Listening to the silent majority

[80]

Returning to my talk with the four mayors and ex-mayors in the Carlton Hotel, Messrs Botile, Nkatlo, Radebe and Tekwane, I suggested a national all-black referendum to elect representatives to the proposed Great Indaba, which should decide on the future of South Africa. It had become clear to me beyond any doubt that blacks in both Group I (within the system) and Group II (outside the system), were sick and tired of the government still selecting and deciding which blacks were suitable to represent the masses. That is not how the ball bounces in 1989. Blacks are almost unanimous on this vital point: they, and no-one else, will have to decide who may speak in their name.

‘Forget about your idea of a referendum,’ I was told by the four black leaders who could be classified as moderates belonging to Group

[p. 102]

I, ‘It won't work. The UDF will never agree to a referendum. They are simply going to intimidate people once more, that's all. A lot of people in this country are losing their belief in God, because of what is happening to them. It is quite clear what is happening. The moment you move away from your own traditions and customs, you will be encountering difficulties. Technically, man can do whatever he likes. But we should also have moral codes. When people run amok, as is happening now so often in our townships, it is because they face lots of problems alien to them. When one moves away from one's roots and principles, primal and ancestral roots, then the trouble really begins.’

Mayor Tekwane, also headmaster of a secondary school: ‘Today's children ask questions that were wholly unthinkable some generations ago. They don't blindly accept any more what they are being told by their elders. For them, there must be a valid reason for why things happen or don't happen. They no longer passively accept their fate, as some of their elders perhaps have done. Of course, there are no easy answers. They want leaders and they don't really have them. They observe that a number of black intellectuals want to negotiate with the government. They want to understand why. Take a closer look at the schools. There you find practical examples of what is on the minds of black children in this country. Our townships are educational institutions, or call them schools, within their own rights. Here, you can truly learn about public opinion in black South Africa. You have got to listen as headmaster or as mayor to all kinds of people. In my functions you truly meet all kinds of characters.’

Tekwane: ‘Black youths are very sceptical to expect anything positive from whites outside the townships, because they do not really sit down and truly listen to them. Nobody seems prepared to take the time to study how blacks in this country deeply feel and think, or make an effort to understand what is on their minds.’