Issue 19, Vol 10: 3 October 2013 In this issue:
Prof. Jansen and the Queen's Language: What a Screw up! Syria: hypocrisy of the hegemony A Communist and fiery fighter's spirit is awake Prof. Jansen and the Queen's Language: What a Screw up! By Buti Manamela It is generally understood that if you know what's good for you, tread carefully when criticising university professors and High Court judges. And when you do disturb the peace, and break the unwritten rule prepare yourself to be butchered into pieces. Some years ago, the wrath of the chattering classes rained down on me when I tried unsuccessfully to be like those clevver blacks, and dared to criticise Judge Hillary Squires' judgment on Shabir Schaik. But this week, I have to disturb the peace (again) and declare that Professor Jonathan Jansen of Kovsie screwed up big time in his piece on language. But let me make sure I am talking about the right professor and the right issue. I agree with Ou Prof that creating learning fortress in the name of language, such as Kovsie, Tuks or Matties has no future in reconciliation (--and does reinforce and reproduce the historical goals of apartheid). Universities should be built for all, and that their cornerstone should not be their language of instruction, but research and knowledge production. Just recently, 18 years after the first democratic election, Stellenbosch was celebrated for voting yes to a policy that will allow black students in residences. What next? Celebrate a fish for swimming? We have to be rough with some of the so-called historically Afrikaner institutions because there is nothing historical about their Afrikanerness. I sympathise with OuProf in this part of his argument because the reinforcement of the volk mentality through education leads to pretentious reconciliation and social-cohesion. But OuProf is also quoted as saying “for many parents English was already the language of choice in schools” and because of this, we should “instruct every teacher and every child in English from the first day of school rather than add the burden of poor instruction in the mother-tongue in the foundation years to the trauma of transition to English later on." OuProf says these are careful arguments that are based on what is practical, and made in the context of both reconciliation and the fact that our economy is organized in English. Duh! Parents do not choose English as the language of choice for the basic instruction of their children. This is imposed on them. Our society has organized a hierarchy of quality education on the basis of language, with English and Afrikaans (both private and public) having more resources and therefore a reflection of the quality of their education. This is not only the challenge for government, but also for our communities (especially the private sector) who channel millions to these schools. If many parents could afford, Queens, St. Stithians, St, Johns (and so forth, and all of them named along the English) would experience the same stampede at their school registration as the case with the University of Johannesburg. But also, there is no black or Afrikaner parent who wants their child twanging and sounding like they are talking the fourteenth language (after Tsotsi-taal and Fanagalo). At 23%, Zulu is the most common language spoken in our country, followed by Xhosa at 16%, then Afrikaans at (14%) and then English. If it was a question of choice, most of our people would choose that our education system be designed to reflect the language demographic as spoken in their homes. If resources are a problem, Nguni and Sotho can and should be the languages within which our economy and education is organized. Otherwise we should choose Mandarin (economically speaking). My major problem with OuProf's argument is not so much what he says, but more of what he does not say, but do imply. His careful and thoughtful argument (his words) is that the choice should be between Afrikaans and English if we are to foster reconciliation. This argument is disguised under the progressive course for ‘a common language for teenagers'. He arrives at the English choice because the current generation feels comfortable in conversing in that language, rather than in Afrikaans. This is true. I am writing this article in English because most people are likely to comprehend the argument I just presented. OuProf's unwitting implication is that because of the parallels between apartheid and Afrikaans (just as he said in his interview with John Robbie), our young will lean through English for them to “live together”. Essentially, other than the sexiness and beauty of English, we should choose it because it had nothing to do with apartheid. This, I must emphasise, is implied in OuProf argument. OuProf knows the history of our country's colonization, and the scars of the Anglo-Boer war, which was essentially the South African War (because it included all South Africans and determined the future of this country). OuProf also remembers Isandlwana, and many other wars since 1843 (almost a century before Hendrick Verwoerd's apartheid policies) between the ‘rulers of Zululand'(the English) and the Zulus. Essentially, there is a reason why we are part of the “Commonwealth” (especially the common part, because the wealth is gone to the Queen) and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi is fluent in English. Just less than a thousand kilometres from OuProff's academic shack of Kovies, there is a Pedi Professor (Malegapuru Makgoba) in Zululand (UKZN) who is championing a lingo-revolution. Prof Makgoba is experimenting with learning and teaching complex subjects as astrology and applied mathematics (ultimately) in isiZulu. I passionately listened to him as he challenged Turfloop, UniVenda and Fort Hare (amongst others) to become champions of their mother-tongues in their regions. This stuff is possible. We are (all) better off in the comfort of our own languages. The politics of language is also the politics of identity, and therefore should not be treated casually for practical expediency. I do not prefer Queen Elizabeth's tongue, because in expressing myself in her majestic language, I have lost a sense of me, of being Pedi and of identifying with that language and its roots. I am not a conservative. I speak as many South African languages as the Prof does (or wish to) and I am happy that I can get my way around in Khayelitsha, KwaMashu, Eldorado Park and Orania with minimal linguistic glitches. But my effort to know all these languages must never be mistaken to be taken as my complicity in sacrificing my language at the altar of practicality and commercial expediency. Thus, give me Queen Modjadji or Queen Nandi anytime-that's how we will roll; Prof! That's the Bottomline. Cos the YCLSA said so! Buti Manamela is the YCLSA National Secretary Syria: hypocrisy of the hegemony By Khaya Xaba Watching the imminent attack on Damascus there's a sense of disgust towards the US hypocrisy in their quest to deepen imperialist aggression. We have seen many examples of US bullying. Countries in Latin America, the Middle East, (Asia, e.g. Vietnam) and most recently in Africa have fallen prey to such tactics. The US military power to bulldoze those who are weak has gone unchallenged for a very long time. The attack on Syria is part of the broader plan by the US to neo-colonialise the Middle East (New Middle east regional strategy) and to ensure that it remains underdeveloped. The United Nations is well aware that the US is funding and supplying the Al-Qaeda aligned rebels who are the instigators of the civil war aimed at dethroning the Bashar al-Assad regime. This is not a first example of this; the US also supported rebels who overthrew Colonel Muamar Gaddafi and left Libya in tatters. (Other oppressed peoples) Africans must be given space to find African solutions to African problems without the interference of the US with its large arsenal of firepower. The reason given for the planned attack on Syria is that the Bashar al-Assad administration used chemical weapons against rebels on August 21. The UN was quick to send investigators to Syria to investigate its chemical weapons arsenal. This was surprising as other incidents have never been investigated. The US used white phosphorous in Fallujah in Iraq. This forced 300, 000 Iraqi people to flee their homes in terror. Israel was also guilty of using white phosphorous on the trapped population in Gaza. The United Nation did not investigate this or take any action against Israel. The United Nation has become a toothless dog which is scared of disciplining the US- its largest funder. According to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons protocol the use of white phosphorus as a provocative weapon against civilian populations or in air attacks against enemy forces in civilian areas is banned. Yet both the US and Israel have never been disciplined for their use of banned weapons that claimed the lives of civilians. The use of depleted uranium by the US to hardened shells to pierce armour in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan has also not been condemned by the UN. Depleted uranium is detrimental to human beings and can lead to leukaemia and birth effects. The Pentagon has been concealing the use depleted uranium and releasing misleading information of the weapons used both in the Gulf war and the Iraq war. A serious transformation of the United Nation and the Security Council is immediately needed. South Africa's president Jacob Zuma has been championing this cause. An urgent intervention must be launched to deal with the plight of developing countries that are inconvenienced by the skewed bias of the UN Security Council. If we allow the Security Council to function as it has been, it will lead to more bullying and aggression by the US in their quest for world domination. Khaya Xaba is the National Spokesperson of the YCLSA A Communist and fiery fighter's spirit is awake By Thabang Maseko Red October is the season every year, we commemorate for the role played by Bolsheviks leader Vladimir Lenin after took the ruins of power from Tsar Monarch in 1917. It is a month in South Africa the two struggle icons shares date of birthday, the SACP prominent leader and intellectual Jabulani ‘'Mzala ‘' Nxumalo (1955) and long serving ANC President Oliver Regional Tambo (1917) both were born on27 October. OR Tambo and Mzala Nxumalo have grown as brilliant boys at school that led them to pass Matric examinations in the first class and went on to study law. OR went to University of Fort Hare and Mzala Nxumalo at the University of Zululand but not in the same year. In 1972, at the age of 15, Nxumalo was detained without trial for his role in a school boycott. The following year he was arrested again and charged with public violence for his part in student and worker strikes. He became more active in South African Student Organization (SASO) also was passionate and a fiery fighter against injustice. Soweto uprising of 1976 made him a marked person. With a number of others he left South Africa to help swell the ranks of the people's army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in exile. He also received training in politics and other specialized subjects in the Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic. In all the training courses, Mzala excelled. This is what makes me to believe, if comrade Mzala Nxumalo would be alive or awake from his gravy, can stand and take the initiative to teach SACP membership; How to be a good communist. Mzala would argue, in order to become faithful and worthy pupils of the Marxism-Leninism, we must engage in all round self-cultivation in the course of the great and protracted revolutionary struggles of the working class and the poor. He will also advise the communist to engage in self-cultivation in the Marxist-Leninist theory manner; Self cultivation applies to the peoples view and is a method to the studies and handles all problems to uphold unity in the Party. He will insist that, we are all members of the Communist Party and therefore we must all without exception carry on self-cultivation in these respects. However, since Party members differ from one another in political consciousness, experience of struggle, field of work, cultural level and in the conditions in which they work, it is natural that comrades should differ to some extent in the various aspects of self-cultivation to which they must pay special attention of which they must stress. To be a member of the Communist Party did not mean that he was not equally devoted to the national interest of his people. He was intensely proud of Zulu history and culture, as any reader of his book, Gatsha Buthelezi - Chief with a Double Agenda, can testify. He believed that the Bantustan system stifled the national drive and independence of the African peoples. Comrade Mzala went to Britain in 1987 to further his studies, and study a Ph.D. degree at the University of Essex and the Open University. Though ever loyal to the movement, Comrade Mzala was a fierce critic of bureaucracy and had no patience with fudge or compromise. He was a delegate to the ANC conference in Kabwe, Zambia, in 1985 and presented a number of sharp challenges to the leadership. He was the chosen representative of the London region to the ANC's Consultative Conference in Johannesburg in December 1990 but was prevented by ill-health from attending. The death of Comrade Mzala at the tragically early (22 February 1991) age of 35 has deprived South Africa of one of its most brilliant talents at the very period when he was destined to reach the peak of his powers. That he should be snatched from us when he had so much still to give is a grievous loss to the liberation movement. Comrade Mzala would demand the ANC led government to implement the freedom charter in all spheres of government. Thabang Maseko is the Provincial Spokesperson of the YCLSA in the Eastern Capef Sent from my iPhone -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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