‘Swart gevaar’ (black peril) has been in the news a lot recently. Where does the term come from and how can it still be alive and kicking?
Nick Dall has an MA in Creative Writing from UCT. As a journalist covering everything from cricket to chameleons, his favourite stories are always those about people — dead or alive, virtuous or villainous. He is the co-author with Matthew Blackman of ‘Legends: People Who Changed South Africa for the Better’ and ‘Rogues Gallery: An Irreverent History of Corruption in South Africa’ .
The leaders of these smaller parties took umbrage at being labelled terrorists for wanting to exercise democracy. Songezo Zibi, the leader of Rise Mzansi, was particularly incensed. The newspapers’ cartoonists took to their task with glee. One cartoon depicted South Africa as a tiny white spot on the tail of a black dog, while another showed a Griqua soldier with a white bride on his arm. Arguably the most effective of the bunch was a simple cartoon published ina week before the election showing a white farmer staring forlornly at an SAP election poster that read: “Stem vir die Swart Afrika Party”.was entrenched as a secret sauce that very few white voters could resist.
Well to draw an analogy, in the pyramid scheme called The Aeroplane Game tricky people quickly realised that it was easier to make money starting their own plane than it was to join at the bottom of an existing plane.Thanks for that, FRN, you summed it up in a nutshell. And as for Zibi, he should try not to punt what I would call the DA gevaar button. But at least it gave Dall – a ‘creative writer’ whatever that is – something to write about.Zibi is only giving as good as he got.
These things are not coming from John Steenhuisen they were embedded in the DA whilst John was an impressive young Mp in the corridors of Parliament.Or within certain influential individuals in the DA. There have always been racists, British, English South Africans, Afrikaners and dare we say it “blacks”.And what do you say about the Anglo Boer War where the Brits killed 30 000 woman and children in the most inhuman way in the concentration camps. But you English are of course always innocent. Be carefull how long you far you want to go into history.
To extrapolate what Steenhuisen said to the ‘swart gevaar’ you need to be a politician, like Zibi, or an idiot, and I don’t believe Nick Dall is either. So either he’s parroting what someone said without actually thinking about what Steenhuisen said in the context of our current political landscape, or he has ulterior motives.
I find it hilarious how some commentators and politicians try their very hardest to make this about race, especially in light that the parties JS criticizes often really do only try to get access to resources . Race simply does not factor into this. You can’t just wave away the state of the entire country compared to the one province that actually gets so much more right and then shout racism.
It’s not enough to say that well, that province/city/ward is well run so we’ll leave it alone. You’ve formed a party because you have a vision that existing parties don’t embrace, and you believe that you will make a positive difference. Do you think Herman Mashaba doesn’t think that the WC would do better under ActionSA than under the DA? He might be wrong, but he BELIEVES it.
Personally, I don’t think that the majority of white South Africans have made any effort at all to honestly and truly understand the impact of colonialism and apartheid on our society; the desperation of poverty that leads to following those who promise so much without any ability to deliver . Perhaps with a little humility and introspection more white South Africans would understand why most black South Africans can’t bring themselves to vote for the DA, although I’m not holding my breath.
Yes It was a tricky time and a lot of people of all races felt unsafe. Yes the blacks were the ones involved in the riots and looting. And yes the law enforcers were then as usual ill prepared and not trusted to handle the situation. So people took matters in their hands and blacks, any blacks were at the receiving end of vigilantes. Some were killed. That was the reality. We can acknowledge or deny. But this is how a lot of people feel.
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