By Kerwin De Matas
Apartheid and the BEE..... My intention is not to bring skeletons out from the closet. But being here in South Africa and Namibia, and not really understanding this concept that presented itself to me many years before, I just wanted to know exactly, what it meant.
Let's start whilst I was in elementary school. My teacher picked me to represent my age group in a local reading competition, I was eleven. The text prepared for me was understood by the judges, and was portrayed very well. Now came the time to read the text presented by the judges. Everything was going great, until I came upon the word, "Apartheid"..... for the first time.
I don't know what happened, I just froze. Though my vocabulary was good even then, and my teachers prepared me very well for this event, not for the life of me could I pronounce this word, I never saw or heard of it in my life!
Following this reading competition, I recollected myself afterwards and I did ask my teacher what the word meant, I never got a satisfying answer, and I promptly forgot about it. This was until I got into high school, and had a little project to prepare on Nelson Mandela. Internet did not exist in those days, but I was lucky that our home had the Encyclopedia volume. That did not help though since, yes, I loved reading, and could understand text, but it was complex, and unfortunately back then, my discipline for intense study was quite low, and even though I knew something of the drama being unfolded in South Africa during the 90's, my interests were elsewhere, it was not my business.....
That was then....This is now.
Finally, here I am where it all took place, and discovering how little I knew about apartheid. Look, to fully understand what happened here, one would had to have lived the experience or, a visit to the Apartheid museum.... So, that is what I did, umm, not the experience, but the museum....
Lord, put a hand!
To go into depth about what I learned or saw in that museum, would mean a booklet, and trust me, no one wants to read a booklet from an unknown author on a blog!
Therefore I will keep it short and sweet...
My thirst for knowledge on this particular subject kept me in that museum for up to four hours, and I wasn't going to leave until I was done summarizing this topic... This is what I gathered.
This entire scenario comes down to colonization again, and by whom? Our good friends, the British Empire! According to my observation, what they did in India was something very similar, along the same structure and infrastructure, except that the English were prepared to tolerate the Indians, allowing them to sit on Parliament, and for them to have a certain amount of say on the running of their own country. Mind you though, they were still not considered as being on par with the Brits, and were repeatedly reminded to know their place. After a very long colonization period though India managed to obtain, against all odds, their independence with very little violence.
Good, South Africa's system was almost similar yet different, meaning that racial segregation was present during the Dutch occupancy, and then continued even after the British won the Boer war. This strange concept of Apartheid however, existed as an official policy after it was introduced following the general election of 1948. This whole Apartheid business started with the intention to allow the different ethnic groups in their majority to live in different regions away from the whites, but then ended up being petty apartheid which simply stripped a person of their pride, and which created social injustices that were too hard to believe. What ever way you want to look at it, apartheid was apartheid! It was racism in any form.....
South Africa was a country of four different ethnic groups more or less, and with signs all over stating where people of White, African, Indian, and Chinese descent were to occupy, and what services they were entitled to. Usually the three latter ethnic groups fared the worse.
During apartheid, South Africa was to be known as the country of signs, they were plastered all over!
Now these groups were also obligated to go around with certain authorized pass books 24/7, stating their colour, and the reason for them being in certain zones of the country...In short these people, of whom many were fluent in Afrikaans as their white counterparts, lost their citizenship, and the right to move around freely.
This little girl in the middle was honorary
white because of her parents in photo.
They lost their housing and what ever property they had to the white people; They got paid a lot less than the whites; and most times they were restricted to areas not occupied by white people. There were even petty situations where two pay phones stood side by side for example, one for people of other races, and one for white people.... Really extraordinary.
What shocked me I guess was learning that Japanese and and few Coloured people were honorary "whites" as stated on their pass cards during apartheid. Then following apartheid, some of these same people were suing to be considered black so that they could benefit under the new BEE system.
Okay, so where am I going with this?
South Africa and Namibia eventually fought against Apartheid in the only way that was possible...violence!
Finally after years of being treated unjustly, South West Africa which is now Namibia, and South Africa, got their independence in 1990 and1994 respectively, can you believe that?
My education at Senior Comprehensive School was almost at an end, and I was living every democratic right in a free country.... When I saw and remembered how us Trinbagonians could well play the ass, and using racial slurs on our fellow countrymen like, "curry mouth"," coolie", "chinee eye", "tin pan", "nappy head", "niggarati".....nonscence like that.
For us that was "ole' talk", just another way to rile up or to tease another person, whether in joke or in a serious argument. I mean after taking each other for granted in sweet T&T, sometimes I felt we needed a wake-up call!
Now after all that the people of South Africa and South West Africa (though in Namibia it wasn't as pronounced)went through, and experienced, the new democratic government decided to address the inequalities of the Black, Indian, and Chinese peoples by first of all deeming them disadvantaged citizens.This now disadvantaged sector were now to benefit from all the inequalities they experienced during apartheid in the form of BEE (Black Economic Empowerment).
First of all, it was a terrible shame what the Dutch and English did in the years before to protect their status, and level of living in the societies they colonized, they could not do these things on their soil, and so they had a free for all in other countries.
What do I think?
This BEE initiative for me is extreme, I am sorry, but it is just "Tit for Tat", taking away from the previously advantaged people to give to the previously disadvantaged people. If I had lived in South Africa during that period, I would have suffered as well, since over here I am described as a "coloured". Could this initiative be of any good when now you have the previously advantaged classes experiencing the raw end of the stick? I don't think so, rather, malice would only be higher than before....On both sides!
It is hard some times to forgive, really it is, and who would know better than myself. But I think that the once disadvantaged people should have shown the people who subjected them to all these atrocities that, " Look, I am a much better person that you ever were, I can work hard for what I want, and I do not need to lower myself to your standards. I will also show you that I could treat you better than you treated me!"....... Easier said than done? Of course, but it could have been done.....
This BEE initiative is embarrassingly obvious, and if I had to receive something under this initiative which is not my own, and told by the authorities that I should keep it because I deserve this as compensation for how I was treated.....then you know what? My hands will stay clean. Properties returned to me fine, but otherwise, forget it.
I mean look, all the public services were revamped, lots of people got fired to make way for the disadvantaged people..... Properties confiscated and given away to disadvantaged people, all of these actions done under a brand new democratic government.
Just think about this BEE initiative, or even better, read up more to understand it.
In some ways the BEE initiative does help when assisting new entrepreneurs from the disadvantaged groups in starting up their projects. It is only fair that the disadvantaged groups receive this type of assistance, since the advantaged groups benefited in high scores from apartheid where now an important percentage of them are now business owners, or successful Afrikaner farmers.
Therefore this for me is empowerment, giving much needed assistance to the people from the disadvantaged groups an opportunity to move forward, where before this would not have been heard of, at all!
But the "Tit for Tat" business is never doing to be supported by me. Again, I do not want to be misinterpreted. What the Dutch and the English started, to protect their assets and asses, was just unthinkable.
On the other hand South Africa, which is rich with both culture and gold, could never be unified with all these clauses in this BEE initiative being what they are after apartheid.
Do not get me wrong, this country is simply beautiful, and is a must see, really.
Namibia? I enjoy being here so much, for me Windhoek is in a class of its own...it is so peaceful.
But, this was my two cents concerning what took place, and what is continuing to take place on this part of the continent of Africa.
So, until my next post, take care, bless.....
Apartheid and the BEE..... My intention is not to bring skeletons out from the closet. But being here in South Africa and Namibia, and not really understanding this concept that presented itself to me many years before, I just wanted to know exactly, what it meant.
Let's start whilst I was in elementary school. My teacher picked me to represent my age group in a local reading competition, I was eleven. The text prepared for me was understood by the judges, and was portrayed very well. Now came the time to read the text presented by the judges. Everything was going great, until I came upon the word, "Apartheid"..... for the first time.
I don't know what happened, I just froze. Though my vocabulary was good even then, and my teachers prepared me very well for this event, not for the life of me could I pronounce this word, I never saw or heard of it in my life!
Following this reading competition, I recollected myself afterwards and I did ask my teacher what the word meant, I never got a satisfying answer, and I promptly forgot about it. This was until I got into high school, and had a little project to prepare on Nelson Mandela. Internet did not exist in those days, but I was lucky that our home had the Encyclopedia volume. That did not help though since, yes, I loved reading, and could understand text, but it was complex, and unfortunately back then, my discipline for intense study was quite low, and even though I knew something of the drama being unfolded in South Africa during the 90's, my interests were elsewhere, it was not my business.....
That was then....This is now.
Finally, here I am where it all took place, and discovering how little I knew about apartheid. Look, to fully understand what happened here, one would had to have lived the experience or, a visit to the Apartheid museum.... So, that is what I did, umm, not the experience, but the museum....
Lord, put a hand!To go into depth about what I learned or saw in that museum, would mean a booklet, and trust me, no one wants to read a booklet from an unknown author on a blog!
Therefore I will keep it short and sweet...
My thirst for knowledge on this particular subject kept me in that museum for up to four hours, and I wasn't going to leave until I was done summarizing this topic... This is what I gathered.
This entire scenario comes down to colonization again, and by whom? Our good friends, the British Empire! According to my observation, what they did in India was something very similar, along the same structure and infrastructure, except that the English were prepared to tolerate the Indians, allowing them to sit on Parliament, and for them to have a certain amount of say on the running of their own country. Mind you though, they were still not considered as being on par with the Brits, and were repeatedly reminded to know their place. After a very long colonization period though India managed to obtain, against all odds, their independence with very little violence.
Good, South Africa's system was almost similar yet different, meaning that racial segregation was present during the Dutch occupancy, and then continued even after the British won the Boer war. This strange concept of Apartheid however, existed as an official policy after it was introduced following the general election of 1948. This whole Apartheid business started with the intention to allow the different ethnic groups in their majority to live in different regions away from the whites, but then ended up being petty apartheid which simply stripped a person of their pride, and which created social injustices that were too hard to believe. What ever way you want to look at it, apartheid was apartheid! It was racism in any form.....
South Africa was a country of four different ethnic groups more or less, and with signs all over stating where people of White, African, Indian, and Chinese descent were to occupy, and what services they were entitled to. Usually the three latter ethnic groups fared the worse.
During apartheid, South Africa was to be known as the country of signs, they were plastered all over!
Now these groups were also obligated to go around with certain authorized pass books 24/7, stating their colour, and the reason for them being in certain zones of the country...In short these people, of whom many were fluent in Afrikaans as their white counterparts, lost their citizenship, and the right to move around freely.
This little girl in the middle was honorary
white because of her parents in photo.
They lost their housing and what ever property they had to the white people; They got paid a lot less than the whites; and most times they were restricted to areas not occupied by white people. There were even petty situations where two pay phones stood side by side for example, one for people of other races, and one for white people.... Really extraordinary.What shocked me I guess was learning that Japanese and and few Coloured people were honorary "whites" as stated on their pass cards during apartheid. Then following apartheid, some of these same people were suing to be considered black so that they could benefit under the new BEE system.
Okay, so where am I going with this?
South Africa and Namibia eventually fought against Apartheid in the only way that was possible...violence!
Finally after years of being treated unjustly, South West Africa which is now Namibia, and South Africa, got their independence in 1990 and1994 respectively, can you believe that?
My education at Senior Comprehensive School was almost at an end, and I was living every democratic right in a free country.... When I saw and remembered how us Trinbagonians could well play the ass, and using racial slurs on our fellow countrymen like, "curry mouth"," coolie", "chinee eye", "tin pan", "nappy head", "niggarati".....nonscence like that.
For us that was "ole' talk", just another way to rile up or to tease another person, whether in joke or in a serious argument. I mean after taking each other for granted in sweet T&T, sometimes I felt we needed a wake-up call!
Now after all that the people of South Africa and South West Africa (though in Namibia it wasn't as pronounced)went through, and experienced, the new democratic government decided to address the inequalities of the Black, Indian, and Chinese peoples by first of all deeming them disadvantaged citizens.This now disadvantaged sector were now to benefit from all the inequalities they experienced during apartheid in the form of BEE (Black Economic Empowerment).
First of all, it was a terrible shame what the Dutch and English did in the years before to protect their status, and level of living in the societies they colonized, they could not do these things on their soil, and so they had a free for all in other countries.
What do I think?
This BEE initiative for me is extreme, I am sorry, but it is just "Tit for Tat", taking away from the previously advantaged people to give to the previously disadvantaged people. If I had lived in South Africa during that period, I would have suffered as well, since over here I am described as a "coloured". Could this initiative be of any good when now you have the previously advantaged classes experiencing the raw end of the stick? I don't think so, rather, malice would only be higher than before....On both sides!
It is hard some times to forgive, really it is, and who would know better than myself. But I think that the once disadvantaged people should have shown the people who subjected them to all these atrocities that, " Look, I am a much better person that you ever were, I can work hard for what I want, and I do not need to lower myself to your standards. I will also show you that I could treat you better than you treated me!"....... Easier said than done? Of course, but it could have been done.....
This BEE initiative is embarrassingly obvious, and if I had to receive something under this initiative which is not my own, and told by the authorities that I should keep it because I deserve this as compensation for how I was treated.....then you know what? My hands will stay clean. Properties returned to me fine, but otherwise, forget it.
I mean look, all the public services were revamped, lots of people got fired to make way for the disadvantaged people..... Properties confiscated and given away to disadvantaged people, all of these actions done under a brand new democratic government.
Just think about this BEE initiative, or even better, read up more to understand it.
In some ways the BEE initiative does help when assisting new entrepreneurs from the disadvantaged groups in starting up their projects. It is only fair that the disadvantaged groups receive this type of assistance, since the advantaged groups benefited in high scores from apartheid where now an important percentage of them are now business owners, or successful Afrikaner farmers.
Therefore this for me is empowerment, giving much needed assistance to the people from the disadvantaged groups an opportunity to move forward, where before this would not have been heard of, at all!
But the "Tit for Tat" business is never doing to be supported by me. Again, I do not want to be misinterpreted. What the Dutch and the English started, to protect their assets and asses, was just unthinkable.
On the other hand South Africa, which is rich with both culture and gold, could never be unified with all these clauses in this BEE initiative being what they are after apartheid.
Do not get me wrong, this country is simply beautiful, and is a must see, really.
Namibia? I enjoy being here so much, for me Windhoek is in a class of its own...it is so peaceful.
But, this was my two cents concerning what took place, and what is continuing to take place on this part of the continent of Africa.
So, until my next post, take care, bless.....
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