New Age2.png Black Like Me founder adopts a white agenda He's the DA's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg but has his financial success erased apartheid's evil from his thinking? Pinky Khoabane, The New Age, Johannesburg, 22 January 2016 The DA this past weekend, unveiled its city of Johannesburg mayoral candidate as businessman Herman Mashaba. The unveiling itself wasn't really news as rumours had been flying around in the week leading up to the announcement that he would be the chosen one. Mashaba is the same man who believes policies meant to redress the ills of apartheid are discriminatory and go against the Constitution and should therefore be scrapped. Supported "Solidarity" In a complaint lodged by trade union Solidarity to the UN, Mashaba supported the plea to have democratic South African policies repealed on the basis that they were discriminatory and racist. In his acceptance speech as mayoral candidate, Mashaba doesn't only repeat these ludicrous claims, given that the playing field is not yet level, but he also mentions that if he were mayor, he would plead for the scrapping of racial profiling. He would want to be a South African and not black, he said. Firstly, someone needs to buy Mashaba the Constitution. It's a small booklet which even my now-teenage children went through very quickly years ago. Mashaba displays his ignorance and shallow knowledge of the Constitution. If the ConCourt - the highest court in the land - acknowledges "remedial measures" and "restitutionary measures," which it also deems constitutional, the question is who is Mashaba and who are the learned lawyers who assisted Solidarity in its report to the UN, to say otherwise? Made money erasing blackness Mashaba's sentiments about blackness shouldn't come as too much of a surprise given the roots of his financial success. He made his money through a global billion dollar industry that has attempted to erase blackness. Mashaba's business - Black Like Me - a misnomer in the context of a man protecting white privilege and who no longer wants to be black - comprises mainly products that straighten black women's hair - all this in the name of making black people more palatable to whites. The net effect of this negation of the self, in most instances, results in better opportunities across all facets of society and professional industries. Mashaba and makers of these kind of products have taken advantage of black people's inferiority complex and self-hate stemming from years of being told that black features are ugly. They make products to suit a white man's definition of beauty. A woman must have straight hair, light complexion and be slim. History has shown that during slavery, on plantations, it is this sort of slave who would be treated slightly better than the "black and ugly" ones and the trend prevails till today. Black women with white features continue to get preference in the corporate world, in fashion and the film industry. It's not by mistake that you see top celebrities globally, wearing the weave. It is not a matter of sheer taste that we see black women spend the kind of money they do on their weaves. They often lash those who question their choices but the subliminal need to look white and the recognition that the world still demands whiteness as a barometer of what is beautiful and acceptable is deep. Diatribe In his diatribe to the UN, Mashaba says he grew up in Hammanskraal and his normal day resembled the hardship of many black people back then. His mother stole food from her employer just so they could have a meal, he said. How he thinks his mother could compete with the mothers of the Solidarity and DA people with whom he hangs out, without policies that level the playing field, is symptomatic of the extent to which apartheid damages the mind. Mashaba's views could be forgiven as those of someone suffering from what reggae musician Bob Marley called mental slavery but it is his ability to step in and out of blackness that exposes his hypocrisy. He says BEE should be scrapped and yet he has shares from BEE deals. He has been quoted as saying he left the Black Like Me business to his wife while he took advantage of opportunities made possible by the legal framework of a democratic South Africa. His BEE company, Lephatsi Investments, reported worth last year is about R1bn. Mamphela Rampheles Like the Mamphela Rampheles of our time they can be black for purposes of convenience and financial gain but swiftly see themselves as South Africans when they have amassed enough money. What is tragic however, is their efforts to deprive other blacks from the benefits of these policies by denigrating them as useless and benefiting the few who are connected to influential politicians. We may, and many have already dismissed Mashaba as "clueless" and "out of touch", but what we do in the process is discount the crushing impact of years of colonialism and apartheid and their resultant ideological project to destroy our sense of identity. . Pinky Khoabane is a columnist From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/22012016/epaperpdf/18.pdf -- -- 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. 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