A dodgy smell lingers in the air around the government offices in Tshwane’s Madiba Street and Cape Town’s Plein Street, and publicly available evidence suggests the offender is a minister.
It appears that in the same way that AfriForum and Solidarity obsess with keeping track of dead white farmers to stoke racial tensions, minister Gayton McKenzie one morning took a post at the front door of his Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture to do some bean counting.
He conducted the offensive pencil test on all those who carried clock cards, counting how many coloureds, Indians, whites, and Africans walked through the turnstiles. He noted 531 Africans, 32 whites, 19 coloureds, and four Indians.
His simplistic test came back with the results that Africans are over-represented in the department, and therefore they must be excluded in the next job posts.
Armed with the results of his unscientific test, McKenzie signed off on an advert for two posts with a note: “Preference will be given to coloured males, Indian males, white males, coloured females, and Indian females.”
A basic textual analysis of this note shows that the inclusion of the male versus female subcategory in the job posts is a mere decoy to hide the racist narrative the minister is driving.
The intention is to make a jaundiced argument that the minister cannot be driving a racist agenda because even white females are excluded.
And to also pretend that there was at least a nanosecond of thought involved in the decision.
McKenzie’s real agenda is to stoke racial tensions and drive a disinformation campaign, just like his idols and puppet masters in AfriForum and Solidarity, whom he joined to oppose progressive education policies.
McKenzie is driving misguided narratives that paint coloureds, Indians, and whites as victims of affirmative action and employment equity.
His skewed perspective is a blatant fallacy that ignores the historical context of systemic oppression and privilege.
Let’s not kid ourselves with the idea that these policies are anything but necessary rectifications of a deeply entrenched racial hierarchy that favoured whites, leaving black South Africans, particularly Africans, marginalised.
It’s audacious, if not downright ignorant, to reduce these critical measures to a mere bean counting exercise, as if equality is something that can be easily quantified or dismissed.
Listening to President Cyril Ramaphosa label AfriForum and Solidarity’s actions as misinformation this week in parliament was somewhat amusing.
It’s disinformation, Mr President. The deliberate intention is to manipulate and mislead. And one of your ministers is a serial offender.
At least, Ramaphosa said: “I take a dim view … in fact, a very negative view of what ensued, as they run around the world, badmouthing their country and putting their country into disrepute, not by things that are happening but by misinformation.
“That also leads to dividing our own nation, because what they are seeking to do is to spread racist statements about their own country when we are involved in building a nation out of the throes of a very divided situation that we suffered under.”
In McKenzie’s case, the buck stops with him.
McKenzie’s reductionist views reflect a profound naivety and a staggering level of stupidity. His ilk conveniently overlooks the complex socio-economic disparities that apartheid left in its wake – disparities that can’t be resolved overnight or with minimal effort.
Affirmative action and employment equity are not about victimising anyone; they are about levelling a playing field that has been grossly tilted for centuries.
To suggest otherwise is to perpetuate a narrative that clings to privilege while distorting the purpose of these policies.
It’s high time Ramaphosa confronts the minister with the uncomfortable truths of our past and educates him that achieving real equity requires more than simplistic calculations.
The minister’s gaffe is no different from when Mzwanele Manyi in 2010 said coloureds are over-represented in the Western Cape.
A wolf pack of politically correct, colourblind liberals descended upon him, labelling him a racist and forcing him to retreat and withdraw.
According to the demographics then, Western Cape had 29.1% blacks, 54.8% coloureds, 0.5% Indians, and 15.6% whites.
Manyi was right, but guess what? His rather crass analysis was sparked by Solidarity’s claim that around one million coloured people would lose their jobs if amendments to the
Employment Equity Act became law. Same script, same characters.
No doubt McKenzie, then busy selling himself as a reformed gangster and robber as part of his path to cabinet, is one of those who swallowed Solidarity’s hyperbole hook, line, and sinker.
At least one truth McKenzie told back then, according to one of his interviews, was to confirm that the South African prison system does not have a very high success rate regarding the rehabilitation of offenders, people like him.
We are seeing the consequences today through his warped, simplistic, and backward thinking.
• Stone is political editor
