Thousands of South Africans took
to the streets of the country’s major cities in April to demand the resignation
of President Jacob Zuma after the country was downgraded to junk status by two
credit rating agencies. The first march was held on 7 April and the second
march, which was organized by the opposition parties was held on 12 April, Zuma’s
birthday.
The credit rating downgrades were
largely triggered by the political turmoil after the sudden dismissal of
several ministers, particularly the Minister of Finance who the president
accused of conspiring to undermine him and the country’s economy. Immediately
after they were fired, the economy took a hit as the Rand fell by a several
percentage points. This was because the Finance Minister was deemed by many,
including international investors, as financially prudent and he was also
credited for stabilizing the economy after
Zuma fired two other finance ministers within a month, a period of turmoil that hammered South Africa's markets and currency.
Judging from media reports, the
demonstrations on both days were relatively peaceful, despite a few clashes
here and there with the police, especially at the controversial Gupta family compound
in Saxonwold, Johannesburg.
Following the first march, President
Zuma, at a commemoration marking the anniversary of anti-apartheid leader,
Chris Hani’s death, said the march proved that racism was still alive in rainbow
South Africa, 23 years on.
I agree with him.
Some demonstrators, especially white
people, held placards with obscene and vulgar language in the Afrikaans
language. These included the following: ‘Zuma se Poes’ (Zuma’s cunt), ‘Fokof Zuma’
(Fuck off Zuma) and ‘Tsek’ (Go away/Fuck off) amongst others. And then, there
were some white people who were holding up bananas with the obvious reference
to black people as being a monkeys or baboons. This happened in the first march, which,
although partly organized by the political parties, was a demonstration by
ordinary people of all races and political affiliations to show a united front
that they did not want Zuma as their president anymore.
This whole racial issue has now
clouded the good message for Zuma to step down if he has the interest of the
country at heart.
Now, the President and the ruling
ANC party are using this racial disaster to spin it in their favour and to
propagate the call for him to step down as pure racism.
When a white man direct those
words above and many more to a black man in South Africa and Namibia, you can
easily be labelled a racist, even though you are just excitedly expressing your
emotions. Yes! We have the equivalent of ‘nigger’ in Southern Africa which is ‘kaffir’,
but those words also spark the same emotions. I know this very well and this is
something that some whites need to understand.
The second march was an
opposition march and that is what it was. Which ruling political party, in their
right mind, would heed the call of the opposition for their leader to step
down?
Now Zuma has an excuse to
continue as President until next time...
