LBS/DRI/16-04-05
Apartheid did not die
John Pilger returns to South Africa to see if things have changed.
In 1994 South Africa inspired the world as millions of people queued patiently to vote in
the country for its first democratic elections. It was the end of apartheid, the forced
division of people by the colour of their skin.
“We the people of South Africa”, said the Freedom Charter of the African National
Congress, “declare that our country belongs to everyone and that all the people shall
share in the wealth. The land shall be shared among those who work it. There shall be
houses, security and the right to work.”
This is Robyn Island off Cape town where Nelson Mandela and thousands of political
prisoners were banished. It seems the right place to ask why those freedoms for which so
many fought and died are still missing in South Africa. Yes Apartheid based on race is
outlawed now, but the system always went far deeper than that. The cruelty and
injustice were underwritten by an economic apartheid which regarded people as no
more than cheap expandable labour.
Explain : cheap expandable labour
It was backed by great business corporations, in South Africa, Britain, the rest of
Europe and the United States, and it was this apartheid based on money and profit that
allowed a small minority to control most of the land, most of the industrial wealth and
most of the economic power.
Today the same system is called without a trace of irony, the free market.
This film will ask why apartheid continues by other means.
I was banned by the apartheid government 30 years ago, and this is my first trip back.
Robyn Island was my starting point and my guide was a former ANC resistance fighter,
Ahmed Kathrada, known as Kathi, who spent 18 years in this prison.
“ This here was the president’s cell.”
“This was Nelson Mandela’s cell.”
“That’s right.”
“How long did he spend in there ?”
“ Now he did not move much, so I should say that on the 18 years that he spent on
Robyn Island, the bulk of those years was here. What was in the cell when we first came
was a simple mat, with 3 blankets, and after a while they gave us the felt mat as well.”
“How many years did you have just that ?”
“We sat on the ground for about 14 of the 18 years that we spent on Robyn Island, and I
was the only non- African among the cell members here. So when we had to change into
prison clothes, I was given the regulation shirt, jersey, canvas jacket, long trousers, soft
shoes. My colleagues were given short trousers. But there’s a reason behind why they
were given short trousers. In South Africa and unfortunately even now, Africans are
still regarded as children. You find terminology in white homes in particular, you talk of
1
your garden boy, your kitchen girl, regardless of age. Boys wear short trousers, so
Mandela had to wear short trousers. Unfortunately our white compatriots have not been
generous enough to recognize that when Nelson Mandela talks of reconciliation and
forgiveness, they have forgotten or refuse to see what it is they are forgiven.”
This was the crime of apartheid. Deliberately and systematically, people were
dispossessed of their land and their rights and the essentials of life. Tens of thousands of
children died when their families were wrenched apart.
Explain : wrenched apart
Today behind the modern face of democracy, 87% of all African children suffer poor
health. A quarter of children under the age of 6 suffer chronic malnutrition.
Yet time and again the African people find the spirit to rise up.
In 1976 in Soweto, hundreds of school children confronted white police who opened fire
on them. It was the children’s action and courage that lead to international sanctions. By
the 1980s a general uprising had begun. The apartheid regime began to panic. White
privileges that amounted to the highest standard of living on earth was clearly at risk.
F.W De Clerke, a so-called moderate became president and in 1990 made this historic
announcement:
“ The prohibition of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the
South African Communist Party and a number of subsidiary organizations is being
rescindered.”
Explain : rescindered
De Klerke’s strategy was to seize the initiative and coop the ANC leadership; the white
establishment and its backers in Washington and London
Explain :
to coop
the white establishment
its backers in Washington and London
wanted above all to maintain power over the economy and to keep South Africa safe for
international capital regardless of the colour of its government.
Behind these very public meetings the ANC met secretly with the regime. A special
relationship developed in which accommodating the demands of the old apartheid order
began to take precedence over the spirit of the freedom charter.
Nelson Mandela had promised his people that an ANC government would take over
apartheid’s great collaborators, the mining companies and the financial institutions.
He said :”It is inconceivable that we will never change this fundamental policy.”
But this promise was already broken as the ANC agreed to what is called “historic
compromises”.
“De Klerke saw the writing on the wall and he knew that the economy was in a point of
collapse so he was negociating for weakness as well.
2
Explain :
historic compromises
he was negociating for weakness
But if we had pressed him for a year or two, he would have been totally weak and
there’d be nothing he could do.”
The ANC has always maintained that had it not made these compromises, there would
have been a bloodbath.
“ They were very serious compromises. There might have been, I don’t think,
necessarily a bloodbath, a lot of people might have died, but a lot of people have died
since 1994 anyway, and probably more have died since then, not only through the
violence, which is the iceberg of people dying, but people have continued to die in vast
numbers from malnutrition and unpreventable illness.”
Out of these deals with the regime was the ANC’s policy of reconciliation. But
reconciliation for whom ?Who would make the sacrifices ?How was it possible for the
victims of a form of genocide to reconcile with their oppressors ?
One of the deals was amnesty for the killers, torturers and collaborators. All they had to
do was take part in a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”, a kind of public
confessional, in which they didn’t have to say sorry and there was no justice and people
got away, literally with murder.
Explain : to get away with murder
By broadcasting its evidence on national radio and television, the Truth and
Reconciliation great achievement has been to give white South Africans the opportunity
to come to terms with the horrors and the crimes committed in their name.
Explain : to come to terms with
No one can now say “I didn’t know.”
Thousands of cases will never get justice in a court of law.
Mrs Charity Condili does not want reconciliation. She wants the kidnappers and
murderers of her son Seaseway to stand trial. And this is one of the self-confessed
murderers Dirk Kotsea, formerly of the South African security police.
Interview of Charity Condili : “For many years we didn’t know what had happened to
Seaseway. It was such a tough time for the family, it was really haunting, you know, it’s
very difficult to accept a situation where you don’t know what happened to a child. So
when eventually we knew what had happened we were relieved, though we were very
much sad.”
This is a popular TV show, called “People of the South”.
Its celebrity guest is dirk Kotsea, introduced by the host as “The Honourable Assassin”.
“The Honourable Assassin, Dirk Kotsea” … (applause)
“Welcome”
“Thank you very much.”
“Thank you for the honour of being in the show. I appreciate it entirely.”
3
“What did you say as a young man, if anything, when you took the direction of the
police force ?Wasn’t it that as a young man you thought ‘hum I wanna be a copper”
“ I wanna be a copper. Adventure.”
An adventurous life indeed. Kotsea is asking for amnesty for his part in the murder of 6
people.
Charity Condili : “ I feel that if the Truth Commission was going to recommend
amnesty for the murderers and the people who violated human rights, if those
murderers could be punished somehow, that would be justice.”
“In other words, come before a Court of Law.”
“Yes. And be sentenced.”
“They’re looking at what one individual did to another individual. But apartheid was
not about what one individual did to another individual. It was what a whole system did
to a whole nation of people. And that has not been put on trial by the Truth Commission
so that you can’t reconcile the nation when you haven’t actually even looked at what
happened and why it happened. There’s been no real examination of why apartheid
happened but also how it could happen. How you could get that whole system
maintained by basically ordinary people.
Interview of Nelson Mandela.
“Your reconciliation has been at the heart of your policies. Do you sometimes reflect on
the fact that there really isn’t a single leading figure in the old power structure, military,
business, and others that have shown really any public remorse for what happened
during the apartheid regime.”
Mandela : “I think that is going too far. You have clergy from the church which was
publicly commended by Archbishop Tutu that apologized for apartheid. You have
individuals, like Leon Vessels, Rolf Mayor who were members of the cabinet who have
apologized generally. What of course the public wants is that somebody must be able to
say “we authorized”people, our men to kill so and so. That is not forthcoming, but the
general apology has been made.
Explain : that is not forthcoming
I think that it’s a great deal of concern that people like De Klerke have tried to avoid
responsibility. I think it’s a tragedy. And once of course he took that line, many other
colleagues, you see, also took that line.”
Not one military general has applied for amnesty and not a single judge has come
forward. Yet it was the judiciary that gave apartheid a veneer of respectability.
Explain : a veneer of respectability
Today many of the same judges are administering the law in the new South Africa.
“Reconciliation is not going to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, publicly
apologizing for your sins, actually the government is introducing measures which will
redistribute wealth from those who benefited under apartheid to those who suffered
under apartheid and that would be what truth and reconciliation is all about, and
refraining to do that I think has made the whole reconciliation process a bit of a farce.”
4
This is Santon municipality in Johanesburg. Here in fortified splendour live some of the
richest people in the world, representing 5% of the population, they and the rest of
white South Africa control 88% of the national wealth, and yet they, not the majority,
are the material beneficiaries of democracy. No longer international parias, they can
now travel and play sports and do business wherever in the world they like, secure in the
delusion that they gave freedom to the majority.
Explain : secure in the delusion
They’ve been asked to give up nothing. Not even a modest wealth tax. Crime is the issue
behind the razor wire and the alarm systems, not the great crime of apartheid that
destroyed millions of lives and stole the nation’s wealth. There is a lot of property crime,
but it’s also the code for the encroachment of the unemployed across the old dividing
lines between black and white.
Explain : the encroachment of the unemployed
What is remarkable is the degree of restraint exercised by the impoverished majority,
given the continuing display of wealth by a minority and the adaptation of the many
injustices of the past.
This is Alexandra, literally across the road from wealthy Santon, a community of half a
million people, squeezed into an area of less than a square mile and a half, where the
majority have no jobs, and up to 15 families live in 1 slum.
And although they drive past it, many whites hardly know it exists.
How long will people accept the conditions they’re living in here?
“I think already there are signs of disillusionment and you know in a way resentment
beginning to show in the township. Not only Alexandra I think other townships as well.
So if nothing happens between you know now and 99 I think most people would begin to
say “why should I vote ?”, and to me , in order for reconciliation to be meaningful I
think we have to talk about transforming society fundamentally so that black people
don’t feel like once more sacrificing. We sacrificed under apartheid and again we’re
sacrificing : unemployment. Within Alexandra for example, as I said, 60% ; Now, those
people who continue to resent their white counterparts, as long as these disparities
continue to exist. The Congress or the trade unions, they knew, they emphasized the fact
that people should tighten their belts. I think the answer to that is that people have been
frightened for time immemorial.”
“Can I tell you about the dress? It’s a very fine transparent mesh that you can wear
with or without the lining.”
“I always wear this dress when I’m in South Africa, you know people like to see what
I’m wearing…laughs…”
“It’s a kind of new South Africa as a dress, isn’t it ?”
“Do you think white people actually know how black people live now ? Do they go to
those places ?”
“I think there’s a far greater awareness, definitely. You know now with the abolishment
of apartheid, you can find a lot of black people who can afford it have now moved into
the so-called white areas, which is fabulous for them.”
5
The jewelry she’s wearing is worth more than a 100 000 pounds. Half the African people
of South Africa have an income of less than 12 pounds a week.
“I must say it’s difficult to find somebody who supported apartheid.”
“nobody wants to, yeah, no , a lot of people supported it at the time. Like I say I didn’t, I
always felt uncomfortable.”
“And I don’t think anyone’s now going to say how great apartheid was, you would have
to search really hard.”
“Yes under every bed, and every bush and every rock…”
This is the memorial to Cecil Rhodes, overlooking Cape Town. It’s extraordinary it’s
still here. Long before the Boers declared racism official policy in South Africa,
Who were the Boers ?
Rhodes had laid the foundations for a more durable form of apartheid. I prefer land to
niggers said Rhodes, who was until recently, the idol of English liberalism in Africa. As
Prime minister of The Cape in the late 19th century, Rhodes showed how liberal he was.
He drove much of the black population into reserves, where they were used as cheap
dependant labour; above all he was a businessman of the most rapacious kind and the
system he and British business helped to build in Southern Africa would soon produce
an undreamed of balance-sheet.
Explain : an undreamed of balance sheet
“South African gold mining industry during the 60s and 70s was one of the most
profitable industries in the world. It was hugely profitable. It made millions.
The profits made on a single worker were unmatched, unparalleled in industry or in
mining, anywhere else in the world.”
Democracy has made little difference to the lives of the 70 000 miners who work here on
the gold fields at Caltonville. The local miners’union representative, Franz Belini makes
his daily call to find out how many men have been killed or injured over night.
“ Last night there was no fatal incident, save for Friday where two people were killed
and yesterday there was a local inspection where the inspector of mines went down the
shaft to actually see the scene of the accident.”
“Is that a common kind of accident?”
“Well I think it’s negligence, because when a shaft is being cleared, nothing should be
happening above them in the shaft. So for rocks to have fallen in the shaft, it’s a clear
man negligence.”
Since mining began in South Africa, 69 000 men have been killed in an accident.
It’s been estimated that the human cost of every ton of gold mined, is one life and 12
serious injuries.
Interview of a manager:
“there are statistics that are of great concern. What we have always said is South
African mining, gold mining in particular, is the deepest mining in the world. All mining
has risks. South African mining has the most risks. There is no such thing as risk-free
mining. What one has to do is to mitigate the risk and that requires a number of
interactions, technical interactions, human interactions and I think as we would gladly
6
accept now, that requires cooperative management-employee interactions, which may
not perhaps have always been there to the degree that was desirable.”
“You may be aware of the business report study which was taken from safety data of the
chamber of mines; That’s it. It says that in 1995 Anglo-American had the highest goldmining fatality rate of all the major mining houses even if you excluded the 104 men
killed in the Val Reefs accident of that year; unfortunately there was no response from
the company in there. What would your response be today ?”
“Highly regrettable. But perhaps one would have had a headline in 1994 that would
have been different, in 1993 that would have been different.
“What was so different then ?”
“Anglo-American did not have the highest, another company had the highest. After all
there has to be one that has the highest every year.”
“To the lay eye you say these figures are regrettable. They’re shocking figures. The
government mining engineer, Mr Bakka, said in almost every accident, he’s talking
about the whole industry, not just your company, one can find underlying causes. There
is a lack of management system supervision, training and negligence and a lax
enforcement of standards. And you say it’s just mining. He has it all wrong ?”
“ No I think this is certainly part of a much broader issue.”
“ This man is the government mining engineer. He says that in every accident there are
underlying causes and they have to do with negligence. What’s the company’s response
to that ?If it is no selective quote, what’s the company’s response ?”
“ I’ve given you my response John, to the entire question in general terms and that’s
exactly what I have to say at the moment.”
The most devastating cost to these men remains hidden. A third of all black miners have
succumbed to deadly lung disease with little compensation.
This continues today.
“If you take into account that there are perhaps 2 million mine workers who have
passed through the mines just in the last ten years, and over the last hundred or so,
many many millions and if 20 or 30% of all those contracted these diseases, a great
many people have died in Southern Africa.”
Doctor examining patient :
“Cough, cough, cough.”
Interview of union worker
“I think that what’s been done around dust is appalling. There is no research, the
statistics are hidden, there is very little work being done on reducing dust in the workplace and I say this with a lot of practical exposure to the mining industry and a long
involvement in health and safety on the mines. Dust is ignored, it’s neglected. It doesn’t
kill people like a rock fall does, it’s an insidious, slow killer. It’s killing people far away,
it’s killing them quietly.
Their clockwork is running down their batteries are drying up and they die. It’s not
getting the attention it deserves;”
“Why?”
“Because the people who are dying are so far away. The people who are dying are out in
the country. The people who are dying are not important people.”
“They’re not important people ?”
7
“Not in the South African context.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re rural people, they’re poor people, they’re people without a voice. They’re
people, they’re inarticulate, they’re people on the fringes, they’re working-class people.
In neighbouring countries, in most remote rural areas, these are the people who have no
voice, they have no say, they have no influence. They simply die quietly.”
“What has changed under democracy ?”
“ The difference is to race and unequal treatment in terms of the amounts of
compensation people are entitled to. Those have been removed from the act, but the
bottom line is the same. It’s black mine-workers who are getting sick on the mines and
they go home, they’re being left untreated, impoverished and they die. Nothing has
changed at all.”
Going back to the manager
“Some of the research that has recently been done in this country suggests that a third of
all miners are suffering some form of quite serious disease as a result of their,
occupational disease, but they come away with very little, that’s the point.”
Explain : occupational disease
“Certainly the levels of compensation have changed and are changing further.”
“How are they changing ?”
“the amounts are being increased.”
“By what ?Can you give me examples ?”
“I’d have to give you a rough estimate but certainly compared to the 1970s they’re in
multiples of the levels then.”
“Can’t you give me an example of a miner over a period of time, I mean, this is your
field.
What he would have got and what he now gets.”
“ I don’t know the figures John. I regret that.”
“I find that extraordinary for the public affairs manager of this company. After all I
asked you a simple question : to give me an example of the compensation, now , this
doesn’t have to do with mining, and you don’t have the information.
“I don’t find that extraordinary at all.”
8