Listening to the silent majority

[38]

Moeketsi Shai: ‘Let me deal with the question of sanctions, which aim at hastening the process of reform and speeding up liberation. Take a closer look at our struggle. In 1910 the Union was formed. In 1912, the ANC came into being. Those were the years our struggle began against oppressive laws of racism. In 1948, when the Afrikaners got into power, the struggle intensified. The people understood very clearly that the Afrikaner was here to stay and would exert his influence. In 1954, the Bantu Education Act was passed. What had happened? You saw the build-up of apartheid education. But blacks were resisting these schools. Teachers refused to teach apartheid education. Some took their pupils into the “veld” and conducted classes outside the schools. Why? Because the struggle was already getting more and more pronounced. Take 1960, when Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military arm of the ANC, was formed. The struggle was gaining a new dimension. The armed struggle had begun. And this development continues until today.’

Even the sanctions debate is basically a matter of intelligence. Margaret Thatcher expressed her view to Willem Wepner of the South African

[p. 46]

paper Beeld as follows: ‘Opposition to punitive sanctions against South Africa often is misrepresented as support for apartheid. That is simply nonsense. Apartheid is contrary to my whole philosophy, which is that people should be able to live where they like in their own country, exercise their full democratic rights and advance according to merit, not the colour of their skin. The reasons I oppose further sanctions against South Africa are clear. I cannot think how you can hope to make things better by making them worse. General sanctions would put large numbers of black South Africans out of work permanently, would create immense hardship for their dependents and would be likely also to have disastrous effects in the neighbouring states. They would not make the South African government more responsive to the need for change, and would instead contribute to internal polarisation and violence. I find it very difficult to see how that could help the cause of those struggling for positive change in South Africa.’ Mrs Thatcher continued, ‘I believe that South Africa, like all other countries, has the capacity to change in the future... I believe, if courageous reform steps are taken, it will be possible to look forward to a very different future in which all South Africans can play their full part and live peacefully together. As for the white community, they have an indispensable part to play, both now and in the future. It is not only that the Afrikaners have deep roots in South Africa and have helped to develop the agriculture, industry and infrastructure to the stage it has reached today. It is essential to preserve and build on what has been achieved and in that regard as in others the white community has a vital role to play.’ I always wondered what the influence could have been on the structuring of Mrs Thatcher's mind by the mere fact that she studied chemistry. The same thought occurred to me when listening to the common sense and intelligence displayed by Moeketsi Shai, who teaches mathematics and physics, and deals in computers.