Listening to the silent majority

[124]

Ephraim Tshabalala, President of the Sofasonke Party, responded when I asked him whether freedom would be possible for blacks in South Africa without further bloodshed: ‘Violence is one way to freedom. Most blacks in South Africa now are free, although they don't see that they are free. There are certain places in which you could say that people are still oppressed. But now I can go to any hotel in the country. If I want to take a white woman, nobody will be in my way. When you work, you are free to spend your money where you want. Blacks can shop in Soweto, but nobody will stop them from shopping in Sandton. What can stop me in South Africa from doing what I want?’

Mr Tshabalala (80) continued, ‘The only thing I am unhappy about is that blacks still receive a different education from whites. And the other sad thing is that blacks have no free-holding land rights. If I should want to invest in land, I cannot. Why should I have a 99-year lease? In old times under presidents Hertzog and Smuts, when the Union Jack was still flying, only Indians and Asians could not invest in 99-year-leased land. All blacks and whites could purchase land without a lease. You could buy whatever you wanted. Then the Nats came in and said no, we blacks could no longer buy land without a lease. The same for education. Under Hertzog and Smuts, education was organized from one department, still under the Union Jack. Our real troubles in South Africa began when the Afrikaners got into power. They also pulled the “nannas” (nuns) away from the reserves, the townships and the homelands. Next, they put more police forces in the townships and the homelands. “Nannas” fulfilled many tasks in the old days. They assisted when babies were born in the townships. When kids were growing up during those days, there was no fear from blacks for whites. But then, Afrikaners began to enforce apartheid. Before, our children sometimes be-

[p. 179]

came 18 years old prior to ever having seen a white man. Today, when black children see a white man, they project the face of a white policeman. That is what they have now in their heads. Everywhere else, in Swaziland, Botswana and so on, a white man in the minds of blacks is just like you and me.’^113.

Tshabalala continued, ‘It would be better to go back to the old system and bring the churches back into the townships instead of the police. Then people will get accustomed again to whites in a normal way, like before. This is how I see it. Of course, I was born under the Union Jack. Since then, up to now I have seen what happened in this country. Young blacks who want to go to university are presently being sent back to school for one or two years, to properly qualify for entry to the university. This delays progress, not only of the black community, but of the country as a whole.’

113. I doubted this statement, but accepted that Mr Tshabalala was expressing his personal opinion