truthbetoldnotsold

"All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishment of an African

Empire-so strong and powerful, as to compel the respect of mankind,
but we in our life-time can so work and act as to make the dream a
possibility within another generation." Marcus Mosiah Garvey

The Government feeds on our poverty

Those who hold the ‘wish’ or ‘dream’ or whatever it is that makes them
think that the government will alleviate poverty are dreaming and
must wake up and smell the poverty. The government feeds on our
poverty it keeps them relevant. If they wanted to do away with poverty
they could have done it a long time ago.

Let’s look at South Africa. If it is true that our population stands at 47-
50 million, it is then true that in 5 years the government can alleviate
poverty and give us good standards of living. Logic tells you that with a
budget of R100 million we can afford to give every citizen more than
decent housing and basic necessities. And this is just a lay mans
calculation and conclusion. But why is the government not doing it?

I believe that the ‘government’ is the same system that kept us

prisoners, the fact that ‘black’ people ‘oil’ and ‘run’ the machinery
makes less effect on the part of the poor. If it made any effect, the very
‘black’ people running the system would have had reparations as a
priority for their people. If not monetary reparations, they could have
given people land and decent housing, as opposed to the ballot box
sized ‘modern day ghettoes’ they are creating for the people. These
lead me to conclude that politicians feed and are sustained by the
poverty and desolation of the masses. All that ‘people shall govern’ has
been rewritten to ‘the people we shall govern’.
 It might be true that what has happened to the people of Zimbabwe
(the government’s vigilant drive to make people poor thus voiceless)
will in 20 years be happening to us or depending on the awareness and
our strength to organise, we might need a revolution. I say this
because, truth be told, we are lacking ‘community’ leaders vocal
enough to tell the ‘political’ leaders how to manage and lead us into
material victory. Every ‘black’ intellect with a potential is either too
busy making money (a great thing if you share it or give a little to
those lacking it) and others are just silenced by the power of the ruling
party, others are direct beneficiaries of the ‘machinery’ and others,
well, fall under the ‘alliance.’

The problem with South Africa is that we are divided, thus easy to rule
and mess-up. If it’s not colour, its class, if it’s not class, it’s political
views, if not political views its ignorance. The fact is there is always
something dividing South Africans. Even in parliament the ‘Opposition’
seems to be opposing on the basis of ‘whites’ against ‘black’. They
never take up issues that logically or historically would be ‘black’
people’s issues. This gives the government an upper hand in as far as
divide and rule is concerned, that’s why the government will keep
handing out food parcels and basic income grants as opposed to giving
sustainable jobs and proper housing and land ownership.

The African people in South Africa are to blame for their continued
ignorance, failure to organise and the unexplainable voiceless-ness. We
need to wake up and realise that the ANC can no longer be your voice
against the government for ‘IT’ is the government. We need to let go of
our liberation heroes and start to seek new heroes and be the driving
force for transforming our communities. Someone once said that
parliament as a building has a lot of passages that create an echo such
that the people in there can hear themselves and only themselves.
Whether that is true or not, I took it to mean that those community
leaders are now Members of Parliament, they are elite, and care less
 about you and me.

I beg those who see what I mean to act now, before it’s too late. Inform
yourself, organise and make sure that the government works for you
rather than on you. I believe the government is meant to be the
servant of the people but the people have to keep the government in
check. This is not happening in South Africa as even the media sees
‘black’ and ‘white’ issues instead of the ‘citizen’ issues. So ma-Africa
wake up to the quicksand of comfortable living for we got a country to
build and we might need to let go of all the struggle ‘hero’ tittles and
whip crack them to work.

© 2007 Sabelo Dludla

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ACCESS: DENIED –State of access to the arts in South Africa

By Sabelo Dludla (the article is based on the experiences in
Durban)

Durban has been branded as Africa’s playground. Having hosted

various international events, concerts and festivals, Durban has been
enjoyed by people from all over the world, except the African majority
living in Durban and its surrounding townships and settlements.
While the rich and sometimes famous have had their fair share of
freedom to chose where they eat their supper, where they have their
breakfast and where they spend their Fridays and weekend nights. The
majority of African youth still have no option except to pack
themselves in cars and drive to the city for art and entertainment and
drive back in the late ours, an option open to less than 2 in every 10 of
the township youth. People may argue that its just entertainment, but
like all the things that make a human being, it’s a big dent on our
 society’s need to come together as South African’s and not just as
‘Black’, ‘Township’ youth meeting ‘White’, ‘suburban’ youth.

The problem is transport not affordability of a lifestyle

Most African youth can afford to go out to restaurants, galleries,

cinemas, clubs and live concerts, which are only available after hours
in the city where all the infrastructure is, after 11 years of burying
apartheid. But in Durban you have to have your own car to be able to
go out as the public transport does not exist for the regular township
folk. It frustrates me that we have accepted this, as we often do with
all injustices, as the fate of the African people.
South Africa is preparing to host the Soccer World Cup in the next 4
years and politicians have assured the world that we are ready. I had a
chance to spend half a week with a friend from Norway, because of my
daytime commitments to spend time with him I had to meet him in
town after 6pm. After having supper and going for a drink I had to
always pay an extra and he offered to pay 4 days out of the 7 we met.
Living in Avoca’s ‘Ballot Box section’ I had to pay R150 for a metered
taxi home. Obviously an expense that could be averted by a good
public transport system. Talking to my friend before his departure, he
asked me this question ‘So Sabelo will people from the township get to
the games during the World Cup in 2010.’ he enquired. ‘Doesn’t this
bother the authorities because we are four years away from the World
Cup in South Africa.’ Being an honest-patriot that I am I told him, ‘We
are not READY, for black people won’t be able to see late night games
because of the issues of safety and transport from the game”
I then asked myself what good is a free country when you can’t be
where you want to be at the time you want to be. We cannot blame
apartheid now but the lack of vision from our very leadership that has
moved with their families to the best places with all the places like
restaurants, theatres, malls and cinemas as above and forgot about
the majority who elected them.
 We also talked about the direct benefits of the World Cup. We both
wondered how will those businesses like B&B’s and Shebeens in the
townships cater for their customers who want to stay in the townships
but go to the stadium or any event in the city, because there is no
transport in Durban for the township folk after 7pm let alone 12pm
after a nice night out with friends. This made me realise the lack of
vision from our provincial, local government, municipality and probably
the failure to cater for the majority of this province’s citizen’s, just
because they are African or is it poor!.

11 Years later, the exclusion continues

The arts are very important to me, yet as a South African living in the
township I have no access to any artistic outlets and I am excluded
from enjoying activities like an opening of exhibitions, theatre
productions, films and live shows. All these activities are a luxury that
most African youth cannot afford, as they happen at night and the only
galleries in Durban are around Morningside, Bluff and City centre, all
formerly non-black residencies where you would pay 3 times to be
there and get home safe.
I have been shocked by the African events organisers at their failure to
cater for their own people. While art and entertainment is, by South
African standards a night ‘thing’ it has never been taken to
consideration that the African masses living in ‘brutal’ poverty need to
get out to, they need to enjoy all the fun this city has to give. I believe
the Mayor and the city manager enjoy their invitations to high profile
occasions (I conclude they refuse to attend township events like the
opening of KwaMashu Africa Film Festival but attends all events at the
ICC, City Hall, SunCoast and the Durban International Film Festival
because it happens in the ‘city’) and they have no understanding of
the demographics of their own city, for they should be worried about
being surrounded by a minority that becomes a majority when it comes
to enjoying the arts and general entertainment.
African youth is accused of a lot of things like not reading, not going to
the movies, not attending theatre shows, not going to galleries and this
list is endless. But what do you expect these kids to do. Hijack a car
after the show to get home! While some communities can afford to car-
pool (think coloured and Indian communities) because their setup
allowed them to leave near the city (with exception to Phoenix, but
then there is Sibaya Casino and Gateway for Phoenix residents) the
African peoples have less options. This has led to youth preferring
night clubs where they go in droves, and for those who don’t have
friends with cars they have to literally wait outside the club in the early
hours in the cold until the first taxi home comes. An unsafe option that
sees most girls ask for lifts from brutes who demand sexual favours.
Most artist living in the townships do not only face failure to enjoy the
arts but even if they get jobs in the city they have to struggle to get to
rehearsals and when the show gets booked it becomes even more
expensive for African artists to get home after the show. These
crippling experiences make one feel less patriotic and frustrated with
the African leadership that has chosen to cater for white fears at the
expense of black needs. The idea that African people must be
crammed in taxis and made to stand in overcrowded buses is another
insult that the city has not dealt with. Truth is we can’t all move to
town or afford the flats available.
This province has left the majority of its people behind yet events like
the Kora Awards, Metro FM Awards, Durban Beach Africa, Durban
International Film Festival etc take place at night right at our doorsteps
and are enjoyed by the select rich few. But then maybe it’s a plan to
exclude the majority of the African people on the basis of class.

Is there a solution

I believe that a good public transport will alleviate our suffering. When
I lived in KwaMashu’s D section I could risk it and be in town till 10PM
and take a bus because I lived right by the bus stop and safety was not
an issue if I made it to the bus in the city. But still I could not go where I
want to go in the city without paying the R30 or R60 on a metered taxi
for every trip within the city, surely Durban can afford inner city late
night transport affordable to every citizen of this city.
The city needs to deliver good public transport that will allow its
citizens to be where they want to be, regardless of time. Look at the
concept like the popular inner city ‘Mynah’ buses. These should be
made accessible to all the city’s communities and not only for the rich
minorities.
The city needs to stop moving forward and leaving the majority of its
people behind. I say this as an artist living in a place without
inspiration, artistic outlet and exhibition spaces. In Durban African
people can’t see a movie unless they go to town, African people can’t
see an exhibition unless they go to Morningside, African people can’t
see theatre production unless they go to town. To deny the African
people these basic necessities is once again denying them freedom to
be. One may argue that people must organise and build their own
cinemas, theatres and galleries. But which taxpaying community must
continue to pay taxes for the benefit of others and continue to languish
in poverty. Living without descent transport, without descent schools,
without descent sports fields and sadly without access to the arts?

“You are not supposed to be blind with patriotism that you can’t face
reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it.” Malcolm X

Article by Sabelo Dludla

Durban based Graphic Artist, Writer and Filmmaker
Cell: 0723368422 Fax: 0866554967
Email: sabelodludla@gmail.com
© 2007 Sabelo Dludla

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 South Africans are continuously fed the American Dream

If you open South African TV channels you are bound to see American
trash shows like Ricki Lake, Cheaters, Passions, Real TV, All of My
Children, WWE Raw all these on ETV and on SABC you will find Dr Phil,
Oprah, Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, and a host of
terrible films and music videos. I don’t mind learning about other
cultures but I am against this suffocation of my people by one culture
that makes everything else irrelevant.
This skewed transfer of non-existence values suffocates the young
South Africans and dangles a rotten carrot before their eyes yet we
stand by to watch as if nothing is wrong.

‘He who controls images controls everything’ Robert Townsend

We need to wake up to the power that a culture pushed down our

throats is very expensive. It creates markets for all American products,
from Levis’ to Nike, KFC to McDonald. We need to engage the public
broadcaster on these issues. Already the English languages rules
productions in South Africa. Just think of great products like Nomzamo,
Stokvel. Wouldn’t they be more valuable in our languages like the
Sgudi Snaysi, Velaphi to mention just two.

South Africans have a terrible tendency of thinking they are better than
the whole of Africa, going as far as beating African immigrants yet
treating Eastern and Western immigrants as Kings and Queens. I blame
this brainwashed mentality on the public broadcaster. As I write this I
am listening to the debate on SAFM conducted by John Pearlman, the
show is commemorating September 11, the disaster on the World
Trade Centre in New York, America. This leaves me wondering how
come the South African media never commemorates the Rwandan
Genocide, Slavery yet we had 3 days broadcast of the Holocaust and 2
days of Oprah’s visit to the Holocaust museum. African countries were
bombed but the South African media hardly mentions that.

The South African media is ignorantly acting as if it is serving an

American audience with no regard for African values. We are constantly
fed the culture of tabloid reporting, celebrity worshiping, violence,
cursing, branding Islam as ‘terrorists’, terrible eating habits, nudity
intertwined with music, individualism all these having devastating
outcomes to the young African minds swallowing all this puke. Besides
the obvious SABC 1 window dressing with student made short films,
the South African media never buys African material of any value
based material like 500 years Later, Hotel Rwanda, Sankofa and all
those relevant films available in organisations like the Film Resource
Unit.

The status of us being a ‘growing 3rd world country’ has made us a

dumping site for all the valueless lot that other countries have no use
for. From Chinese fake goods to American culture we have just been
bombarded with the useless. The South African film industry is
developing but I wonder how much of our selves we will put on those
stories. We have already seen the power of money ruin good stories,
from a Steve Biko who can’t say ‘amandla’ to a Henry Nxumalo who
can’t pronounce ‘Nxumalo.’ This is one of the things that we let the
rich get away with. We are a very lazy people. We are a very
submissive lot. With South Africans anything goes. We are too tired to
argue, too tired to negotiate and too tired to stand for what is right.

© 2007 Sabelo Dludla

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Affirmative Action and Crime used as excuses by bitter whites
 I have spent the past five months at home, since quitting my job
without a plan. I have been listening and watching various radio and tv
talk shows on the subject of the 2010 world cup, Affirmative action and
crime in South Africa. I am shocked at the comments made by most
white South Africans about this country and its challenges. Let me just
say the CRIME IS BAD IN THIS COUNTRY. IT’S TERRIBLE, IT’S A WAR
ZONE. But I’m not going to move to Britain or Australia just because of
that!!

In September 26, Xolani Gwala, on SAFM Talk (106.00 FM) did a show
on the image of South Africa. I was shocked at the amount of
negativity that white people put into the show, they practically derailed
the show into seeing South Africa through black and white. In 30
minutes spent taking calls all the white people who called said
extremely negative things like, ‘ we are going to lose the World Cup
because of crime in this country’, ‘white people are living because
there is no future for them in a black people run country’, ‘Affirmative
action is payback, black people are punishing us for apartheid’, ‘in
Australia and America whites are a majority, its okay for them to
practice affirmative action, here in South Africa we are a minority
that’s why I am living because there is no future for us here.’
These comments where indicative of the fact that white people
continue to see themselves as a separate nation within this country,
deserving of a better condition which will make them above black
people. The conversation was filled with backwards views such as ‘this
country is run by scandals look at the Travel gate, Jacob Zuma, Tony
Yengeni…’ these were used to imply that black government are corrupt
and this is the case with South Africa. This tone is not unique to this
show only but has become a norm such that black people have seized
to question these accusations because they drain ones energy.

Extending a hand…
Since 1994 black people have held out a hand to white people to say,
come let us build this country together, Mandela stood up and said ‘…
South Africa belongs to all who live in it…’ Sadly white South Africans
are bent on pushing away black South African and creating a bitter
South Africa for themselves where they complain, brew hate and
racism, as witnessed in websites like, www.newnation.com ,
www.southafricathetruth.net , www.africancrisis.com to mention just a
few.
When talking about crime white people twist the facts so it will seem
as if they are targeted because they are white, (NB: I have been
mugged twice since 2002 and I am as black as they come) white
people take advantage of the fact that black people don’t throw it in
their face that they must apologise for the suffering caused by
apartheid. It seems the biggest reason white people leave this country
is because they don’t want to live in a country with a black president,
period. But they use affirmative action and crime as excuses for their
racist motive to leave.
The present government is the best there has ever been in this
country. Corruption is the word we introduced because we said it must
be stopped. The previous (white) government used to poison people
because they were black, used to arrest people because they were
black, used to throw people off 10th floor buildings, used to shoot at
unarmed school kids, used to arrest opposing voices, used to arrest
journalist and white people feel that was the real government and they
want that government back. It seems ‘white’ South Africa’ links every
‘black’ person with ‘Crime’, ‘Corruption’, ‘Failure’ the negative list goes
on. Would it be fair to link all ‘white’ people to Slavery, Colonialism,
Hiroshima, World War I and II, the Nazi, Apartheid, Nuclear Bomb, Gulf
War, War in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Guantanamo bay, Racism,
Rwandan Genocide, Aids, Capitalism and lately Globalisation, and all
the civil wars in Africa. I have come to conclude that most white people
are mostly bent on destroying the goodness of life, an ungodly act. I
have more evidence to back me up.
 © 2007 Sabelo Dludla

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It’s time to cross the unseen boundaries

I took a walk with my friend in the Auckland Park area on a hot day. We
had made a few groceries so the plastics got heavy. We decided to rest
and talk as a few UJ students started passing by. Our discussion shifted
to dating, and being South Africans we can’t separate a lot of things
from ‘black and white’. So we ended up talking about dating across
racial lines.

I told my friend (who happens to be a bit younger to understand the

workings of race and relations) that people should date who they chose
but I’m keeping it ‘black’. He called me a hypocrite and said ‘if you
speak it you must live it.’ I had to take off the gloves to help him see it
my way (But I won’t in this article) and explain to him that the issue of
self –confidence is true to the issue because for those of us who
started working as ‘garden boys’ we always have to operate on
‘defence mode’ when inter-acting with other races. This is mainly
because I am convinced that most people from the other races still see
us as ‘lesser beings’ and imagine dating someone who will refer to you
as ‘you people’ every-time you had a confrontation.

While I have no experience of the across the colour line dating I believe
we must cross this line for it does not exists, love is love, a human
touch is a human touch-the colour makes no difference. I however
don’t think we should cross it for the sake of crossing it, I also don’t
think we should cross it because it’s the “in-thing-to-do” because
human emotions are complex and not to be toyed with. While I may
not cross with you, (my friend says cause I am a pessimist), let me say
 that my obsession with racism is too strong and I happen to read
material that keeps racism at the tip of my tongue and pen. It would be
awkward for who ever I date because when I see an act of racism I
condemn it with very strong terms and at times talk non stop about it.

It is my view that in a case of a ‘black’ and ‘white’ South African inter-

acting, the ‘white’ person will often assume a superior role, even if
she/he is unaware of this. The ‘black’ person will automatically assume
the inferior role, also unaware of this. Such are the ripples of apartheid
that they are programmed into our systems. I am not a psychologist or
relationship expert but I know this.
posted by Sabstance

About Me
Name: Sabstance
Location: Durban, KwaZulu Natal, SOUTH AFRICA, South Africa