This was said by a former Apartheid army general, addressing striking students at the University of Venda in the early 1980’s.
This thought came to mind after receiving a complaint from people who claim they have been working in big and established companies for more than 30 years, but who are frustrated because the laws that have been created by the Apartheid government to undermine and dehumanise Africans in the working place are still as fresh and frustrating as the e-toll system in Gauteng.
They allege that they are still treated as inferior, and earn less than their colleagues, despite their experience and qualifications.
To those who were not there during those dreadful years, let me tell you the truth like a monkey on the tree would tell those on the ground that the farmer is not available.
The Apartheid government encouraged companies to apply the divide and rule policy. Some employees were trained as what used to be called in township language as Mpimpis and Amgundwane.
Top positions in almost all government departments and big companies were reserved and given to those who were regarded as ‘Citizens’, or simply put ‘Whites’.
Young boys and girls used to be picked up from farms to manage African professionals, and Africans were not allowed to live in towns.
But after the democratic government took over exactly 20 years ago, things were supposed to have changed. But what is on most African’s lips in almost all the townships in the country, is that what changed are faces in the top echelon of the government structures, while the status quo remains the same in the workplace.
The veterans are alleging that Africans in top positions shun their fellow brothers and spend time drinking coffee with bosses, planing on who to butcher next. It is also alleged that with Africans on top, verbal warnings are given without proper channels being followed, and workers are treated like train passengers, who are only waiting to alight even if the train does not stop.
That is tantamount to suicide because what an elder can see sitting down, a child cannot see even if standing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
But let them know that judgement is not the knowledge of laws, it is how one applies the knowledge derived from them. In some companies, your body structure can guarantee your expulsion.
Unions are becoming weaker and weaker as former union leaders have joined their former masters in oppressing the masses. They own big companies, but pay less than what domestic workers get from their white counterparts.
That reminds me of a statement by that fat army general from the apartheid government, but I think the statement has to be rephrased to match what is happening today in the present scenario.
“Laws and regulations have been changed, they are there, and they will be there to suffocate you.”
Amen.
