Not all helping hands come clad in good and sincere intentions
A cabinet minister doles out a relatively handsome donation to the bereaved family of a much-loved national figure to help cover funeral costs. All’s well and clear, what could possibly be wrong?
Maybe not, politicians in this country have given the people enough reason to question their every move, even actions that may have been inspired by nothing other than compassion, empathy and good old humanitarianism, the much-hallowed ubuntu, are to be taken with a pinch of salt.
It is not a scepticism born of thin air but of the track record of this species of humankind, which has perfected the art of exploitation and manipulation of the less fortunate.
But we live in a digital world, where, at the touch of a button, a worldwide search of anybody’s past can be laid bare for all to see – skeletons marching uninvited out of long-forgotten closets.
Minister of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Gayton McKenzie must have felt the itch politicians usually get when an opportunity arises to score cheap points presented itself at the news of the passing of screen and stage icon Nandi Nyembe two weeks ago.
A legendary actress, Nyembe had not been well lately and had gone public with her struggles, all too familiar in the showbiz sector, where many hardly make ends meet and live lives far removed from the glitz and glamour we witnessed on our TV and movie screens.
With his seemingly insatiable hunger for the spotlight, McKenzie had been in the news weeks before Nyembe’s death when he took it upon himself to lambaste a group of young podcasters who churlishly made ill-advised racial slurs against South Africans of mixed race.
The minister took manufactured offence at the slurs against an ethnic group he and his party identify with.
But the internet, like the elephant of old, never forgets, and soon thoughts he shared about Africans in his previous posts, where he had used the word “k…..” gleefully popped up everywhere. And he had not done that just once.
Now here he was pledging money to a bereaved family.
We are in no position as Sunday World to pass judgment here but perhaps those in need, need to be circumspect about what helping hand to welcome. In a perfect world, a donation from someone who regards the beneficiary as less human would not be entertained.
Millions of people McKenzie refers to in k-word terms find themselves where they are today – on the bottom rungs of society – because of an evil system that bestowed on people of his ilk a higher status.
However, we are not about to turn a blind eye to the culpability and failures of governments in the new dispensations – including the one McKenzie is serving in right now – to shift the needle significantly so that we don’t have the levels of poverty that force people to accept help from people who regard them as subhuman.
The irony that we hope was not lost to the minister is that his portfolio in the end is the one that should be held accountable for the system that continues to fail the likes of Nyembe.
