Apartheid - ANC Style for the Protectors of the Nation

Dear Minister of Freedom,

          Roll up, roll up, come and see the new, free South Africa. Thank goodness we got rid of apartheid 17 years ago don’t you think. The way those Afrikaners suppressed you Blacks was just unbelievable. They were branded second or was it fourth or fifth class citizens.

          But roll up, roll up and come and see it now. I’m sure you’ll agree nobody will recognise it. Your African National Congress has done a brilliant job reinventing freedom. It’s just everywhere, especially in the job market.

          In the Sunday Times for instance there are acres of advertisements for Government jobs.

          Roll up, roll up and get all your fellow Ministers to have a look and see how well these ads are promoting our Freedom Charter. Didn’t somebody say our Constitution was the best in the world because it has ensured that in the new South Africa even birds are free?

          Take these quotes from university ads: In line with the University’s commitment to diversifying its workforce, applicants from the designated groups will be given priority consideration (Western Cape) and NMMU is committed to diversifying its staff profile in terms of the transformation agenda (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan). I saw similar ones for Wits and Durban universities.

          It’s nice to see that our seats of higher learning are promoting the right kind of diversity. This will ensure that students who never experienced the old type apartheid will be able to learn how it should have been done. It’s ideal training for our governors of the future.      

          Mr Minister isn’t it time that you issued a decree to force advertisers to stop all this double Dutch (my mistake that was under the old regime) talk and force them to spell out exactly who they are prepared to employ. They’re so embarrassed that they don’t want to be precise about it when we all know it’s something to be proud of.

          And you also need to tell us the recipe for getting into the Government’s BLACK BOOK because if you are not in there you can have all the qualifications, experience and skill in the world and you won’t get a job anywhere.

          The South African Police Service cagily reveals that an applicant whose appointment will promote representivity may receive preference. Well the may part is not true if a case that is going on in the Johannesburg Labour court is anything to go by.

          Have you been following it? While our absolutely perfect Constitution has been standing by without making any comment the trade union, Solidarity has been busy fighting for the kind of justice the Constitution was designed to protect. The union is battling to ensure that eight Police officers, who would have got what was due to them under the old apartheid, get it under your new ANC version.

          Do you realise that these members of the SAP risk their lives daily trying to keep the rest of us from drowning in the wave of crime that has been threatening to swamp us since you and your comrades came to power. And what makes the case even more poignant is that one of the Police officers Tinus Gouws, a helicopter pilot, died with four others in a crash while flying to a robbery.

          According to The Times, Solidarity wants the seven men and a woman promoted to positions they were recommended for by a selection panel after getting the highest number of points among the candidates. The officers who had been in the Force for between 12 to 28 years were blackballed because they were WHITE. Is it just a coincidence that all of them also appear to be Afrikaners?

          So even the dead can’t rest in peace anymore.  Not content with having Gouws die in the line of duty you expect him to go on fighting from the grave so that his family can get a few extra, measly crumbs for the period that he should have been promoted from inspector to captain after 20 years service.

          Solidarity’s action is against your colleague the Minister of Safety and Security and General Bheki Cele. Wasn’t the General our Police chief who was in tears when that helicopter went down?  They seemed to have dried very quickly while Gouw’s family is still in tears crying out, Where is your compassion now General? 

          And to make matters worse the post Gouws applied for was left vacant. What a shocker?

          Punt’s email to The Times summed up the position perfectly, If there is no qualified black applicant and the post remains vacant because you won’t appoint a white because he’s white that is blind racism. End of Story.

          Not quite, try as I might I couldn’t find anything to refute what Punt said in that world beating Constitution of ours.

          Help!

          Jon, a White job seeker for the last 17 years.

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My wife says I spend 120% of my time on the computer and the rest of the time I’m watching sport on TV or sitting in the pub. And her gynae can’t understand why we can’t have a baby.