PREFACE
Over the years Pietermaritzburg’s daily newspaper, The Witness, was kind enough to publish my opinion pieces and the occasional feature article. For a while the former appeared in the series ‘New Ground’, along with the excellent writing of Nina Hassim, Suntosh Pillay and Chris Chatteris amongst others. Sadly, that arrangement came to an end in 2008 but by that time I had left the University of KwaZulu-Natal and was working in the editorial department of The Witness.
From time to time readers suggested that some pieces might warrant a wider audience. In early 2012 I was invited to talk to a group at the Cathedral of the Holy Nativity on a topic of my choice. The centenary of the ANC was in full swing and a couple of months earlier Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu had made an emotional attack on the party over its appalling policy on Tibet, reminding it in no uncertain terms of the role faith organisations had played in the liberation of South Africa.
Tutu’s memorable outburst and the growing hold of a bland, official version of the country’s recent history seemed good reason to highlight in my talk the contributions made by the many strands of thought, and organisations other than the ANC, that had contributed to the struggle. Having turned back to nearly a decade of contributions to The Witness to construct my talk, the idea of a publication emerged.
Its main purpose is to demonstrate that South Africa is in danger of accepting a monochrome view of the past, one dominated by a particular ideological tendency. The truth is very different. In the struggle against oppression of various types many people and groups of widely differing backgrounds and beliefs made a significant contribution. Whatever the ANC may want to believe, South Africa is a highly pluralist, diverse society. And if this is ignored, or suppressed, the country has an uncertain future. Since liberation, South African history has been treated by many just as certain Americans greeted the end of the Cold War: as if history itself had come to an end with one interpretation of the past and one version of the future.
The over eighty opinion pieces and feature articles reproduced here in 73 sections are identified by their original titles and dates of publication and edited lightly to account for the passage of time. Where possible, a reference or two provides an opportunity for those interested enough to follow up the topic. The arrangement is broadly chronological by decade; the hope being that the articles will follow a general historical progression regardless of when they were actually written and published. Some of the articles were jointly written with comrade and colleague Nalini Naidoo. I am as grateful for her permission to reproduce her work as I was for the original opportunity to work with her on significant historical topics.
Thanks are due. In particular I would like to thank Shelagh McLoughlin, features editor of The Witness who recruited me as a regular columnist in 2002. Five years later when I joined the staff of The Witness, the Editor, John Conyngham, was equally supportive and collegial. Consistent encouragement has come from Christopher Saunders, my thesis supervisor in Cape Town, Colin Tatz in Sydney and Douglas Booth in Dunedin, who over the years suggested that I should disseminate my writing more widely. Colin provided this book’s title. More recently I have received similar encouragement and support from Nithaya Chetty and Andre Odendaal with both of whom I have co-authored books. To them all, and readers who have provided me with feedback, I am indebted.
Christopher Merrett, Pietermaritzburg, December 2017
CONTENTS
PART ONE: BEFORE APARTHEID
- 1 John William Colenso: human rights activist?
- 2 Edendale: kholwa identity and survival
3 Natives Land Act: pariahs in their own land
PART TWO: THE 1950s AND 1960s
4 A charter for freedom
- 5 New Age: two newspapers, same name, different times
6 State of Emergency, 1960: the onset of a police state
- 7 Robert Sobukwe: intellectual and charismatic leader
8 Ruth First: martyr for a free South Africa
9 Tsafendas, Verwoerd and a tapeworm
- 10 Dennis Brutus: beacon of the sports boycott
- 11 Basil d’Oliveira: South Africa’s first genuine cricket captain and the politics of sport
12 Gary Player and Helen Suzman: dealing with power
13 Liberal Party: the persistence of principle
PART THREE: THE 1970s
14 The Durban strikes: changing the face of industrial action
- 15 Soweto: a grassroots uprising
16 Stephen Biko, Black Consciousness and individual empowerment
17 Unity Movement: puritans of the anti-apartheid struggle
18 Aurora: confronting apartheid on the cricket field
19 Richard Turner: philosopher activist
PART FOUR: THE 1980s
20 Neil Aggett: medicine, trade unionism and altruism
21 United Democratic Front: making history and leaving a mixed legacy
22 The Weekly Mail and the struggle for press freedom
23 State of Emergency, 1986: arbitrary arrest and detention
24 Mpophomeni: seeds of the Natal Midlands conflict
- 25 Detention without trial: abuse of human rights as state strategy
26 Detainees’ hunger strike: the power of the powerless
27 Black Sash Advice Office: witness to racism and apartheid bureaucracy
28 BESG: working and building with and for the people
29 David Webster and the death squads: victim of his own research
30 Trust Feed massacre: securocrats and mistaken identity
PART FIVE: THE 1990s
31 Seven Day War: a series of unanswered questions and closing a painful chapter
32 Buthelezi, Inkatha and the persistence of censorship
33 Luthuli and Buthelezi : a tale of two books
34 Umkhonto we Sizwe: guns, pens and the rewriting of history
35 Cricket boycott betrayed
36 Chris Hani : enigma of the struggle
37 Stoking the myth of revolution
38 Liberals, liberalism and the exercise of power
39 Crimes against humanity and white amnesia
40 The denigration of history
41 Tony Leon, the Democratic Alliance and capital punishment
42 Pietermaritzburg’s dirty war and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
43 The Truth Commission: unfinished business
44 Mandela, secular sainthood and rugby matches
45 Mandela: the long walk ends
PART SIX: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
46 It’s all in the label
47 Political opposition: Chihuahua or watchdog?
48 Undermining the prospect of the rainbow nation
49 The re-racialisation of South African society
50 Fear and self-censorship: enemies of academic freedom
51 Street renaming and airbrushing of history
52 Legalism, bureaucracy and poor governance
53 Corruption: a betrayal of trust
54 Leaders, national institutions and moral decline
55 Sport, political agendas and racial quotas
- 56 Athletics South Africa: tragedy and farce
57 Orwell’s Animal Farm in South Africa
58 Party, state and public institutions
59 Laugh It Off: taking on the corporates
60 Globalisation: re-engineered capitalism and the South African response
61 Targeting the Press in a democratic South Africa
62 Democracy under threat in the new South Africa
63 Revolt in the townships
64 Caster Semenya: real and imagined victim
65 ‘What is to be done?’: the rise of ethnic nationalism and the stalling of the two-stage revolution
- 66 FIFA World Cup, 2010: colonialism returns to South Africa
67 Sport, community and the betrayal of the anti-apartheid movement
68 Standing up for the Constitution in the face of anarchy
69 Anger in the workplace and a widening wage gap
70 Public service and individual conscience: Wouter Basson and Sheryl Cwele
71 Heroism and a partisan history
72 A nation in mourning
73 COSATU and the revival of workerism