Let’s consign Verwoerd to history

The following are excerpts taken from a newsletter by Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, dated 31 October 2011.

Who said this: “Legislation must gradually but purposefully ensure that each section of the … population should as far as practicable, enjoy a share of each of the major occupations according to its proportion in the … population”?

It was the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd.

Well, not quite. There was one small difference.  Where the ellipses (…) are in the above quote, Verwoerd inserted the word “white”.

It shows what happens when apartheid thinking is taken to its logical conclusion.

Verwoerd must feel vindicated today, as the ANC takes his policy of “representivity” to its logical conclusions.

But this dangerous argument is not limited to the ANC.

Even in the Democratic Alliance, Verwoerdian thinking sometimes rears its ugly head. Thus it was that Masizole Mnqasela, a DA MP, made a fool of himself and the Party on prime time radio by stating that Lindiwe Mazibuko was not black enough to become the DA’s Parliamentary leader.

Calling her nomination “window dressing” he said:  “When you close your eyes and listen to Lindiwe Mazibuko when she speaks you would say a white person is talking to you.”

Mnqasela then began a lengthy race analysis, concluding with the words: “This is window dressing, in the sense that it is not diversity at best. Diversity goes with many other components, not a sheer skin colour. Otherwise we will compromise the very objective that we need to achieve by attracting black voters. Black voters know what they want.”

Of course, Mnqasela implied that he was the only legitimate arbiter of “what blacks want.”

I may have missed something, but not once during her campaign did Lindiwe or her supporters ever say she should be elected leader of the caucus because she is black.

Sadly, Verwoerdian thinking is still deeply engrained in the broader South African psyche. It is the default position of those across the entire spectrum who define a person’s identity by their skin colour, and then claim to know what that person thinks and wants, on every issue.

This pre-modern thinking should have gone to the grave with Hendrik Verwoerd. It has no place in the new South Africa. Let alone in the DA. Read more ...