Don’t blame it on the whites – blame it on apartheid. Those “pale intruders” also lost their human rights.
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| Transkei |
My first memories are those of waking
up in the middle of the night to look for my mother, only to find her sitting
quietly at the front window, with a rifle in her hands. “Sssssh”, she said to me. “Go back to bed”. Little did I realize at the age of 4, that
life and death was outside our windows and doors. Petrol bombs were the weapon of choice and
therefore we had burglar proofing made of thick but small holed wire on the
outside of our windows so that any petrol bombs thrown would bounce off the
windows. Our doors were covered in sheet
metal for the same reason. The Pan
African Congress’s armed wing, Poqo were on the warpath, killing anything that
supported the apartheid regime which meant, whites and Matanzima’s
advisors. They succeeded in killing one
of Matanzima's advisors in October 1962. They also killed Tembu Chief
Gwebindala Mabuza in October and Chief Mageza Dalasile in December. Numerous whites were also killed and the small towns where whites lived where
protected by men of the Commando’s patrolling the outskirts of the towns. My father was never home at night – he would
be on patrol. It was a frightening time
to live through.
Matanzima ran a brutal regime, and
using the infamous Proclamation R400, neutralized all opposition through
bannings and detentions. The Transkei became independent in April 1976. White people woke up one day in April to find
that they were now foreigners in the land of their birth and the birth of
countless generations. We had to get
permits to remain, permits to work and we had to have passports so that we
could travel. Not everyone was lucky
enough to obtain these permits – many were just collected by the army and
police and driven to the border and dropped off their just in the clothing they
wore. Businesses and homes were ex-appropriated
and people were paid out a minimal sum for what they owned. These businesses were then handed over to a
black individual, leaving the white with no option but to trek out of the
Transkei to survive. I have not heard
one pale native scream “give us back our land”.
Matanzima maintained power with the
help of Pretoria and legislation modelled on the Apartheid system. Suddenly we found that we were no longer ‘one’
but we whites were the ‘other’.
Travelling anywhere through a Transkeian border post became a
nightmare. We were treated with contempt
and disrespect, and if there was a seat in your car that was open, one or other
of the border guards would get in and demand a lift to wherever you were
going. That came to a halt when we
started putting empty boxes onto seats that were not being used. There is nothing more frightening than road blocks
and border posts where police and border police brandished AK47’s while rolling
drunk. One wrong move, one wrong word
could have ignited a shootout.
Corruption in the homeland
drastically depleted its funds and in 1980 the South African state assumed
control over the homeland's budget. Between
1978 and 1980 South African grants amounted to approximately R573-million. Also
in 1980 most of the members of the opposition DPP were arrested, and some were
banned. Dalindyebo fled and went into exile in Zambia, where he forged links
with the ANC. He died in 1986. General
Bantu Holomisa mounted a bloodless coup in January 1988. Holomisa ruled as
chairperson of the Military Council. He
unbanned the UDF and other anti-apartheid organisations and in 1994, the
Transkei became part of South Africa again. For many of us pale natives, South Africa is
not our home. Our home is the Transkei
but there is nothing left of what we had other than overgrown cemeteries in
small towns and trading stores. And everything that does not work, or needs
attention – it is always the white person’s fault. The unruly people of our land cannot
understand the simplicity of the situation.
You can’t blame things on the whites – if you going to put any blame
anywhere, put it on the system that was in place more than 20 years ago. And we pale natives will put the blame for
today’s disastrous government right where it should be – on the SACP/ANC
alliance.
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