Listening to the silent majority

[p. 135]

[100]

This accent on proper education turned up everywhere. Godfrey Mokgogane, Pitje, the doyen of black lawyers, spoke of it in extenso. I asked him whether it was difficult for black students to become lawyers. ‘It used to be,’ said attorney Pitje. ‘It's better now. Today, it's more a question of finance, whereas there was a time when there were restrictions on blacks entering the universities. Now, it's easier, in the sense that there are now also black universities that are especially for them. There has also been a relaxation on entering requirements for black students into white universities. I think, at present, most of the white universities in South Africa would accommodate black students.’

I asked him whether he had children. ‘Yes, my son Legwai Pitje has been now at the Bar for eight years and thus is the longest-serving of black advocates. The Johannesburg Bar is the largest in the country and has 381 practising members. Six of these are blacks. The number will soon double, because another 6 pupil advocates are in training. So, my son is the oldest black advocate in Johannesburg,’ he said with pride in his voice. ‘Are you worried about your children's future?’ I asked Pitje: ‘Yes, naturally I am worried, with things as they are. But, at the same time, when I look back at the past, when I was young, I have to be optimistic and feel that freedom is at last perhaps around the corner.’ ‘And not by means of a bloody war?’ I asked. ‘Hopefully not. Nevertheless a bloody confrontation between blacks and whites should not be excluded as a possibility. As much as our government attacks outside interference by the United States, Great Britain or Holland, and so on, I do think that it makes a difference what the outside world thinks and does. I also think that the government is going to release Nelson Mandela, and in part they will do this as a result of pressures from the outside.’

‘Are you then also in favour of the boycott and disinvestment?’ was my next query. ‘Yes, I am,’ said attorney Pitje. ‘Do you feel also that Royal Dutch Shell should leave South Africa?’ ‘Yes, I do,’ answered this one-time colleague and friend of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. ‘For a long time,’ he said, ‘Holland was closely associated with South Africa, because our original settlers were from your country. But, the South African government, by its own actions, caused the present rift between this country and Holland.’

I do not often make a speech when I am interviewing, but here I inter-

[p. 136]

vened of sorts. I said to Mr Pitje that I was in agreement with the argument that redundant and unforgivable mistakes had been made by the South African government over the past decades. ‘But, I am far from convinced that the rift with the Dutch, once upon a time perhaps your closest friends in the world, is solely and entirely the fault of the South African side. In a way, South Africa is not only the last former colony in the world, it is the last overseas territory with which Dutchmen had much to do. Holland hardly withdrew gracefully from the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch fought two bloody so-called ‘post-wars’ until they had to give up under international pressure, mainly from Washington, that threatened to withdraw postwar Marshall Plan financial assistance unless Indonesia was liberated and Sukarno installed. Remember: Sukarno was our Mandela at the time. Now, the Dutch, who have nothing to lose any more in the world, at least as far as overseas territories are concerned, clamour for freedom for South African blacks. Holland is even in the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement. The Dutch have short memories indeed. They themselves tried every trick in the book to withhold freedom from Indonesians, after Sukarno declared independence on August 17, 1945. In the Republic of Surinam, the Dutch didn't fare much better. Relations between the Hague and Paramaribo are, in 1989, at their lowest ebb for many years. Now Holland displays a holier-than-thou attitude towards similar problems in South Africa. Dutch politicians of various persuasions advocate the boycotting of South African coal for the entire European Economic Community. How does this assist blacks in obtaining their freedom? The Afrikaner is basically a stubborn man, who vividly reminds me in more than one way of some of the full-bred Dutchmen I know, or have known, in my lifetime. How would the withdrawal of Shell possibly advance the rightful cause of blacks in South Africa in order to get their basic rights honoured by the white establishment? Frankly, in my view, the rift between Dutchmen and Afrikaners in the seventies and eighties is essentially a temporary, and rather ordinary and vulgar, family quarrel, the way they occur in the very best of families as well. Some Afrikaner mindsets towards blacks in 1990 are where the Dutch found themselves in 1945 vis-à-vis Indonesians. We had our signs in segregated swimming-pools in Jakarta in the forties: ‘Forbidden for dogs and Javanese. Now, the time has come for intelligent South Africans to work these problems out between themselves, that's all.’

[p. 137]

Attorney Pitje: ‘Its interesting, what you have just said, but then, one argument runs, sanctions increase black unemployment...’ I replied. ‘They do, don't they?’ Pitje: ‘Yes, but blacks have always been out of jobs.’ ‘All the more reason, I would say, not to make the matter worse. Because you and I are only talking about black suffering. Listen to what the black bishops and churchmen in Crossroads have to say about that.’ ‘In all the talk about sanctions,’ maintained attorney Pitje, ‘people deliberately overplay the angle of unemployment. A few years ago, when influx controls and regulations were still in operation, you just needed to walk in certain Johannesburg streets, and you saw for yourself, on a daily basis, how many people were unemployed. There were literally thousands of blacks without jobs and nobody worried about them then. But, today, it's being presented as an urgent issue. There has always been this kind of unemployment, you mentioned.’

I reflected ‘Desmond Tutu said recently, “the people are with me”, but I found in black townships, when I was filming in them in 1988, as well as during my current investigation, strong opposition to disinvestment,’ and I recounted some of my experiences, amongst others in Crossroads. ‘The people of Crossroads are entitled to be against sanctions,’ replied attorney Pitje. ‘You see, I am not as much in favour of the boycott as an economic weapon, but as a political tool to pressure the government towards more speedy reform. That the government now does move on hastening the legitimate rights of our people under the threat of further sanctions and disinvestment directly follows the increased and stepped-up measures all over the world against this country. When hundreds of American companies withdrew from South Africa, the government felt it. There is no other way. That is why Royal Dutch Shell should leave too.’ That the government needed prodding and pressure to move on reforms obviously was an argument with a strong and valid component. Attorney Pitje further stressed, ‘The companies that have stayed, like Shell, Philips, bmw, Mercedes, Sony, Toyota and so many others overemphasise unemployment of blacks and say nothing about the huge profits they are making or how their companies would be affected by even more sanctions. Why don't they say honestly, “Sanctions will bring unemployment, and it will also bring a further shrinking of our business, and it will therefore directly have adverse effect on our operations, and last but not least, on our company profits”?’