”25 24 Rhoda Bertelsmann-Kadalie. “Marriage Across the Colour Bar,” Ibid, 300.
[W]e received a letter from either the police of the Department of the Interior, or whatever they were called at the time, informing us that they had taken note that we had got married in Namibia, and that we had to report the the Wynberg police station. I don’t know whether this is general international practice, but apparently the Namibian authorities were under some obligation to inform their South African counterparts of any South African citizens being born, getting married or having died in Namibia.
With some trepidation, Rhoda and I drove to the Wynberg police station, where we were informed that we had to apply to some South African authority, probably the Department of the Interior or Home Affairs of whatever they were called at that stage, to have our marriage “legalised”, or something to that effect. In reaction to this, I wrote them a letter, saying that we had got married and moved to Observatory because we did not recognise the State’s authority to pronounce on the legality or illegality of a personal relationship such as a marriage. If we applied to have our marriage “legalised,” it meant that we recognised the State’s authority in this regard after all, which we found unacceptable, “yours sincerely.”
If I remember correctly, we subsequently received some communication intended to outline the serious consequences of our attitude and conduct, for example that any children born out of this unrecognized marriage would be considered illegitimate, and that this would have serious consequences in the case of intestate inheritance, etc. etc. If I remember correctly, we ignored this letter.26 25 Ibid, 300-1.
I cannot remember whether that was it this stage or earlier, I sought (and found) protection from two other sources, At that stage, and particularly during the 1981 general election, I was quite active in my local (Cape Town, Gardens) constituency branch of the then-Progressive Federal Party (PFP); I did quite a lot of canvassing - I lived in a flat in Tamboerskloof at the time. And so, shortly before or after our wedding, I made an appointment to see PFP leader Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert and told him about our situation; he told me that I should not worry, and that we could rely on him if we experienced any official harassment. He said something in the line of: “If we don’t help people in such cases, our opposition means nothing.”
The other support we relied on was from the UWC authorities. Somehow I seem to remember that we got assurances from Jakes Gerwel, though the rector at that time (December 1982) must still have been Van der Ross. Anyhow, to an extent we relied on the calculation that, given the habitual political instability at UWC at the time, the authorities would consider it unnecessarily provocative to prosecute a “mixed couple” of UWC academics in terms of the Immorality Act. Regardless of how little-known or how well-known we may have been at UWC, and how popular or unpopular, the “activists” on campus would have regarded such a prosecution as a God-sent opportunity to start “mass action,” with poster demonstrations at the main gate, chanting of slogans, boycotting of classes and (possibly) stoning of cars (whose drivers, needless to say, had nothing to to with the matter). And so, quite rightly, we thought we were quite safe from prosecution.27 26 Richard Bertelsmann. Personal communication with the author. 2 Sep. 2022.
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“We were 30 feminists from different countries and I think that was quite significant because for the first time my local feminist perspective was given international affirmation and I realized I was in keeping with the world and that I wasn’t a maverick, you know, the kind of stereotypical feminist they branded you.”1 27 Richard Bertelsmann. Personal communication with the author. 2 Sep. 2022.
York: Basic Books, 1989. 299.
[Khwezi] invited us to visit him in late 1985 in the trendy suburb of Kreuzberg. Having shed ourselves of all our Marxist leanings, we could not help hide our amusement as we entered his flat, to see a big red communist flag hanging from his dining-room wall above a bronze bust of Lenin. Without a hint of irony, he proudly showed off his communist paraphernalia, leaving my husband and I in a state of deep Unglaublichkeit [incredulity].
The next day he took us to East Germany. A frequent sojourner across the wall, he made our crossing of Checkpoint Charlie and our conversion of money into 25 German Marks, very easy. We were immediately struck by the gloomy Soviet landscape, the ominous socialist realist architecture, the uniform blocks of concrete flats, “distinctly lacking paint” to quote a comment on the internet.
Alexanderplatz, with its iconic Rote Rathaus, the Teacher’s House and Congress Hall, and East German Palace of the Republic, with the iconic TV tower, (the first thing one sees), captured my interest as my cousin wove his political myths around the socialist realism architecture, almost charming in the oppression it represented.
Throughout the hours we spent there, my husband and cousin were engaged in explosive political arguments. The more Khwezi tried to convert us to socialism, the more my husband smashed every argument. Needless to say, soon we were followed around by the Stasi but pretended not to notice. As we prepared to return, Khwezi remembered that we had not spent our money, so he took us into the East German Palace of the Republic where they doused their political rage with 25 marks’ worth of beers. The bored waiters failed to mitigate the long food queues with their lethargic service. While we waited Khwezi and Richard continued their fight while it was clear that the waiters enjoyed this exchange. When I got my hardly edible food, one waiter told me that he had understood the entire conversation and found it very interesting.
Needless to say, that experience opened my eyes to the realities of communism.6 4 Red Youth. “Red Salute to Comrade Khwezi Kadalie.” 5 May 2014. URL: https://redyouthuk.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/red-salute-to-comrade-khwezi-kadalie/. Accessed on 17 Jun. 2022.
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They form cliques. There is the Latin American clique, who thinks they are very smart, way-out and beautiful. Then the Asian clique who have enormous inferiority complexes. Accuse everybody of being bourgeois and upper class, especially if you dress like me. They don’t like whites, but all wish to get a white boyfriend. Then there is the Ghana clique — who calls everybody in Europe racists etc. The Tanzanian group is boring and dumb — and all people like me who don’t belong to a group are either too intellectual, too snobbish, too pro-white etc. So, in a way I have no friends in my class. The people I get on with most are also rejected by the class. A white Dutch anthropologist who worked in Chile for 10 years; a Sudanese girl, who now is beginning to become aware of the evils of Europe; and a Somalian woman who has a 10 yr old daughter. The Dutch woman stays in Leiden and has 2 children, so unfortunately, I cannot visit her or go out with her. The other 2 are very busy with their own lives. Most weekends I stay at home — studying. I don’t go out at all.26 24 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 26 Mar. 1986.
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T]he rumour was spread that I was a spy for the S.A. govt. A huge insult which left me speechless. Was spread by a white lecturer’s black wife — jealous of me (so says the Rector) and she was soon put in her place, by others who were initially her friends. But who later came to tell me what was going on.39 37 Red Youth. “Red Salute to Comrade Khwezi Kadalie.” 31 May 2014. URL: https://redyouthuk.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/red-salute-to- comrade-khwezi-kadalie/. Accessed on 5 Oct 2021.
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It is with fear and trepidation that Rhoda and I switch on the radio these days or listen to the news on BBC International Service, for each time we expect to hear of more and greater destruction [in South Africa]; and yet we cannot restrain ourselves from trying to hear as much as possible. It is a very strange feeling to be so far away from home at such a time of crisis: we feel helpless, in a different way than you do, and we almost despise ourselves for the privilege of being away from it all, while others have to live with this daily emergency. Then again, it is such a relief to be physically away from t all, that we do fully enjoy the great privilege of being here. It is a constant change of mood, I suppose, which corresponds to the instability of the situation.44 42 Alan Cowell. “State of Emergency Imposed Throughout South Africa; More than 1,000 Rounded Up.” New York Times, 13 Jun. 1986, p. A1.
When the level of struggle escalated in 1985, I was still overseas and I thought the time for revolution was at hand. Then when my friends or family came to visit, they’d still be the same. One friend said, “Rhoda, you’re going to be a grandmother before you see change.” Now that I’m back, I really feel like that is true. I saw a documentary on the military might of South Africa, and I am convinced that the government will fight to the death before it changes. So I think I’ll be one of the many who will not remain to tell the story.45 43 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 13 Jun. 1986.
“People stigmatise divorce, but they should really stigmatise marriage — it’s a completely dysfunctional institution.”1 50 Personal communications with the author.
What I did not like was the way Richie’s mother & her spinster sister regulated our lives. We were told when to get up, what time is lunch & told when to meet for supper. What’s more they expected us to entertain Richie’s eldest brother’s 2 kids who accompanied the old lady to Germany. … very sweet — but they like sitting in older people’s company. Never did they leave Richie & me alone. Richie’s mother is so possessive — Richie & I didn’t see each other for 5 weeks & she expected us to be with her & them all the time. Also the old lady smokes 25 hrs a day — She never stops & she gets cross when I complain. … When Richie complained that I found it bad & that he too doesn’t like it she started becoming very bitchy & sarcastic towards me. … What’s more they all speak German & never once try to speak English.
So I was thoroughly bored. I’m afraid that my relationship with my mother-in-law is finished. She tried to make me feel better when she saw that I was finished with her — but I find it hard to pretend. Of course, it makes Richie very sad because he thinks she’s very wonderful & I think she isn’t. She only has time for her own family & her own grandchildren. I hope that when I have a child that it is black & looks like me — so that she doesn’t have to like it. It will be better for both me and the child. … She also tries to make Richie think that I am difficult, so because he loves us both he is very divided & just becomes quiet when I nag about her. … Also, she only tends to accept me for what I am when other people treat me well — but on her own I know she resents it that Richie married a darkie. Meanwhile she is rather dark herself — looks very much Turkish (that is bad in Germany) in blonde & blue-eyed Germany.3 1 Sharon Sorour. “Rhoda Kadalie: Born to Lead.” Femina, Jun. 1996. p. 78.
And then he started on how much I had hurt his mother; and that she really likes me; and that he can’t be the same to me because I’m too stubborn to say sorry etc. etc. and so on & so on. Then I exploded, told him I wasn’t married to his mother; that it was typical white dominance and that I will not say sorry unless he treats me better. After a long silence he got up and went for a walk. We went to sleep on 2 separate beds.
I would have liked to tell him my personal experience and to discuss with him the fact, that there is no alternative than to live a life on the “black people’s” side. According to my experience once cannot stand with one foot in the “white people’s” side and with the other foot in the “black people’s” side. You know what I mean. To be married to a black partner is not any longer an individual choice of love and affection[,] it is at the same time a political choice with all its consequences. One has no alternative than to also be “black” and to live a “black life,” only then is one able to gain the necessary sensitiveness to share a black person’s life with your partner in all respects and with all its aspects.
I would have liked to talk to Richie about this in detail in view of the birth of your child, because he has to share his child’s experiences in life.11 9 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 18 Apr. 1986.
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Cops stormed into campus. Threw teargas cannisters and grenades were fired into student rooms so that 3 bedrooms were set alight. 6 Casspirs [riot control vehicles] intimidatingly drove around campus — quite fed-up that students were not provocative enough & so provoked them by charging after them into buildings.22 20 Ibid, diary entry 28 Aug. 1988. Original emphasis.
The fatal event, as far as our marriage was concerned, was a telephone conversation Rhoda had with my mother, at a time when I had already moved out of the house. They had a difference of opinion, and I tried to explain what I took to be my mother’s position. I was terribly conflicted, feeling enormous pressure and moral obligation to agree with each one of these conflicting posjtions. This angered Rhoda enormously, and she said (or “spat out”, as “penny horrible” literature would put it) : “Then go to your mother!” Despairing at her unwillingness or inability to understand my position, I totally lost it and hit her several times, until she ran to her bedroom (the “conversation” had taken place at her home’s front door). For me, that was the end of our relationship. I don’t know myself as a violent person, and I felt I could no longer be with someone who could drive me to such extremes. I also feared that she could / would abuse this experience at any possible future difference if opinion: “Watch out, you know you’re a violent man, now calm down and accept what I say!” In a subsequent telephone conversation she did ask me to come back, but I refused, for the reasons given above.25 23 Personal conversation with the author.
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Well, I was married to a white German man. And I never met his parents before because they opposed the marriage. But we loved each other, and we left the country, we went to Namibia and got married. And it was only after my marriage that I met the family. And I was never sure that it was racism or in-law problems. I was always uncomfortable with that family. I’m a very easy person and I get on very well with people, and I have a huge circle of friends from all colours. And so that, for me, was the dilemma.28 26 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 8 Feb. 1991
I believe we were indeed very different: she outgoing and enterprising, I more reserved and reflective. I believe that I was also more accommodating and prepared to compromise, though (of course) opinions may differ on that. I do believe that opposites attract one another, at least initially, but after a while such a constellation causes tensions. … I sometimes wondered if her attitude had been formed by her having been the only girl among six or seven brothers.30 28 Rhoda Kadalie, “Woman Today,” ibid.
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“I came [back] to UWC with an intellectual understanding of what I’d always believed in terms of my gut feelings. I could put substance to the oppressions [of] women, to the position of women nationally, locally, internationally. … I became an activist because I think it’s important that one deals with the issues which affect women on a day-to-day basis.”1 37 Jakes Gerwel. Email to Rhoda Kadalie, 21 Jan. 2004.
I saw, experienced, and participated in its growth and development over the years; I was privileged to share in the process of its emancipation — an emancipation from the academic and intellectual deprivedness of its origins as an ethnic college to being today intellectually one of the most exiting [sic] and charged institutions of higher learning in the country, daringly exploring new spaces and modes of academic and intellectual practice; emancipation from the political and ideological restrictiveness of its apartheid origins to being a place where the examination and pursuit also and particularly of progressive ideas are not only protected but actively encouraged.
I cannot in conscience, in Truth, educate, or lead education, toward the reproduction and maintenance of a social order which is undemocratic, discriminatory, exploitative and repressive and stands universally recognised as such. While a university may never have a corporate opinion our university, at least, can never condone or live comfortably with Apartheid in any of its mutations. And the democratic left stands as fundamental opposition to Apartheid in all its dehumanising aspects.
Professor Gerwel has been dean of the faculty of arts at U.W.C. for several years. He is set to assume leadership of the university at a time when many of its 7,000 students — the vast majority of whom are mixed-race — view themselves as an integral part of the liberation struggle in the country and are demanding that their university support them in that role. In the past year the students have used the campus as what they have called a “site of political struggle,” and their political activism has often found expression in extended class boycotts to protest government policies and conditions in South Africa.
Richard E. van der Ross, the current rector, who will end his 11 years in the position at the end of 1986, has followed a policy of allowing students to express their political views and to stage protests on the campus. While some serious disruptions of academic activities have occurred, the policy has enabled the university to shake off its image as a “creature of apartheid” and shed the label of “bush college,” the pejorative term often used here to describe universities created specifically for blacks.
Although the government has dropped racial qualifications for admission to universities in South Africa, students now are mobilizing as never before against apartheid in the society at large.8 6 Helen Zille. “Student Disruptions Hit Lectures at Cape Town as S. African Universities React to U.S. Sanctions.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 Oct. 1986. 39.
According to BC [Black Consciousness], gender was not the primary issue. Even in the 1980s, when the UDF came into being, women’s liberation was seen as divisive of national liberation.
This belief was also dominant within the ANC. Yet at the same time, some women in the liberation movement were raising issues about women’s rights. Within the ANC, they were fighting against sexual harassment in the ANC Quattro camps. A report was written about this issue, but wasn’t released. …
I was part of the group who met with the ANC women in Harare in the early 1990s [1989]. There I learned that women in exile had written reports about sexual harassment, but that the ANC leadership stopped the release of these reports because they were embarrassed. …
There was a tendency within the ANC Women’s League not to talk about feminist issues explicitly. When I raised these issues at the Harare meeting [in 1989], I was called “that little revolutionary.”10 8 Helen Zille. “Rector aims to turn South African University into ‘Intellectual Home’ of Left.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 Aug. 1986. pp. 33-4.
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There was a strange alliance between male students and some male staff members who tacitly agreed that while rape was brutal, women asked for it; that wanting to be equal has created all these problems for women, and that if women wanted to be educated, they should suffer the consequences should they try to take over matters which traditionally were the preserve of males. The debate was often acrimonious, but also encouraging because for the first time in our political history the students critically examined the notion of culture … This was an exciting time on campus giving rise to some of the most creative initiatives at the university, and it was in this context and atmosphere that women’s studies developed.11 9 Ibid.
The participants who registered for the course ranged from interested mavericks to some of Cape Town’s foremost feminists from a variety of women’s organizations. Besides the impact and excitement that the course generated generally, lesbian women who attended confided that my lectures inspired them to come out of the closet for the first time. They also felt that as a black “straight” woman I was the first to break the silence around lesbian sexuality in public at a time when the intense homophobia which characterized the liberation movement at the time made mention of the topic taboo. The reaction from black activist women was equally interesting as they now had moved away considerably from the old position that feminism was divisive and secondary to the liberation struggle, to criticizing openly the sexism of comrades within the liberation movement. Needless to say, the Summer School was significant in that topics which were formerly regarded as too sensitive were now opened up for debate and contestation in the public arena.13 11 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women’s Studies in South Africa: University of the Western Cape — A Case Study.” 1993.
My activism was inspired by the very exciting degree I read at the Institute for Social Studies in The Netherlands in Development and Women’s Studies during 1985-6. When I returned at the beginning of 1987, it gave shape and intellectual substance to my activism and provided me with new tools to comprehend the anti-apartheid context theoretically and experientially in all its complexity. “National Liberation first; Women’s Liberation second” and “Women’s Liberation is Divisive of the National Liberation Movement” were two slogans that got the feminists in the struggle all riled up. We were not prepared to accept that the abolition of apartheid meant male domination in general and black male domination in particular. The men needed racial solidarity with women to win the anti-apartheid struggle but somehow claimed that women’s liberation was of secondary importance.
We furiously spearheaded awareness campaigns in all directions: reproductive rights, gay rights, equality campaigns, and rights against domestic and sexual violence [and] abuse. These were explosive times because black women were often called upon to demonstrate national solidarity with black men, when we knew that they often betrayed us within the private contexts of our lives. Thus started the navigation between the personal and the political in ways that often pit us against our male comrades. It was a painful journey but there were many men in the struggle who supported our campaigns and who encouraged us to give structure to our claims.17 15 Rhoda Kadalie, interview with Melanie Walker, ibid.
It was in this context that the Women’s Commission, the Women’s Studies initiatives, and anti-sexual harassment and anti-sexual violence campaigns started in 1987 on UWC’s campus. The Women’s Commission consisted of 6 women representing all constituencies on Campus. This unity across class, race and occupational divisions led to the achievement of absolutely radical achievements for women with regards to maternity and paternity leave (5 month fully paid leave); an anti-sexual harassment policy; housing subsidy for women; a crèche to support the child-care needs of staff; and even a non-sexist language policy unanimously adopted by Senate.19 17 Rhoda Kadalie. “UWC Reunion,” ibid.
This tension came to a head in the early eighties21 when one of the student leaders raped a female student on campus and nothing was done to discipline the student concerned. A kangaroo court was set up in the residence by the political comrades of the alleged rapist, where the trial degenerated into a mudslinging match between the male comrades of the rapist and the feminist supporters of the victim. The outrage of the women students and staff compelled management to address sexual violence against women more seriously and formally. 19 Rhoda Kadalie, “UWC Reunion,” Ibid. 22 20 Ibid.
At the time a core group of young academics, some newly appointed and others who had just returned from studies abroad, felt the need to start a Women’s Studies Group (WSG) to infuse a gender consciousness into the political discourse and curricula across the faculties.29 27 University of the Western Cape. “Policy and Procedure on Sexual Harassment.” 1988.
The Women’s Studies Group (WSG) is an informal working group on UWC campus, started on 21 August 1987 to address issues concerning women in all spheres of university life. The main purpose of this group is to find effective ways of raising gender issues and gender consciousness in UWC in the context of the struggle for democracy in S.A. The WSG is committed to the following general principles:
The specific aims of the group are
All over the campus gender study groups were being formed; seminars were held on the race, class, gender debate amongst women in South Africa, and in the Arts and Humanities there was a growing visibility of “women and gender” in the disciplines and research projects in the university. International Women’s Day (8th March) and National Women’s Day (9th August) were used to raise public awareness around the history of women’s struggles nationally and internationally and to focus on the achievements of women throughout the centuries. The Women’s Commission also encouraged women to talk about the more subtle forms of discrimination they were experiencing with regards to promotion, staff development, job interviews, research grants, conditions of leave, and so on. From the discussions it became clear that there was a desperate need to develop formal affirmative action mechanisms, which would more adequately address all the issues raised by women.34 32 Ibid. Original emphasis.
While teaching anthropology, I also was aware of how women at the university, academics and staff, were discriminated against. And also how women students were regarded as not equal to male students in a variety of ways. Now, the University of the Western Cape was a very politicized university. It openly aligned itself with the Mass Democratic Movement. And the student leadership was 110% committed to the struggle for democracy. But gender discrimination was not equated with racial discrimination. So in the discourse, racial discrimination gained primacy, while gender discrimination was treated as divisive of the liberation movement.36 34 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women’s Studies in South Africa,” ibid. Original emphasis.
She once began a class, for instance, by asserting that “all men are rapists”. Predictably “the class went berserk” and a furious debate ensued.
“We concluded,” Kadalie recalls, “that as long as men rape women and other men who do not identify with the rape say nothing, they are acquiescing in the act. They are actually supporters of that act. One man rapes on behalf of all men because a lot of progressive men who do not rape do nothing about the fact that their brothers rape. I said, when you men who are against rape, march against it and condemn it, then I shall no longer call you rapists,” and she laughs.37 35 Rhoda Kadalie. Letter to the Personnel Manager. 21 Jul. 1992.
I wondered how we could be defending “our men” at a place like UWC, where women were being sexually harassed and beaten across the breasts if they did not take part in class boycotts. The male students would say that women had no right to complain – they should consider it a privilege to suffer for the struggle. They said that women’s rights should be sacrificed in the name of a unified struggle. I and some of my women colleagues at UWC were outraged by this, and said so. We were promptly labelled bourgeois Western feminists by some of our male comrades. Being labelled in this manner did not stop me from complaining about the harassment that women were subjected to on campus and in the residences, as well as the number of rapes that were occurring. The rector of the campus at the time [Gerwel] said that rape was endemic to our society, and that the university administration could not call in the apartheid police for rape, only for murder. I asked why were they distinguishing between crimes of gender and other crimes? Why privilege murder over rape? They were both serious crimes.
The struggle for women’s rights to be recognised as human rights was devalued all the time in the name of the anti-apartheid struggle. In the UDF, the argument was “We can’t let the enemy know that some of us are committing gender-based crimes of violence.” This was similar to those who were pushing the womanist position in the US, using the issue of racial solidarity – “ we can’t let the white man know”.38 36 Rhoda Kadalie, on “Woman Today,” SAfm, June 1996.
A few months before Namibia gained independence, a Swapo mass rally was held in Rehoboth. As usual, the meeting started with a revolutionary exchange of slogans between chairperson and audience. This is how it went:
Speaker: A vote for Swapo …
Audience … is a vote for democracy!
Speaker: A vote for Swapo …
Audience: … is a vote for freedom!
Speaker: A vote for Swapo …
Audience: … is a vote for equal rights!
Speaker: A vote for Swapo …
Audience: … is a vote for women’s rights!
A macho voice rose above the audience, shouting, “Not a fuck! Now you’re going too far!”39 37 Institute of Democracy in South Africa. “A necessary irritant?”. Democracy in Action, Vol. 9 No. 7, 15 Dec. 1995. p. 10.
Publicly, black women have blamed apartheid for robbing black men of their dignity. For many black women, the abolition of apartheid has thus meant the restoration of male pride, dignity and masculinity to black men. This partly explains why, for a long time, the democratic movement tended to see the liberation of women as being secondary to and contingent upon national liberation.
…
The battle against apartheid often deflected attention away from gender oppression. The publicity given to racial oppression protected the left male activist as an oppressor of women. Furthermore, his most powerful arguments appealed to tradition and culture and denied that feminism was an authentic voice within the community.41 39 Rhoda Kadalie. “Racism and sexism: an unholy alliance.” SASH, Sep. 1991. p. 9.
I sat on the student tribunal where these cases were heard. Some of the male students would defend their acts of rape by arguing, “Oh she comes from my home village. Now that she is here at university, she has become so uppity, that’s why I beat her up.”
However, some of the women were also complicit in condoning these acts of violence. They would brag about being beaten up, saying that this was proof that “he owns me, he loves me”. The message that was going out placed women in a double bind: violence against women meant men’s ownership of them. These men were effectively saying, “We beat those we value and treasure.” This also explains why some women found this interpersonal violence acceptable. This is why people tolerate gender-based violence.
Also, many of these women experienced gender equality for the first time when they came to university. After examinations, when the results were posted on the noticeboards, some of the women who achieved the highest marks would erase their results. They did not want the fact that they were often better students than the men to become public.
We used the undergraduate classroom to raise gender awareness amongst our students. So, for example, students would engage with the nature-nurture debate on gender issues by asking whether all men are born rapists. (Laughter.) Similarly, we asked whether Lorena Bobbitt’s act of cutting off a man’s penis was equal to men’s rape of women. When the UDF was founded (and most of our students were members), it raised all sorts of race and gender contradictions for them, which we discussed openly in class.44 42 Ibid., p. 74.
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My job was to set up infrastructure to protect female students against sexual harassment and violence.
I marshalled resources at a very high level to make this a reality, the first being to have the Gender Equity Unit (GEU) recognised as a senate body with multi-stakeholder representation on the campus.
My job was to win over the male leadership and top management to help us fight all forms of violence against women. Initiatives of the GEU included the establishment of a gender-representative tribunal; tracking cases of violence against women and prosecuting offenders.
Our primary goal was to remove stumbling blocks that hamper the advancement of all women on the campus. On one occasion, I visited all heads of departments to win support for our cause.
In the science faculty, I was told repeatedly that female students achieved the highest grades, but were reluctant to pursue postgraduate study. Many female students said working in the labs after hours was “life‑threatening”.
Walking to their residences after dark killed their desire to continue studying. These fears were compounded by other cultural factors – inter alia, that there were few role models for women in the sciences.57 55 Chris Barron. “Obituary: Rhoda Kadalie fought for women’s rights and against state incompetence.” Business Day, 18 Apr. 2022. URL: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2022-04-18-obituary-rhoda-kadalie-fought-for-womens-rights-and-against-state-incompetence/. Accessed on 20 Apr. 2022.
The Gender Equity Unit staff started to hold countless public debates, forced the student disciplinary committees to change, conducted awareness raising workshops, educated and trained student leadership and hosted extensive conscientising programmes in the residences to transform the gender hostile climate on campus.62 60 Sharon Sorour, p. 78, ibid.
From 1993 to 1995 we set up a post-graduate Women and Gender Studies Interdiscipliary Program; we produced a quarterly Women’s Bulletin and sexual harassment resource booklets (also translated into a black language); and designed policy guidelines for gender policy, non-sexist language and sexual harassment. On an on-going basis the GEU increasingly took on a political function holding affirmative action workshops, training women students to do gender-awareness training of students in the residences and assisting with training for [an] orientation program on sexuality, sexual harassment and formal and informal grievance and disciplinary procedures. Later the office took on an additional function as OMBUDS office where women brought whatever grievances they had, real or perceived, within the university for mediation, which we then channeled through the appropriate structures for resolution. In this way the university began challenging discrimination and its embeddedness within the culture of the university in a more systemic way.64 62 Gender Equity Unit. “History of the Gender Equity Unit.” URL: https://www.facebook.com/GenderEquityUnit/. Accessed on 8 Oct. 2021.
By the mid-nineties UWC had the best maternity benefits in the country — 5 months fully paid leave and 7 days paternity leave for men; housing subsidies for married women; chief invigilation duties for women; and an educare centre for children of staff. The unit also developed a Sexual Harassment Policy; a Gender Policy and a Non-Sexist Language Policy. Resource booklets on sexual harassment were developed and distributed. Ad hominem promotion was granted to women academics and they for the first time had equitable access to study leave and research funding. A Women’s and Gender Studies Programme was also established.
Women students formed a volunteer group, called Kopanang, and began to raise gender awareness amongst students. UWC became the centre for women and gender awareness raising in the country well in advance of the post-apartheid liberal language framework and rhetoric.
Many community organisations which have been involved in gender awareness programs realise that they now need to go beyond the feminist activism mode. Since the [1994] elections they have requested advice, guidance and expertise from academic feminists to assist them in formulating new ideas and visions.
At the University of the Western Cape, the Gender Equity Unit took these challenges on board by holding a Women’s Studies Winter School which catered particularly for women in community organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), teachers and the corporate sector. Courses offered were contemporary feminist theory, gender and development, gender and sport, women’s rights, sexual harassment and women’s health. Due to its overwhelming success, we have decided to institutionalise the school as an annual event. The Gender Equity Unit also offers an Inter-disciplinary honours and M. Phil programme in Women’s Studies to cater for the needs and interests of those who want to pursue post-graduate research and scholarship around women and gender.68 66 Mary Hames. “Lesbian students in the academy: Invisible, assimilated, or ignored?”. In Seth Matebeni, et al. Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism. p. 138.
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From a conscience point of view, the Government should challenge the prevailing religious viewpoint that abortion is murder and that those who are pro-choice are murderers.
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Old Testament law is very clear: if you cause the death of a foetus, you pay a fine; if you cause the death of a woman, you lose your own life. In those days a foetus was not considered to be a person.
If “person” were defined as beginning at conception, abortion would, indeed, be the crime of murder. Women’s bodies, their rights and health would be subordinated to the protection of the embryo. No abortion would be permitted for any reason, including rape and incest. Each miscarriage would have to be investigated, the legal consequences of which would be catastrophic.
Equally ludicrous, if we accept the argument that life begins at conception, we have to accept that life begins before conception, in that the sperm and the ovum are alive long before they get together in the moment of fertilization.
An acorn is not an oak; a seed is not a carrot; an embryo is not a human being. Nowhere in the Bible is the embryo or foetus given the status of a human being. Personhood does not begin at conception. Personhood begins when the baby takes its first breath; that is when God infuses the baby with a soul.
Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
So when an infant breathes its first breath the soul enters its body and it achieves the status of a person, and its birthday is celebrated from then on, not conception.76 74 Sorour, p. 79, ibid.
We were the first university campus in South Africa to develop a sexual harassment policy. At UWC, I was part of a group of women who identified women’s rights as human rights on campus. We examined the social position on women on campus closely – we wanted equal rights for women, so we set out to develop an anti-rape and sexual harassment policy, we won maternity and paternity benefits for academics, and a gendered housing subsidy policy that provided academic women with the same resources with which to obtain housing as their male colleagues.
I was able to push for these issues because I was nominated to a number of governing committees at UWC, as well as the senate. I was able to obtain an intimate working knowledge of how the university was governed, about the networks and the people who sat on these committees. So I was able to work with colleagues on these bodies, and lobby for improving the status of women on campus. On the academic front, we also pushed for the promotion of women in the academic hierarchy. At the time, I think there was a single white woman professor on campus.
After we raised these issues, many opportunities opened up for women to improve their academic qualifications, or to take time off and do research, write and publish at universities abroad, such as in the US and in the Netherlands.79 77 Robert Goff. Interview with the author. 25 Feb. 2022.
I remember being invited to bring five black women academics to a conference in Utrecht to present papers. [including]. We read each other’s drafts and edited them in preparation for the conference. Desiree Daniels’ paper focused on women in the labour movement,80 Desiree Lewis wrote about black women in South African literature, Yvonne Mokgoro wrote about gender and the law in South Africa, while my own paper dealt with the issue of sexual harassment and rape on the university campus. Our papers were very well received at the conference. I remember [Renée Römkens], one of the discussants, remarking about the fact that we insisted that sexual violence be looked at in relation to poverty. In Holland, they explained sexual violence in terms of psychoanalysis. At the conference we married the two positions and thought creatively about how sexual violence could be analysed through the dual lenses of psychoanalysis and socio-economic factors. The conference proceedings were published in a volume edited by [Renée Römkens]. 78 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Sharon Sorour, p. 79, ibid. 81 79 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Elaine Salo, ibid.
The university rector at the time [Gerwel] was reluctant to provide support for a campaign against rape. He said that the university could not afford the bad publicity if we had a public anti-rape campaign. He said that already the university was being seen in the media as lowering academic standards (because of its open admissions policy and anti-apartheid stance).84 82 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women’s Studies in South Africa,” ibid.
One of the gains of our activism at UWC was that gender awareness was mainstreamed. So, for example, gender became part of courses in Sociology and Anthropology taught by women like [Elaine Salo] and Diana Gibson; and in languages and literature spearheaded by Miki Flockemann, Desiree Lewis, and Christelle Stander; in adult education programmes where Professor Shirley Walters drove it; it was part of the coursework in the Economics faculty, with work done by women like Cheryl Hendrick; Sandy Liebenberg was doing gender work in the Community Law Centre; Anne Marie Wolpe took it up in the Education Policy Unit; and Desiree Daniels in labour studies.
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It was not so much the refusal to ordain women that infuriated me, as it was the denial of the existence of women and their contribution in the church. The vote against the ordination of women by synod signified, once again, that the Anglican Church, which was so committed to the eradication of apartheid, was not so serious about the sin of sexism.92 90 Rhoda Kadalie. Quoted by Estelle Neethling. “South Africa’s humanitarian lodestar.” Leadership, Ed. 207, August 2010. p. 16.
On a more personal note, the failure to address the needs of women in the church partly explains my own negative attitude towards the church. As a pastor’s daughter, I virtually grew up in the church, and by the time I reached my mid-twenties, I was punch-drunk from listening Sunday-in-Sunday-out to three-point Bible-punching sermons, spewed forth with boring regularity, warning people to either turn or burn. I stopped going to church simply because “God the Ogre” did not appeal to me any longer. I was convinced that I was being robbed of a God who was something other than authoritarian, legalistic and punitive. I started exploring the Bible for myself and joined a Bible study group with other similarly disillusioned young people. As my relationship with god grew more intimate, it suddenly dawned on me that my growing disinterest in the church was a reaction to, what I now consider to be, blasphemous presentations of God in most sermons: an all-male God ministering to an all-male congregation! That the majority of people in the church were women only minimally affected the kind of ministry that was delivered by the church. The church failed to get involved with specific problems women were experiencing in their communities, such as divorce, alimony, contraception, abortion, childcare, domestic violence, child abuse, marital relationships and gender inequality, to mention but a few. The church was often clueless as to how to deal with these issues, and would resort to spiritualizing these aspects of life so as to avoid confronting these problems.
The God I began to discover was the God I occasionally caught glimpses of in the church. It was a God who could be likened unto the seas, the rain, the wind and the sun; it was a loving compassionate, kind and caring God, concerned with all of creation. It was, indeed, the God of the oppressed, the poor, the exploited and the down-trodden. As a woman, I had a sneaking suspicion that God, too, often felt marginalized within the church, which often uncritically reflects the broader society of which it is a part. Societal norms and values are often played out in the church with easy resonance. It is, therefore, no problem for the church to express itself in racist, sexist, legalistic, materialistic and competitive terms, and to present God as sanctioning these attitudes in very subtle, and sometimes not so subtle ways, especially when it comes to the oppression of women.93 91 John Darton. “After 460 Years, The Anglicans Ordain Women.” New York Times, 13 Mar. 1994. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/13/world/after-460-years-the-anglicans-ordain-women.html. Accessed on 7 Mar. 2022.
In the context of an extremely hostile anti-woman culture, Jesus challenged men and women directly out of their socio-cultural stereotypes into a culture of wholeness by defying the laws and customs of the society which kept women in a position of subordination. Jesus keeps on challenging us to extract truths about women from the cultural contexts within which they lived, to show us that it was not so much the customs, but the messages through which they were conveyed. His relationship with the woman of Samaria, his appearance to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, and his violation of taboos on ritual purity, all clearly point to his rejection of the notion of women as second-class citizens. In all of his dealings with women he brought wholeness to them. This is the wholeness I began to discover in my personal relationship with and explorations of God.94 92 Rhoda Kadalie. “Epilogue.” Women Hold Up Half the Sky: Women in the Church in Southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 1991. p. 391.
JESUS seeks out the excluded, the sick, the marginalized, the alienated, the rich and the poor!
JESUS INVITES even CORRUPT POLITICIANS — a species we love to hate — whom we believe have no right to redemption because of their self-serving predilections. … This story speaks directly to us as MINISTRY TO THOSE WE DESPITE AND REJECT … May this message grant us the grace to develop more empathy with those on the other side of the rails and see in them the potential to embrace the transformative power of Jesus, Our Lord and Maker.99 97 Rhoda Kadalie, Sarie, ibid.
From a sociological point of view, marriage in South Africa, takes on a multiplicity of forms. Through divorce, children live across a variety of family forms. Polygamous marriages in African and Muslim communities add to the mix. I know of many same sex marriages within which children are raised extremely well. I also know of others where marriages have broken up causing the same amount of trauma as those within heterosexual marital arrangements.
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In South Africa, the Constitution is pre-eminent and the Bill of Rights provides for equality and non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, class, sexual orientation, and marital status, amongst others. The Synod would do well to engage with the Bill of Rights versus what they consider to be Biblical precepts. As a Christian, I see no contradiction between the Bill of Rights and what the Bible’s key figure, Jesus, commands us to do. Just as Jesus defied the cultural and patriarchal order of the day, regarding gender relations, by talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, by touching the garment of a bleeding woman, and by asking a woman to spread the news that he had risen from the dead (an act that was contrary to the culture at the time), just so He would have defied the DRC Synod in support of same sex marriages.
I can understand people who cannot and will not accept same sex marriages. They must just not make their prejudices mine or legal to suit their bigotries. I am convinced that the nature of the marriage would have been of least concern to Jesus, but He would have been concerned about whether or not love and care prevailed within those relationships and families as he was about every other societal arrangement.100 98 Ibid.
I knew UWC intimately; I sat on all the university governing committees; I was the only black woman to have a seat on the university senate at the time. I knew all the members and could use my networks to lobby for issues such as improving the conditions of employment for academic women. Some of the white women who took over the Women and Gender Studies programme after me were professional academics and did not come from an activist back-ground. They were newcomers to politics. Many of them had no resonance with grassroots peoples’ issues.
“The 27th April 1994 elections meant turning our back on the past and charting a new course with our new constitution as a guide forward. Unlike many of my comrades, I did not expect miracles and wonders, having observed the ANC in all their dubious glory in exile when I studied abroad.”1 102 Edwena Goff. Interview 25 Feb. 2022.
The topics were mostly about women and the defence force – the connecting point between white women who sent their boys to the border to fight to retain apartheid and black women whose sons and daughters were in the ANC’s armed struggle Umkhonto We Sizwe. Most of the women we met there became members of Mandela’s cabinet or were ambassadors in the new SA. I wrote a speech for one of them for her maiden speech. So I got to know them well, even the current speaker Baleka Mbete.2 103 F. W. De Klerk. Speech at the Opening of Parliament. 2 Feb. 1990. URL: https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02039/04lv02103/05lv02104/06lv02105.htm. Accessed on 8 Oct. 2021.
[T]he Women’s Charter for Effective Equality, designed to convey to the new government the concerns of women in their everyday lives and launched by the Women’s National Coalition just a few months before the elections, is the product of intense discussions held over two years by ninety-two organizations, including major political parties, religious groups, trade unions, cultural and social interest groups, and business and professional women’s associations, to convey to the new government the concerns of women in their everyday lives. The Charter is a holistic, comprehensive document consisting of twelve articles covering every aspect of women’s live[s].10 8 Amy Biehl, 1993, ibid. p. 5.
The oppression of women is not unique to capitalistic societies, but predates it … and has persisted in socialist countries despite the fact that socialist programmes have been designed to improve the position of women. … Yes, African women may have been better off in precolonial society, but women were still subordinated by men under that system. All forms of patriarchy, whatever the class or race, need to be abolished if women seriously want to be recognised as human beings, now and in the future.16 14 Ibid.
[Biehl] got involved in anti-apartheid orgs on UWC campus and worked with returned exiles on women and democracy, women, the law and customary rights, the abortion debates, domestic violence etc.
During this time, Amy played as hard as she studied. She was a student par excellence, but loved dancing, going to clubs, running marathons and the beach.
Soon she had friends all over Cape Town and in the black townships.
About three months into her stay, frustrated that the activists could not help her academically, she found me and by then I had treated her as just another American groupie on the campus.
I said “sure” and proceeded to correct her paper with a red pen and advised her whom to consult – I gave her a list of difficult tasks – whom to consult, whom to interview, which materials to consult, introductions to key figures.
Amy stood there with her blue eyes as big as saucers because I was the first person who actually took her work seriously and who could give her intellectual guidance.
Soon she trusted me and I became her mentor, also a mother figure, and could guide her into the vagaries of cultural life in SA.21 19 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 7 Sep. 1991.
Biehl had been driving three black colleagues back to their township Wednesday when their car was surrounded by dozens of black youths. The mob pelted the car with stones before pulling Biehl from the driver’s seat and hitting her in the face with a brick. She was then stabbed in the head.
…
When one of the youths at the mob scene was asked why Biehl had been singled out, he reportedly replied, “Because she is a settler,” meaning she was white. Witnesses said the alleged attackers also shouted the APC [sic] slogan, “One Settler, One Bullet.”
During Thursday’s memorial service, Evarson Orange, one of the passengers in the car, recalled that Biehl laid her head in his lap after the attack and eventually collapsed in his arms. The passengers then carried her back to the car and tried to rush her to the police station. She died shortly after arriving at police headquarters.28 26 Ibid.
Rhoda Kadalie, head of the university’s gender program, said Biehl considered herself fortunate that she had not been a victim of violence but confided she feared she might lose her life in South Africa.
“I warned her about going into the townships, and she would dismiss me as a nagging old woman,” Kadalie said. “Amy had a premonition that she would die. . . . She kept on saying how lucky she was that nothing had happened to her all the time she was here but it was all too good to be true. She had a feeling that something would happen before she left.”
Biehl had been scheduled to return to Newport Beach on Saturday before heading to New Jersey to attend Rutgers University.
Speaking with Biehl’s parents by telephone Thursday, Kadalie told them their daughter showed no fear when the stoning began.
“She was always surrounded by loving and committed black people, never thinking for a moment that she could come to symbolize the enemy,” Kadalie said.29 27 Ibid.
I’m haunted by what went through her mind as she was being beaten to death. On behalf of the Women’s Alliance and the Gender Equity Unit, we express our absolute revulsion at the brutal way in which she was attacked and killed. Through a series of cold-blooded murders in our country, we’ve been made aware of all the monsters created and produced by this South African apartheid government, monsters which are now devouring each other so that the Nationalist Party looks so clean next to the others. Unless we stop and reflect on the past, the future will be too ghastly to contemplate, and we will descend into an abyss of anarchy and barbarism.32 30 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted in Barbara Walters. “The Amy Biehl Story.” Turning Point, ABC News. 20 Apr. 1994.
Her research interests took [sic] her across the country and brought her into contact with women across the racial, regional and class divides in South Africa. In her field work, Amy demonstrated a remarkable capacity to understand and be sensitive to the issues which affect women generally, and black women in particular in this country, and in the process she has acquired a large circle of friends, mostly from the black community. In the course of gathering data, she has written several reports on conferences attended as well as several position papers, inviting debate from feminists involved in various organisations. The papers and reports produced by Amy have become invaluable resources for the Gender Project of the Community Law Centre, as well as the Gender Equity Unit at UWC.34 32 Rhoda Kadalie. Eulogy for Amy Biehl. University of the Western Cape, Bellville, Cape Town. 26 Aug. 1993.
Kadalie said feminists helping to hammer out a new constitution are turning to Biehl’s treatises on the rights guaranteed to women in the constitutions of Canada, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Australia, said Kadalie. While Biehl was doing this work, “we didn’t even think about that issue,” said Kadalie, a mentor of Biehl’s at the largely black university. Now, she added, “every day I use this little booklet Amy wrote on (governmental) structures for women in the new South Africa. And my heart breaks. . . .
“It’s a very exciting time and I can just see Amy’s little eyes glistening if she’d seen all of these things come to fruition.”36 34 Rhoda Kadalie. “In Remembrance of Amy.” Excerpt from referee’s report recommending Amy Biehl’s application for doctoral studies. Women’s Bulletin, Gender Equity Unit, University of the Western Cape. Sep. 1993.
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I was 41 when I could vote for the first time. I remember that day so well, when I took my 7-year-old daughter with me to Wesley Training College (WTC) in Salt River, to make my cross against the iconic logo of the ANC. Julia understood the significance of that day, finding it hard to believe that her mother was excluded from the political process for 23 years of her life simply because of the colour of her skin. In her little mind, she also knew that we had paved the way for her to be able to vote when she would turn 18.41 39 Hugh Dellios. “Seeking Amnesty, 4 S. Africans Admit Killing Amy Biehl in 1993.” Chicago Tribune, 9 Jul. 1997. p. 8.
[H]aving studied Marxism, Leninism, Feminism, labour and global economics, liberation movements and post-colonial societies at the radical Institute for Social Studies in Holland, I just knew that the road ahead would not be as hunky dory as many ordinary people, academics, and the business elite were wont to believe – many who dumped me for asking critical questions since day one of our democracy.42 40 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Jonny Steinberg. “Amnesty for Biehl’s killers draws support and anger.” Business Day, 29 Jul. 1998.
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The ANC Women’s League, which constitutes quite a major sector of this movement, is weak and deeply divided by a power struggle for the leadership; the Women’s National Coalition also suffers from a crisis of leadership with two key members of its national executive now serving in parliament; and meetings convened to discuss the setting up of national machinery for the Commission on Gender Equality reveal that there is further turmoil within the ranks. We are floundering about trying to articulate a programme of action that will take us beyond the equality provisions in the interim Constitution.
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“During Mandela’s reign and my stint at the Human Rights Commission there was much opportunity for women to engage in a new political discourse … This sense of opportunity and freedom was short-lived.”1 53 Jakes Gerwel, quoted by Institute of Democracy in South Africa. “A necessary irritant?”. Democracy in Action, Vol. 9 No. 7, 15 Dec. 1995. p. 10. The quote is indirect, not verbatim.
Apart from her activist credentials, Kadalie brings another kind of experience to this crucial work — long years of humiliation, hardship and oppression shared with millions of other black South Africans. Her family was forcibly removed from District Six [sic],2 near Cape Town, in terms of the notorious Group Areas Act, for example; she was derided for her curly hair and dark skin for her school for “half-castes” in Woodstock; she got married in Namibia, away from family and friends, because the man she loved was white. 54 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Institute of Democracy in South Africa, ibid. 3 1 Rhoda Kadalie. In Your Face: Passionate Conversations About People and Politics. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2009. p. 8.
We encourage people to do written complaints — as you know, legal cases need reliable data. But we also have a big population which is non-literate and illiterate. So we encourage them to come to the offices and we take a statement under oath. We then consider is it a bona fide violation of a fundamental right. If it is, and if it’s serious, we consider it. … We then — cases that are not in our jurisdiction, we refer … [to] whatever appropriate body exists.12 10 Institute of Democracy in South Africa, ibid. p. 11.
An ordinary member of the working class, a domestic worker, will phone me up and tell me that her ‘madam’ has discriminated against her. There was a black woman who worked for a medical company where a doctor’s wallet got lost and he immediately accused her of stealing it. Security guards came in and they strip-searched her to look for this wallet. But this woman came to me because she knew her rights. It is empowering when people know their rights and act on them. This is what I find encouraging about South Africa today.16 14 Ibid.
When Themba Mbane called the ambulance service emergency number, 10777, after his brother had drunk battery acid earlier this month, he expected help.
Instead he got a response which left him shocked.
A transcript of the conversation which the commission has in its possession — Cape Metro [municipal government] has a copy — reveals that the operator called Mbane a “dom darkie” and said it appeared his brother wanted to die “so why disturb him?”.18 16 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. p. 125.
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I had just been appointed Human Rights Commissioner in 1995. A senior black woman student came to my office to lodge a complaint that UWC officials had used stun batons on students when the university suddenly announced a shift in the admissions schedule to hours earlier. The students stampeded fearing that they might lose an admission. University officials then used the stun batons on students, men and women alike. Some women fainted.
Upon investigation the university authorities refused to respond to my requests. Forgetting that I had many admirers in the administration, university officials in the administration leaked information to me that there was a cache of armaments from the old apartheid days, consisting, inter alia, of stun batons, used to control the students.
My report went viral internationally, and was even commented upon by Amnesty International. Needless to say, the university was pissed off with me, but they promised to confiscate the cache.36 34 “Rights group slams Pagad.” Cape Times, 28 Aug. 1996.
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Rhoda Kadalie was one of those people I will never forget, I will be honest. What impressed me at the time was her vision. She had quite a clear vision for human rights in South Africa, and in prisons in particular. She was part of the political struggle, in which I was also a part, when we fought the apartheid system — she was also an activist during those days. And [her] becoming the human rights commissioner was one of the best things that could have happened to prisons, not just in the Western Cape province but in South Africa … I was very fortunate to cross roads with her at the time, because my vision and Rhoda’s vision coincided.38 36 Personal communication with the author. Feb. 1.
Questions have been asked as to why the Commission seems to have prioritised prisons. Criticism has been levelled at the Commission on the basis that there was not likely to be anything new that would come out of any inquiry the Commission might undertake. We decided to undertake the inquiry for the following reasons:
The prison population in South Africa was so disproportionately high that the maintenance of prison services was a major drain on national resources; Something needed to be done to address the culture of crime in prisons and the excessive recidivism which characterises our prison system.
The history of South Africa was such that the people most affected by a dysfunctional and malfunctioning prison system were those who had also been victims of apartheid. It was important both to take account of the legacy of apartheid that is responsible for our swelling prison population and to take steps to develop a different calibre of prison system that would be consistent with our new Constitution and with international norms and standards.
We believe that a humane and compassionate prison system is ultimately not only consistent with our Constitution but will ensure the preservation of human dignity to many who have lost all hope in humanity and have violated the rights and humanity of others.40 38 Johnny Jansen. Personal communication with the author. 14 Mar 2022.
The challenge of developing a human rights culture is a formidable one facing our society. In responding to such a challenge we cannot exclude any constituency from enjoying and laying claim to the protections and benefits that our Constitution has to offer.
…
The correctional system has an important role to play in contributing to ‘maintaining and protecting a just, peaceful and safe society’.41 39 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Jermaine Craig. “Prisoners angry over probe, says Ndungane.” Cape Argus, 7 Aug. 1997.
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While the role of the commission is to monitor socio-economic rights, it has decided to prioritise racism, because it is incapable of doing precisely that. The focus on race and not discrimination is also very telling.
Should the commission focus on investigating discrimination and take matters to court, it would be able to set precedents that would set human rights standards and prevent such violations from taking place again.
It would also discover that the state and its institutions are often the biggest violators of human rights — as I discovered in my job as a human rights commissioner. For example, by investigating a complaint of racism against the ambulance services in Cape Town, we discovered that they were routinely racist in denying services to black areas.
What our investigation enabled us to do, with the cooperation of the ambulance authorities, was to conduct training workshops in human rights with the ambulance personnel who operated the telephones.
Similarly, a complaint of discrimination against an HIV-positive woman who applied for a job in correctional services indicated that the department did pre-employment testing on the woman without her consent.52 50 Rhoda Kadalie. “Video uproar betrays culture of double standards.” Business Day, 13 Mar. 2008.
I can cite many examples of discrimination that were lodged before the commission that they often failed to investigate properly and successfully because of incompetence. My reports on racism on the farms in the Northern Cape were simply not followed up.
My resignation from the SAHRC on the 17th July 1997 was prompted by a series of events over the past few months which make me doubt that the institution will ever improve unless drastic measures are taken to remedy the situation. Personality conflicts, bad management, divisions between staff and commissioners seem to have become endemic to the institution, and as a consequence have led to a spate of resignations over recent months.
…
In my opinion, much of the service (not all) we render is mediocre and many in the HRC seem happy just to toddle along, producing shoddy work because they get away with it. This is exemplified by shifting deadlines, postponements, lack of commitment and work of poor quality. The taxpayer deserves more. The public needs value for money. An increase in the budget will do little to ameliorate the situation. We need to get our house in order first before we can even hope to address our constitutional mandate effectively.56 54 Paul Olivier. “Top officials demand end to ‘camp of shame’.” Sunday Argus, 14-15 Jun. 1997.
[Kadalie] told the M&G the commission was “like a horse with two heads”, each pulling in different directions: “The staff feel we don’t have a vision they can plug into, while from the commissioners’ point of view, the staff are a law unto themselves and call the tune.”
Personality clashes were “endemic” and had led to the resignation of almost one-third of the commission’s staff in the 18 months it has been operating.
Too little had been done to keep good staff, said Kadalie, while a “bad employment policy” had created “pockets of incompetence and mediocrity” in key positions.
The commission, led by Barney Pityana, has blamed much of its difficulties on its funding. Kadalie said the commission did need to have its budget increased, but said “more money will not address questions around management”.
…
In the letter to Mandela, Kadalie says she had made “several attempts to bring the problems of the commission to the attention of the deputy president and other key persons in government, to no avail”. She lists the frustrations that forced her to resign a job that put her “at the cutting edge” of human rights work.
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Kadalie said that the commission, instead of trying to be “all things to all people”, should focus on three key areas: building up its legal department (a complaints registrar had yet to be appointed); socio-economic rights; and national projects concerning the rights of farmworkers, children at risk and the elderly.
She had written a “constructive letter” to Pityana, spelling out her proposals, but at a subsequent meeting with commissioners he said he disagreed with her. “I was not satisfied with that response to my letter, and that’s why I am definitely going to go,” she said.
I have to admit I was surprised to learn that you consider that “the respect and high esteem” I enjoyed across the political spectrum helped establish the reputation of the Commission, as I must tell you that I often felt during my three years on the Commission, that I was being side-lined that very little use was made of whatever special attributes I have. However, the experience was certainly educative, and some of it actually enjoyable.63 61 Barney Pityana. Letter to S. G. Mfenyana. 14 Jan. 1998.
Since her appointment in 1995 [sic] she has tackled her job as custodian and promoter of human rights with commitment and vigour, taking on issues as diverse as the “dom darkie” incident, the abuse of convicts in prisons and the Welfare Department’s places of safety for children.
She has been where few have dared to venture, providing human rights training for police and sitting down for four days with 100 Correctional Services heads to inculcate a human rights culture in prisons.
…
Her resignation has disappointed all who came in contact with her work, not least those prison heads, one of whom described her quitting as “one hell of a setback for human rights.”
It is hoped the commission management hears the warning bells and gets its house in order.68 66 Personal communication with the author, 14 Mar. 2022.
“I have the best job in SA. Rewarding social innovation and best practice I get to see the best SA has to offer across the racial and cultural divide.”1 73 Lindsay Barnes. “Kadalie call on Pityana to resign rejected.” Cape Argus, 10 Dec. 1997.
In the 1990s, financier George Soros took the board of the Open Society, of which I was a member, to some countries in eastern Europe “to see for ourselves”. The last bit of socialist conscience I had dissipated after walking the streets of Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Ukraine and seeing empty shops and listening to stories of rampant corruption, media suppression, inferior health-care systems and ineffectual industries, all made worse by the growing class and gender inequality. This was an eye-opener and broke down all the Marxist claptrap I had imbibed as a young social anthropology and sociology student.8 6 Open Society Foundations. “Celebrating 25 Years of Grant Making in South Africa.” URL: https://25.osf.org.za/timeline/van-zyl-and-boraine/. Accessed on 17 Jan. 2022.
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The 100 shortlisted projects range from the Stepping Stones One Stop Youth Justice Centre in the Eastern Cape, to the Bekkersdal Flagship job creation programme in Beaufort West, to the Mapila Hydroponics Community Co-op in the Northern Province.
The Stepping Stones project, for instance, in a former coloured area in Port Elizabeth, consists of a police station, youth court and counselling services in one location. It aims to confront the problem of “youth at risk” by diverting delinquent youth from prison, if possible, and counselling them. Courts are open at weekends and social workers are on call 24 hours a day.
The Mapila Community Co-operative was started by a diesel mechanic in the Venda region, who persuaded landholders in his community to consolidate their land to start an intensive farming project which provides jobs and income to villagers, mainly women.
The initiator, Mavhungu Mukwevho, did not just start a simple food garden, but introduced advanced cultivation methods (hydroponics) producing strawberries for export and vegetables for local markets, including sales to Woolworths.
Says Kadalie: “Across the country, the nature of innovative government- funded community projects reflects the massive challenges facing South Africa’s poor. It is heartening to know that the government is working together with ordinary South Africans to find creative solutions.
“The focus is particularly on the reduction of poverty in South Africa and on best practices that improve the quality of life of the poor. We seek to identify creative problem-solving projects, which exist in partnership with the government, and to document, broadcast and celebrate these projects in order to share elements of their success nationwide.”
I was invited to attend the Western Cape education department’s launch of a solar-powered computer laboratory in Bernardino Heights High School, in Kraaifontein, driven by a project called Khanya. It won an Impumelelo award for excellence in education in 2006, and is an initiative that installs computers in schools across the province, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Khanya also trains teachers in computer literacy and in curriculum development.
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BUT this column is not about Khanya. It is about the equally praiseworthy Bernardino Heights High School, led by the visionary Henry Alexander. Sandwiched between the informal settlements of Wallacedene and Kraaifontein, it serves Scottsdene, North Pine, the informal settlements of Wallacedene and Bloekombos, and farming areas such as Bottelary, Backsberg, Klapmuts and Klipheuwel.
Founded in 1988, this school is a model of excellence. It is immaculately clean, the small garden is beautiful, and the pupils are happy. They love their school; and more than that, they love their principal. Taking us from computer lab to computer lab, from electronic white-boarded classroom to classroom, Alexander’s passion for holistic education is palpable. Modestly, he tells me that the success of the school is the involvement of parents in every grade, active community involvement and the commitment of teachers and parents. While he has comprehensive burglar-proofing at the school, vandalism has decreased due to the confidence the community has in this school.
Hosting 1400 pupils and 45 teachers, the pass rate on average is 95%, and his current challenge, he says, is to motivate his 230 grade 12 pupils to seek higher education. All the grade 12 girls I spoke to had plans to study at university, their ambitions ranging from tourism to engineering. The pupils were visibly proud of their school, well behaved and joyful. While music is not a school subject, the school band entertained the audience throughout the celebrations.21 19 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Sue Segar. “Projects provide models for developing SA; Finalists present good news stories.” Cape Argus, 12 Oct. 2013. p. 13.
Champagne corks popped at the Impumelelo Awards for Social Innovation on Thursday night when the Amaphiko Township Dance Project won a coveted platinum prize and a groundbreaking community school that has given hundreds of marginalised students a second chance scooped gold for their efforts.
What makes the achievements of the two projects even more remarkable is the fact there were only 16 awards up for grabs across the whole country.
Started in Rhini township in 1993 by renowned theatre and dance stalwart Janet Buckland, Amaphiko provides hope and a better future to 200 disadvantaged children through formal dance training.
A year younger than Amaphiko, the matric school [project] started with the dawn of South African democracy by the internationally acclaimed Grahamstown Area Distress Relief Association (Gadra), which has operated from the City of Saints since the 1950s.
Run for nine months a year by Gadra Education, the intensive life skills at the Matric School (GMS) has helped hundreds of first-time failure matric candidates make more meaningful contributions in fields as diverse as the hospitality industry, banking, law, the arts and business.
The school’s impressive 90% plus pass rate since it started and Amaphiko’s life-changing dance empowerment were officially recognised at a glittering function at the Baxter Theatre by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Excited GMS director Dr Ashley Westaway yesterday said the awards were a fitting testament to the vibrancy and relevance of civil society in Grahamstown.22 20 “In Praise of Workers for the Poor.” Mail & Guardian, 22 Feb. 2002.
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“Wie sou kon dink dat so a bus-bevokte laaitie van die Cape Flats sulke bree kennis van die company sou he?” [“Who would have thought that such a bus-obsessed boy from the Cape Flats would have such broad knowledge of the company?”] the boss and I commented. “Gee hierdie kind ‘n drie maande kontrak en dan sien ons watter diens hy vir ons kan lewer” [“Give this child a three-month contract and then we will see what service he can provide us”].30 28 Terri Felix, ibid.
The vision of the Mariannhill landfill model is to design a conservation area upon completion of the landfill.
As an active site now it accepts on a daily basis 450 tons of waste and serves as an important natural corridor for species migration. Surprisingly stench free, there is a hiking trail, a Buddhist meditation bench and an array of endangered species on site.
Environmentalists have come on board to work with the Mariannhill management to make this possible.
The good news, however, is the income generated by this project for the province and the 6MW that is generated to supply 3 000 households with electricity.
In addition, Durban now reaps R46 million a year in carbon credits.35 33 Rhoda Kadalie. “Western Cape tops awards for NPO, public sector initiatives.” Cape Times, 19 May 2008. p. 5.
“Inspiration seldom responds creatively to deadlines but the scramble for a column the night before deadline is saved so often by the unscrupulous politician who, in the nick of time, determines one’s script. … [M]ost of my columns are sheer gut responses to a government that has failed to live up to the promises so easily made during election time.”1 34 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. p. 236.
We should be wary of politicians who suddenly kiss babies and the elderly but whose welfare policies are against this sector of society; politicians who shake hands with all and sundry but refuse to meet with those who request meetings; politicians who stride smiling into shopping malls but who are inaccessible at crucial times; politicians who visit squatter camps and the rural areas but who are never seen again until the next election and politicians who woo women voters but who are intrinsically sexist.
Politicians should be subjected to close scrutiny before we decide to vote for them. Elections should be taken seriously because it is the most crucial opportunity given to the electorate to hold politicians accountable. It is the clarion call for the electorate to exercise their democratic right to assess Government performance and to make choices.
On balance, many politicians are found wanting so the electorate should look at the different parties’ manifestos to see how they hope to address human rights concerns.
The Aids epidemic, sexual violence against women and children, crime, job creation, unemployment, health care and housing are key indicators of measurement. Ask politicians to give concrete proposals how and in what time period they will address these concerns and judge them accordingly.6 4 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women’s League is dying.” Mail & Guardian, 9 May 1997. By 2001, Rhoda would feel vindicated in her assessment of the ANC Women’s League’s prospects, declaring: “They are not even a player in the ruling party. They are completely invisible as a pressure group.” (Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by “Wake-Up Call for Dormant ANCWL.” Sowetan, 12 Oct. 2001.) Later, in 2007, when the Women’s League voted to back Jacob Zuma, with his murky history with women, Rhoda would declare forthrightly: “The ANC Women’s League is useless, moribund, dead, finish and klaar [clear]!” (Rhoda Kadalie. “ANC Women’s League lets our women down.” Letter to the editor. Cape Argus, 30 Nov. 2007. p. 22.) Her rather muted criticism in 1997, offered from within the ruling party, only hinted at the more strident voice that Rhoda would develop in her subsequent writing.
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Don’t vote for those who are against corruption but who do not suspend those close to them who are corrupt. Don’t vote for those who feel entitled to big salaries but never volunteer to take a cut in salary or live simply so that others can simply live. Vote for a clean, accountable and transparent government which will give priority to the needs of black women, children and the poor.7 5 Rhoda Kadalie. “What you sow, you shall reap.” Mail & Guardian, 2 Apr. 1999.
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In the heady days of apartheid, our African National Congress Woodstock branch was quite active. It was a motley crowd of ANC hacks, old unity movement types, Trotskyites, and so on. The one thing we all had in common, was our abhorrence of apartheid.
On one occasion, we were asked to elect a delegate to represent our branch at an impending ANC national conference. A very loyal activist was elected. At a subsequent meeting some who considered him too much of a renegade (“workerist”, “Trot” — epithets hurled at those who dared to question the conventional wisdom of the party) objected to his election and proposed reversing the vote. The hacks invoked, against all logic, an array of Stalinist ploys to overturn the decision. After two hours of fierce debate, I left the meeting in protest.
A creeping sense of déjà vu came over me as I witnessed the recent fiasco in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) [formally, the upper chamber of Parliament]. After the controversial encounter between President Thabo Mbeki and Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Ryan Coetzee [see below], the DA’s Juanita Terblanche proposed a motion condemning Mbeki’s reluctance to address the crime of rape against women and children; it was adopted unanimously by the dozy MPs. Subsequent attempts to reverse the decision once again reduced Parliament to the circus it has become. Days later, when they realised what they had done, and under great pressure allegedly from the executive, the NCOP reversed this decision.
This incident is one of many that herald the decline of an institution that had a hope of being a real people’s Parliament.
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Under Mbeki’s leadership, Parliament has become a lame duck and a rubber stamp for the executive, to whom it has become beholden on most matters.8 6 Rhoda Kadalie. “They may kiss babies, but beware.” Sowetan, 28 Apr. 1999.
It was important that we had a president like President Mandela, who embodies forgiveness and reconciliation because of his past. But I think also because he’s become an international cult figure, it often blinds us to the problems of this country. The problems of unemployment, of education, of child care, of housing. And I think that a person like Thabo Mbeki, because he doesn’t come with that aura, has to, head-on. tackle those issues. We will not be mesmerized by the nice words, and the cult status of a president like Mandela. … to the point of irritation, I might add. And I think that with Thabo Mbeki, he would have to take on the challenges of crime, of unemployment, of poverty, of housing, and we will see issues for what they are. I think at the moment, we tend to forgive President Mandela. We are soft on the man because he is so mesmerising. And I think we’re not going to be as soft on Thabo Mbeki.13 11 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 16 Jun. 1999.
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By now, I would have expected the women in Parliament, in the cabinet and in senior public positions, to be convulsed by the utterances of the minister and to have called for her head.
That they are not vociferous about the AIDS pandemic, and most notably its effects on women, exemplifies how powerful the party list system is in silencing women.
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Young women in particular are most affected by the disease. HIV/AIDS burdens women in ways peculiar to their gender.
As the main nurturers and caregivers of the family the responsibility to care for the sick and dying becomes mainly theirs.
More seriously, women as citizens in their own right are directly affected by the disease themselves, with the spectre of death hanging over their heads, knowing they will leave many orphans behind, with very little prospect of care.
Many are the family’s sole breadwinners and with poverty becoming increasingly feminised, the state has an extra responsibility to ease the burden of women. The health minister has not risen to the challenge.
Under such circumstances how can we tolerate a minister who denies that HIV causes AIDS? How can we allow her to persecute those who dare to follow internationally recognized scientific prescriptions for the prevention, treatment and care of the disease?
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In any civilised democracy, the health minister would have been given the boot. Why should a woman like her be thrust upon us?18 16 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Jon Jeter. “Political Resistance in S. Africa Blocks Wide Use of HIV Drugs.” Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2001. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/10/01/political-resistance-in-s-africa-blocks-wide-use-of-hiv-drugs/c7d8e959-27ef-4784-8e5b-5c18003ed664/. Accessed on 20 Mar. 2022.
[B]eing part of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) march of 30,000 people on February 14 2003 was my opposition to a government that does not give a damn about the people who voted it into power.
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Feelings of déjà vu, as we marched down roads regularly trudged before 1994 to protest at the apartheid regime, enveloped us. We were toyi-toying19 along the same roads against our democratically-elected government. 17 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Chris McGreal. “Aids will kill 700,000 South Africans a year.” Guardian, 17 Oct. 2001. p. 16.
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For me it was a march against a recalcitrant stubborn government that has come to betray the people who put it into power. It is about a government that has become a law unto itself because of its majority power, and secure in the knowledge that its alliance partners will give it legitimacy no matter what it does.20 18 Rhoda Kadalie. “Tshabalala-Msimang gives women a bad name.” Business Day, 26 Jul. 2002. Published in Rhoda Kadalie. In Your Face. pp. 92-4.
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In simple language she was saying that African traditions, indigenous religions and culture prescribe and institutionalise rape. The “internationally recognised expert” was saying that our cultures, traditions and religions as Africans inherently make every African man a potential rapist.
Given this view, which defines the African people as barbaric savages, it should come as no surprise that she writes that, “South Africa has the highest rates of rape in the world, according to Interpol.” To her, this assertion would have been obviously correct, because, after all, we are an African country, and therefore have the men [been] conditioned by African culture, tradition and religion to commit rape.
For them our new democracy feels fraught with threats. They must continuously find negative superlatives to convey the story that South Africa is the world capital of all the negative things that affect all humanity.
In this situation, fear of crime becomes the concentrated expression of fear about their survival in a sea of black savages, which they fuel by entertaining the mythology that whites are the primary targets merely because of their race.24 22 Rhoda Kadalie. Die Burger, 24 Dec. 2009.
The scourge of violence against women is not the prerogative of any ethnic group. In all groups men rely on patriarchal culture, religion and tradition to justify treating women as chattels and second-class citizens. This attitude has come a long way.
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So what [Charlene] Smith says is unmitigated fact. To accuse her of saying, ‘African traditions, indigenous religions and culture prescribe and institutionalize rape’ and implying that ‘African men are inherently potential rapists and barbaric savages’ when no such evidence exists is libellous and irresponsible.
Such far-fetched rubbish I have not heard in a long time. Racist interpretations of innocent statements such as hers smack of obsession at best and paranoia at worst. They resemble the incantations of a rabid African nationalist, not of someone described by the media as an intellectual.
Surely this kind of response is out of kilter with the office of the president and enough to strike the fear of God into the hearts of any ordinary citizens who dare to voice their opinions? If a puny little white activist is capable of sending the president into continual fits of rage, what does this say of Mbeki?
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Maybe we black women should start telling the president most black men treat black women badly, as borne out by the startling evidence of domestic violence, default on maintenance, sexual offenses and the criminal courts of the land.
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Yes, Mr. President, most of these men are black — they violate not because they are black but because the majority of men in this country are black.
Mr. President, I suggest you undergo some serious antiracism training so that you can identify the sin when you see it. Lashing out at activists who dare to call abuse by its regular name weakens you and not them. Why are you selectively vociferous about some matters and not others? Why do you not similarly trumpet the promotion of safe sex, antiretroviral medicines and sympathy for those infected with HIV?
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Your presidential letters are obsessed with your own notions of race and what it means to be African and how others, mainly whites, misinterpret this ‘sacrosanct idea’ that only you, Thabo Mbeki, understand.27 25 Thabo Mbeki, quoted by Tony Leon. On the Contrary: Leading the Opposition in a Democratic South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2008. 348.
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Why do world leaders from western countries, in particular, tolerate dictators simply because they are black? Colonial guilt and its corollary racial oppression have become so entrenched that both sides have been unable to snap out of what have become continental pathologies. Why do they think we should make do with lower standards of democracy that they would not dare suggest to their electorates? Do they not have a greater duty to ensure that democracy works in Africa because of colonisation?33 31 Rhoda Kadalie. “Mugabe: What is Thabo Mbeki smoking?”. PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger, translated from the Afrikaans, 14 Aug. 2013. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/mugabe-what-is-thabo-mbeki-smoking. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
While the Mugabes live the high life, buying property abroad, frequenting the best hospitals, sending their kids to the best private education institutions, their citizens are languishing in abject poverty.
This moral code is what the ANC supports against its own constitutional democratic state and the rule of law. The ANC’s support for violence against women is confirmed by granting diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe, who is nothing but a thug, a shrew, a skollie, in Cape Flats parlance.34 32 Rhoda Kadalie. “Hard-won freedom must not remain a paper tiger.” Business Day, 13 Dec. 2002. Published in Rhoda Kadalie. In Your Face. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2009. p. 170
Under President Mbeki’s erratic rule, a time of political unease, many comrades who fought for democracy and freedom shut up in the face of those who rewarded the acquiescent with position and patronage. Those of us who refused to be silent became the enemy. … I then veered into writing about everything and anything that smacked of political opportunism, government ineptitude, and corruption. All over the place people succumbed to political pressure for silence, urged to be forever grateful to the ANC for ushering in our liberation, no matter how corrupt and self-serving public officials were. With others, I, too became targeted by former political allies, for simply appropriating the right to criticise government.
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And so, like sheep, we feared being called ‘racist,’ ‘right-wing,’ ‘a sellout,’ ‘disloyal,’ ‘a traitor’ and ‘unpatriotic.’ These epithets were so powerful that many were prepared to sacrifice the truth. Even academics feared to ply their trade in public, lest they be construed as reactionary.
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Whereas my feminist voice had been nurtured and cultivated during the struggle and by the struggle, I was suddenly expected to shut up after 1999.35 33 Rhoda Kadalie. Business Day, 22 May 2003.
“I asked the BBC how they got to hear of me and they said they were looking for an opinionated, cocky, arrogant, black South African and the people said ‘Rhoda Kadalie.’”1 34 Rhoda Kadalie. “SA weeps as Grace, the ‘skollie’ goes free.” The Citizen, 25 Aug. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1625987/sa-weeps-as-grace-the-skollie-goes-free/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
Is the lesson of Zimbabwe not imminent enough? Or is Mbeki following Robert Mugabe’s example to achieve his not-so-hidden agenda? Mugabe also used race as a rallying point before his country’s election to intimidate his opposition. …
More worrying and equally astounding is the support Mbeki gets for his political agenda from his forever-faithful handmaidens, the Human Rights Commission and the SABC2 — institutions that should be independent of the government and whose duty it is to serve the entire public without fear or favour. 35 Rhoda Kadalie. In Your Face, p. 8. 10-11.
This obsession with race is nothing but a cover-up for non-delivery in the public sector and a means of obscuring issues of national importance. While the public is clamoring for solutions to crime, sexual violence, AIDS, poverty, corruption and job creation, the government is dabbling with race and racism.
What’s more, money is made available for these futile exercises while there is virtually no money for development. While the role of the commission is to monitor socioeconomic rights, it has decided to prioritise racism.
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Barney Pityana and his colleagues have reduced the Human Rights Commission to a race industry where his “black consciousness” hang-ups seem to play themselves out in public.3 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. p. 56.
Silencing criticism is the hallmark of liberation leaders who govern for too long and who use the state’s resources to enrich themselves.
Critics of the bill have argued that it undermines democracy by allowing ministers to classify any information, to the point of refusing to acknowledge that it even exists, in order to protect what the government perceives to be in the national interest and national security.
As liberation leaders increasingly come to mirror their former oppressors through undemocratic practices, corruption, moral turpitude, dereliction of duty and failure to deliver, the first line of defence is to shut down the media. The very media that gave them succour and publicity when they were denied a voice becomes the enemy of the state as soon as the state becomes the enemy of the people.
The notion of the national interest has always been invoked by liberation leaders the further removed they become from the nation. The more entrenched politicians become in their profligate lifestyles, the more they view and mistake their own vested interests for the national interest. The less they act on our behalf the more they pretend to speak on our behalf.12 10 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Evidence wa ka Ngobeni. “Kadalie Takes Another Swing At ‘Curiously Invisible’ Pityana.” Mail & Guardian, 25 Feb. 2000.
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Victory over colonisation meant no criticism of Mugabe and Zanu PF, for at least twenty years, during which time Mugabe entrenched and consolidated his power base with patronage, cronyism, corruption, the marginalization of independent and critical voices and the use of the race card whenever it suited them.
Much the same thing can happen in this country, in milder and subtler ways, when we cease to be vigilant.13 11 Keyan Tomaselli. Letter to Rhoda Kadalie. 28 Feb. 2000.
I must admit it is hard as a woman to listen to the news. Violence against women and children abounds. South Africa’s rapists and murderers are equal opportunity violators – two- and three-year-old girls, young women, pregnant women, grandmothers and farmers’ wives are all victims of the misogyny that lies deep within the psyche of South African offenders.
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Despite the existence of an ANC Women’s League, the Gender Commission and women’s ministry, nothing of significance is done to stem the tide of violence against women.18 16 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women’s safety in SA? Oh, please.” The Citizen, 4 Aug. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1598264/government-is-clueless-when-it-comes-to-womens-safety/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
Criminologists and psychologists are wracking their brains to try and understand why we are so lawless. But the answer is really simple. Our defiance stems from a national psyche nurtured by a corrupt state under both apartheid and ANC majority rule. Shaped by apartheid, our psyche has deteriorated under ANC rule - a political party that embodies no respect for the rule of law and which has cultivated an ethos that has systematically destroyed constitutional bodies designed to uphold the rule of law.19 17 Ibid.
A few weeks before National Women’s Day, eight-year-old Sasha-Lee Crook was snatched from her home. She was found dead, mutilated beyond recognition, on a vacant piece of land near her home. The police did not do the most basic of investigations.
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Why do we as citizens accept this? Why do we accept the current state of affairs as a quiet admission that government is incapable of protecting its citizens? Surely we should demand more? Surely an economy cannot flourish if its base is not protected. Word that hundreds of prisoners are to be released adds to the despair, not because they should not be released but because petty criminals often become murderers. In this country offenders kill for five rands, for a cellphone or a handbag.
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Lack of governance in this country is palpable. Public sector delivery is weak, crime is rampant and poverty due to extremely high levels of unemployment plague this new democracy. The African National Congress (ANC) government should take control and start governing.
The president and deputy president need to fly around the world less and get to grips with the needs of citizens and the seriousness of the situation and tackle the criminal justice system with all the commitment it deserves. Or else national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, should admit the problem is too big for him and do something drastic.20 18 Rhoda Kadalie. “The destruction of women’s lives continues unabated.” The Citizen, 19 May 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1518467/the-destruction-of-womens-lives-continues-unabated/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
Remember the Travelgate Scandal. It exposed how corrupt the inner sanctum of Parliament was. Instead of firing the implicated MPs, Speakers Frene Ginwala and Baleka Mbete, kept the lid on this sordid saga, knowing full well that should all those implicated be charged, the dissolution of Parliament would in all likelihood have been a possibility. Add to that, Baleka Mbete, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who was found guilty of obtaining a car license fraudulently. For her sins, she was promoted to Speaker of Parliament, while her whistleblower, John Muller died in penury and obscurity.25 23 Andrew Meldrum. “40 accused in South African MPs’ fraud case.” Guardian, 23 Jan. 2005. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/24/southafrica.andrewmeldrum. Accessed on 25 Mar. 2002.
Many years ago I was a witness to the murder of my neighbour by a young white South African man. I mention his race because this was pivotal to the cavalier way the police dealt with this case.
Apart from botching the basic forensics, they released the guy on bail and soon he escaped. Years later he was caught in a major drug bust. I was called in as a witness and he was eventually sentenced to a long term in jail but while he was on the run, this incompetence caused the family much pain and anger.
When my laptop was stolen in September 2012 in the Waterfront, the CCTV footage that recorded it all was not even manned. Worse, the surveillance cameras are not even connected to SAPS in the Waterfront. The police refused to look at the footage immediately after the theft. They did so the next day, by which time the suspects had disappeared with the laptop.
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The sheer incompetence with a simple case like mine is mind-boggling and bodes ill for the more complex cases of murder and armed robbery. Spend a day in court, and it becomes clear why we have so many repeat offenders, high rates of bail, and even higher rates of recidivism.
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Police incompetence is shrouded in bureaucracy and red tape when more than half of them are barely literate and qualified to do their work. That is why private security firms have become more popular than the police and exceed them in numbers by nearly 75%.
This incompetence results in seriously low conviction rates. … [T]he question arises whether the R40bn of the total budget spent on the police, is value for money?26 24 Andisiwe Makinana. “Appeal victory for fired Travelgate whistleblower.” Sunday Argus, 17 Sep. 2011. URL: https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/weekend-argus-saturday-edition/20110917/281698316474838. Accessed on 25 Mar. 2022.
We cannot explain these evil crimes in terms of our past even though apartheid did play a role in brutalising people in ways we shall never know. Nor can we blame it all on poverty because many countries with similar and worse poverty do not have the levels of crime we see here. So what is going on here?
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Many politicians are perceived by criminals to have become instantly wealthy. The criminals reckon that politicians do not have to be educated or work hard to be rich, so why can’t we do the same? They are not role models, and so through crime and drug trafficking we gangsters can also live rich. What we see in townships is the glamourisation of crime, and many have told me that what they earn through real work is pocket money compared with the money they get through crime.
Government has failed to act and set boundaries for criminals, so criminals use their anger and criminality in a pseudopolitical context to continually test the limits of a weak justice system and its boundaries, which are extremely malleable and elastic.
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Prison has no effect. With a rape culture that is endemic parole is often threatening to the public and should be feared. That is why people are calling for the death penalty.
As someone who has opposed the death penalty all my life — through columns and speeches and letters to the editor — I am beginning to rethink my firm conviction on this matter, only insofar as SA is concerned. The only way we will be safe is when those who take life are denied the right to life as the only means to reassure the public that murder will not be tolerated. Further, government has repeatedly pardoned criminals with heinous track records, some of whom committed even more horrendous crimes on their release only to be sent back to prison again.
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Government is not interventionist enough. In fact, the tolerance of white-collar crime and the growth of the corruption industry among political “gangsters” sets the context for gangsters who constantly explore ways to buck the system.
Before 1994 we robustly sang, “We shall overcome.” Today it more appropriately means, “Ons sal iets oor kom” [“Something will befall us”], if we do not do something drastic soon.27 25 Rhoda Kadalie. “Why are we so lawless?” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger, 18 Jan. 2011. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/why-are-we-so-lawless. Accessed on 26 Mar. 2022.
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justice-system-stinks. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/sas-criminal-
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Journalists write superficially about complex issues and they often lack the courage to take on politically incorrect stances. They will go out of their way to attack white people who take up a cause to defend their rights but will retreat when black people violate the rights of others.
The “woundedness of black people” has become sacrosanct - the untouchable political G-spot! And, if you want any kudos as a white person, then attack your own. This is what the Home for All Campaign and the Wealth Tax debate were all about? The good whites versus the bad whites; the coconuts versus the nuts! And, God forbid if you are conservative, the wrath of Marx will be unleashed upon you as though conservatism is a sin.
In essence, white people are too easily considered not worthy of constitutional rights and the ones who often negate their rights are other whites - the gate-keepers who appropriate the right to judge.50 47 Rhoda Kadalie. “Where are journalists to speak truth to power?”. Business Day, 1 Sep. 2005. p. 15.
Race baiting has become a national sport. It’s as though there are appointed vigilantes watching for any sign of racism to pounce on the offender in order to bring him/her down. We have seen many such cases where white people, in particular, have been targeted for either uttering stupid comments or posting inappropriate comments on social media.
It is not as though white people are the only culprits. Black people regularly post and carry banners with equally vulgar racist comments against whites, preambled by the F-word. And for as long as the belief exists within the political sphere that “blacks can’t be racist” such one-sided abuse will continue.51 48 Rhoda Kadalie. “Smug white journalists strangers to democracy.” Business Day, 26 Jan. 2006. p. 9.
We are a gullible nation. We allow politicians to treat us like dirt, and that is why they have no respect for us, the citizenry.
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[T]here are many editors and journalists, mostly white, who find it difficult to criticise incompetent ANC ministers unconditionally. When they do, they have to cast aspersions on the opposition or white people who, according to them, invariably criticise “to score points”, or who are “unusefully hysterical”, or who “with the fearful and pessimistic haplessly combine” forces to trash government for their own ends. Increasingly, it is becoming dangerous to be right when government is wrong, as Voltaire warned a long time ago, yet the media keeps putting brakes on our right to be right instead of encouraging us to be bold about our civic rights.
The local media needs basic lessons in democracy, one of which is its duty to hold government accountable. This central function it holds in tandem with the opposition.
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The taxpaying public has a right to moan when government fails to deliver or abuses taxpayers’ money. We have a right to demonstrate and picket peacefully and to present petitions until government can no longer stand us. We even have a right to expect the media to assist in this regard!52 49 Rhoda Kadalie. “Media destroyers.” Business Day, 8 Mar. 2006. p. 12.
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Hi. I’m Rhoda Kadalie and I should like to apply for membership of the Native Club.
Your credentials, please?
I am short, black, and female.
You qualify on short and female, but not on black. Are you black as in ANC black? Or as in UDF black?
UDF black.
Sorry, the latter does not apply.
Why not?
There is too much rainbow in that black. To qualify for this club you need to be black black.
How do you determine that? Do you use the pencil test58 , the nose test, or the head test? 55 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Rian Malan. “The Great White Hyena; Rian Malan on the Boer whose racy tabloid has challenged South African pieties by championing such traditional values as witchcraft.” The Spectator (UK), 17 Dec. 2005. pp. 36-7.
No, those tests were used under apartheid.
Which tests do you use now?
The Native Club admits only those who can write, spell, and think.
Oh, I thought race was central.
No, you need only write what we tell you to write, then you’ll be admitted. You see, that is what is meant by black.
Oh, now I understand — you mean black consciousness. But Steve Biko’s motto was ‘I write what I like’, even though he was the leader of the Black Consciousness movement.
Yes, but he was black and unconscious — that is why he was never in the ANC!59 56 Rhoda Kadalie. “Role of the Tabloids in SA.” Lecture, Semester at Sea. 14 Sep. 2005.
the developments in the progressive world and is indeed about self-examination and self-reflection, then we are on our way to a truly open society.” Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Tom Levin. “New club triggers race tensions.” African Business, Aug./Sep. 2006. p. 48global world will only set us back. … If it is about opening our minds to
When I studied at the Institute for Social Studies in the Netherlands in the mid-1980s, cultural events were the order of the day.
A Middle Eastern, Asian, West African, or Latin American evening would bring out some of the most flamboyant cultural outfits, unusual foods, and exotic dances to an audience eager to compete in displays of culinary largesse and acts of patriotism to assuage their longing for home.
The South Africans, on the other hand, had nothing to be patriotic about as the television serially transmitted images of apartheid atrocities at home.
We were the pariahs of the world and I envied the spontaneous flag-waving of my fellow students, feelings that so often eluded me in my young adult life.
My first pangs of patriotism surged forth in February 1990 when Nelson Mandela regally and victoriously walked out of prison to a jubilant crowd, all wanting to own a part of him.
The second such experience was after April 1994 — when voters flocked to the first SA general election open to all — at a conference I addressed in the US as a free South African. Basking in the reflected glory of Madiba [Mandela’s clan name, a term of endearment] abroad was the feeling I so longed for when fellow institute students proudly regaled us with their cultural practices.
The third burst of pride was the day in 1996 when the constitution was adopted, and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki made his “I am an African” speech.72 68 Phumlani Manikivana. “Window to open.” Letter to the editor. Business Day, 28 Apr. 2006. p. 10.
My patriotism, regrettably, has been short-lived.
The burgeoning poverty, the rapid increase in HIV infection rates, escalating crime, widespread abuse of children and women, unacceptably high unemployment rates, and endless cash-in-transit heists leave very little to be proud of despite statements claiming that crime has stabilised — a new government euphemism for minimal improvement.
Government is fast extinguishing the pride most of us had due to its failure to deliver in the areas that matter.
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We have become virtual prisoners in our own homes. Living behind high walls, electronic gates, and burglar alarms has come to be considered normal. Those who do not have these facilities are thrown to the wolves.
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Provision of effective basic services to the public is what should make us Proudly South African. I will feel proud of my country when trains and buses arrive on time. I will feel proud if I can walk the streets at night. I will feel proud if the hospitals are equipped to deal with the illnesses of the majority.
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A Proudly South African campaign that mobilises relevant government departments to deliver effective public services would be more palatable than one that encourages a narrow parochialism. Endless summits, bosberaads [retreats] and conferences will not deliver the goods. Implementation, enforcement and actual monitoring of policies and plans of action are what will make South Africa a country to be proud of.
Our pride should be earned. A government that manages to revitalise the all too transient feelings of patriotism I experienced on [sic] April 1994 will get my vote.
Government is fast extinguishing the pride most of us had, because of its failure to deliver in the areas that matter.73 69 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. pp. 235-6.
“I always rejected the notion of being coloured and embraced the slogan of non-racialism quite easily. But in the post-apartheid South Africa I am quite politically disillusioned around race, because I am told by the ruling party, in various ways, once again, that I am coloured.
“Now I celebrate my marginality, because one can be what one wants to be in a racially divided landscape. One can appropriate the right to be whatever one wants to be and not subscribe to the racial labels that are forced upon us in a society that is racist.”1 70 Ibid.
I think that a lot of white South Africans should be challenged and asked, are you prepared to contribute to a wealth tax? Like in Cuba, for example? “Each one, teach one”? Are white people prepared to give of their resources, their skills, and privileges they have had, and push it back into underdeveloped black South Africa? I think white people should be grateful for the transformation of this country in the peaceful way that it happened, because for many white South Africans, very little has changed. They can continue to live the way that they do, they go to the same schools — they just have to share with black people, which they didn’t do before; it’s the first time that they have to stand in the queue because of affirmative action; and I think white people should be gracious about that. And show the world that they are grateful for a peaceful transition, because if you look at elsewhere in Africa, people are crossing borders with their goods on their heads. And that didn’t happen in South Africa. … The white political leadership has an important role to play in building a truly democratic South Africa.2 71 Rhoda Kadalie. “A party at war with itself and its own people.” Business Day, 7 Sep. 2010.
I can regale you with a hundred and one stories. You go into shops and immediately the antennae of the security are alerted and they watch you. You get that all the time. I go into a dance shop in Dean Street in Newlands [an affluent suburb in Cape Town], and the shop assistants won’t even look up. A white woman will come in and they will immediately ask to help her. The assumption is you cannot afford to shop there. I have to deal with this kind of racism all the time.3 72 One of Mbeki’s few celebrated, and unifying, speeches: “I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. … I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom. … I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena and the Bahamas, who sees in the mind’s eye and suffers the suffering of a simple peasant folk, death, concentration camps, destroyed homesteads, a dream in ruins. … This thing that we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes. Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace! However improbable it may sound
I think the church has to realize, quickly, that gays are a big part of the church community. They have needs like everybody else, they work, they want children, they want to marry, they want to live together. And from that point of view, gays are equal to everybody else. And I think homophobia is a sin. And the essence of Christianity is not to discriminate, is to love. And I think the command to love your neighbor as yourself is about loving across the barriers, and we haven’t been very good at that.
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Gay people are as human as everybody else. And when gays are excommunicated from the church, and excluded, you exclude the body of Christ from its own body.4 Speech in the Parliament of South Africa. 8 May 1996. URL: https://soweto.co.za/html/i_iamafrican.htm. Accessed on 9 Mar. 2022.to the sceptics, Africa will prosper!” Thabo Mbeki. “I Am an African.”
What is it with white male artists and cartoonists, especially, Zapiro, and their obsession with Jacob Zuma’s sexuality? None of them has ever gone that far with white racist oppressors.
They forget that serial monogamy and philandering are as rife in white SA, from businessmen, university academics to politicians? Have we forgotten about those married men in high places who skipped the border to sleep with black women in the homelands when they made it illegal?
Need I remind these white obsessive artists - the only thing that is truly non-racial is patriarchy and many of them are no better than Zuma? By the way I believe in absolute freedom of expression; I just want you to examine your own depravities for a change!7 2 Rhoda Kadalie, “South Africans Talking.” Ibid.
I have written extensively on both but the brutal murders of over 3000 farmers since 1994, many of the victims either shot point blank, stabbed, or their spouses mutilated with unspeakable cruelty, points to a deeper motive.
The obliteration of farmers is not just about robbery and common assault; it perhaps is also about revenge for land dispossession. What these murderous thugs do not realize is that they are also eradicating the producers of food who have come to exemplify the apartheid past.
The evil of these deeds can be traced back to how they understand the word “boere” with its double entendre. It can mean farmers on the one hand, or it may connote conservative Afrikaners, whom these murderers consider to be responsible for dispossession. A collapse of these two meanings often inspires hatred against people they assume are responsible for their lack of power.
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The state’s denial that farm murders is not genocide and that the murder and brutal attacks on foreign shopkeepers are not xenophobic have to do with something far more sinister than is obvious. It is the shame to admit that black people can also be racist; that racism and racial discrimination is not only a “white thing”; it also a “black thing” and that we are capable of racism, often more heinous. It resurrects the history of tribal and internecine warfare reminiscent of pre-colonial conflict in the southern African regions, not to speak of the whole of Africa.
To label these very specific transgressions “criminality” is to let the police and the state off the hook. It allows them to ignore the seriousness of the crime and negate the communities’ specific attempts to protect themselves as SAPS has done with the Commandoes [a volunteer police force, disbanded by President Mbeki] in the rural areas.
It also means government does not have to set aside dedicated forces to eradicate the underlying causes and investigate the overt and covert forms of racism that incite the murder of a class of hard-working people who do not wait for handouts from government, but who know that they must work to move ahead.15 10 “Kaffir,” a word that derives from the Arabic term for “infidel,” is a pejorative racial epithet in South Africa, the equivalent of the “n-word” in the U.S.
Equally, at many predominantly black universities, racial segregation at residences is the order of the day, but nobody speaks about that because it is assumed here that freedom of association is a right. Do you remember the coloured man who moved into Khayelitsha and was hounded out by blacks for daring to go and live in a black area? And how many hundreds of Somalis in the Western Cape have been killed by other black people for simply being successful business people? Where are the headlines about this? Where is the Human Rights Commission when it comes to taking up these plights? It shouts sanctimoniously from the rooftops that whites should apologise for apartheid 14 years into our democracy, as though this video has once again given it a reason for existing.21 16 Rhoda Kadalie. “Don’t blame whites for black racism.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger, translated from the Afrikaans, 16 Mar. 2011. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/dont-blame-whites-for-black-racism. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
The self-appointed thought police, the Open Stellenbosch Collective, does not wait to condemn. With the help of the university authorities, it is turning our students into cringing curs, forcing them to apologise even for the colour purple that showed up a shade darker, on their selfie. Worse, when the executioners realised their charges were misplaced, it apologised to the students.
But then, not wanting to look weak among its peers, it retracted its apology, claiming it was not consensual and that “the picture should be considered within the context of heated racial debate at the university recently, and was, therefore, still ‘blackface’ ”.23 18 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by “Weighing up atonement and reconciliation a taxing affair.” Cape Argus, 3 Sep. 2011.
[Locals] see rising unemployment, the housing crisis and dire poverty as direct threats to their survival and retaliate against those closest to them, but who are considered “other”.
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All kinds of reasons have been proffered for the xenophobia, but no one dares to explore the deeper psychological stuff that is going on here. And it has to do with our inability to deal with the race question constructively. Not so long ago, I said President Thabo Mbeki’s inability to deal with Robert Mugabe was because he has not dealt with his “inner Zimbabwe”. An obsession with race has been the defining feature of his rule, and his design of an African renaissance was a poor attempt at dealing with the legacy of racial discrimination. It became his excuse for the mismanagement of SA; for blaming reports of corruption on the white media; for castigating those concerned about HIV/AIDS as being obsessed with black male sexuality; and for shutting up complaints about crime as an elitist preoccupation.
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This one-sided portrayal of victimisation perpetuates and feeds into the “woundedness” of black people and breeds an entitlement often lacking in refugees and immigrants. It breeds an ethos in victims that they can never be wrong and, given the circumstances, are “owed” a livelihood. And when refugees and foreigners leave their countries for whatever reasons and come here and make it, it challenges the victim status quo. The lesson these outsiders teach us - not to depend on the government and not to expect handouts - goes against the inclination of those done hard by to find a solution to deprivation. This in no way justifies the government’s lack of responsibility towards the poor, the alienated and the deprived, but it does mean that if this entire society is to be healed from years of racial discrimination, the government, political parties and civic organisations should take the lead in minimising the kind of conflict that arises in situations of dire poverty, uncontrolled immigration and competition for scarce resources, such as jobs and housing.25 20 Staff Reporter. “Racist video surfaces at the University of the Free State.” Mail & Guardian, 26 Feb. 2008. URL: https://mg.co.za/article/2008-02-26-racist-video-surfaces-at-the-university-of-free-state/. Accessed on 22 Mar. 2022.
Now 109 years old, and its origins rooted in the horrors of the Anglo-Boer War, the ACVV is a far cry from its conservative Afrikaner roots, involved today in probably some of the most difficult services required by this country. Guided by their vision statement – together in service of the community – they run protection services for children and their families; day care for children; services to older persons and persons with disability. This organisation is a paragon of accountability, exceptional financial and project management, and boasts over 5000 volunteers who address the needs of the SA’s most vulnerable. It is a truly democratic organisation operating in 570 communities in cities and rural areas including the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape and part of the North West.
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Lest we think we can stereotype these organisations as “fuddy duddy Christian nationalists” those epithets will ricochet in the direction of those whose prejudices keep them ignorant. The ACVV is “with the programme” to echo SA’s youth; they are energetic, and full of the joys of serving South Africa in the areas that are the least rewarding and often the most gruelling. They persevere because they witness transformation daily in the lives of children, mothers and grandmothers whom society has discarded.27 22 Paul Herman. “Stellenbosch ‘blackface’ incident was actually purple-face.” News24, 8 Feb. 2016. URL: http://bit.ly/3A3YaWH. Accessed on 6 Jul. 2022.
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I think affirmative action is necessary. In fact, it’s a constitutional provision. Because the majority of people have been excluded from access to jobs and housing and so on and so forth. But I think its implementation so far has been wrong. Hence there is a lot of antagonism towards affirmative action. I myself have been a victim of the bad implementation of affirmative action, where blacks are appointed and women are appointed because they are black and women, and not because they are black and skilled, black and qualified. And so what happens is, when you appoint blacks because they are black, and you appoint women because they are women, you set them up for failure when they are not qualified. And so I have had to witness many of my comrades fail, because they were appointed as blacks and women and not as qualified blacks and on the basis of merit. And so I think we need to do a lot of work with regards to affirmative action in this country and the way we implement it.32 27 Rhoda Kadalie. Draft article for The Citizen, 6 Sep. 2013. Personal files.
[T]his phrase “lack of capacity” has developed a life of its own, a euphemism for the appointment of unskilled, unqualified, and incompetent people under the guise of affirmative action. By their own admission, these highly salaried, BMW-driving youth lack the qualifications to do their jobs. It has become commonplace for government to employ underqualified people, often political appointees, to top jobs, but then employ consultants, researchers and academics to do their work for them. Countless houses could have been provided with the money these institutions have wasted.
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The country cannot continue on this path, and has to find a better way to implement affirmative action. Government has to acknowledge that political appointments are not the same thing as affirmative action.
Second, affirmative action is not about redress, because we cannot make up for the travesties of apartheid but we can adopt measures to make equal opportunity a reality for those discriminated against.
Affirmative action should not exclude white people but should create a balance between what is needed and who is the best person to do the job. So if I were the president, I would employ rather than alienate skilled whites precisely so they can make up for the past - those with the best skills and privileged education should contribute to rebuilding SA by using the skills that advantaged them.
Third, affirmative action means appointing on the basis of merit, skills and qualifications of those formerly excluded. It does not ever mean getting rid of incumbents, no matter what their race, gender, or ethnicity.
For affirmative action to succeed, it has to go hand in hand with relevant selection and recruitment procedures; proper induction of new employees; continuing training and development of staff; transformation of the organisational culture; establishing special training programmes; and periodically setting goals and timetables for achieving diversity.
“Lack of capacity” is the result of policies based solely on race, gender or disability, and is responsible for municipalities collapsing and the decline of efficient services to the poor.
Affirmative action is a human-rights violation when unskilled people are foisted upon the poor, who need effective service delivery most.35 30 Gender Equity Unit. “Affirmative Action for Women at UWC.” Pamphlet. Undated. Original emphasis.
A lesson the ANC refuses to learn is that it is in the fields of technology and science that affirmative action will become our greatest risk: if an under-qualified doctor performs a heart transplant, the patient will surely die; an inexperienced pilot may cause a fatal accident; the poorly trained engineer’s bridge will surely collapse, and the ill-equipped technician is not able to man a machine that needs specialised knowledge. It is as simple as that.
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Eskom is a failure because the people who run it are not suitably qualified. Worse, they have been protected by a president and ministers, equally guilty of a gross dereliction of duty.38 33 Ibid.
I have said this before and I will say it again - the poor application of affirmative action has human rights implications when those who are in charge of dispensing basic public services, are unqualified to do so. Affirmative action is entirely compatible with merit, skills and qualifications. When there is a dearth of suitably qualified black people, then we must, of necessity, appoint others, regardless of colour, with the requisite skills to provide for the needs of the public!39 34 Rhoda Kadalie, interview with Business Network Radio. 11 Jun. 2013. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB6YI06luqw. Accessed on 28 Apr. 2022.
He told me how coloured leaders including Jakes met him after he retired from UWC to tell him he would be Chancellor. A few weeks later, they rescinded this decision telling him it should be a black man, and that black man was Tutu, who was not even from the WCape! Felt the hurt in his voice.43 38 Rhoda Kadalie. “The price of the misuse of power: Stressing transformation at the expense of delivery is just one of the ANC’s manifold failures, writes Rhoda Kadalie.” Cape Argus, 29 Jan. 2008. p. 17.
If you invest your own funds and set up shop in SA, you will struggle to guard your management authority and your money from being stolen by opportunistic BEE front companies, thuggish unions and a gluttonous government. Through BEE, onerous labour laws and the protection of parastatals, the government has established handsome incentives for idleness and expropriation, and destroyed incentives for work and entrepreneurship.44 39 Rhoda Kadalie. “Eskom and the ANC’s gargantuan AA failure.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger and translated from the Afrikaans, 12 Feb. 2015. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/eskom-and-the-ancs-gargantuan-aa-failure. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022. Original emphasis.
Now that President Thabo Mbeki’s term is coming to an end, his cronies are on a feeding frenzy at the trough of black economic enrichment. The National Lottery is known to make a profit of R40m annually, and this is why the vultures swooped in on the prey, which they got by means more foul than fair if the losing consortium Igwija Gaming is anything to go by.
One name among this lot of “entitlers” worries me immensely, and that is the chairwoman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Brigalia Bam. She is listed in Empowerdex as the 20th most influential black economic empowerment woman on the JSE. There is no woman more connected to the ruling elite than Brigalia Bam. Her CV on the internet lists her past functions as president of the Women’s Development Foundation, vice-chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission and secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches.
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The internet does not list any of her directorships and I would like to know if she has declared these anywhere, so that one may know how many she holds while also holding down a highly paid constitutional job, one of the most important in this country. And here lies the rub.
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As chairwoman of the IEC, Bam has many conflicts of interest and I should like to know where she has declared any of these directorships. If she has declared them upfront, even that is not good enough. Politicians and public officials believe that the act of declaring their interests in itself exonerates the conflict of interest, and so they continue with impunity.
But it is not enough to declare. Bam should resign if her directorships are in conflict with a job that requires the utmost integrity. If these interests are deemed to be more important than her job as chairwoman of the IEC, then she is clearly in the wrong job. Can we be confident that Bam will not rig an election in favour of the ANC with whose interests hers are firmly enmeshed? What guarantees do we have that as one of the “Queen BEEs”, she will exercise her functions without fear or favour, independently and impartially?46 41 Rhoda Kadalie. Draft lecture on affirmative action. Undated. Jan. 2007.
We have made serious mistakes around affirmative action and employment equity. We are the one country in the world with all the rules in the book around affirmative action, but we implement it wrongly. When we implement affirmative action, we redress the disadvantages suffered by blacks and women, but we do not consider merit and qualification. That’s our first mistake. When we appoint blacks, we set them up for failure. We do not train them, and we do not provide them with staff development that will go a long way to assisting affirmative action.47 42 Rhoda Kadalie. “The Rainbow Nation — Is There a Pot of Gold?” Essay, or lecture, draft. Circa 2007. Found in Rhoda Kadalie’s papers. It is unclear whether, or where, it was published or delivered.
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Remember the time Helena Dolny49 was unceremoniously booted out of the Land Bank simply for doing her work rigorously? 44 Rhoda Kadalie. “Hang signs that say: ‘It’s poverty and jobs, stupid’.” Business Day, 16 Nov. 2010.
The reason behind this purge is now obvious. Corrupt deals such as the R800m loan by the bank for a nonagricultural endeavor to Pamodzi Investments — in which two senior African National Congress (ANC) members, secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and presidential adviser Manne Dipico, have shares — would never have been allowed under Dolny.
This loan was not intended for agricultural purposes but to facilitate Pamodzi’s buyout of Foodcorp, one of Africa’s biggest food companies. It represented more than 40% of the Land Bank’s reserves and would have seriously compromised its already inadequate servicing of its core business — the desperate need of farmers and community farming groups for money to buy equipment and supplies. Minister [of Agriculture and Land Affairs] Thoko Didiza claims this transaction is a normal Land Bank deal and will not investigate.50 45 Rhoda Kadalie. “The View from Here.” Business Spotlight, No. 3 (2005). p. 38.
What we are witnessing is the tolerance of human rights violations based on the idea that customary practices are “sacred”, no matter their deleterious effect. Any customary practice that harms people violates those people’s basic human rights and should be outlawed. More seriously, the prevalence of this custom under unhygienic conditions indicates our unwillingness to embrace modernity. The obsession with designer labels, state-of-the-art cellphones and luxury cars among black men contradicts the government’s tolerance of a custom enacted under the most inhumane and barbaric conditions.
Black SA’s adherence to patriarchal customs that ironically rob the youth of their manhood makes no sense. Could this perhaps explain why gender relations are so fraught with problems and issues of power? Men who feel emasculated often use powerless women to cushion their feelings of inadequacy.52 47 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Ryland Fisher. Race. Auckland Park: Jacana Media, 2007. p. 107.
As someone trained in anthropology, I understand the need for cultural traditions and the symbolism undergirding customs that often don’t make sense to those who don’t practice those traditions.
But virginity testing, parading bare-breasted in the presence of male political and cultural leaders, declaring one’s availability for marriage, are practices that subordinate women to the demands of men, thus reinforcing patriarchy.
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What is the significance of a custom if it causes physical harm, humiliation, and promotes subordination?
Having a high proportion of women in parliament and government has not helped much. Thirty percent of MPs in the ruling party are women, while about 15 women ministers in Cabinet are in key ministries such as housing, mineral and energies [sic], public service, justice, trade and industry, environment, and so on. I am not sure that their presence has made much of a difference to the position of women in SA. We have had two ministers of health, both women doctors who have failed society in combating and preventing the spread of AIDS. Our current minister of health has supported the president to the hilt on his crazy stance that HIV does not cause AIDS. Her blind loyalty to the president has made her the stumbling block in providing an HIV/Aids programme that will address a pandemic that is spiraling out of control and that affects women in specific ways. What is more, not one woman minister, or speaker of Parliament spoke in support of a rigorous programme to prevent, treat and care for those infected with the virus.55 50 Rhoda Kadalie. “Inquiries aplenty, but none into ANC abuses.” Business Day, 4 Aug. 2005.
The advert does not claim that all men are rapists, but it does imply that by their silence, men acquiesce to the crime of rape. … The strong reaction provoked by Charlize Theron has another dimension, overlooked by many. The majority of South African men cannot deal with a sexy actress who dares to challenge the very basis of male sexuality. It is ok for strident lesbians and feminist [sic] to condemn rape, but for a sexy “bombshell” to do that is to shake the very foundations of male stereotyping of such women as sex objects.57 52 Rhoda Kadalie. “Tolerance for death in the bush shames SA.” Business Day, 29 Jun. 2010.
The Helen that I know is warm, generous, compassionate, witty and extremely funny. I and many others are regular recipients of her largesse and unending generosity. She does, however, not suffer fools gladly and I suspect that those who criticize her harshly fall within that category. I do not expect this kind of uncritical journalism from a journalist of Barron’s calibre and his article on Helen reminds me of a feminist quote I read recently:
“Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, good mother, good looking, good tempered, well groomed, and unaggressive.”58 53 Rhoda Kadalie. “Mpumalanga initiate deaths: Politics again trumps black life.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger, translated from the Afrikaans, 22 May 2013. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/mpumalanga-initiate-deaths-politics-again-trumps-b. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Imbued with a political wisdom rarely seen today, [Suzman] always treated the poor with deep respect, turning her house into one of the country’s most efficient advice offices. … After her resignation in 1989, she continued to help prisoners; help people acquire identity documents; and challenge municipalities to improve services to the poor.
A parliamentarian par excellence, Helen was superb in representing the people to Parliament, and not the other way around. … She abhorred corruption as much as public service failure. The quintessential liberal, she believed in the power of Parliament, the rule of law, human rights and constitutional democracy. Politically prescient, she foresaw that the African National Congress would regret having enshrined socioeconomic rights in the constitution, as it would become one of the most challenging clauses to uphold.
In her private life, Helen ran her household with military precision. On one occasion, when Helen had the flu, I told Betty, her housekeeper, to keep her under control and in bed, to which Betty replied: [Apartheid-era Prime Minister] John Vorster could not control her; how do you expect me to do it?65 60 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 22 Mar. 2007.
The usual arguments against gender inequality, invasion of privacy, discrimination against non-virgins etc are valid. But then a young recipient was interviewed on television and very articulately she extolled her ambitions, claiming that she has seen her mates destroyed by early pregnancies and that she wants the bursary to fulfill her dreams, educate herself, so that she can have a career. Her explanations and those of the mayor, that the incentive is voluntary, and that girls are not compelled to sacrifice their virginity for the sake of the bursary, are as valid and cannot be dismissed as easily.
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Let me recount one story of the triumph of a young intern who came to work for me and discovered that she was pregnant. With no medical aid, no parental help, no money, she had her baby in one of Cape Town’s worst hospitals. Her experience was traumatic and she vowed never to have another child. Not long thereafter, she fell pregnant again. This time I was enraged. I counselled her, explained various options, and she decided to terminate her pregnancy. She enrolled for several courses with the colleges and Cape University of Technology. Today she has several qualifications behind her name; she had a brand new car, she has just bought a house in a middle class residential area, and her son is flourishing at a good school. She is a great mother, wise beyond her years, and ambitious.
There is life after an unwanted baby. Too many of our kids are hobbled by teenage pregnancies when they are still in need of care. That is why, as a feminist, I refuse to criticise the Mayor Mazibuko for her concern because few care about the problem!67 62 Rhoda Kadalie. “Helen Suzman: Obituary.” Draft article; notes in margin. 1 Jan. 2009.
South Africa is a goldmine for the Gender Commission, the Human Rights Commission and the Women’s Ministry to do their work. Yet they are clueless as to how to attack the problem. The “femocrats” who occupy these constitutional agencies earn too much to be of any use and are accountable to no one. Their country reports are shrouded in turgid UN-speak and massaged statistics. The annual 16 days of activism is their futile attempt to combat the violence that has become second nature for men. To date, the campaign has had no effect and women are more brutalised than ever. With the high rates of poverty and unemployment, men will continue to use women as the shock absorbers for their frustrations and emasculation. Nurtured in cultures of patriarchy, there seems to be no way out.
But there is a way out as I have experienced first-hand in my work at UWC over the 21 years. As academic and Gender Equity Officer I engaged the student leaders to work with me in the residences to stamp out sexual violence and harassment. This was accompanied by on-going media campaigns and public debates around policy and implementation. More importantly the University set up a tribunal where cases were heard and where the law was enforced. Many a bright male student was expelled for sexually harassing women and many a professor was disciplined for exploiting female students.
We need “boots on” Commissioners who will sit in magistrate’s courts to account how rape cases are processed through the criminal justice system; they need to monitor police stations to see whether or not victims are treated with dignity and respect and whether medico-legal services are provided; they need to ensure that conviction rapes are improved upon from year to year; they need to insist on the provision of sexual offences courts; they need to work with NGOs who engage teachers and principals to include sex education and reproductive health in the curriculum; and they need to advise government how to fund these initiatives.70 65 Ibid.
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I think coloured people have been pathologised pre-1994 and post-1994. It is an easy excuse to discriminate against coloured people. Coloured people were marginalised before 1994. They were co-opted by the apartheid government in several ways … [b]ut blacks were also cooperative. … The point is that, in the new South Africa, I never thought that I would become a defender of the right of coloured people to exist. … I think that coloured people are not treated fairly in terms of the new dispensation, in the slicing of the cake.76 71 Rhoda Kadalie and Julia Pollak. The Politics of Pregnancy. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2013.
Coloured people, once again, find themselves an undercaste — serfs whose station in life is determined not by merit, potential, ability or hard work but by skin colour. Too dark under apartheid, the coloureds are not dark enough for the ANC …
No wonder coloured people respond with the only power they have in a de facto one-party state - the skilled ones emigrate, depriving the country of desperately needed skills.80 75 Rhoda Kadalie, interview with Abra Barbier. “Rhoda Kadalie on being Coloured in a new South Africa.” SABC News, 19 Sep. 2013. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuKjzcFPVIo. Accessed on 28 April 2022.
Former claimants expected the DA to tackle District Six head on when they took over both the City and Province and undo the corrupt partnerships and the networks of self-elected representatives that flourished under the ANC and which are deeply embedded within the restitution mafia. Negating the symbolic importance of restoring District Six to the people in a broader integrated model of redevelopment, both the ANC and the DA have failed claimants and the coloured community at large.85 80 Rhoda Kadalie. “ANC rule has again made serfs out of coloureds.” Business Day, 30 Nov. 2010.
Both the Western Cape and Gauteng demand that we understand the different socio-historical and political trajectories of these two provinces before we trade racial insults. It is in the Western Cape that influx control and the pass laws were most viciously enforced against African people. Resistance to these laws generated a series of organisations such as the African People’s Organisation, the Non-European Unity Movement, the Black Sash, the Institute of Race Relations, the United Democratic Front and all its hundreds of umbrella organisations - and they all mounted massive campaigns against deportations, detentions and arrests of black people.
All of us in the Western Cape, white, black, coloured, and Indian were involved in that struggle. That is why the black middle class in the Western Cape is small unlike Gauteng where the industrial and mining revolutions attracted droves of cheap labour to the burgeoning metropolis. The anti-Cape hot air is a euphemism for being anti-coloured and a negation of their experiences as blacks, under apartheid!87 82 Mzwanele “Jimmy” Manyi, quoted by South African Press Association. “Manyi: ‘Over-supply’ of coloureds in Western Cape.” Mail and Guardian, 24 Feb. 2011. URL: https://mg.co.za/article/2011-02-24-coloureds-overconcentrated-in-wcape-says-manyi/. Accessed on 28 April 2022.
Ms Paton, are you suggesting that coloured people are deeply racist? Do you base this on any poll? Could it be possible that coloured people vote for clean and accountable governance; for service delivery; for an intelligent leadership; and for lack of corruption? Could it be that coloured people are selective about their interests and nonracial, and just as they overwhelmingly voted for the ANC in 1994, they now have voted for a party that has proven that as a government it is serious about addressing the challenges that face SA?
I am coloured and my considerations for voting DA are certainly not racist. Secondly, the DA’s leadership is not white only, and that you perpetuate this myth puts you in a class of journalist I have come to despise because of their shoddy research.88 83 Rhoda Kadalie. “Jimmy Manyi’s ethnic cleansing.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted and translated from Die Burger, 1 Mar. 2011. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/jimmy-manyis-ethnic-cleansing. Accessed on 26 Mar. 2022.
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If white people insist, as that group insists, that white people should say sorry for the past, then I, as a black person today, want to say sorry for the fact that we’ve bungled on the Aids question, we’ve bungled on the poverty alleviation budget, we’ve bungled on the service delivery in this country. There are many issues. I think we have a new democracy, we have a black majority government, and we must govern with confidence. Whether whites say sorry or not is immaterial to our transformation. We have to move forward confidently that we can govern.99 94 On his 60th birthday, Rhoda would teasingly remind Gerwel “to finish his life’s work … to write the definitive KK text and prove contrary to all PC-beliefs, that Coloureds are indeed the stereotype, starting with him and me!!!!!”. Rhoda Kadalie. “Tribute to Jakes Gerwel on his 60th birthday.” In Professor Jakes Gerwel: 60 years, marking time…. Commemorative book. 2006. p. 27.
Our victory over apartheid was a victory over white racial minority domination. Whether whites say sorry or not is of no consequence to me. The challenge is for this democratic government, which is led by a black majority, to govern confidently and justly in such a way that those who were victims in the past no longer seek the approval of their former oppressors in order to be human.100 95 Claire Keeton. “White South Africans divided over ‘reconciliation’ fund.” Agence France Presse, 16 Dec. 2000.
The declaration simplistically blames the deprivation experienced by most black people mainly on racist attitudes, internalised inferiority, and the failure of white people to take responsibility for the past. The apologists, therefore, call upon their white compatriots to seek absolution and contribute towards a fund that will help empower disadvantaged people.
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Secondly, to blame everything on race and racism is to fail to acknowledge that this government has done little for the development of black South Africa. To spend R44-billion on arms as a priority, when there are much more urgent developmental needs, is something this so-called concerned group should have been more vocal about. But this group does not want to be seen to be criticising this government as their access to power and resources is dependent on supporting the agenda of this government — a perceptive point made by both Tony Holiday of the University of the Western Cape and Helen Zille, Western Cape MEC for Education, in recent newspaper columns.
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I can only conclude that one of their concerns stems from the overwhelming vote the Democratic Alliance got in the recent elections. The timing of the declaration, its focus on the Western Cape and its campaign slogan, a “Home for All” — as a counter to the implicit assumption that the Western Cape is not a home for all — explain the disquiet of some who attended the ceremony in Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral on December 16. Instead of welcoming the DA’s advance as a sign of a vibrant and healthy democracy, the declaration is used to put whites on a guilt trip for having chosen to vote the way they did.
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We must learn to live with the gory side of the negotiations deal struck between the former oppressors and the ANC. Either we (meaning black and white) accept all the weaknesses of the compromises forged at Codesa and get on with our lives. Or we exclude whites from becoming part of this vibrant democratic civil society, and take responsibility for its consequences.101 96 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Hugh Nevill. “White S. African reconciliation bid runs into further trouble.” Agence France Presse, 17 Dec. 2000.
I wish to suggest that Daniels’s view, and it is the view of many on the left, is deeply flawed and highly problematic for the development of democracy in South Africa. It is based on a sentimentalism and nostalgia for the sense of common purpose that characterised the liberation movement.
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Many of my friends admit that they have lost political perspective because of their loyalty to the ANC. Loyalty to the party has taken precedence over loyalty to justice.
As [a] liberation movement, the ANC had the moral high ground. As the majority party in government, it no longer commands that moral high ground and can be found wanting on many levels, because it has reneged on many of its own very noble policies.
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The Aids debacle and the racism in the media conference are indications that internal democracy is not alive and well in the ANC. Opposition parties, too, can be loyal to democracy, even should they differ on matters of policy. To dismiss them by constantly racialising them is to fail to assess them on merit.
Developing opposition requires that we look past race and look at how opposition as an institution needs to be cultivated and developed. It is customary for the left, after independence, to dismiss opposition and wait for the fateful day until a social democratic/socialist movement is formed to oppose the new government in power. And what happens when nobody is looking is that people vote again and again for the ANC, for sentimental reasons, entrenching their majority and so eroding the possibility of a real opposition developing. The all-inclusive opposition that Daniels is looking for only happens in 20 years’ time, as in Zimbabwe, when it is far too late.103 98 Rhoda Kadalie. Remarks on Two-way, SABC 1. Dec. 2000.
“It was easier to criticize apartheid because it was so blatantly wrong, and was internationally declared a crime against humanity. It may be bold to stand up against a Draconian government, but even more so to stand up against a government you supported, that you voted into power.”1 99 Ibid.
“What creates a schizophrenia around me is that I write a political column with one hand and with my other hand I am in charge of a program that rewards excellence in the public sector.
“So we are in fact showing the government the good work they are doing. And the good work they are doing in collaboration with the public sector and civil society. ”2 100 Rhoda Kadalie, Goedgedacht Forum, ibid.
Is she sometimes scared after writing a column?
“I’ve never been anxiety-ridden about a column I wrote about. And, in a sense, if you grew up in a religious home ... I’m not afraid of people, I’m not afraid of them. The worst that what they can do to you is kill you. They can not kill your spirit. So, I have no fear of politicians.”
She remains silent.
“For the past two months, my ANC friends have been warning me ... friends high up have told me, ‘Watch your back. Be careful.’ The only thing I worry about in the new South Africa is that ... in the old days we knew about our spy ... now we do not know; it could be anyone.”
…
She describes a street confrontation with one of her former comrades as follows:
“He almost slapped me over a column I wrote. He was so furious about it. He admired me, and I taught him on university. He went through cronyism to get where he is today.
“I have experienced many similar incidents. People wrote me off; stopped inviting me to parties ... Yes ... I mean ... I once invited ministers to my house for dinner. Nou is ek persona non grata. They can not even look at me when I walk into a room. They can not even face me. But that’s okay.3 101 Rhoda Kadalie. “Sorry, This Is Just Another Divisive Fad.” Mail & Guardian, 5 Jan. 2001.
Many anonymous people here today provided me with undercover information because they are so admirably on the side of right. I wish to thank them deeply. Many encouraged and egged me on when I became so enraged that I could hardly express myself. Many called to compliment me again and again on a column and to give advice. And when I gave up writing for a while, many convinced me that I had a job to do, so I gave in. Even those who stopped greeting me, those who verbally abused me, and those who questioned my credentials, convinced me that speaking truth to power is a powerful weapon of mass empowerment. When I started writing there were very few black critics; in small measure I contributed to the growth of a small pool of insider critics, who have become such a formidable force that Mbeki suggested the Native Club as a counter-revolutionary force to neutralize us!6 1 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by The Oprah Magazine, Jul. 2007, ibid.
After a row with office workers, police allegedly planted barricades in front of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) building on Spin Street in Cape Town.
Former [human rights] commissioner Rhoda Kadalie is executive director of the Impumelelo Trust, housed in the Idasa building. When she objected to the placing of barricades, she says: “The barricades were deliberately smashed into my face, breaking my spectacles.” She says people were not allowed to leave the building for three hours. Kadalie says when people were walking around on the streets again she tried to go to an optometrist, “only to be prevented once again by the police”, but only briefly.
“While my glasses were being fixed the police taunted me from outside, shouting all kinds of abuse,” says Kadalie.
Once the glasses had been repaired, “three big white men blocked my attempt to go back to my offices, threatening to arrest me and physically manhandling me. I broke free from their grip and ran across to my offices.”
Kadalie maintains while she and others were being trapped, workers in an adjacent state building were allowed unhindered access.8 3 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Murray La Vita. Gesprekke Met Merkwaardige Mense. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2011. p. 192-3.
Mushwana is a master at skirting investigations that implicate the ruling elite. His tenure has been characterised by contempt for the constitution and for his obligation to be independent, impartial and exercise his powers and perform his functions without fear, favour or prejudice.
As a former ANC MP, Mushwana, like most of the heads of the Chapter 9 institutions who have all been co-opted into uselessness, dares not bite the hand that feeds him. He knows he would be thoroughly neutered should he indict any of them.12 7 Rhoda Kadalie. “Democratic charade misses the point of dialogue.” Business Day, 9 Feb. 2006. p. 13.
The repeated refusal to select [Gauntlett] points to something deeply rotten in an organisation that should epitomise rectitude. … [T]he JSC shuns excellence at their peril and consciously eschews appointing candidates who have the ability to perform their duty as required by the Constitution. Instead they deliberately choose candidates who are grossly underqualified as long as they are connected and pliable.
Those chosen over Gauntlett included a Mpumalanga attorney who admitted not disclosing to the JSC disciplinary infractions, only having himself argued unopposed cases and delays as an acting judge in writing judgments. So too a state attorney who opened her own law firm a year ago — only to close it a month later (after owning it) to take up an acting appointment. Optimism, uncanny foresight or simply a nod?
The negative effects of their decisions will plague SA for generations to come. This disrespect for excellence is happening everywhere - at our universities, schools, government departments, state enterprises, all in the name of transformation.
The JSC seems to forget that an independent judiciary is critical to the success of a nation. Instead it exploits its immunity from professional critique; it exploits the fact that potential candidates cannot complain because it will be held against them forever; it enjoys creating factions within the legal community to ensure that it can govern through its divide and rule policy; it enjoys playing God by denying people achieving their highest potential, when in fact it is the devil incarnate; and it enjoys taking revenge against white advocates who are independent and who dare to deliver judgements that go against the ruling party.14 9 Rhoda Kadalie. “Bunch of clowns.” Letter to the editor. Business Day, 15 Feb. 2006. p. 10.
***
Because JZ [Jacob Zuma] was found to have had a corrupt relationship with [convicted fraudster] Schabir Shaik, and because he is a polygamist and womaniser, his detractors assume him guilty before they have even heard the evidence. That he slept with someone who is HIV-positive, as reprehensible as that might be, does not mean that we have a right to assume that he has raped the woman and therefore has no right to a fair trial.
…
At the University of the Western Cape where I was the gender equity officer I dealt with enough cases where women used claims of rape and sexual harassment claims to get even with their partners. I was called the “gender police” and I feminised our courts substantially.
This does not preclude the fact that in most circumstances of rape women have no protection or defence and that it often happens under violent conditions that are life threatening.
The fact is this alleged rape by JZ of the complainant did not happen under violent circumstances. It happened between two people who know each other. At no stage did the complainant say no and she admitted that JZ might have thought it okay to have sex. There was a policeman on the premises and other people. This complicates the matter even further.
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JZ’s supporters have a right to feel that he has been set up. The linkage with the intelligence ministry is not coincidental. All this does not excuse their behaviour or their harassment of the complainant. But what this whole sorry saga points to is contempt for the rule of law when President Mbeki applies double standards. Mbeki is weakening the constitutional state with his inconsistencies around what gets investigated and what doesn’t. Can we blame the masses when they become deeply suspicious of the rule of law?19 14 Rhoda Kadalie. “There’s something deeply rotten in the JSC.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger and translated from the Afrikaans, 23 Oct. 2012. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/theres-something-deeply-rotten-in-the-jsc. Accessed on 26 Mar. 2022.
***
To ensure loyalty, Mbeki has turned a blind eye to the abuse of state resources by those close to him. Key state institutions have been used to hound out of office those who do not toe the line. His selective use of the law has created a groundswell of anger among the masses, with service delivery protests, and rampant crime becoming the order of the day.
…
Political patronage and cronyism ensure you retain your job, and since material gain is more important than political integrity, politicians acquiesce to the rot that surrounds them.
One reason people can no longer change the ANC from within is that they have indebted themselves to the party financially. Many appear to have skipped rent payments, accepted big salary increases and extra benefits, and used the government as a piggy bank, and are now bound to the party’s doctrine lest they step out of line and have their sins exposed.22 17 Rhoda Kadalie. “More to ANC’s grassroots revolt than Zuma’s case.” Business Day, 7 Jul. 2005. Published in Rhoda Kadalie. In Your Face. Cape
At the time, I was the only feminist that put my head above the parapet and dared to write a column, even before the court case, pleading with the public, and feminists in particular, to respect the audi alterem partem [hear the other side] rule and give Zuma his day in court and not portray the woman solely as a victim. A series of strange facts emerged from the cross-examination. Yes, Jacob Zuma irresponsibly had unprotected sex with a HIV positive woman; he said stupid things about HIV, her skirt, the shower, etc. But it was clear that the sex was consensual. In her testimony, equally strange revelations were made. That she voluntarily went to his room; that Zuma’s daughter was in the house; that she waited until the next day to report despite security on the premises; that she had some dubious history in exile with a series of allegations of rape. To crown it all, she phoned the Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, the next day to report the incident. Strange coincidence? I think not.
Just because we don’t like our President, does not mean he has no rights.23 Town: Tafelberg, 2009. p. 112.
Under former President Mbeki’s rule the seeds of corruption took root and the plants now flourish under Zuma. The Stalinist language of the National Democratic Revolution, ANC control of the levers of power, cadre deployment and the Native Club provided fertile ground for crony capitalism through black economic empowerment, nepotism and “tenderpreneurship” to embed themselves firmly within the body politic of South Africa.27 21 Rhoda Kadalie. “Spare us the ritual charade ANC.” The Citizen, 8 Dec. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1752698/spare-us-the-ritual-charade-anc/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
But how did we get here?
It started under President Mandela where few would criticise the ANC, even when it was palpably wrong. …
The atmosphere of political correctness at the time was awful for those of us who dared to criticise. White guilt mixed with black entitlement is a toxic cocktail and accounts for where we are today. For example the SACP should never have been as prominent within the party and the cabinet without contesting an election. Today they are Zuma’s biggest critics. That is the logical conclusion of corrupt relationships with power whomever wields the rule of power at the time.29 23 Rhoda Kadalie. Draft column for The Citizen. 12 Aug. 2016.
The NLMs [National Liberation Movements] share what can only be termed a common theology. National liberation is both the just and historically necessary conclusion of the struggle between the people and the forces of racism and colonialism. This has two implications. First, the NLMs - whatever venial sins they may commit - are the righteous. They not merely represent the masses but in a sense they are the masses, and as such they cannot really be wrong. Secondly, according to the theology, their coming to power represents the end of a process. No further group can succeed them for that would mean that the masses, the forces of righteousness, had been overthrown. That, in turn, could only mean that the forces of racism and colonialism, after sulking in defeat and biding their time, had regrouped and launched a counter-attack.
Thus it follows that having won, a NLM should stay in power forever. … The real truth about the NLM governments is that they allow corrupt elites to cling to power indefinitely.32 26 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Sunday Tribune. 7 Feb. 2010.
Dare I say this? Prison saved Mandela from the mess of liberation. He had none of the paranoia, vengefulness and entitlement that subsequent administrations, led by the “exilers”, came to epitomise. His regime was truly open, transparent, consultative and embracing. His advisers were from every part of the racial spectrum, and Mandela led with authority because he did not have to prove anything.
Thabo Mbeki, on the other hand, suffered from Prince Charles syndrome. Born into succession, Mbeki spent most of his presidential life trying to prove that he could be a president: hence his nasty remarks about not wanting to fill Mandela’s “ugly” shoes. His regime was supposed to transform the economy, bolster black economic empowerment, and push for an African renaissance - nothing more than a glorified euphemism for African nationalism.
In contrast, Mandela was much more of a modern constitutional democrat, eschewing any political ideologies, but eager to make the country work. Unlike Mbeki, he was neither a technocrat nor driven by grand schemes that needed to be engineered through parliament.36 30 Rhoda Kadalie. “The ANC needs to learn a new political language.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted and translated from Die Burger, 31 Jul. 2022. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/the-anc-needs-to-learn-a-new-political-language. Accessed on 26 Mar. 2022.
When former French president François Mitterrand visited South Africa in July 1994, Mandela invited an array of people to the lunch at Constantia Uitsig. We were asked to form a guard of honour as Madiba walked Mitterrand from the lawns to the restaurant, introducing each of us individually. And did he know all of us, not so much for what we did but for our idiosyncrasies. As he approached me, he said to Mitterrand: “Meet Rhoda Kadalie, that troublesome woman!”
When I did become troublesome, Madiba didn’t always like it. My exposés of human rights violations in Pollsmoor prison annoyed him as he least needed such negative headlines so early in his presidency. Despite this, he visited the prison with former correctional services minister, Sipho Mzimela, indicating a willingness to clean it up.
…
Known for his stubbornness, he knew equally well that he did not know everything, that his isolation denied him everyday knowledge of what made South Africans tick, the aspects of our socio-cultural life. Hence he made it his business to get to know people.
He told Jakes Gerwel in no uncertain terms that UWC should not only remain the home of the Left but also become the home of coloured students primarily, the more Africanised the university became. He went into Mitchells Plain to meet ordinary township folk and when a woman insulted him, Madiba readily forgave her, acknowledging her as a victim of our apartheid past. Similarly, he went into black areas. Not even there was he automatically accepted. Cognisant of the racial and tribal fissures in the country, Mandela actively crossed those divides, culminating in the visit to the wives of apartheid leaders - Betsie Verwoerd and Elise Botha.
Already in prison, Madiba made it his business to understand the Afrikaners and nationalism. His relationship with his warders, and his willingness to forgive and promote his presidency as the era of reconciliation, laid sound foundations for the constitutional democracy we have today.37 31 Rhoda Kadalie. “Don’t blame the constitution for failures of the NDR.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger, translated from the Afrikaans, 17 Mar. 2012. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/dont-blame-the-constitution-for-failures-of-the-nd. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Once corruption starts, it creates a momentum of its own and becomes an entangled web. That is why we should have been vocal about it from the start. We justified a million; then we justified billions; then we justified BEE[.] I sat next to a businessman at a dinner table once who said, if Mandela were corrupt, he would accept it as he was entitled to it for serving time in jail -- and was applauded around the table.38 32 R.W. Johnson. “The Final Struggle Is to Stay in Power.” Focus, Vol. 25, 1st Quarter (2002). URL: https://hsf.org.za/publications/focus/issue-25-first-quarter-2002/the-final-struggle-is-to-stay-in-power. Accessed on 5 Jul. 20222.
I am not as disappointed in the ANC as many of my comrades. I never expected anything better. Having studied liberation movements, I knew what to expect. The ANC’s governance was scarily predictable since day 1 and Jacob Zuma is the culmination of a party that has consistently refused to distinguish between party and state; that undermines media freedom; and that has no respect for the rule of law and loyal opposition. Zuma is behaving exactly like he did in exile.”40 34 Ibid.
He could defuse the growing tension between divergent views with even a lame joke and have everyone in stitches. He pulled in the expertise and resources of the best constitutional experts into the six theme committees and I shall never forget the flurry of activity, debates, conferences and workshops between the politicians and the nongovernmental organisations trying to get to grips with what a truly representative South African constitution would be, with a Bill of Rights that would be unique to SA.
What this entire exercise demonstrated was the willingness of political actors across wide divisions to work together and reach a compromise. People whom many of us wrote off as dinosaurs were now in the fold and talking to each other. Four months before the May 8 deadline, 68 issues were unresolved and there was great concern that the deadline would not be reached. By April 22 there was no consensus on the death penalty, the appointment of judges and the attorney-general, language, local government, proportional representation and the floor-crossing issue.
By April, there were 298 amendments but the entire process went swimmingly under Ramaphosa’s capable leadership, so that by May 8 the text was completed. March 1997 was the culmination of a difficult process, ending with more than 7-million copies of the constitution distributed in 11 languages all over the country.
For these reasons, Ramaphosa is ideally suited to bring that experience to bear on bringing the ANC together again, with its political contenders, into an inclusive society united in its goal to drag SA out of poverty.
The peasant usurped the intellectual. Zuma quietly plotted and schemed while Mbeki flew around the world intoxicated by his own greatness. In one fell swoop the street-smart contender took over the entire top six positions in the ANC and most of the national executive. Whereas before, decisions were made by consensus, now members changed their leaders through the ballot box and contested that ballot even within their own ranks - unprecedented stuff for the ANC!
The nation was disturbed at the intolerance of the contenders at Polokwane; at the populist rhetoric that flowed freely; they balked at the constant singing of Zuma’s anthem, umshini wami [“My Machine Gun,” a violent struggle-era song], in a country desperately trying to shed its violent present; the nation feared a takeover by a man who makes no claim to be what he is not; they were ashamed of the ugly spectacle beamed to the world of a party that, despite invoking the language of unity, of the collective, of consensus, of the national democratic revolution, seemed to behave like an unruly bunch of undisciplined cadres. But were they that? Certainly not.
They were acting out their deep distrust of a ruling clique they had lost faith in; rebelling against a president who thought he could govern without the support of the governed; who thought he knew what was good for us even when he no longer enjoyed our trust.43 37 Rhoda Kadalie. “He wanted to diminish that aura.” Cape Argus, 14 Dec. 2013.
Beware of double standards because the people will remember. Respect the separation of powers. Do not use the state’s resources to enrich the party, friends, family and cronies. Lead by example and adopt serious symbolic gestures to show the masses that state-accumulated wealth is not the driving force for entrée into politics.
Strengthen parliament and restore it to its rightful place; do not take advice from your cronies alone; surround yourself with expert advisors, include those you trust even though you might not like them; speak to the media regularly; read the media regularly; hold regular press conferences; take the public into your confidence. Apply the law fairly to everyone - make this bedrock of our constitution your driving force. In foreign policy, move away from our crippling notion of “exceptionalism” and become part of the modern progressive world and do what is best for the country.
The big policy questions will be easier to deal with. Abandon the anachronistic language of the National Democratic Revolution for modern social democratic policies that will generate growth and development.
Poverty, jobs, unemployment, crime, healthcare, and housing cannot be addressed through backward socialist policies. Use the expertise that exists outside of the party to find collective solutions to our problems. Abandon Affirmative Action and make those with expertise, white and black, work to grow the economy even more, so that the poor will have a stake in the system as much as the rich.
Zuma, you have the world at your feet. Do not throw this opportunity away. You have the chance to make South Africa the definitive democracy in Africa. Seize the day!45 39 Ibid.
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The transition from struggle to statehood is the ANC’s biggest challenge. Its obsession with power has come to override its revolutionary goal to provide services to all, even if it splits the party asunder. Its intolerance of inter-party political competition and intra-party differences has had deleterious effects on governance at both provincial and municipal levels. The constant factionalism and internal feuding have led to management paralyses in more than 100 municipalities and many provinces are not doing too well either. The ANC’s own strongholds, in Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, are floundering.
…
The ruling party’s obsession with absolute control has made it so intolerant of party political competition that service delivery has become the casualty of infighting. If it continues on this path, its political intolerance will eventually destroy it. The ANC should realize that a threat more worrying to its longevity than the looming [Mbeki-Zuma] succession battle is its failure to deliver basic services to the poor.47 41 Rhoda Kadalie. “So what if you fly the old SA flag?” The Citizen, 8 Sep. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1644813/not-all-symbols-are-red-flags/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
What’s to be done? South Africans need to wake up and smell the coffee. More than ever we need a reinvigoration of civil society organisations, the media, faith-based organisations, women’s groups, human rights organisations, and opposition parties who will unite and hold government accountable.
We should jettison those self-serving civic organisations that suck up to government and placate them when they are so obviously out of touch and corrupt.
Big business, too, should cease its deal-making and sycophantic relationship with government and keep its eye on the ball.
I am reminded of my own hubris when I was told the University of Uppsala, Sweden, had decided to confer an honorary doctorate on me in 1999. After the reception we walked towards the parking lot, but my host walked past her car. When I alerted her to that she said: “I am not driving because I drank a glass of wine.”
I complained that I would not walk back home in high heels, and that she should just drive, as no one would know. Aghast, she said: “In Sweden, we just don’t do that.”
Then I saw everyone in their finery either walking home or calling a taxi to take them home.
“We just don’t do that” has stuck with me ever since. I realised that in Sweden ethics has become woven into the DNA of the national consciousness. It had become systemic and part of the culture of business, politics (not so much) and daily life - the national fabric.
…
I look forward to the day when we in South Africa can turn to one another and say: “We just don’t do that.”48 42 Rhoda Kadalie. “Ramaphosa’s rich talents equip him for top office.” Business Day, 27 Jul. 2006. p. 13.
Do South Africans have a death wish? Why is life so cheap?
Our desire should be to live, to live life to the full and to create a population that wants to live. The challenge fo us is to remove all the obstacles that destroy our passion and compassion, so that we can live life abundantly, as the Bible says.50 44 Rhoda Kadalie. “ANC split just a fight among thieves.” Business Day, 6 Nov. 2008. p. 13.
Cape Argus, 14 Nov. 2013. p. 21.integrity becomes second nature, writes Rhoda Kadalie.”
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A political prophet not recognized in his own country, Tony understood the ANC like no other. His years in the underground transformed him into one of SA’s most astute analysts for which his former comrades often resented him. Truth was the driving force behind his writings which were never meant to spite the ANC but to dialog. Stupidly they dumped him. But it was their loss because Tony would have been the best presidential adviser any president could have had.
Unlike those who used their two days or one week of detention as political credentials, few knew that Tony was in jail for 6 years for his communist beliefs. He denounced communism in an excellent confessional ending his column resignedly: “Today I depart from the closed community of ideas.” As a true intellectual he could no longer constrain his thoughts by anachronistic ideologies, yet he remained a leftie.65 58 Rhoda Kadalie. “Ronnie Kasrils: Unarmed but still dangerous!”. PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger and translated from the Afrikaans, 23 Apr. 2014. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/ronnie-kasrils-unarmed-but-still-dangerous. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
To achieve this recovery of what colonialism and slavery have interred, a generation of artists, historians, scientists and philosopher[s] that is growing up among us must brave the twin dangers of scientism disguised as science, on the one hand, and superstition parading as African religion on the other. It will have to endure the cynical mockery of Eurocentric skeptics as well as the accusations of disloyalty which Africanist ideologues are bound to heap on it. Above all, this generation of seekers will have to withstand the dark night of intellectual loneliness which travelers towards goals of this sort must inevitably traverse. It will find no companions among the politically orthodox. But there may be those from other cultures, spaces and times, who will join the pilgrimage and, whatever its perils, not betray it.66 59 Rhoda Kadalie. “Analysts need to think past the party.” Business Day, 17 Jul. 2008.
When things went awry early on in our democracy, political leaders were often given the benefit of the doubt, the rationale being that since they struggled for a moral cause, they must therefore be highly moral. Hence, the escalating corruption, political intolerance, nondelivery and mismanagement were initially excused as mistakes, committed by infants of democracy. Many comrades refused to see the warning signals, covering up until the festering sores which, like gangrene, became too septic and widespread to cure.
Civic leaders and the media practised the masterful art of self-censorship, and critique was silenced in subtle ways. Sympathisers of the government turned a blind eye, wanting to benefit from government’s largesse, cosying up to the ruling elite through acquiescence and tacit support lest they jeopardise their vested interests. White guilt shut up many a critic. ANC supporters, understandably, found it hard to criticise a government they had voted into power. The destiny of the ANC was so deeply wrapped up with their own that they could not be seen to judge a party with which they had become synonymous.67 60 Rhoda Kadalie. “The bitter fuel that is driving ‘rebels’.” Business Day, 23 Oct. 2008. p. 13.
How undemocratic! Every citizen has a right to vote or not to vote, but one would expect Tutu to encourage voters to use their hard-earned right to vote responsibly, instead of abstaining.
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Tutu treats the ANC as though it is a church that has strayed off the straight and narrow and he seems to believe that some good can still come out of a party that is corrupt, lawless, and that has consigned thousands to death. He still subscribes to the old school that one has to be loyal to a party, instead of the other way around.68 61 Rhoda Kadalie. “States become vampires in Africa.” Business Day, 3 Jul. 2008.
“What we on the left have not learnt is the need for the development of institutional opposition. It is time South Africans learn to vote against corruption and for good governance and effective delivery.”1 62 Rhoda Kadalie. “So much for ‘new deal’ in Zimbabwe.” Business Day (The Weekender), 12 Feb. 2009.
I think we need a strong opposition. Because loyal opposition is a foreign concept in Africa. And because the ANC is very strong, it can easily become a law unto itself. And it’s very tempted to change the Constitution. So I think we should actually develop strong opposition, especially [since] we have a strong majority party. Because the constitution is about protecting the rights of the individual against the state. Where you have a strong state, it can do with you as you please.2 63 Rhoda Kadalie. “The Future of Opposition in SA.” Speech to The 1926 Club. Johannesburg, South Africa. 26 Sep. 2006.
Consensus politics has its place, and has had its place in our history. The constitution is the result of consensus battered out at the Convention for Democracy in SA. With the basics in place, SA should allow and manage its pluralism in all its diversity, in line with constitutional principles.
It is the task of Parliament, of the opposition, of the media, of business and civil society to hold government accountable, especially with its firmly entrenched majority. Since the ANC has the support of the entire media and controls most state institutions, consensus politics is hardly the only way to go.
…
I would sooner live in a robust, vibrant democracy than in a polity based on consensus where the ruling party reigns and remains supreme. Those who fear criticism should be feared.5 66 Anthony Holiday. “The Idea of an African University.” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, No. 100, 202. p. 94.
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The astounding thing is that while middle-class socialist politicians live bourgeois lives, travel the world, enjoy the benefits of globalisation, the internet and global information technology, they speak a language out of synch with the modern democratic society that allows them their lifestyles.
Why can we not speak of a social democratic form of capitalism geared towards socialist ideals as a viable alternative to address poverty and unemployment? Why can the excessive revenue generated by the government not be used to create employment and fulfil some of the socialist goals that most of us share?
No national democratic revolution or the overthrow of “colonialism of a special type” will provide answers to these problems. They will, I know for sure, make them worse. What political leaders need tons of is common sense.10 3 Rhoda Kadalie. Response to paper by Xolela Mangcu. Goedgedacht Forum on Racism. Malmesbury, South Africa. 14 Oct. 2000.
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I live off De Waal Drive in Cape Town and observed the poster war close at hand. I saw people in municipal trucks remove DA posters. I was sent photos of these by a parliamentary official who caught them in the act and we sent them to the media, all of which refused to publish them, except for Business Day, on its back page.
The DA’s Gareth Morgan’s detailed account in these pages of the ANC’s abuse of taxpayers’ money for election advertisements reminds us that the use of state resources undermines democracy by giving unfair advantage to the incumbent. While opposition parties are forced to fight for the hearts and minds of voters with little more than donations and pluck, the ruling party can tap into the state machinery and pass off self-promotion as legitimate government communication.
…[T]he ANC dished out food parcels and houses to the poor just before the elections, reinforcing the electorate’s perception of the ANC as the party of patronage. Where people are poor and eking out a miserable existence, taking handouts during elections is considered a survival tactic and taking from the government what is rightfully yours anyway.11 4 Sydney Mufamadi. Speech in Parliament. 23 April 2004. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/tony-leon-on-mbeki-pahad-kortbroek-and-others. Accessed on 15 Oct. 2021.
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The election is hardly two months past and, shocked by the outcome — of more than 60% in Cape Town for the opposition collectively — the African National Congress (ANC) is doing everything to undermine the coalition and its elected mayor, Helen Zille.
Rumours abound that a senior ANC minister has visited one of the smaller parties, offering it all kinds of incentives to break up the coalition. Secret meetings are being held between ANC politicians and officials to strategise the downfall of the Democratic Alliance (DA) partnership.
On three occasions officials who should be neutral have countermanded the decisions of the multiparty government in council. The city asked for control of the VIP protection unit to be returned to the councillor support department from the city police. This was countermanded by city manager Wallace Mgoqi. The city asked for all tender meetings to be opened. This was countermanded by Mgoqi’s representative, Ike Nxedlana, who said publicly that he would refuse to open the meeting to the public.
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Mgoqi has flatly refused to go on leave, arriving with burly bodyguards at council meetings to intimidate the new council. He continues to sign documents on behalf of the city and still enters contracts - all of which will be null and void if the city’s legal advice turns out to have been right. This could cost the city millions. He persists as if the new administration does not exist.
Obsessively engaged in toppling a legitimately constituted administration, the ANC shows how insecure it is about Zille as mayor. Her track record as an efficient, uncorrupt and hardworking politician is a direct threat to its record of gross mismanagement under mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo who, with Mgoqi, virtually ran the city into the ground. More seriously, the message the ANC sends to public officials is: “Play our game and you can reward yourselves as you wish.”
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Having lost the election, the ANC continues to govern through incompetent officials, whose jobs are on the line and who now find it convenient to call it a “racial purge”. The ANC has demonised the DA to such an extent that it cannot afford for it to succeed. This is what citizens should be worried about.
Should the ANC lose a national election, the consequences will be too ghastly to contemplate. The ANC believes that it is its revolutionary right to rule in perpetuity and will use Stalinist tactics to squash any political competitor out of existence. The recent Economist Survey on SA echoes these warning signals. It is time to take note.14 7 Rhoda Kadalie. “Welfare Is Everybody’s Business!” Speech to ACVV. 12 Sep. 2014.
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“Anything is possible. But I’m busy running an organisation,” said Kadalie, the executive director of the Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust.
Zille said as far as Kadalie was concerned, she had tried to recruit her before the 1999 election.
“I have tried year in and year out to persuade her to enter politics, and every single time she has said no.
“I have to respect that. Rhoda has no specific role in the DA at present,” she said.23 16 The Adderley/Wale change had actually been proposed by Peter Marais, who had been mayor under the previous DA administration, but who had defected to the New National Party.
I told your reporter that Helen has not recruited me recently; I am not being head-hunted; what is this “Rhoda thing”?
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As promoters of the ANC, the Cape Times continues to try and stir anti-DA publicity and this is one of those stupid attempts that makes no sense. I reassure you, the day I decide to go into politics I will let the world know. There is nothing to be ashamed about, going into opposition politics, because some of my best friends are there! I just don’t like lies and to be used to fuel your agenda.24 17 African National Congress, quoted by Anél Powell. “ANC lashes Kadalie for leading street naming panel.” Cape Times, 13 Jun. 2007. p. 3.
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The nuclear fallout over the “crossracial quickie” between Helen Zille and Mamphela Ramphele has been relentless.
Insiders and political pundits alike have roasted the twosome mercilessly, and justifiably so.
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South Africans yearn for a potent, diverse and united opposition, given their disenchantment with the ANC. With an approaching election they do not want to see an opposition that is wobbly, insecure and one that violates its own principles for the sake of expediency.
Regrettably, as the exemplar of good governance, the DA has not escaped the hubris associated with political aristocracies who believe they have the divine right to make decisions on behalf of the electorate.
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Parachuting Ramphele into the DA as presidential leader, based on criteria of race, friendship and image, is nothing but a spectacular case of cadre deployment.
Invoking a long-standing friendship as the reason for the relationship of trust was nepotism, pure and simple. One does not appoint one’s friends to a presidential position, especially one that is created for them.
Zille stupidly thought that with Ramphele at the helm her party was well on its way to opposition heaven. Not so. Marriages based on lies, looks, ego and debt are sure to implode, as this one did.
Lastly, the most vexed question I wish to pursue with DA leaders is: why must the presidential candidate be black when the DA owes its strength to the minorities of the country, and the coloureds and whites in particular in the Western Cape? If the criterion of race is central to high-profile political appointments, can the DA please explain why coloured faces are never considered good enough to ascend the throne of presidential leadership but are good enough as voting fodder?
The Pavlovian response to Helen Zille’s tweet is more a commentary on the “enraged”, than it is about the tweet. The context of the tweet is extremely interesting – a reaction to her visit to Singapore, a country that was once the poorest in world, is today a leader in the economic world. Her tweet is part of her contemplation on how [former Singaporean leader] Lee Kuan Yew got it right.
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The venom against her is all the more poisonous because she is white, a woman, and “refuses to know her place”, a prerequisite for the McCarthyists who appropriate the right to condemn and stone her in the court of public opinion. Bolstered by a colluding media with their insidious headlines – “Helen Zille and the myth of the White Saviour”, “Zille could face career-ending racism charge” - the push for her demise is relentless, regardless of whether the “crime fits the punishment”. The party of liberalism has become captive to the tyranny of political correctness.43 36 Rhoda Kadalie. “Mazibuko’s appeal is postracial.” Business Day, 3 Oct. 2011.
In 1995 President Mandela sent a women’s delegation to Uganda and Australia to explore how they mainstreamed gender equality through various mechanisms and institutions. On our way we passed through the University of Makerere, once a crown in pre-colonial Uganda’s higher education system, reduced to a shell of its former glory after independence. I spoke to someone about it, and he immediately lamented “the departure of colonialism”. I had the same reaction on a visit to Nairobi in the early 2000s where community leaders openly claimed that life was better under the colony. And lest these people be accused of the “nostalgia for empire”, as so many post-colonial scholars wish to label it, the real concern was the betrayal of post-independence leaders to usher in the constitutional democracies they promised so vociferously during their liberation struggles. Colonialism and apartheid were indeed pernicious systems of subjugation, but those systems also brought development to the colonies, if not for the indigenous peoples, but then certainly for the colonisers, benefiting the colonised by default. It is a fact that those subjugated benefited from the massive infrastructural development, albeit within systems of oppression and discrimination.45 38 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 10 May 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153417508300039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
“[T]he language of music belongs to the human soul; and that is ultimately what the main objective of a university is: to bring out the best in students and help them master various disciplines, whether they originate in Europe, Africa, Asia or America.”1 41 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 3 Oct. 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153786417575039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
“Patricia (de Lille, ID leader) and I were very close, and I got to know her very well and learned things from her that I did not like, and I wrote a column about it. After that, our friendship was gone.
“My friendship with Jakes Gerwel is also gone because I wrote a column about which he was angry.”
People might think the columns are ad hominem?
“Yes, but the best columnists in the world are ad hominem. They take people by surprise!”
Are there limits?
“I have no limits! I believe in unbridled freedom of speech. And I grant everyone the right to approach me in the same way.”3 43 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, reprinted from Beeld, translated from the Afrikaans, 22 Mar. 2017. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10155269350555039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
When I was a Human Rights Commissioner, with the Minister of Land Affairs, I visited several rural areas. And repeatedly, the farm workers would say, apartheid is dead constitutionally, but not on our farms. And so I think on the farms is the place where apartheid is still entrenched, where farmers have absolute power. Despite labor relations, and the Labor Relations Act, and the Equity Bill, people are really treated badly. And I think farmers get away with murder in the way they treat their farmworkers. Literally, with murder.4 44 Rhoda Kadalie. “Hysteria over Zille’s colonialism tweet a storm in a teacup.” The Citizen, 24 Mar. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1466229/hysteria-over-zilles-colonialism-tweet-a-storm-in-a-teacup/. Accessed on 13 Apr. 2022.
This week, I spent an entire day evaluating a rural music and arts project with my team in the farmlands of Grabouw.
I discovered four white women who, in my estimation, should receive an international award for doing national development work government should be doing. Their commitment makes nonsense of this notion of “white privilege” and “whiteness” in our racist discourse today.
These Mother Theresas share with a dedication unmatched their music and arts expertise with local children.
The first stop was Pineview Primary.
In a small prefab classroom, about 60 kids sang in a choir that could rate with some of the best in SA. The pupils sang passionately while radiating smiles as broad as the ocean.
The relationship between teacher and student was one of trust. They moved from one rendition to the next, showing off their prowess.
Thereafter, we visited another school to witness a teacher instructing kids to reproduce different art forms. As we walked around watching the kids drawing pictures, the range of quality was astounding.
We picked up immediately which kids had perceptual difficulties and which ones excelled. This helped teachers with referrals to social workers.
The next stop was another arts project where the teacher and pupils adorned the art room with mosaic tiles into an aesthetically pleasing space.
There, the teacher demonstrated to young kids how to reproduce a still life by showing them a real “still life” painting and one recreated on the table with vases filled with flowers, surrounded by onions.
The pièce de résistance came at the end of our fieldwork. A visit to a marimba class showed beginners emulating older students with finesse.
Later, five older pupils joined them, hungry and tired from having walked some distance in the heat. They gave a splendid performance, justifying the prize won last year in a national competition.
Betsie, Melissa, Salome, and headmistress Mrs. Du Plooy may be white, but their place in the pantheon of SA’s national treasures is etched in the heavens.
My father’s mother, Molly, lived in Bloemhof Flats with her divorced daughter and bachelor son, Robert, known to us as Uncle Bobby. Uncle Bobby was an irascible man, difficult, and hard to please, unlike his eldest brother, Uncle Alexander, who was refined, gentle, loving, and powerful. My dad, Fenner, was the youngest, a mummy’s boy, who loved his mother, and all he wanted to be was a theologian, in reaction to his father, the famous trade unionist, Clements Kadalie, who founded the Industrial Commercial Workers’ Union.
Both Uncle Alex and Uncle Bobby frequented the City Hall concerts every Thursday since I can recall. Uncle Alex could not attend as regularly as he was a Pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which posted him to rural areas all over the Cape Province, but whenever he was in Cape Town he would attend. It was he who introduced me to the City Hall concerts and to see the young pianist Marian Friedman, the Eoan Group and the operas they performed in the City Hall. Uncle Bobby, however, attended every week, sat in the same seat, and never missed a concert. Both uncles loved Beethoven and Brahms best, and they both had the best collections of LPs of complete operas, opera stars, concertos, choral music, and all the great symphonies.
It was from them that I learnt about Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Beverley Sills and the differences between them; of Verdi, Puccini, and most of all Bellini, not spoken of much in music circles at the time. No brothers could be more different, yet share the love of classical music so deeply. Uncle Bobby was an uncle so judgemental, so critical, so self-important that no one in the family took him seriously. He was difficult to like. Uncle Alex elicited different sentiments. He was much loved and adored by his family, his community and his parish. He was adored for his intellect, for his oratory, which he inherited from Clements Kadalie, and for his compassion. He was the uncle everyone wanted and somehow he knew that together with his daughters, I could be cultivated to love the Arts, and would include a ticket for me as well, when he took his daughters to concerts.
All of this came to an end in the early seventies or late sixties when coloured and black people were suddenly excluded from the concerts. Uncle Bobby was enraged. He felt insulted and became bitter towards every government, since then, regardless. He must have complained about it vociferously, when somehow, he landed up in one of the local newspapers, either the Cape Times or the Argus (I cannot remember but I confirmed this with Uncle Alex’s daughter, Yvonne, recently) recalling his long history with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. It was like a death in the family. This was how people who loved the finer things in life, spent their Thursday evenings. He could not understand why such a simple pleasure could be wrenched from his weekly routine. And since Uncle Bobby loved complaining, this lament died with him when he passed away aged 82 years in 2009.8 1 Rhoda Kadalie. “Opera clicks with African students.” Business Day, 31 July 2003. URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20030812043202/https://allafrica.com/stories/200307310151.html. Accessed on 18 Oct. 2021.
All the opera singers were black except one, and to see them mastering Italian opera, an essentially European genre, with such finesse makes nonsense of Prof William Makgoba’s assertion that our universities should become bastions of African essentialism, knowledge and experience, whatever that might mean. “After all,” says he, “we have African music, poetry, dance, politics, philosophy, architecture, traditional medicine and so on.”
I spoke afterwards with the head of the opera school, Dr Angelo Gobbato, to ask him how he was able to transform the opera school from 98% white in the past to 90% black today. His response was enlightening. The admission of a large number of black students was not simply about increasing the head count. It was about acknowledging the strong choral tradition and rich vocal talent in the townships that can actively be incorporated into the opera tradition at UCT.
The opera school went into communities to recruit students. The response was overwhelming. At one stage more than 310 came to audition, and bursaries were made available to people with no music training but strong vocal talent.10 3 Rhoda Kadalie, in Murray La Vita, ibid. p. 192.
[W]omen in senior leadership positions, in business, are complicit in maintaining the status quo, in defending their male comrades who abuse women, in exploiting the poo in order to be rich, in supporting their husbands in corrupt deals. … Those in power are not going to help bring about a dispensation that respects women and advance[s] their cause.
The sisters must do it for themselves.16 9 Rhoda Kadalie. Speech to Ronnie Samaai Music Education Project. Cape Town, South Africa. 26 Nov. 2017.
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[The boycott] is politically correct nonsense. Israeli universities do not undermine human rights. Israel is one of the freest democracies in the world and political dissent is widespread on Israeli campuses. Israeli universities have a level of political independence we can only envy in our own universities, which are unduly politically influenced and sickeningly politically correct.
When the University of Johannesburg should be focusing on academic excellence and freedom, or the problems assailing SA, it wastes its time going on a crusade against Israel. There is more academic freedom in Israel than here and while political correctness has become the dictatorship of the left in SA, universities abroad are flourishing. Such sectarian academic boycotts freeze dialogue and communication and expose the narrow-mindedness and the bigotry of those who crusade.
Why not pursue Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Iran with the same vigour? Why the silence against Iran’s dictator? Why the silence against President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan? Why has Israel become the whipping boy of leftist academics? The reason, I believe, is because their leftist project internationally and in SA in particular, has failed dismally. South African universities are so low on the academic radar that such a boycott will be laughed out of court. We have more to lose by cutting our ties with universities abroad than they have to gain from us.23 16 Rhoda Kadalie. “Women and Democracy Ten Years of Democracy from Progress to Consensus.” Lecture, Semester at Sea. Feb. 2011.
The Left is quick to condemn Israel, when matters at home should shame us into silence.
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Bashing Israel has become a self-promotion industry and the disinvestment campaign is its marketing tool. We should be attracting Israelis to our shores as the ideal foreign direct investment destination for Israelis.
With its huge growth potential and features that set it apart from other African countries, SA’s large Jewish community with its numerous Jewish institutions and a rich cultural life has a vested interest in maintaining cordial relations between the two states.
The book, Start-Up Nation, reveals that the per-capita venture-capital investment in Israel is 2.5 times that in the U.S and 30 times that in Europe. Israel attracts as much venture capital as Britain, France and Germany combined and it has more companies listed on Nasdaq than any other country outside the US and its economic growth has been faster than the average for developed economies in most years since 1995. Between 1980 and 2000, 7652 patents were registered in the U.S. from Israel.
Is this penis envy or what?29 22 Rhoda Kadalie. “Complex crisis most analysts fail to explain.” Business Day, 6 May 2010.
So driven by hate is this young leader he thought nothing of violating one of the most sacred taboos of Judaism and, by mistake, also Islam. Palestinian students would be disgusted by this act of “solidarity”. And that has always been my point.
Our black shock troopers of the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign have no idea where Gaza, the West Bank or even Israel are. Not only is this a deeply anti-Semitic act of hate, it is also profoundly barbaric and anti-Islamic.30 23 Rhoda Kadalie. “Universities blinded by political correctness.” Business Day, 5 Oct. 2020.
Anything remotely smacking of criticism against Muslims propels the Obama administration, the European Union, the United Nations, the Global Elders, and the Left into action.
Not so with Christians and the question is why. This same group does not hesitate to single out Israel for condemnation and when one country is singled out for censure, as is routinely done then the only explanation can be anti-Semitism. Otherwise how do we explain the double standards?
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The tyrannical suppression of the freedom of expression, religion and association of Christians in Muslim countries has escaped their censure. This sanitised form of anti-Semitism feeds into the bipolar view of the “West against the Rest”.31 24 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Max McLaren and Peter Fabricius. “Furore over Tutu’s boycott Israel call.” Cape Times, 28 Oct. 2010. p. 1.
Israel is not an apartheid state. … [R]acism and discrimination do not form the rationale for Israel’s policies and actions. Arab citizens of Israel can vote and serve in the Knesset; black South Africans could not vote until 1994. There are no laws in Israel that discriminate against Arab citizens or separate them from Jews. Unlike the United Kingdom, Greece, and Norway, Israel has no state religion, and it recognizes Arabic as one of its official languages.
Whereas apartheid was established through a series of oppressive laws that governed which park benches we could sit on, where we could go to school, which areas we were allowed to live in, and even whom we could marry, Israel was founded upon a liberal and inclusive Declaration of Independence. South Africa had a job reservation policy for white people; Israel has adopted pro-Arab affirmative action measures in some sectors.
Israeli schools, universities and hospitals make no distinction between Jews and Arabs. An Arab citizen who brings a case before an Israeli court will have that case decided on the basis of merit, not ethnicity. This was never the case for blacks under apartheid. Moreover, Israel respects freedom of speech and human rights. Its newspapers are far more independent, outspoken, and critical of the government than our newspapers in present-day, post-apartheid South Africa, let alone those of old.
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On the one hand, the use of the apartheid metaphor is hardly unusual in the South African political context. Almost every political debate is framed in terms of apartheid. The ANC routinely accuses its opponents, often without justification, of having supported apartheid, and opposition parties retort by comparing the ANC to the National Party which designed the intricate apartheid system and ruled the country for five decades. The past is still present in South African political discourse, on Israel and on many other issues as well.
On the other hand, Israel is different. The ANC devotes more attention to Israel than to many domestic issues and conflicts closer to home. It denies that anti-Israel protest is often antisemitic, but on no other issue has the party been more willing to abandon its supposedly non-racial ideals. Party leaders have addressed openly antisemitic rallies; radical sectors of the party have made blatantly antisemitic statements; and ANC election posters have featured blood-drenched Israeli flags.
In truth, the Israel-apartheid analogy is not entirely new. It was first used not by anti-apartheid activists, but the apartheid regime itself, protesting Israel’s stance against South Africa at the UN in the 1950s and 1960s. Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the chief architect of apartheid, threatened South Africa’s Jews with a tide of rising antisemitism should they fail to dissent from Israel’s foreign policy. The Afrikaans press supported Verwoerd, with many writers and correspondents comparing Zionism with apartheid and complaining that Israel’s opposition to the latter was hypocritical.
What the white nationalist right and the black post-colonial left share is distaste for opposition and difference combined with envy of Israel’s success. Afrikaners viewed Israel, falsely, as a state of “whites” that had thrived in a sea of “non-white” nations, but which unlike South Africa had largely escaped global condemnation. Today’s far-right remnant envies Israel’s persistence when Afrikaners have had to give up their own national aspirations.
The ANC looked to Israel as an example of an oppressed people that had overcome racial persecution, enormous political obstacles and military weakness to build a successful, thriving nation. Israel’s continued economic achievements, scientific innovation and vibrant culture in the face of terror stand in stark contrast to the ANC’s mismanagement of the state and economy, which it still blames on the past.
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South Africa tells Israel that it only has a right to exist — if at all — as a victim of Nazi oppression, just as the ANC bases its claim to legitimacy, power and privilege on apartheid. But Israel has moved beyond its past, while South Africa has failed to use the memory of apartheid to motivate positive national unity and achievement. No false analogies and no re-writing of history can mask that.32 25 Verashni Pillay. “Israel opera tour goes ahead, with a difference.” Mail & Guardian, 4 Nov. 2010.
In July last year [2008] a group of local activists went on a tour of Israel and the occupied territories to inspect human rights violations in the region, and the Israeli occupation in particular. They visited one side of the conflict during their five-day visit and came back smugly condemning Israel from a dizzy height. Immediately, others got on the bandwagon, supporting them because it was the politically correct thing to do. They did not for one moment reflect on why it was important to see both sides of the conflict, how they could help both the Israelis and the Palestinians find solutions to it and how we could share some of our experiences to help two related peoples imagine a future together, just as we have done. There was no modesty in their condemnation given what was going on in our country and how ashamed and modest we should be about the beam in our own eye. Intrinsic to human rights investigations is the weighing up of all sides, of weighing up one side against another, as Helen did so adeptly.
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Let me pose a question to SA: if Israel sent a human rights delegation to SA, what would it find?
The HR delegation went to Israel at a time when SA was reeling in the aftermath of the embarrassing outbreak of xenophobic violence, in which hundreds were killed simply because they were foreign and black: in a matter of weeks over 32 Somalis were killed for simply being entrepreneurial. Bishop Paul Verryn’s church is overflowing with thousands of Zimbabwean refugees, treated like dirt by the very South African regime that is quick to offer condemnation of others.33 26 Rhoda Kadalie, quoted by Mercury Correspondent. “Life is no Tea Party as ‘Rhoda Kadalie’ is hard on Judge Dennis Davis.” The Mercury, 10 May 2011. p. 4.
The traditional paradigm of support for the Palestinians on [sic] moralistic political pressure on Israel for alleged human rights violations vis à vis the South African experience with Apartheid, is inappropriate at best and infuriating to say that least. To put it more simply, the desire to moralize Israel into submission based on the South African narrative is counter-productive as it just further delays the impact on the Peace Process.
Two very different conflicts demand two very different solutions.
That said I believe it may be useful to Israelis and Palestinians to learn from South Africa’s successes. But it is equally important — perhaps more importance — for them to learn from our mistakes. Certainly, our transition from a pariah state on the brink of civil war to a non-racial, constitutional democracy was remarkable. Yet we failed to create adequate safeguards against the breakdown of our new democracy.
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I believe that the most important contribution we can make is to focus on a serious discussion about Palestinian nation-building. From a South African perspective, it is also important to show that people from both communities can get along, and we should help each other build support for peace, and support the many communities who indeed do that.
But the immediate task is to prepare Palestinians for statehood, before that dream dies. It is a task that Palestinians themselves must lead, but to which Israelis can contribute, and which those of us in the rest of the world can support. It is not too late to re-invigorate this process — indeed, if some Palestinians believe this task should be left until the conclusion of the peace process, it will be far too late. The new SA, ironically, and thankfully, inherited quite a modern urban infrastructure from their oppressors but now we see the damage that can be done by a liberation movement that arrives in office without being properly prepared to govern.37 30 Rhoda Kadalie. “Pig-headed Cosas act idiotic.” Citizen, 7 Nov. 2014. p. 12.
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It is not the job of universities to address a basic education system that will not come right. The government and the university managements know that, but they continue in their deluded self-righteous and politically correct ways, pursuing remedies that have been proven to fail …
The transformation agenda at universities amounts to racial bean-counting and perpetuates this scenario, made even more complex by the social engineering thrust upon universities by government. The pressure to fill formerly white universities with black faces is the reason for this.
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Appointment processes are engineered by those desperate to make politically correct appointments based on race alone, rather than looking at race in conjunction with skills, competence and merit. No wonder many black appointments end in disaster - for institution and candidate.46 39 “Uppsala Grants Honorary Doctorate.” Nordic Business Report, 7 Jun. 1999.
While universities and scholarship are fundamentally about the preservation of heritage, they are also about engaging critically – and sometimes irreverently – with history. A scholarly approach to history is to understand its complexity, not to reduce it to one narrative. Universities preserve both the good and the bad of our heritage so that people can learn from it. But when we dismantle that heritage, there is nothing left to engage, to study, or to lampoon.
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If we’re going to remove the Rhodes statue, why not reject all of Rhodes’ inheritance. There are always positives and negatives to a heritage, but why don’t we just demolish the whole damn thing? The entire UCT campus was Rhodes’ property. He donated it. Why don’t we just bulldoze it? Let’s give back his land and his money, and disqualify UCT students from all Rhodes scholarships in future. That would downgrade the institution – appropriately, mind you, to reflect the degraded thinking that takes place there. We’re already going to spend millions removing the statue that could be better spent on bursaries and scholarships.
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The inscription on the statue is the verse titled “Capetown” from a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It reads “Hail! Snatched and bartered oft from hand to hand // I dream my dream, by rock and heath and pine // Of Empire to the northward. Ay, one land // From Lion’s Head to Line!” The statue shows Rhodes sitting on his perch, dreaming of a vast British Empire stretching from Cape Town to Egypt. Of course, we know today that that dream was futile. The British lost. Colonialism ended, failed, and was disgraced.
But that’s the thing – our students don’t get the irony. They don’t understand the joke. They don’t know how to be irreverent, wry, or witty. Desecration without destruction is too subtle for them. Rather than emulating artist Beezy Bailey and dressing the statue as a young Xhosa initiate [as Bailey had done to the statue of Boer General Louis Botha in front of Parliament] or poking gentle fun at their heritage, our students prefer to emulate ISIS and grab a sledgehammer.49 42 Gavin Taylor. “South African women honoured for crusading roles.” Toronto Star, 11 Aug. 2003.
That is why thousands of alumni, are simply gatvol with this ahistorical approach of protesters who narcissistically talk about their black pain, ignorant that thousands preceded them to pave the way for them to have access to better opportunities. There are many students who struggle and who are deeply poor, but who excel against all odds. These are the ones who lament this hideous interference with their studies. No one represents them; they are the silent majority whose rights are subordinate to a minority that increasingly looks more criminal.
[UCT vice-chancellor] Max Price was extolling the university’s massive efforts to accommodate and support black students. When I was a student, one of 9 siblings, my parents could not afford sending us to university. Someone sponsored my education but I charred [worked as a housekeeper] weekends cleaning the home of a white woman and babysat for pocket money. One of my brothers, who is extremely clever, did not qualify for a bursary. He was one of the top matriculants in the country. He was a peer of Zinzi Mandela and the children of other struggle stalwarts who drowned in monetary support from donors locally and abroad. He was nauseated by this knowing how privileged some of his peers were. No one challenges students to work to supplement their income; what about work study on campus; etc etc. What efforts do they [UCT] make to go and assist kids in the townships with their education?56 49 Rhoda Kadalie. “UCT: An ode to Rhodes.” PoliticsWeb, 26 Mar. 2015. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/uct-an-ode-to-rhodes. Accessed on 26 Mar. 2022.
When Afrikaans was forced down our throats by the Afrikaner establishment in the 1970s at UWC, at least we, students, became multilingual and used the very language of “oppression” to liberate ourselves. Yes, we not only shouted “one person, one vote” but also “een boer, een moer.” Our cultural activists turned Afrikaans upside down, producing radical plays, poetry and subversive songs in Afrikaans.
By using sjamboks [stiff leather whips, commonly used by apartheid-era police] against fellow students, the EFF thinks it will smash its way towards the destruction of Afrikaans. But I have news for the EFF — Afrikaans is as durable as English. As a highly developed minority language, respected globally academically for its rapid scientific and cultural development, it will outlive the EFF and all the barbarians who want to destroy it. If students really want an issue, they could start by pressurising government to put money into the development of black languages just like the Afrikaner establishment is doing with their language and cultural festivals.57 50 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 24 Mar. 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153303303680039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Students [at UWC] also assaulted a female security officer whom they held at knife-point and another who was held hostage. UWC’s fire and medical officer had to be rushed to hospital. The wanton destruction and taunting of police have elicited an un-assuaged anger among many of us who have been central in the formation of UWC as a non-racial, non-sexist institution.
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Buses have been torched at UWC; residences set alight; and at Wits and Fort Hare shops were looted and books burned. And so from UCT to Wits protests have spread to other black campuses, either in solidarity with the demand for free education or simply because protesting is fun - especially when exams are around the corner.
Initial claims that the free education campaign would be peaceful, were absolute hogwash. Anyone with common sense would have known that the uncompromising brinkmanship and unwillingness to negotiate with university managements like adults would ultimately end in chaos and violence.
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A direct response to the RhodesMustFall campaign and the dominance of Black Consciousness ideology that spearheaded this movement, it is about political competition with DASO’s ascendancy on campuses across the country.58 51 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook post, 9 Apr. 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153341241695039?comment_id=10153342007785039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
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Academic Rhoda Kadalie has resigned from the Stellenbosch University council because she said it was racist in its appointment of a new dean of the Faculty of Military Science, chosen by a two-thirds majority.
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Kadalie told the Cape Times that Tshehla had been appointed because he was black, despite being unqualified for the position.
“Two candidates were discussed. Two candidates were proposed for appointment. And they chose the weaker one. One candidate is head, shoulders and body over the other.”
Asked whether the council had appointed Tshehla because of his race, Kadalie said: “Yes. Definitely. I understand the need for affirmative action, but you can headhunt someone more appropriate.”68 61 There is some question as to whether “wokeness” is an import from the United States to South Africa, or the other way around. Helen Zille, in her 2021 book #StayWoke: Go Broke, argues that wokeness is a foreign concept. But the “Rhodes Must Fall” movement was noted by left-wing activists abroad, and may have helped to inspire a spate of statue-toppling efforts in the United Kingdom and the United States. In today’s
adopt tactics and rhetoric from each other with relative ease.interconnected world, influences flow in both directions, and activists
I met Glin [Loggenberg] at the Orange Street Service Station, where I regularly buy groceries and fill my car with petrol. He started off as a petrol attendant, then became cashier, and then was promoted to manager of the store. I used to greet him and have casual chats, and Glin would carry my bags to the car.
We started talking politics, and then proceeded to talk about his education. At the time he was studying part-time through Unisa for a BJuris and is now studying for his LLB. As a former academic, I used to encourage him to persevere regardless and kept track of his studies. I shall never forget. Once I promised to buy him a dictionary if he passed his exam. After the exam he told me disappointedly that he had failed. I gave him the dictionary, nevertheless. He could so easily have lied.
Last week, his colleagues at the garage asked me to call Glin urgently. When I called him he asked me if I could write a letter of reference for him in support of his application to be candidate attorney for a law firm in Claremont. That request made my day. Glin Loggenberg epitomises the essence of determination to rise above his circumstances. Working long hours, over weekends and studying at the same time was not easy but he persevered regardless.
Petrol attendants are the lowest-paid workers in the country, with very little labour legislation to protect them. They work under the most unsafe working conditions in the country but through all of this Glin was focused and determined to succeed.”
More than 10 years on, we can justifiably ask what the significance was of convening 40000 delegates to adopt a global platform for action, when conditions for women have since deteriorated and when women in government and Parliament have become as self-serving as the men who govern us; when the maternal mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa is the equivalent of three jumbo jets going down every day?
Have the strategies advanced in Beijing to improve the status of women had any effect in this country? A critical review of 12 areas of concern discussed at Beijing lamentably show that no such thing has happened. The intention to address certain focal areas needed not only substantial resources but political will, which is a commodity feminists always claim they have in vast amounts.
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Just last Thursday, [the television show] Top Billing nauseatingly featured the Queen BEE kugels76 giving a party in honour of President Thabo Mbeki’s birthday and repeatedly thanking him, with no irony, for what he’d done for them and for his inclusion of women in the power echelons of society. And they were right - Mbeki did much to empower a small sector of women through black economic empowerment, through access to Parliament through the proportional representative electoral system and through their co-option on the grounds of vested interests. 68 Rhoda Kadalie. “Kadalie quits ‘racist’ university.” Cape Times, 15 Sep. 2011. URL: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/kadalie-quits-racist-university-1138171. Accessed on 18 Oct. 2021.
This image is wonderfully captured by feminists Amina Mama and Pumla Gqola, who say our empowered women “submit to the patriarchal ‘cult of femininity’”.
Academic theorist Shireen Hassim notes: “Changing inequities in social and economic power will require not just the increased representation of women within the state, but also the increased and assertive representation of poor women within the state, as well as a strong feminist movement outside the state.”
For as long as we have the schism between female protest action outside of the state by communities gatvol [fed up] with poor service delivery, and female inaction in Parliament and government where it matters, the gender question will remain that, a question, and the seizure of power, rather than empowerment, a more promising option.77 69 Tony Leon. Personal communication with the author. 22 Feb. 2022.
I am convinced that most whites who leave do not want to go and that they feel driven out by crime and affirmative action. We forget that it is government’s duty to create the kind of society in which people want to stay and contribute. And there are many who do stay at great cost to themselves. A sound case for affirmative action can be made when properly applied, but when vacancies in the public sector amount to thousands, government has to find ways to seriously stem the tide of current emigration levels.
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Unlike many of us who do not have the option to leave, or who choose the beauty of SA above our safety, others choose life and freedom and I certainly do not blame them for it.80 72 Chris Mingo, quoted by Soyiso Maliti. “Tributes stream in for ‘fearless’ rights champion.” Echo, 21 Apr. 2022. p.6.
“It is so typical of liberals both here and abroad to point out Donald Trump’s flaws and say nothing about Hillary Clinton’s corruption. Yet here Zuma’s corruption is condemned from the rooftops by the liberals. To them conservative equals evil yet they support liberal policies in SA which mostly align with Republican policies except on some social issues. The lack of intellectual engagement is part of the national dumbing down trend that seems to affect so many.”1 73 Rhoda Kadalie. “What Glin Loggenberg could teach SA’s politicians.” Business Day, 16 Nov. 2006. p. 19.
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Can you imagine my disbelief when she called me on my birthday after nine years of silence? In October I went to London, fell on the bus, and fractured my spine. When I returned she phoned again to commiserate. I then wrote her a letter commending her courage and thanking her for breaking the silence after so many years, requesting that we forget the past for Julia’s sake and remain friends. Since then I have been writing to her regularly as though nothing ever happened.3 75 Rhoda Kadalie. “Tax collection in itself really nothing to crow about.” Business Day, 8 Mar. 2007. p. 15.
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Since the retirement of Mandela, South Africa has become a fragile place. The natives (all of us) are restless; citizens are easily provoked; protests erupt in a flash over water, sanitation, housing and potholes; and the ANC Youth League is a semblance of the state of the Party. Increasing vigilantism and necklacing in the townships, the rape of black lesbians, the murder of foreign nationals, road rage, and widespread violence point to a society in deep distress.
We are witnessing chronic break down of authority on all levels; the police are out of control; the highly paid mining and union bosses are out of order; and the unrepresented workers act out when they feel their voices are not being heard. Police action against the protesters was completely out of proportion to their action. Granted, brandishing pangas is illegal but our police should be trained to deal with protests? Where was their riot gear, shields and helmets?
When President Zuma took over from Mbeki, he promised to undo Mbeki’s autocratic rule and take the country on a different course. Alas he has failed and continues very much along the same path.6 78 Rhoda Kadalie. “ANC creates new diaspora with race-based laws.” Business Day, 30 Sep. 2004.
So Bell Pottinger was retained, and given an assignment that initially sounded benign enough: grass-roots political activism intended to help poor blacks.
By the following year, Bell Pottinger was embroiled in a national maelstrom. In TV reports, editorials and public rallies, it stood accused of setting off racial tensions through a furtive campaign built on Twitter bots, hate-filled websites and speeches. All were pushing a highly toxic narrative, namely that whites in South Africa had seized resources and wealth while they deprived blacks of education and jobs. The message was popularized with an incendiary phrase, “white monopoly capital.”
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When Bell Pottinger’s role became public, protesters rallied against the company, both in South Africa and outside the firm’s London office. A subsequent investigation by the Public Relations and Communications Association, a trade group in Britain, ended with the ejection of Bell Pottinger.10 2 Rhoda Kadalie. Diary entry, 2 Sep. 2005.
That ambition to become “something”, despite the many obstacles, was not only personal. It was part of the DNA of the oppressed at the time, not to let racial oppression, poverty, and gender discrimination define us. Because we were denied quality education, many of us used our bad education to study and to use even the very inferior education thrust upon us to beat the Nationalists at their own game. The motivation was no different to what drove the founding members of the ANC in 1912 to form a political movement of resistance against their colonial oppressors, using their missionary education to chart a new way forward.
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But where did these ambitions come from?
Our working class parents nurtured them in us. All they wanted was a better life for their children, believing implicitly that education was the ticket out of poverty.
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Thursday evening killed the ambitions many of our young people might have had to enter into politics. When I ask my daughter if she would ever consider returning to SA, she would mockingly say “You deserve Jacob Zuma, I don’t.” She implicitly blames us adults (who were all a part of the struggle), for allowing the ANC to sink “below sea level”. Frankly, I was not shocked to see Parliament’s descent into anarchy on Thursday.
It was the logical outcome of years of abuse against the opposition and criticism. In this, all sectors of society were complicit. Big business for shutting up lest they be restricted from making deals; civil society for acting as apologists for the ANC for at least the first decade of its rule; and the media for behaving like fifth columns, instead of providing us with the unvarnished truth.
What we sowed, we have reaped, and the fruits are rotten!14 6 Rhoda Kadalie. “A society in deep distress.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from The Citizen, 26 Aug. 2012. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/a-society-in-deep-distress. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
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In an interview last week in Rolling Stone magazine, Donald Trump said the following about you. Quote, “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” Mr. Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. Please feel free to respond what you think about his persona.
To most South Africans the Republican Party in the USA personifies evil. Socially conservative on same sex marriage, abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights, the Grand Old Party is considered anathema, even to our conservatives. But upon closer scrutiny, within the party there are opposing views on these issues and on the economy, foreign policy, education, health-care, and even social policies, SA’s conservatives and some liberals concur with Republican policies. They are either uninformed or hypocritical or both and largely ignorant of their own party’s policies.
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I have had the privilege of attending the CNN Republican Presidential Debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley California on the 16th September. This was the real deal – democracy at work with the intensive grilling of candidates who covet the throne. CNN’s Jake Tapper was ruthless with his no-holds barred interrogation, and although his agendas were as transparent as CNN’s carefully selected audience, the debate was nevertheless exciting. The Republican candidates displayed a diversity of opinion that is often suppressed by the mainstream media, eager always to portray them as a monolithic group, thereby perpetuating old hackneyed stereotypes.
The biggest casualty of this demonization is democracy. Instead of treating opposition as legitimate, the Obama administration assumes a moral authority over this ‘demon’ by increasingly using his ‘executive powers’ to push through ideologically loaded and partisan policies (regarding foreign affairs, immigration, defence, human rights and health-care) instead of consulting with Congress. In this regard America’s democracy is on a slippery slope, but debate still matters. Every utterance from prospective candidates is analysed and scrutinised to the extent that some candidates have already been squeezed out of the race by public opinion. Polls are conducted every day with the public to see how they rate candidates. In this respect, the USA’s democracy still works, unlike ours, where the restrictions on power have been eroded by a liberation party intent on ruling “until Jesus comes.”25 17 Rhoda Kadalie. “The ANC comes to Cape Town.” PoliticsWeb, reprinted from Die Burger and translated from the Afrikaans, 14 Jan. 2015. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-anc-comes-to-cape-town. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Paging through the Hitchens book this weekend Rhoda suddenly speaks out to me from the margins. Her handwriting is clear cursive, urgent, in black pen at first, later blue.
On page 48 is an account of Clinton’s response in 1998 to Native American poet Sherman Alexie who had complained about the living conditions of first nations.
That day, writes Hitchens, Clinton “announced that his grandmother had been one-quarter Cherokee. This claim, never advanced before, would, if true, have made him the first Native American president”.
In cursive Rhoda wrote obliquely in the margin, “Race manipulator of note!”
On the first page of chapter one, titled Triangulation, Rhoda has underlined the sentence “manipulation of populism by elitism”.
That is how Hitchens, Trump, Kadalie and Pollak view/viewed the democratic political establishment. Essentially. At its heart.
Rhoda underlined Hitchens’ take on philosopher Hannah Arendt’s assessment that Stalinism among intellectuals could be attributed to one annihilating tactic.
“Stalinism replaced all debate about the merit of the argument, or a position, or even a person, with an inquiry about motive…When the finger points at the moon, the Chinese say, the idiot looks at the finger.”
Rhoda tried not to look at the finger.27 the-saps-is-useless-and-the-govt-doesnt-care. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.24 Sep. 2014. URL: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/
“I no longer believe in left and right. I believe the world is divided into open and closed societies, and I believe the self-righteous left wing has self-righteous evangelicals who will condemn you to hell if you do not live up to their values and standards.”
Similarly, she reckons the label “alt right” is a stupid name that has no basis in history.30 “If people are going to call me alt right, then I am going to call them alt stupid. Alt delete!” 21 Rhoda Kadalie. “Rhoda Kadalie: South Africa Walks Back Land Reform Proposal After Trump Tweet.” Breitbart News, 31 Aug. 2018. URL: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/08/31/rhoda-kadalie-south-africa-walks-back-land-reform-proposal-after-trump-tweet/. Accessed on 19 Oct. 2021.
She laughed. “I have never been right-wing! Do you know what the problem is? People do not distinguish between being right-wing and being right!”31 22 Rhoda Kadalie. “The bitter fuel that is driving ‘rebels’.” Business Day, ibid.
Academic and founder of the University of the Western Cape’s gender equity unit, Rhoda Kadalie, on Wednesday hailed US president elect Donald Trump’s victory as “good for the world”.
Speaking to News24, Kadalie was vociferous in her support for the controversial Republican candidate.
He beat out Democrat rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
“All I want to say is that ‘I told you so’. For the world’s sake I’m glad that Trump has won.”
She said people had “dumped on” her for supporting Trump.
“They vilified and demonised him and they took their news from CNN and the New York Times, which both support the Clinton Foundation.”
Kadalie described Clinton as “pure evil”.
“Hillary is pro-big capital and Wall Street and this is everything the Americans hate. She is pure evil and she is corrupt to the core.
“She is the equivalent of Jacob Zuma. She has her Guptas and she got her money from crooks and convicted felons,” Kadalie said.33 24 Later, Rhoda had direct access to the views of the American opposition to Obama: Julia and her fiancé (this author) had volunteered for Obama’s Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. In 2009, they became more directly involved in politics, through a series of unusual circumstances. That spring, they attended a lecture at Harvard by Congressman Barney Frank, a Democrat who chaired a powerful financial committee during the global financial crisis, which he blamed on Republicans. When her fiancé (i.e. the author) asked Frank how much responsibility he himself had for the meltdown, the congressman exploded in anger. The exchange was captured by a local television news crew, and went viral. Republicans from Illinois, the author’s home state, urged him to run for Congress against incumbent Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Though unsuccessful, the campaign, with Julia’s help, energized a dormant community of conservative activists in the Chicago suburbs.
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The media, the political elite, and the ruling party love to ridicule President Donald Trump but when he got into power he immediately clipped the wings of the notorious [El Salvador] MS-13 gang that flourished under Obama’s rule and terrorised US citizens.
Heavily tattooed, the motto “Kill, Rape, Control” emblazoned across their bodies, they grew and grew the more the police ignored them.
When Trump took over, he decimated the gang, knowing that unless the police demonstrated a show of strength, MS-13 would flourish. He pushed stringent law enforcement measures against illegal immigration and aggressive and ongoing prosecution of offenders. He did the same with Black Lives Matter.36 27 Ibid.
When I wrote this it was purely speculative given the course of events in the media. But I also knew as a former member of Coucil [sic] that the rash of negative media pertaining to the Independent Media would make Surve’s board memberships at UCT untenable – given their stance on media and academic freedom. When I enquired about statistics demonstrating strides within UCT’s transformation agenda, my official source incidentally told me that “Surve was asked to resign at the next meetings of the UCT organisations of which he was a member.” According to other sources, he apparently did so before those bodies met.40 31 Ibid.
There is nothing worse than an Afrikaner who reckons he is more left-wing than the communists in the ANC. I don’t mind criticism, but I do mind when Basson tries to portray me as an ignoramus for daring to deviate from the research of the SA Institute of Race Relations. Unlike journalists who accept research results as gospel, I dare to question even the SAIRR’s assertions that farm murders are tantamount to pure criminality. To assert I have based my column on no evidence is to undermine my ability to assess events independent of the SA Institute of Race Relations, whose research I question. They must explain to me how they distinguish between general criminality and criminality of a special type.
Since Basson will not enter into a debate, here are some of the questions I should like to pose to Basson, which are also of relevance to the SAIRR. Did the SAIRR conduct victim surveys? If so, how big was the sample? Have they investigated any murders of black farmers – if there are any? Did they interview the murderers? Did they make a thorough study of the nature and patterns of the crime and the modus operandi? Did they consider the notion of genocide based on international human rights law? Does Basson know the distinction between “volksmoorde” and “plaasmoorde”? I think not.
So when Basson says: “I will not publish your ad hominem attack on me in Beeld. There is nothing in your “uncensored” reply that gives me comfort about a factual bedrock on which your wild assertions are based”, I am simply puzzled why some editors of Afrikaans papers are loathe to admit farm murders are crimes of race hate and/or revenge for land dispossession?43 34 Rhoda Kadalie. “Trump, Brexit sagas show cracks in left-wing liberalism.” The Citizen, 27 Jan. 2017. URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/opinion/1409647/trump-brexit-sagas-show-cracks-in-left-wing-liberalism/. Accessed on: 13 Apr. 2022.
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The moribund Gender Commission declares that they will enforce pay parity for women! How about dealing with the dismal position of women in society; the lack of jobs, domestic and sexual violence, femicide, correctional rapes, etc. Pay parity is easy when you do not even begin to address the things that matter. You fat cat commissioners of course would like pay parity, so that you are even more privileged. Close down that Commission and get involved in some structural interventions that matter and that will make a difference. I am sick of the verbiage of these Commissions. They are as useless as the Women’s Ministry - co-opted, silent and ineffectual!47 38 Rhoda Kadalie. “Roberts’s disservice to Mbeki.” Letter to the editor. Mail & Guardian, 15 Jun. 2007. URL: https://mg.co.za/article/2007-06-15-july-6-to-12-2007/. Accessed on 14 Oct. 2022.
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I rejoiced in this victory because Trump’s triumph was possible because he blew the cover of the almighty crooked and prejudiced media. He called them out where they were openly partisan and he dared “talk back” in a society, smothered in politeness, but expert at backstabbing. … Like a master chess player, he knocked them over one by one and the more he unmasked the hypocrisy and partisanship, the more the ESTABLISHMENT attacked him, the more voters were drawn to his side. He defied political correctness, which has become a weapon of tyranny amongst the intolerant LEFT.
This election also demonstrated the deeply flawed nature of polling, how samples are drawn, who draws them, and how conventional methodologies of polling hardly hold any water, with social media, a formidable competitor. Social media, despite Zuckerberg, Google, and Twitter’s pro-Clinton bias, demonstrated the power of citizen democracy and participation. Politics is no longer as predictable as it once was. The pundits and chattering classes are not to be trusted. Prejudice trumped the need for thorough academic analysis as the “power of the movement” swept America. And the failure of the media to conduct in-depth and honest reporting and investigative journalism is a serious indictment if ever there was one.
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The media are weighed in the balance and found wanting. They need an overhaul or a massive purge because with both Brexit and the American election, we have seen that the Fourth Estate is not to be trusted. Fact-checkers are a joke and pollsters are off the wall. My experience of the media throughout this entire election is captured in Will Roger’s [sic] statement: “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for ignorance.”72 63 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 27 Nov. 2014. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10152980680780039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Just because I think Obama wasn’t a good president I get labeled very arrogantly by DA members who defected from the ANC and DA supporters generally and disillusioned ANC members as being rightwing. This from people who live opulent lives in SA’s elite suburbs and who know nothing about my life and what I do and where I come from. Political arrogance is the hallmark of these liberals who think they are Left but who have no capacity for self reflection or analysis or to open themselves up to evidence that challenge their partisanship. They so easily label others to make themselves feel great because their choices have so obviously failed or not lived up to expectations.73 64 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, comment. 13 Jan. 2022. URL: https://bit.ly/3EhuS9u. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Anti-Fascist Action movements, Black Lives Matter, Media Matters, among other left-wing groups, are supported financially to undermine a political regime that refuses to be beholden to Wall Street.
To boot, the mega-wealthy George Soros has been accused of funding many of the recent antidemocratic and anti-Trump protests, many of which turned violent.
As a former recipient of his largesse, I am appalled to see what happens under the guise of “open society”, often in alliance with other big donors.74 65 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 22 Jul. 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153607028260039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
The Washington women’s march after Trump’s inauguration was the most egregious display of the mindless emotional responses to a Republican backlash. It displayed the most fundamental ignorance of Dem supporters about the role of opposition in any democracy; the legitimacy of a president elected by the people and for the people; and that opposition is a constitutional mechanism to hold governments accountable.75 66 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 5 Jul. 2015. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10153567339095039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
“Am gonna spend the rest of my life with the Adorables in Santa Monica.”1 71 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 9 Nov. 2016. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10154823574495039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
My father was a pastor on the Cape Flats. When he died in 2011 my mother put a beautiful marble tombstone on his grave where she would also be buried. My mother and I chose the tombstone and it gave her much pleasure to have it installed. When she died 8th December the pastor siblings had the stone removed to have her buried in the same grave. They did not have the stone professionally removed as we were led to believe and on a recent visit we discovered a grave that was busy collapsing. When we called the undertaker that they chose he said that he had the tombstone and would install it in two weeks. Today my sister and my mother’s friends found the tombstone on someone else’s grave, the engraved pillars with my father’s name had been hacked off.2 72 Rhoda Kadalie. Draft column for The Citizen. 11 Nov. 2016. Personal files.
I went to bed at 2 am, struggling to refine a column. Before I went to bed I heard Paul [her brother] shuffling downstairs. At 3:50 am I woke up to the sound of creaking floor boards. I lay immobilised for at least 3 mins as the sounds became more and more real. I got up walked to the passage & saw a man in a crouched position on the carpet in the foyer of the sitting room. He wore a khaki beanie and khaki-ish jersey. I screamed, he ran to my bedroom, I smashed the door in his face! Pushed the panic button; opened the door again realising that the door key was on the outside. Face to face with him, I grabbed the key, smashed the door in his face & locked myself inside the bedroom. I opened my bedroom window, contemplating to jump but I knew I would damage my legs for life so I screamed Help! At least 20 times until I saw windows going on and people appearing. Marthine [a neighbor] shouted to me to throw out the key. I shouted that key was in the sitting room. Giving intruder a lot of time to plan his escape. He knew police could not get in. By some adrenaline rush I remember that my spare key was in my bag. I threw it out the window & neighbors police & Chubb [private security], piled in. The intruder had come in through kitchen window. He escaped thru kitchen window again. Police shouted loudly that they would not search area, had no torch, were just useless. They told me that 40 mins before a similar incident happened at 88 Ritchie Street where an 11 yr old boy was terrorised by “cat burglar.” The guy is an absolute pro — did not disturb the scale, walked past me while I was asleep, etc. Whole experience reduced me to jelly, a dysfunctional pulp.
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I leave Impumelelo with great sadness not only for the enormous resources we have built up over the decades, but also for the formidable network of award-winning social entrepreneurs that have become friends and partners of Impumelelo. To extricate myself from that network is indeed difficult and sad. I wish to thank the Board of Trustees for their sterling support to me as executive director and my colleagues since inception. To the Impumelelo team I owe a deep sense of gratitude for making my success also their success.16 7 Rhoda Kadalie. Post on Facebook, 26 Feb. 2016. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10154085092900039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
My heart breaks to lose you physically in this space. You have contributed so, so much to what and who we are. I have always loved you dearly even when we might have disagreed. You are principled and fearless, you are a pioneer ... you are a wonderful mother and I understand that you must now go and be a wonderful grandmother. This country is the poorer for our losing you. You have been an inspiration and a mentor as well as a friend and while we may not have seen enough of each other your presence was always reassuring for me.
I shall miss you ... and shall continue to be inspired by your bravery. One day, if either of my gorgeous daughters becomes a writer, which I pray they do not, I will urge them to write about you.
Love to all, look after yourself and bon voyage on this new and exciting journey in your life.18 9 Chris Mingo, ibid.
We have both been extremely proud of all that you have achieved and what you have become and it has been a pleasure knowing you and your family. You have always been very generous towards us and we were always very grateful that we could entrust our children to you and know that they were well cared for and loved. Thank you for all that you did for us and for all the things that you have given to us.
You will be greatly missed by your many friends and admirers in Cape Town. Whenever and wherever we were with you people would come up to you and greet you with affection. We shall miss you Rhoda and wish you everything of the best in the new phase of your life. Stay in touch and let us know how you get on in America. Please send us your contact details when you have them.19 10 Julia Preston. “Program Benefiting Some Immigrants Extends Visa Wait for Others.” New York Times, 8 Feb. 2014. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/program-benefiting-some-immigrants-extends-visa-wait-for-others.html?hp&_r=2. Accessed on 21 Oct. 2021.
While I fully understand your motivation – to be close to your family and lovely grandchildren – I always saw and still see you as an integral part of SA ‘s vibrant civil society.
You will be missed very much – not only by your friends but also by people who might have differed with you in the past.
Your frank and outspoken personality has always made an impact in debates and inspired me personally.
The combination of a sharp mind and a genuine care for Others is rare.21 12 Ibid.
You will be missed for your sharp, incisive, sometimes too straight-forward tongue or pen ... that was far mightier than the sword.
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The Americans are going to love you ... hate you and enjoy you ... their gain. Your family [are] going to enjoy ... the wise words of grandma. Mum who has transcended culture, race ... gender and class ... a true human being!22 13 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 22 Dec. 2017. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10156134603145039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Her response to me after the visit made for one of the most special memories that I will always treasure and carry in my heart and will stand out forever. Here I was — a white woman, and even worse, an Afrikaans woman — coming from a privileged background versus Rhoda, a liberal political activist that has been wronged and oppressed by the system for years, and she makes me feel appreciated and validated. Especially in a time when the cultural group that I belong to, were made to feel useless, disposable and to be blamed for all that goes wrong in this country.
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You have been a wonderful mentor, critic, friend, and soulmate to so many in this room.24 15 Rhoda Kadalie. Letter of Resignation as Trustee from Molteno Brothers Trust. 6 Jan. 2018. Personal files.
My emigration deadline looms and while I’m preparing everything for freighting let me thank you for the wonderful friendship we have developed and enjoyed over the few years I know you. You have become a true and loyal friend that I shall miss enormously. Your energy and commitment laced with your contrarian humour attracted me to you so that I feel I’m losing a sister on my way out the country. So if you need some intelligent conversation with a brain-dead granny please write.
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May God bless you richly in your service to Grabouw’s children. There is no greater privilege than to serve our children.25 16 Rhoda Kadalie. Letter of Resignation as Executive Director from the Impumelelo Social Innovations Centre. 15 Oct. 2017. Personal files.
Before I leave I must thank you for initiating a conversation with me sometime ago that blossomed into a very special friendship of mentorship, support, understanding and love over the short period I have gotten to know you. Already a deep bond exists that is irreplaceable, forged by similar origins, similar job experiences, similar irritations and dissimilar tastes! You were led to find me by Divine providence.
Wie sal ek bel om te ontlaai? Om te skinder? Om net plain nasty te wees26 without being judged? I shall miss you enormously and I hope distance will be no barrier. 17 Rhoda Kadalie. Letter to Marianne Thamm. 20 Jan. 2018.
***
Dear grany
thank you for bieing the best grany in the whole intier world. every thing you do helps me lern.
you alwase stik up for me. and you help me with my math, Play with me and wosh my hair properly. and do everything that helps our family.
ador and Love Maya
heartface
Black Uber driver: what part of India are you from?
Me: I’m not Indian. I’m South African classified coloured under apartheid.
Driver: why do you say that? You’re definitely Indian. If not then you must have Indian blood.
Me: my paternal grandfather was a Malawian who married a Malay woman from the Cape. My maternal grandfather was white who married a brown woman like me.
Driver: I studied anthropology and would love to trace your family tree. So why are you here?
Me: I’ve emigrated from SA a year and a half ago. My daughter lives here and won’t return to SA. I have two grandchildren.
Uber driver: what does she look like.
Me: she’s a mongrel like me. Her father is German. Her husband is White American from Chicago.
By this time we’re almost at Alexander’s preschool.
Uber driver: whoa I’m dying to see what that grandson looks like.
We get into the car.
Uber driver: wow he’s white and blonde BUT I love the curly hair. The curly hair is proof of mixed ancestry.
We reach our destination and the uber driver anthropologist regrets the end of the conversation.
So it goes every day. Guessing where I’m from!30 21 Christina Teichmann. Letter to Rhoda Kadalie. 15 Jan. 2018.
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Current events in the USA have left a diehard protest-pickled person like me, speechless. As someone bred by UWC and UCT, I thought I had seen it all. I have worked in the heart of Cape Town Adderley Street for decades where protests from PAGAD to COSATU were commonplace. I have seen and participated in many protests. I have witnessed looting, arson and vandalism of every size and shape. Fees/RhodesMust Fall campaigns revolted me. I have borne the brunt of the Thought Police in academia, the media and the many committees on which I served, but I have never felt silenced in the country of my birth. By the time I left SA to settle in the USA in 2018, I never thought that soon I’d witness a Cultural Revolution in the Land of the Free.
George Floyd’s tragic death at the hands of a white cop unleashed a sinister backlash that has caused death, destruction, carnage and mayhem the likes the USA had never seen before. The unfortunate shooting of Rayshard Brooks on the 12 June, added fuel to the fire. Santa Monica where I lived until a few months ago is a cozy little coastal town of intimacy and flair. But two weeks ago, it lost its virginity. Boarded up after looters arrived targeting the attractive stores on Third Street Promenade, smashing everything in sight, it is unrecognisable. As the looters moved further away from the ocean, the destruction morphed into pure wantonness as young boys grabbed electric guitars and other expensive musical instruments in broad daylight from music stores. Unaffordable designer sneakers and jewellery suddenly seemed valueless as marauding savages moved from one store to the next stealing whatever their hearts desired. They smashed the Kumon School attended by my grandchildren; they looted the store next to my grandson’s pre-school. No one stopped them. No one investigated who these kids were, obviously transported into neighbourhoods where they did not live.
My grandchildren could not internalise what they saw in the town of their birth, where their happiest memories were nurtured.
How does one explain to children the carnage?
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Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other radical groups were spoiling for a fight a long time ago but their bête noire, pun intended, President Donald Trump, gave them no reason to rebel, what with a soaring economy and low unemployment figures, the most they could do was call him the usual – racist, misogynist, bigot, Hitler, Nazi, etc. He was the first President in recent decades to craft policies to improve the lives of African Americans, not least The First Step Act, targeting criminal reform, providing funding for historically black colleges/universities, reducing unemployment to the lowest rate for African Americans, and creating opportunity zones for black people and so on. The substantial increase in black support for him in the upcoming election has so rattled the Democrats that when the dreaded video of Floyd’s murder went viral, they rejoiced. With their armed wing of extremists, they finally found their cause.
…
The sudden and groundswell support for BLM and their surrogates was music to the ears of the Democrat. And as a decades-old race-hustling party, they embraced these guerrillas with open arms, who are just so much better at using race to put every sane person on edge. It matters not that current statistics prove that considerable police reform had taken place over the past decades. … And by the way, President Trump today (16 June) just signed an executive order on additional police reform. But then, logic and rationality were never the hallmarks of revolutionaries.
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With their newfound power, BLM squeezed white guilt to the maximum, witnessed on our television screens as white supplicants sought the forgiveness of the guerrilla warlords, demonstrating BLM’s supernatural powers against which not even the Catholic clergy can compete.
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The more people genuflect before BLM, the more repressive their Cultural Revolution. Intoxicated by the smell of power, they view their purges as righteous, jettisoning reason and rationality as easily as underwear. Neighbours who self righteously post their BLM posters on their fences feel virtuous; social media warriors brand their sites with the ubiquitous black box; conservative news websites are censored and some shut down in cooperation with Google; and no longer are those who dare to dissent persecuted but also those who refuse to speak are branded equally guilty with epithets like “silence is violence.”
Hitler’s Brown Shirts as well as Mao’s Red Guards, reincarnated as BLM and Antifa, are destroying historical relics, artifacts, and cultural and religious sites with impunity. Bizarrely, their Marxist strategy to mobilise all the levers of cultural power to attack the levers of state power has worked, and broadly supported by the illiberal left. They are immune from criticism and anyone who dares do so, is accused of hate speech; worse, many have lost their jobs for daring to expose BLM for the farce that it is, not least academics, purged for simply calling out their tyranny. Former Guardian journalist, Melanie Philips, eloquently calls this, the ‘totalitarianism of virtue”. With the millions of dollars thrown at them by the virtue-signalling celebs and big business, BLM now behaves like the very guerrillas they have always aspired to be. The barbarians are inside the gates, they’re large and in charge.40 31 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 9 Nov. 2019. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10157924183410039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
I have travelled to the USA regularly over 30 years and have now lived here since 2018. True to form the Democrats resurrect racial politics months prior to every election to the point of nausea. Their slavish instruments BLM and white-dominated Antifa play the race card dangerously close to destroying the glue that keeps the United States of America together. Highly paid, these champagne socialists have nothing to complain about, except act out their nihilism for having achieved nothing in their lives.
Yesterday I was at a party where I told local friends that these anarchists have no idea what systemic racism is, that their struggle, in fact, hankers after segregation again.
I began to tell them about my experience of racial discrimination in SA where it was systemic. They were shocked, had no idea what the substance of apartheid was, and how it permeated every aspect of our lives.
I MENTION THIS MERELY TO REMIND ADHERENTS OF BLM THAT LIFE IN THE USA IS A FAR CRY FROM WHAT PEOPLE ENDURED FOR DECADES UNDER SYSTEMIC RACISM IN SA.
THE USA IS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A COUNTRY OF SUCH INNOVATION, RESOURCES, WEALTH, PROMISE, PROGRESS, OPULENCE, DIVERSITY, CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES. WITH ALL ITS FLAWS, AND THERE ARE MANY, IT EXPLAINS WHY THE WORLD EMIGRATES TO ITS SHORES. SHOUTS OF RACISM AROUND EVERY TURN IS [sic] THE LAST REFUGE OF THE SCOUNDREL AND ARE USED TO KEEP BLACK PEOPLE IN A PERMANENT STATE OF VICTIMHOOD AND WOUNDEDNESS. THE EASIEST WAY TO TRANSFORM THESE NIHILIST ACTIVISTS IS TO DUMP THEM FOR A WEEK IN A SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP SO THEY CAN SEE REAL POVERTY, HUNGER AND CRIME.41 32 Robert Goff. Interview 25 Feb. 2022.
The Democrats and their Cultural Czars are united in their determination to rid the country of the Orange Man. The Russian Collusion charges proved untrue; the Mueller Investigation failed; the Ukraine debacle was a hoax; and the Impeachment Trial was the biggest farce of the century, so whoever you are, dig and dig, until you find something that sticks.
Terrified that Orange Man will reveal more and more skeletons from the Democrat closet, the panic in Washington DC is palpable. Trump’s opponents are dropping one bombshell after another as a last ditch effort to make him disappear. The more popular the president, the more hysterical the plots and the polls. The more robust his achievements, the more frantic the efforts to dig up dirt.
Regardless, the Democrats continue. Why? They know that the lapdog mainstream media (MSM) will do their bidding. The MSM no longer report news; they manufacture news. They play an active role in dividing the country into two opposing factions exposing this democracy for what it has become - a bastion of dead liberalism, the language of loyal opposition, even deader.43 34 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 6 Sep. 2019. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10157727385140039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Flowers from a stranger who knocked on our door today thanking us for our courage for displaying a Trump sign. COURAGE - In the Land of the Free where people are terrified to disclose whom they are supporting. In this leftwing suburb where we live, the silent majority is rearing their scaredy little heads honking their car hooters in solidarity with us. A neighbour going for a walk told me that she is a Closet Republican so she admires us for being open about our support. Nothing grates [on] me more than political harassment, intimidation and intolerance. In this culture of fear, I bet that if I were unaffiliated, I would deliberately vote for Trump just to defy the lefty fascists, the Cancel Culture, the Wokerati!45 36 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 12 Dec. 2019. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10158030655525039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
The November 3 election has just passed, but is inconclusive. The Mail-in Ballot system confirms every suspicion Trump and the general public might have had as to the reliability of this exercise. But the capacity for cheating is why Democratic leaders pushed for this form of voting so vociferously. It was the nexus at which COVID-19 and Mail-in Ballots would meet, changing the face of American elections. Biden’s message of COVID-19 deaths was used to justify balloting by mail.
On election night as the votes were counted and called, suddenly, when Trump’s votes started surging in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, election officials incredulously called it a night. Immediately thereafter Trump went on the news declaring that he would file a lawsuit to block any votes that came in afterwards. Sure as hell, votes curiously came in on the morning of November 4, and suddenly Trump and Biden were neck and neck. Trump’s lawyers appeared on television informing the nation that they were investigating illegal ballot votes, voter fraud, and opaque vote-counting practices …
If Trump loses, it will be a stolen election in full view of the public. … The larger-than-life rallies in support of Trump, boat flotillas and vehicle caravans that stretched up to 91 miles long attested to his popularity.
Should Trump lose, America will, alas, go back to its usual, fetid, Washington, DC swamp politics.46 37 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 29 May 2020. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10158639389385039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
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Democrats have threatened retribution to those who supported Trump and are calling for re-education and deprogramming camps. The party that pretends to stand for dignity and unity, doxxes Trump supporters; their names are emblazoned across social media by the hysterical media, seeking revenge against those who “enabled” him. Not skipping a heartbeat, histrionic Pelosi announced Impeachment. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Trump’s forceful removal from office. The Wall Street Journal’s entire board called for his resignation. Big Tech, at the urging of the self righteous Michelle Obama, join hands with powerful political forces to ban Trump and his followers, Facebook promising to cancel Trump for life. Publisher Simon and Schuster initiates the cancelling of Republican Josh Hawley’s book, ironically titled, The Tyranny of Big Tech. Prominent Republicans are put on a No-Fly list and already ordinary conservative citizens are thrown off airplanes in a country where flying has become a mode and means of production. And so it goes.
The Reign of Terror has begun. The crackdown on civil liberties is unprecedented. Robespierre rejoices in his grave because the left has resurrected his spirit. If one thinks China has a state-run media; America has a media-run state.
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As shocking as the storming of the Capitol was, and as tragic as the deaths of five people are, it revealed serious fault lines between the governed and those who govern. The latter was enraged that their inner sanctum was desecrated. The word “mob” came to take on a new meaning – the dregs of society who dared to encroach on their safe space. Far removed from the people, one member summed up the divide succinctly when she exclaimed on TV, something like: “I didn’t know the enemy is within.” If anything, they should have understood the anger of the people. Disenfranchised, discredited and vilified for four years, the people have just had enough, the very words with which Trump opened his speech. During the summer BLM and Antifa destroyed 1500 businesses, destroyed cities and 30 people were killed during their violent riots, all lauded by senior Democrat politicians, Senator Kamala Harris insultingly raising funds to bail out all the rioters. Add to that the thousands and thousands of businesses shut down due to coronavirus, then one can understand the anger. Covid lockdowns, the destruction of small businesses while big businesses are thriving, and the tyranny of Democrat mayors and governors in policing their every move vis coronavirus, have all disempowered citizens so much that Trump seemed to be the only hope of protecting them against the bulwark of tyranny.
Senior Democrat politicians and media czars egged on the riots, yet they call the breaching of the building an “insurrection”:
Democrat-inspired riots led to the tearing down of statues, burning of books, including the Bible, banning of movies, art and music, censoring speech, cancelling people, suppressing freedom of speech and thought, and punishing dissenting voices. This is what Communists do, and America is well on their way there.
Apropos the storming of the Capitol: if you think South Africa has a Third Force, the USA with its powerful institutions, has a Third, Fourth, and Fifth force!49 40 Rhoda Kadalie. Column, Maroelamedia, reprinted in Post on Facebook, translated from the Afrikaans, 22 Jun. 2020. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10158728240580039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
Dis wel moeilik om te verstaan dat iemand wat haarself vir die bevryding van vroue en spesifiek swart vroue beywer het, Kamala Harris die Demokrate se ‘aanvalshond’ wat bereid is om haar siel te verkoop, noem, of verregse standpunte ondersteun.54 45 Rhoda Kadalie. Comment on Facebook, 25 Oct. 2020. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10159073834765039. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
[It’s hard to understand that someone who has campaigned for the liberation of women and specifically black women, calls Kamala Harris the Democrats’ ‘attack dog’ who is willing to sell her soul, or support far-right views.]
Gouws behoort teen hierdie tyd te weet dat ek, as ‘n feminis, haar verknegting aan identiteitspolitiek en haar oortuiging dat alle swart vroue in wese engele is, verwerp. ... Te danke aan my pigment is wit skuld nie my probleem nie. Dit is ’n siekte wat ongelukkig die politieke liggaam besmet het tot op ’n pad waar daar geen omkeer is nie. Deur swart mense oor te laat aan ’n permanente stand van slagofferskap, walg Gouws se rasse-deurdrywing ’n mens.
[Gouws should know by now that, as a feminist, I reject her obsession with identity politics and her belief that all black women are essentially angels. ... Thanks to my pigment, white guilt is not my problem. It is a disease that has unfortunately infected the body politic to a point where there is no turning back. By leaving black people to a permanent state of victimhood, Gouws’s racial drive disgusts one.]55 46 Rhoda Kadalie. “2020 USA election: How did it come to this?” Litnet.com, 6 Nov. 2020. URL: https://www.litnet.co.za/2020-usa-election-how-did-it-come-to-this/?fbclid=IwAR3VUfLeKBSDdBe7y339FKd_EqXI_q7wPzgcOi83RYnEggoGjqWBaqga72A. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
The question remains, why is the USA acquiescing to this epoch of destruction when McCarthyism in the 1950s and the Weather Underground in the late 1960s nearly destroyed America’s body politic. People were blacklisted, ostracised, kicked out of jobs for being labelled communist. More curiously, why is America allowing itself to be sucked, yet again, into another vortex of tyranny and socio-political authoritarianism when it knows the end result will only lead to further division?57 48 Grace Panetta. “Former White House advisor Peter Navarro says Mike Pence hung up on him as he was pitching a plan to steal the 2020 election.” Business Insider, 5 Jan. 2022. URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-navarro-says-mike-pence-hung-up-on-his-election-stealing-pitch-2022-1. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
The destruction of the family is directly linked to BLM’s elevation of queer and trans people to the top of the totem pole; the banning of gender-specific nouns and pronouns attest to their attempts at destroying the family; people are cancelled for stating that reproductive functions are peculiar to women; children are taught about homosexuality and transgenderism at school. No longer are these issues the preserve of parents, but teachers have now become crusaders for BLM’s sexual revolution.58 49 Rhoda Kadalie. “Capitol Hill — uit ’n ander hoek.” Maroelamedia, reprinted in Post on Facebook, translated from the Afrikaans, 18 Jan. 2021. URL: https://bit.ly/3WKFftL. Accessed on 28 Mar. 2022.
“More than being a political icon (a word she abhorred) she was a friend to many, a raconteur of note, who entertained us around her dinner table with laughter that lasted late into the night.” - Rhoda Kadalie, on Helen Suzman1 54 Ibid.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JULIA. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING” - Rhoda Kadalie, one of her last public Facebook messages2 55 Rhoda Kadalie. “In reaksie op Amanda Gouws se ‘Menings Moet Opp Feite Berus’.” Maroelamedia, 28 Jan. 2021. Translated from the Afrikaans via Google Translate. URL: https://maroelamedia.co.za/debat/meningsvormers/in-reaksie-op-amanda-gouws-se-menings-moet-op-feite-berus/. Accessed on 17 Aug. 2022. Rhoda’s original English draft was slightly different: “Gouws should know by now, that as a feminist I repudiate her enslavement to identity politics and her belief that all black women are intrinsically angels. … To the woke Amanda Gouws blackness equals goodness. Thanks to my pigment, white guilt is not my problem. It is a disease that regrettably consigns blacks to a permanent state of victimhood, enhancing the power of race hustlers like Gouws.” Post on Facebook, 28 Jan. 2021. URL: https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.kadalie/posts/10159325822515039. Accessed on 17 Aug. 2022.
to granny rhoda
Dear granny I hope you get better soon and I love you so much. Love Alex.
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28 Mar. 2022.
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