I visited New Zealand in 1994, just before the apartheid government was dismantled. I went to supper in Wellington with a local couple who entertained me at their kitchen table and got me to sit in a chair facing the kitchen door. On the back of the door was a large cartoon of a black man, tied down like the man in Gulliver’s Travels, by the apartheid government. I applauded them for making a statement.
Now here we sit in 2022 with the Ukrainian people being tied down metaphorically in the same way black South Africans were, except the Ukrainians are being blitzed, bombed and slaughtered in an all-out war. It is pure hypocrisy that a government that fought a “liberation war” can’t side with the oppressed and fails to admonish the clear aggressor. I guess we are not the only ones who have failed the Ukrainians, but I am sure this position doesn’t reflect the view of the majority of South Africans.
We are about to experience unaffordable fuel prices, food inflation, shortages and a collapse of local and global monetary markets and asset values, all because of a warmonger we can’t bring ourselves to criticise. We will enjoy the fruits of our complacency as we get out the ropes to tie ourselves down again.
Andy Clay, Via email
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