From Empangeni 24.9.85

From Empangeni

24.9.85

Dear Mum Dad,

                                Today is a public holiday in Kwa Zulu so I have plenty of time. It’s Chaka’s Day. What price a leader like Chaka now. PW is just not up to it. After the Durban fiasco he has just appeared petty-minded & petulant.  Lots of people were embarrassed. Now the newspapers are saying how the National party faithful are calling for faster reforms. They are leaving their lack luster leader behind them.

                I remember one quote from an African politician north of the Limpopo. “There are two things we African politicians never do. That’s blush and resign.”  Pw is not going to resign.

                I glanced at the newspaper article by the two men in Woza Albert. I saw this play in Durban and I had exactly the same sinking feeling as after PW’s Durban speech. That play promised a lot. It promised hope but it didn’t deliver. In the end it descended into hate & stereotypes. Such rubbish is not art. It will die as soon as apartheid dies.  

                People think it easy to write about RSA but it is deceptively hard. The traps of black & white, simple slogans of right & wrong.  To write about RSA and not mention politics and race you get accused of being insensitive, philandering and fiddling. 

                They showed a debate on Tv between Louis Nel and Bill Hayden. I didn’t watch. I’m sure Hayden would have thrashed Nel. Louis Nel doesn’t speak English well has no experience of aggressive interviewers or TV. About ¾ weeks ago his wife was killed on her way to church (in a car accident). Since then he has thrown himself into his work going here & there in a strange kind of frenzy. I felt sorry for the lamb going to be slaughtered so didn’t watch.

                I am sick and tired of debate about sanctions. It doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong or work or don’t work. The fact is they are cumulative and irreversible. Only a black president with real powers will stop the flood. There main affect is psychologically in the minds of the whites and the threat is worse than the actuality. They are probable dividing the whites with swings to both the left and the right though it is difficult to say.

                This morning we walked up town to the library. There on the shelves was a copy of Newsweek that was banned from sale about a week ago. Somebody forgot to tell the librarian and as usual nobody cares. The government make a big noise about banning this magazine which loses it many political points in the USA and in the end for nothing. 

                                                                                                                              Regards Alan

                PS.  I am still waiting for a letter from Beverley.