August, 2008
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DAVID BROKENSHA ~ FISH HOEK NOTES AUGUST, 2008
Since
we came to live here, exactly nine years ago this month, I have been
reasonably optimistic about South Africa. I am now not so sanguine about
the future, but at my age I have no intention of leaving,. Some close
friends are considering “Plan Bs”, just in case they feel
obliged to leave, which is depressing.
I agree with Andre Brink, who , when asked if he would think of emigrating
– as his fellow well-known South African author J M Coetzee did
- wrote that, despite the callous murder, during a robbery, of his loveable
great-nephew, he would stay : There is no society in the world without
challenges, trouble or danger, but there is an urgency and an immediacy
about living in South Africa that lends it a sense of involvement and
relevance and significance I cannot readily imagine elsewhere .
Apart
from factors which I have mentioned previously – Mbeki’s
positions on Zimbabwe, and on AIDS - there are many other threats.:
-The frightening increase in violent crime;
-An inefficient judicial system , with few convictions;
-Attacks on the judiciary, and by implication, on the Constitution;
-Widespread corruption, nepotism and gross inefficency;
-Extreme application of affirmative action;
-The prospect of Jacob Zuma, presently president of the ANC, becoming
president of South Africa;
-The worrying and widening gulf between rich and poor;
-Dysfunctional health and education systems;
-Failure to deal with the millions (exact numbers are unknown) of migrants,
both legal and many illegal –and the recent zenophobic attacks.
-The inability to tackle the “land question”.
-The bitter in-fighting in theANC, and the unseemly struggle “to
get at the trough”. (Brink wrote that the myopia and greed
of the country’s new regime of rats have eroded my faith
in the future.)
Max
Price, at his installation this month as Vice-Chancellor of UCT ( the
University of Cape Town), said that he feared for the increasing fragility
of our fledging democracy…….free speech, free press, judicial
independence and socio-economic rights are increasingly under threat.
Debates on race and transformation are often the camouflage for these
attacks.
Here
are two items to supplement my summary above:
The vague and ominous draft Expropriation Bill gives the Minister of
Land Affairs power to expropriate (land, and other property) if it is
deemed to be “ in the public interest”.
Judge Hlophe, the Judge-President of the Western Cape Division, is alleged
to have tried to persuade two judges on the Constitutional Court to
decide that Jacob Zuma’s trial for corruption should be dismissed
because it is politically motivated - by Mbeki’s faction in the
ANC, which is trying to block Zuma becoming president. If true, this
is a serious ethical lapse.
Given
the prevailing uncertainty about the next few years, please excuse this
fragmentary and muddled report.
SPORT
After several humiliating defeats by Australia and New Zealand in tri-nations
rugby, the media seized on (An Olympic Silver Lining) South Africa’s
only medal in the 2008 OlympicGames – Khotso Mokoena’s
silver in the men’s long jump. Our swimmers failed to do as well
as they did at Athens in 2004.
School
rugby
Bernard’s niece Chris and I watched a “social”
rugby game, a team of Rondebosch Boys School Old Boys vs the School
2nd XV. Two points interested me: first, Chris’ husband, Dave
(at age 58 he was on the field briefly) and their eldest son, James,
both played for the Old Boys, and their younger son, Andrew, was in
the school team. Near us on the stands were the schoolboys, including
many boys of colour. ( I know that the phrase “of colour”
is clumsy, but in this case it includes African, coloured and Indian
boys). In contrast to UCT, where there seems to be still a social segregation
based on race, the boys seemed to be well integrated, teasing and joking
with each other. Boys of colour resembled the white boys in being shambling,
untidy, loud adolescents – which, I suppose, is a welcome indicator
of integration. At UCT, African students are neater in appearance ,
and less boisterous in behaviour, than their white counterparts –
or so it seems to me, on my infrequent visits to UCT.
BITS
AND PIECES
Roadside
hawkers.
When I drive to the Overberg, to Appelsdrift Farm, I pass
through the town of Somerset West, where (like Santa Barbara, until
recently) several sets of traffic lights (robots in South Africa) delay
vehicles on N2, the national road. Hawkers offer items for sale at the
first lights; each time I pass , one set of items is on sale, this changes
regularly. Last week five items were offered by about 20 young African
men : oranges; catapults; Rubik cubes; world maps; Springbok rugby sweaters.
“End of interesting fact”, to quote Bernard.
Symphony
concerts.
I now go to the rehearsals in the mornings, instead of the
concerts at night, and I have enjoyed observing the relationship between
the various conductors and the orchestra. Last week, a talented female
Hungarian pianist and an Ukrainian conductor were the principals, in
a rewarding programme. This enables me to avoid night driving, and is
cheaper (Rand 20 vs Rand 150). With diesel now costing Rand 11.60/litre
(80P/litre, or $5.70/US gallon) I will go by train in future, the main
Cape Town station being only a short distance from the grand Edwardian
City Hall.
Old
friends.
I was delighted to receive an email recently from Christopher
Ireri, who as a schoolboy had helped Bernard and me in our fieldwork
in Kenya, in the early 1970s. Robert Chambers, the political scientist/development
expert, had been in Kenya last month, and had visited “the Ena
House”, the grand former residence of the local manager of the
British-American Tobacco company , where we had lived for several periods,
and where Robert and his wife had followed us. Robert found Christopher
(now teaching at the local primary school) and his family in occupation,
and gave C my e-mail address. C. wrote : I am sorry to learn that
Bernard died and left you so lonely…….Some 33 years ago
I participated in some of your assignments, which made me happy and
I seriously worked for their perfection…this opened my mind beyond
what we were doing in school then. I remember Christopher clearly,
as a bright, efficient and always cheerful 16 year-old, and this despite
his coming from a poor family, with a hopeless alcoholic father.
Other voices from the past have called out – Anne Fleuret, my
first Ph.D student at UCSB, 40 years ago, is now on her last posting
for USAID, at Abuja, Nigeria.; Frank de Caires, whom we met 20 years
ago when he was working as a VSO (volunteer) in Togo, is now, with Chitra,
his wife, running an NGO in New Delhi.
Mandela
Stamps.
The
commemorative stamps that were issued in July for Nelson Mandela’s
90th birthday sold out immediately (though more were printed). I took
this as a good sign, because most of the buyers would have been whites,
confirming that Mr.Mandela remains our primary icon, and our most popular
figure.
Afrikaans.
At
the annual Cape Town International Book Fair, I noticed the abundance
of Afrikaans titles, in all genres, including children , religion, gay,
DIY, self-help, guidebooks and travel….
Travels.
I
had a splendid trip to UK and “the continent”, from late
March until early June. An illustrated report is available on my website
at : http://www.brokiesway.co.za/safari/index.htm.
This has whetted my appetite for travel, and I am planning to make another
Round the World journey, starting in July 2009, visiting the Shetlands
(staying in Agnes Klingshirn’s cottage); Caithness; Manchester;
most of August in the Bachmuths’ Kennington flat; Florida to see
my niece Robin and her family, other locations in the U.S; New Zealand,
where I have several friends; possibly Hong Kong and New Delhi, and
home. It is good for me to have something so wonderful to look forward
to.
In the meantime, I anticipate, with much pleasure, a series of visitors
, some of whom will be on their first visit to South Africa, so I will
have the pleasure of introducing them to my troubled but beautiful and
rewarding country.
Brokie’s
Way.
At
last I have found a distributor who will help me to sell my stock of
700 books. I will not be making much money, but I look forward to finding
more readers. The whole book is online at : www.brokiesway.co.za/book.htm
.
I was greatly encouraged at the Wordfest at the National Arts Festival,
in Grahamstown, in early July, when a Rhodes University anthropologist
( whom I do not know) wrote a marvelous review. I treasure especially
this sentence: the narrative provides insights into the life of an ordinary
homosexual couple of their generation that, in their dignified way,
would do more for the recognition of gay rights among the likely readers
of this book than a hundred gay pride marches. And his conclusion :
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys biography, but is also
looking for something out of the ordinary.
DWB
August, 2008.
NB.
The next series of Notes dated April 2009 are accessible by clicking
here. |
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