There is apparently no end to the destructiveness of what is now termed: “The de-colonisation of South Africa.” It has reached the lowest point of human existence : That point where the ability to create and cultivate is also destroyed and replaced with a mere instinct driven survival existence.
I have no words to describe the measure of despise that one feels for the creatures who would go to an institution of learning and cultivation such as the University of Cape Town, carry out priceless works of art from a collection, and burn it. The ashes of civilisation, cultivation, of culture itself scattered by the winds of havoc.
The irony in it all is that the site of this senseless destruction is the very viper’s nest of liberal upheaval where, over the years, the seeds of discord were sewn against all that was built over 350 years. The first to burn is the very bridge that was built to cross the barrier between civilised, Western values, progressive existence…and the time of the winds of havoc.
A week or so ago I took some visitors to the Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek. We were standing there, almost piously impressed by the weight of the heritage brought to this country by these people. And then someone made a comment which was so true: “One can almost understand how the people, who are so driven by hatred and fear to destroy all remnants of Western civilization, must feel when he sees all the evidence of achievement and advancement. Because he has nothing to compare it to.”
And that is the essence of it. The destructive force of African might blowing the winds of havoc through the University of Cape Town and from there all over the city, the province, the country and the continent is trying to destroy the evidence of what they cannot compete with. But time in itself works differently – history itself can never be destroyed. However much you take down the statue of Cecil John Rhodes or set fire to the statue of Jan Smuts or blow the winds of havoc where you go – what has been, has been.
What has been confirmed is the fact that the multicultural state of unity, the “Rainbow Nation” of De Klerk and Mbeki and Zuma and Zille and Maimane is falling apart. The visual symbols of the minority colour in the Rainbow is a threat to the majority colour in the rainbow. The entire edifice is crumbling, because it exists of fundamentally irreconcilable cultures and customs. We might be accused of racism when we predict the final failure of the multicultural South Africa, we pay no attention to that accusation. We know that we will no longer be part of it, not because we don’t WANT to be, but because we CAN’T be!
It makes one sad to see that all the opportunities have been given to gain education, to become free and independent and responsible citizens of the modern world has been wasted. After 22 years of having power, progress exists only in liberal imagination. It has come to the burning of priceless works of art.
It makes one even more sad to hear some of our own people say: Let them take down Rhodes and let them burn Jan Smuts – they were Imperialists and liberals themselves. How short sighted of such people to live with their faces turned towards the past. It is the future we can change, not the past. It is the future that we are concerned about, not the past. And in tolerating this behaviour because of our own narrow conviction, we lower ourselves to the same level as the one we despise, for we know that it will not end with statues of Rhodes and Smuts and paintings and works of art. After this it we be statues of Kruger and Van Riebeeck and priceless architectural heritage and beautiful buildings. And eventually also the people who live and work and create inside those.
But what makes one the saddest of all is that there are still people who believe that all this is just teething problems and that the way of the ANC and the EFF and the D.A. is the right way. The way that will lead to solutions for problems to which no answer could be found in 350 years. This belief comes from a stubborn refusal to admit to themselves and to each other that they have been cheated. It is difficult for them to admit that they might have made a judgement of error, which is a very human thing to do. And what is so endlessly sad about it, is the fact that we cannot go back to the drawing board and redesign the future, before we cannot admit that the current is failing because of our own lack of insight.
Until that happens, the winds of havoc will blow away one thing after the other, and the time will come when we will seek for shelter, but there will be only ashes scattered in the winds and the voices of the ancestors and the future generations asking us: What have you done?
Daniel Lötter
South Africa Today – South Africa News
