Had DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach known something about the values of ubuntu and human dignity, she would have been measured in articulating her vile comments about the new public protector, advocate Kholeka Gcaleka.
But racism continues to dominate our public space, overtly. Breytenbach comes from the stock of white privilege, characterised by inequality and injustice.
It seems to us, she, like many of her own, is wired to see black people as inferior, and therefore deserving of slander.
That she could see Gcaleka as having reached the pinnacle of her career because of her “intimate relationship” with her boss is telling as it is also reflecting a white woman who is blinded by the stereotypes swirling in her mind.
It was Hendrik Verwoerd who taught that Africans were meant to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” only. Might it be justifiable to perceive Breytenbach as being part of that stock, created by such a white supremacist?
Breytenbach inhabits that murky world of her forebears who brought so much untold suffering to black
people.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, marked by post-modernism and progress – and marked by the new constitution underpinned and bolstered by the values of constitutionalism and the Bill of Rights and democracy and ubuntu – Breytenbach slides back into that ancient laager mentality, to a world that no longer exists.
In Breytenbach’s nonsensical racially motivated expressions, what is difficult to fathom is the refusal of her party, the so-called champions of democracy, to call its errant party member to account for her slanderous comments about Gcaleka.
Where is the DA leader? Where was John Steenhuisen hiding when one of his senior parliamentary troops unjustifiably hurled words of insult and slander against Gcaleka?
Why did Steenhuisen fail to give leadership by asking Breytenbach to withdraw the slanderous and racist words?
Typical of white people wired in the doctrine of racism, Steenhuisen instead attacked the Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, schooling her on how she should conduct the business of the day.
This again, reflects traits of racism. It is a white person who knows it all; black people could surely not become lawyers; they could not become engineers; they could not become prosecutors; they could not become parliamentarians, and they could surely never be deserving of being elected to serve in the position of public
protector.
In Breytenbach’s lexicon and thinking, why allow a “sinful” black woman to serve in one of the highest offices of the land? Black women “sleep their way to the top”, so she thinks.
Breytenbach sees black people the way she does – deserving to be insulted simply because they are black.
And the DA, the so-called champions of human rights and constitutionalism and democracy, chooses not to take a principled stand to defend Gcaleka when her human dignity is mauled by the almighty and all-knowing Breytenbach.
South Africa must work hard to rid itself of these unwavering bigots.
