SNUKI ZIKALALA: SA must stop cabal’s ‘make apartheid great again’ call

For the ANC, the struggle for nonracialism and justice has been a lodestar across generations, inscribed in every policy document and voiced in every campaign since the founding of our mother body in 1912.

This yearning for a flourishing, just and equal society became the cornerstone of our post-apartheid constitution, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority of the 490-member Constitutional Assembly on May 8 1996.

The same document recognises the injustices of the past and compels all South Africans to honour those who suffered for justice and freedom, to heal the divisions of the past. It commands us to improve the quality of life of all citizens. It recognises that justice cannot be achieved without undoing the wrongs of the past. The ANC has unfailingly taken on this task, including the systematic evolution of constitutionally sound legislation for the Expropriation Act, signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on January 23.

It is therefore unfortunate that a small group of right-wing South Africans, many of whom are direct beneficiaries of the ANC’s legacy of nonracialism, are doubling down on denigrating black South Africans and provocatively trashing our hard-won, 30-year-old, nonracial democracy.

We believe this white-supremacist cabal does not represent the majority of whites, nor the majority of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, who happen to be so-called coloured and therefore not included in this AfriForum-Solidarity diatribe. Black South Africans, whatever their mother tongue, have remained excluded from the white world of generational wealth accumulation and preservation of disproportionate privilege and access to land.

Colonialism and imperialism, the divide-and-rule of segregation policies and the ill-gained advantages of apartheid not only secured, but embedded, the land and wealth acquisitions the right-wing cabal now seeks to protect with demands of self-determination and cries of minority protection.

As the architects of the new SA we therefore object to this “torch commando” abusing the nomenclature of “Afrikaner” to give credence to what is essentially an exclusive white right-wing voice seeking to preserve apartheid privileges received through the racist nationalism of Malan, Strydom and Verwoerd, who envisaged a future for black South Africans as mere hewers of wood and drawers of water.

While the ANC has recognised the obligation for all laws to pass the muster of our constitution, and while we subject ourselves to the Constitutional Court, this right-wing cabal parades its ethnic chauvinism on a world stage, which is unfortunately becoming more receptive to their claim of victimhood.

We are witnessing a changing international order, with the rise of far-right racist radicalism in Europe and the US, as demonstrated by the most recent election results in France, the US and Germany, with the resurgence of white nationalism. We watch with horror as young and old revisionists leading anti-women, anti-black, anti-migrant, anti-diversity, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim campaigns destroy the social fabric of the world’s oldest democracies.

The ANC Veterans League believes these threats require us to take the lead in building and supporting a wide array of alliances locally and internationally against rising right-wing supremacism. Replying to the state of the nation address debate in parliament, the president issued a powerful call to action, urging all political parties, civil society groups and citizens to unite and join the government in building an inclusive, equal and fair SA.

Locally, the ANC in government should rally its partners in the government of national unity (GNU), social partners and civil society behind the policy and legislative programmes of the ANC-led government, which seek to implement our democratic constitution. The national dialogue is an opportunity to do this.

Internationally, we can use the Group of 20 (G20) to reach out to like-minded countries to resist the US’s unilateralism and imperialism and reassert the need for a multipolar world that subscribes to the values enshrined in many UN charters. The Global South generally, and the African continent in particular, must unite around progressive values while asserting our sovereignty against any possible imperialistic incursions. Special efforts must be made to strengthen the Brics+ bloc as a bulwark against imperialism.

We believe we should use the opportunity of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter to build social cohesion among freedom-loving South Africans against this frightened minority who endorse MAGA — “make apartheid great again”. We need to show that SA truly belongs to all who live in it.

• Zikalala is president of the ANC Veterans League.