Horst’s 55th Newsletter October 2024.
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Once in a lifetime.
On 5 October 2024 the coronation of my nephew Otto Charles /Uirab, to the Swartbooi Traditional Authority, took place. The Swartbooi’s are part of the Namaqua who in turn belong to the Khoekhoe or Khoi peoples. The two-day event took place in rural Fransfontein, Kunene Region, Northern Namibia.
Nephew Otto was anointed or crowned as Gaob, Kaptein, or Chief to the Swartbooi Traditional Authority. He is the youngest of the Uirab siblings and was previously appointed by his, now late, mother Emma, as the custodian or purveyor of the oral history of his/our people. The event, performed according to ancient tradition, evoked wonder, joy, melody and colour, where deeply held rites and unique a language mixed with modern times. This was an invocation of cultural expression which colonizers and apartheid rulers stamped on to extinguish with racist contempt. All this now re-asserts itself in the face of a new threat, that of AI, mobile phones and globalization.
Kaptein Daniel Luiperdt retired after 38 years as Kaptein of this community. He stood down due to ill health. His chosen successor was nephew Otto. His nomination of Otto met with approval by all Swartboois in this region. Some 800 people, old and young, came to join in this age-old traditions of symbolism rooted in the harsh semi-desert that has marked their long history.
What a delight to be included in a community event that takes place once in a generation only! I felt especially humbled to be asked to speak to the gathering and to trace the linkages the Swartbooi’s have to people of other cultures and complexions, in my case the European connection. How did it happen that not just once white missionary and colonial genes became part of a people who continued to be Swartbooi, and others who had chosen to call themselves ‘white’? (The text of my address delivered at the inauguration is attached.)
Pictures of the event itself can be found below or on my web page: www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za.
See attached:
See below book cover of: Namibische Gedenk- und Erinnerungsorte – Postkolonialer Reisebegleiter in die deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, by Bernd Heyl, published by Brandes & Apsel Verlag, Frankfurt, 2021.
I strongly recommend that, if you read German, to read this book and to recommend it to German tourists to Namibia. The author provides a well-researched counter to 96 Namibian public monuments and buildings (protected by law) that are visited, that convey nostalgic, naïve or false narratives of the period they represent. 85 of these prominent places refer to the German colonial remembrances.
____________________________________________________
Once in a lifetime.
On 5 October 2024 the coronation of my nephew Otto Charles /Uirab, to the Swartbooi Traditional Authority, took place. The Swartbooi’s are part of the Namaqua who in turn belong to the Khoekhoe or Khoi peoples. The two-day event took place in rural Fransfontein, Kunene Region, Northern Namibia.
Nephew Otto was anointed or crowned as Gaob, Kaptein, or Chief to the Swartbooi Traditional Authority. He is the youngest of the Uirab siblings and was previously appointed by his, now late, mother Emma, as the custodian or purveyor of the oral history of his/our people. The event, performed according to ancient tradition, evoked wonder, joy, melody and colour, where deeply held rites and unique a language mixed with modern times. This was an invocation of cultural expression which colonizers and apartheid rulers stamped on to extinguish with racist contempt. All this now re-asserts itself in the face of a new threat, that of AI, mobile phones and globalization.
Kaptein Daniel Luiperdt retired after 38 years as Kaptein of this community. He stood down due to ill health. His chosen successor was nephew Otto. His nomination of Otto met with approval by all Swartboois in this region. Some 800 people, old and young, came to join in this age-old traditions of symbolism rooted in the harsh semi-desert that has marked their long history.
What a delight to be included in a community event that takes place once in a generation only! I felt especially humbled to be asked to speak to the gathering and to trace the linkages the Swartbooi’s have to people of other cultures and complexions, in my case the European connection. How did it happen that not just once white missionary and colonial genes became part of a people who continued to be Swartbooi, and others who had chosen to call themselves ‘white’? (The text of my address delivered at the inauguration is attached.)
Pictures of the event itself can be found below or on my web page: www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za.
See attached:
- The programme of the day.
- Horst's address about the genetic link of the Swartbooi Uirab's to the Kleinschmidt's.
- Berlin cousin and author, Ursula Trüper, warned about renewed German exploitation.
- Pictures, clips and cuttings.
See below book cover of: Namibische Gedenk- und Erinnerungsorte – Postkolonialer Reisebegleiter in die deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, by Bernd Heyl, published by Brandes & Apsel Verlag, Frankfurt, 2021.
I strongly recommend that, if you read German, to read this book and to recommend it to German tourists to Namibia. The author provides a well-researched counter to 96 Namibian public monuments and buildings (protected by law) that are visited, that convey nostalgic, naïve or false narratives of the period they represent. 85 of these prominent places refer to the German colonial remembrances.
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The billionaire-millionaire-rich man curse.
In a recent Sunday Times article, journalist Thabani Khumalo states that notionally SA supports a 2% wealth tax of the super-rich. There are 3000 billionaires globally; several are South African. In 2021 it was estimated that if such tax was levied on SA billionaires, R160bn tax could be raised annually. Such is the political power of the rich in this country that no ANC, let alone a GNU dare discuss, let alone levy such a tax! For justice and equality to have any meaning we need a discussion that goes way beyond a wealth tax. Why is it that exploitation is first allowed to take place and then some of it might be clawed back by taxes? Instead, we the most unequal country, just get more unequal by the day! |
Refugees - produced by Empire(s).
The USA, the UK and EU countries are constantly beset with ‘keeping refugees out’. Walls, fences and endless political spats deal with demeaning the lives of South American, Carribean, African, Middle Eastern and Asian refugees. Public debate, also in SA, lacks perspective and vigorous debate about what it is that causes people to leave their home countries. Without any doubt the USA, whether Democrat or Republican is the most persistent culprit, with its wars from Viet Nam all across to Palestine that has made people to flee their countries. But just as culpable are Europe former colonial powers who left behind chaos or depravation – and without ever paying a fair price for the extractive commodities they source to this day! |
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE OLIVE JUSTICE GROVE
INVITATION TO THE SECOND GATHERING.
In 2023 we held the first gathering at Goedgedacht. There, we inaugurated the C! Olive Justice Grove where we planted 27 Olive Trees in tribute to people who had contributed the work of the CI ,and through it, to the resistance to Apartheid and the struggle for a just an equal society in South Africa. At the time it was agreed to make it an annual event to recognize deceased members contribution to the intent and work of the CI.
The second Gathering is scheduled for Sunday 8 December 2024 at the beautiful Goedgedacht Conference Centre and Olive farm, You are warmly invited to attend.
We will again honour those who contributed to the CI and the struggle for a just and equal South Africa. At this year’s gathering we will plant another 11 Olive trees. These are in tribute to Prof Bennie Khoapa, Peter Randall, Alex and Khosi Mbatha, Ann Browne, Dr Trudy Thomas, Neville Curtis, Rick Turner, Christmas Tinto, Vic Honey and Patrick Matolengwe.
If you have anything that you have or know that you want included in their bio’s please send them to us. .
Provisionally we have prepared the following programme for the day, but we would also welcome comments and suggestions.
Place the date of the ‘Gathering ‘in your diary so you can be with us. More details will be sent later. This early invite serves to especially give you time to help you plan a visit, especially if you come from afar. You can book accommodation the night before and the night after at Goedgedacht Centre (B&B). The accommodation in Goedegadacht is comfortable and set in beautiful country surroundings. To make an overnight booking Google Goedgedacht and state that you will attend the event on the 9th of December.
As you will appreciate, there is cost associated and we ask you to please donate to the dedicated account Goedgedacht has opened for this purpose. Funds are needed to defray costs related to building and maintenance work at the Justice Grove, assisting those who need support to join us, the luncheon etc. on the day, and costs such as framing portraits of the individuals we honour. Christine Crowley has once more offered to draw portraits of those to be honoured this year.
Feel free to pass this invitation on to friends you think would want to join us.
Visit the Goedgedacht web page to watch the short film about the inaugural event last year.
We are excited to have this second gathering and look forward to greeting you on the day.
Best wishes,
Horst, Deon, Jim, Sarah and Malcolm.
(Horst Kleinschmidt, Deon Snyman, Sarah Crawford-Brown, Jim Cochrane, Malcolm McCarthy)
If you plan to join us please direct your replies to: [email protected]
Donations to/Account Details:
GOEDGEDACHT BANK ACCOUNT
Standard Bank
Name: Goedgedacht Trust
Account No: 282577629
Branch code: 051001
Ref: CI Justice Grove
Booking details for accommodation: Goedgedacht Trust
Goedgedacht Farm, Riebeeksrivier
Malmesbury, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 22 482 4369 /
+27 22 482 1291 / +27 22 482 4466
Fax: +27 (0) 86 655 5193
Email: [email protected]
The picturesque farm is located a mere hour's drive, 87 km from Cape Town, via the N7.
GPS Coordinates:
33°22’44.1″S 18°50’53.0″E
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE OLIVE JUSTICE GROVE
INVITATION TO THE SECOND GATHERING.
In 2023 we held the first gathering at Goedgedacht. There, we inaugurated the C! Olive Justice Grove where we planted 27 Olive Trees in tribute to people who had contributed the work of the CI ,and through it, to the resistance to Apartheid and the struggle for a just an equal society in South Africa. At the time it was agreed to make it an annual event to recognize deceased members contribution to the intent and work of the CI.
The second Gathering is scheduled for Sunday 8 December 2024 at the beautiful Goedgedacht Conference Centre and Olive farm, You are warmly invited to attend.
We will again honour those who contributed to the CI and the struggle for a just and equal South Africa. At this year’s gathering we will plant another 11 Olive trees. These are in tribute to Prof Bennie Khoapa, Peter Randall, Alex and Khosi Mbatha, Ann Browne, Dr Trudy Thomas, Neville Curtis, Rick Turner, Christmas Tinto, Vic Honey and Patrick Matolengwe.
If you have anything that you have or know that you want included in their bio’s please send them to us. .
Provisionally we have prepared the following programme for the day, but we would also welcome comments and suggestions.
- Arrival mid-morning, checking in, visiting the newly established memorial library, followed by lunch.
- At around 2pm we gather at the Interfaith Chapel to listen to 3 short addresses from persons connected with those we honour.
- Live music will then lead us to the adjacent CI Justice Grove where we plant the 11 additional olive trees and re-visit the 27 persons for whom we planted trees last year. The retaining wall behind the grove with augmented plaque provides a description of those honoured. It serves as a place of silence, of contemplation or of enquiry and discussion.
Place the date of the ‘Gathering ‘in your diary so you can be with us. More details will be sent later. This early invite serves to especially give you time to help you plan a visit, especially if you come from afar. You can book accommodation the night before and the night after at Goedgedacht Centre (B&B). The accommodation in Goedegadacht is comfortable and set in beautiful country surroundings. To make an overnight booking Google Goedgedacht and state that you will attend the event on the 9th of December.
As you will appreciate, there is cost associated and we ask you to please donate to the dedicated account Goedgedacht has opened for this purpose. Funds are needed to defray costs related to building and maintenance work at the Justice Grove, assisting those who need support to join us, the luncheon etc. on the day, and costs such as framing portraits of the individuals we honour. Christine Crowley has once more offered to draw portraits of those to be honoured this year.
Feel free to pass this invitation on to friends you think would want to join us.
Visit the Goedgedacht web page to watch the short film about the inaugural event last year.
We are excited to have this second gathering and look forward to greeting you on the day.
Best wishes,
Horst, Deon, Jim, Sarah and Malcolm.
(Horst Kleinschmidt, Deon Snyman, Sarah Crawford-Brown, Jim Cochrane, Malcolm McCarthy)
If you plan to join us please direct your replies to: [email protected]
Donations to/Account Details:
GOEDGEDACHT BANK ACCOUNT
Standard Bank
Name: Goedgedacht Trust
Account No: 282577629
Branch code: 051001
Ref: CI Justice Grove
Booking details for accommodation: Goedgedacht Trust
Goedgedacht Farm, Riebeeksrivier
Malmesbury, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 22 482 4369 /
+27 22 482 1291 / +27 22 482 4466
Fax: +27 (0) 86 655 5193
Email: [email protected]
The picturesque farm is located a mere hour's drive, 87 km from Cape Town, via the N7.
GPS Coordinates:
33°22’44.1″S 18°50’53.0″E
Above: nephew Otto Uirab visiting us in Cape Town, August 2024 |
On 5 October 2024, nephew Otto Uirab will ascend to the position of Chief amongst the Swartboois of Namibia! We will be there - and congratulate him! |
Horst's 53rd Newsletter - August 2024
  Below, the continuation of the 53rd Newsletter
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As always, herewith comment on that which moved my head or my body. You can view below also on my website www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. where the text is augmented with photos and images.
1. Stop Press: On 5 October 2024, nephew Otto |Uirab will ascend to the position of Kaptein/Chief of the Swartbooi Traditional Authority of the Kunene Region in Namibia! We will be in Fransfontein to celebrate - and we congratulate him! To-be Kaptein Otto |Uirab with myself, visiting us in Cape Town late August, 2024. 2. Takeaways after a superb visit to the UK (and Spain) in July 2024. Christine and I escaped the worst of Cape storms, worrying from a distance whether our friends, neighbours and our house was safe from downpours, …. and mudslides. At least one couple we know in Kalk Bay had to be evacuated when mud and rock came down the mountain that had only months ago, been damaged by a veld fire. All was well with-our home. But nature took back in other ways too whilst we were away. Outside our back door a Cape Robin made her nest on top of upturned brooms. She shouts furiously if anyone comes near. Little Robins show their beaks. We have declared the area out of bounds. And nature gave: We harvested at least 350 lemons from the sole lemon tree in our garden, after our return. And, where I stored my Land Rover in Simon’s Town, a baboon troop chose the front screen of the car as a slide – muddy paws all over and a broken radio aerial was the evidence. As I turned the corner on collecting the car, there sat the troop, gorging themselves from an upturned waste bin; could have sworn one of them winked at me! Whilst in Europe: A wonderful five days with Leonie, now ensconced in a beautiful flat south of Valencia, Spain, a village called Penido. Then we attended a wonderful Tamil Hindu wedding where my niece Alicja, married Jeevithan in a Temple in south London, conforming to music and writings in Sanskrit that goes back at least 5000 years. The whole event was beautiful, with positive and joyful rituals devoid of heaviness, controlling rules and darkness. The soles of my socks will never look the same after walking for a day on petals of flowers! A second day was spent at a lovely venue in Walthamstow Wetland – augmented by witty yet profound speeches. I then paid a visit to Exeter University in the far south-west of England who assisted me with the large archive in our home. The first part of my digitized archive will shortly go ‘live’. I’ll let you know! At Westminster Abbey I attended a celebration of 30 years of democracy in South Africa in the heart of ceremony and pomp as Britain knows best. Our new Foreign Minister, John Lamola spoke and affirmed his predecessors policy on Palestine! Then a lunch with Actsa – the UK custodian of the UK AAM archive and the activism the movement led so successfully. I was pleased to establish a working relationship with them. And then a very pleasurable reunion with my former IDAF staff organized by John and Ruth Hughes at their home in Brighton. Thank you! The oldest amongst us being Peggy Stevenson, now 90 and still with a twinkle in her eye. Separately I met up with my former PA, Afua Boaten, laughing and catching up with the times 40 years earlier. Also spent time with my brother Immo in Brighton, with Christine’s brother Paul in the far north Darlington and time with close friend, Anne Thomas, in Balham, south London. She afforded us accommodation between the hectic visits away from London. I love London, just like I always did during my twelve years of exile in this bubbling, busy, 20mph (new speed limit), multi-cultural city. This despite the obvious and huge social contradictions. The richer parts are clean, parks (many of which I walked again for old-time's sake) are well kept and mostly public services function! As an aside, I observed a perverse love-affair of Britons with ultra-expensive German luxury and sports cars – cars I’ve never seen in SA (maybe I have not visited Clifton or Camps Bay in recent years). Dominant remains a conservative nothing-will-ever-change confidence, now perpetuated by the Labour Party, who returned to power on the day of our arrival. We paid a lovely and extensive visit to Whitechapel Gallery to see and understand the art of South African artist, Gavin Jantjies. He deserves greater recognition in South Africa! The streets around Whitechapel display more starkly a clash between the glitz of young bankers in flashy suits and dresses on the way to midday functions, and beggars and street grime. Not everything works: On returning from Spain we got to the airport in Alicante only to learn that our BA flight was cancelled; not an airline official in sight. Late in the evening we Ubered to the town centre, to find a hotel with a room to spare. We found one easily but outside the noise informed us that it was the great soccer match between Holland and England. Fans of both sides were having a great time cheering on their teams. We decided to join them – sided with the UK fans, whose language we understood. And, when returning, late at night by train from Darlington on another trip, our train stopped on the outskirts of London because Kings Cross station was “congested” with trains. Ninety minutes later – close to midnight and everyone in irritable mood – we got to Kings Cross and then navigated our way back to South London. From BA and British (privatised) rail we await compensation – making such claims demands patience and the IT skills of people much, much younger than we are. Returning home, despite a 10-hour (night) layover at Schiphol and hoping to sleep on airport seats and under glaring lights, we realised how much we needed this break. And yet, always reminding ourselves what privileged lives we lead. Poverty and misery hit me upon returning. And knowing also that the country we visited contributes armaments to war zones without a conscience! | ||
Baboon's fun: While away my car was parked in the backyard of Simon's Town Museum. A troop of baboon's had a great time using the front screen as a slide. |
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Below: Full moon over False Bay and sunrise the next morning, May 2024
| Horst's 52nd Newsletter. My manifesto prior to SA elections at the end of May (I'm not standing - just a partial wish-list) and some remembrances, Mkwebane and Gatsha Buthelezi |
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Above is the dustcover of the book written by Ursula Trüper about her and my great, great, great grandmother Zara, born in Little Namaqualand, todays Northern Cape. She spoke Khoekhoegowab, the language of the Namaqua people, a part of the Khoikhoi, also known as the Khoi, Khoekhoe, or Khoisan.
This is an extraordinary historical novel about the impact on the victims of Dutch and British colonial expansion from the south and then the violent acquisition of Namibia from the north, by Germany. This is a carefully researched and referenced book which builds creative but credible linkages of the scant available information about the colonised, the victims, the women, the resisters – always the people of colour. Ursula, a fervent feminist, powerfully portrays our ancestor, born at the end of the 18th century and died, probably not yet fifty, in 1831 on a farm between Porterville and Riebeek Kasteel.
Ursula’s elevation of Zara is of immense importance. Despite the male, prejudiced and white dominated times of the available literature, Ursula establishes the evidence of Zara’s role in committing to paper an early Khokhoegowab grammar, inventing for the first time a way to write down the different ‘click’ sounds and ultimately, again with her husband missionary Hinrich Schmelen, translates the Gospels and hymns into the local language. And they get published in Cape Town and can be viewed at the National Library in Cape Town.
Whatever one’s view about her becoming a ‘tool’ in the missionary conquest, she stands tall as someone who, with dignity and conviction adapts to the changing times. She is a pioneer who contributes intellectually to the survival of her language and through this lays a basis for the assertion of justice and equality in the changing world, then and now.
Ursula’s book is important for many reasons. Without compromise the author faces up to the following:
- The history of “scientific” racism in relation to mixed marriages.
- Adolf Lüderitz and the colonial ‘protection’ land swindle.
- Missionary complicity in Dutch, British and then German colonial aims.
- Insights into the resistance of the Witbooi’s, Afrikaner’s, Booi’s, Veldskoedraer’s and others.
- The appalling (live) Berlin colonial exhibition of 1896.
- The war against the Herero and Nama people. And the Genocide.
- The 1903 “Hottentotten” election in Germany over funding wars in the colony’s.
- The “Black disgrace” and how it unfolded in the different lives of our family members.
- How some family members made it into the Nazi party and others who were rejected.
- The Nürnberg rally of 1935 and the ‘race’ laws.
- The tragic life of Sara Baartman, a contemporary of Zara Schmelen.
The above forms the backdrop that locates the life of Zara Schmelen a hundred years earlier. Her research is meticulous as she goes into the background and circumstances of Zara, Zara’s contemporary’s, her children and those after them.
The book contributes to a history forcing and thrusting people and their livestock from Cape Town, north into ever more arid lands and resulting contestation for resources – the source of inevitable conflicts.
For people of colour, for anyone interested in our history and those who continue the quest for gender equality, this book resonates strongly; if it was translated and published in Afrikaans and English – here in South Afrika!
[Of the 380 pages, 36 pages cover sources and endnotes or references. It was published in Germany 2023]
Horst Kleinschmidt, 18 Feb 2024.
This is an extraordinary historical novel about the impact on the victims of Dutch and British colonial expansion from the south and then the violent acquisition of Namibia from the north, by Germany. This is a carefully researched and referenced book which builds creative but credible linkages of the scant available information about the colonised, the victims, the women, the resisters – always the people of colour. Ursula, a fervent feminist, powerfully portrays our ancestor, born at the end of the 18th century and died, probably not yet fifty, in 1831 on a farm between Porterville and Riebeek Kasteel.
Ursula’s elevation of Zara is of immense importance. Despite the male, prejudiced and white dominated times of the available literature, Ursula establishes the evidence of Zara’s role in committing to paper an early Khokhoegowab grammar, inventing for the first time a way to write down the different ‘click’ sounds and ultimately, again with her husband missionary Hinrich Schmelen, translates the Gospels and hymns into the local language. And they get published in Cape Town and can be viewed at the National Library in Cape Town.
Whatever one’s view about her becoming a ‘tool’ in the missionary conquest, she stands tall as someone who, with dignity and conviction adapts to the changing times. She is a pioneer who contributes intellectually to the survival of her language and through this lays a basis for the assertion of justice and equality in the changing world, then and now.
Ursula’s book is important for many reasons. Without compromise the author faces up to the following:
- The history of “scientific” racism in relation to mixed marriages.
- Adolf Lüderitz and the colonial ‘protection’ land swindle.
- Missionary complicity in Dutch, British and then German colonial aims.
- Insights into the resistance of the Witbooi’s, Afrikaner’s, Booi’s, Veldskoedraer’s and others.
- The appalling (live) Berlin colonial exhibition of 1896.
- The war against the Herero and Nama people. And the Genocide.
- The 1903 “Hottentotten” election in Germany over funding wars in the colony’s.
- The “Black disgrace” and how it unfolded in the different lives of our family members.
- How some family members made it into the Nazi party and others who were rejected.
- The Nürnberg rally of 1935 and the ‘race’ laws.
- The tragic life of Sara Baartman, a contemporary of Zara Schmelen.
The above forms the backdrop that locates the life of Zara Schmelen a hundred years earlier. Her research is meticulous as she goes into the background and circumstances of Zara, Zara’s contemporary’s, her children and those after them.
The book contributes to a history forcing and thrusting people and their livestock from Cape Town, north into ever more arid lands and resulting contestation for resources – the source of inevitable conflicts.
For people of colour, for anyone interested in our history and those who continue the quest for gender equality, this book resonates strongly; if it was translated and published in Afrikaans and English – here in South Afrika!
[Of the 380 pages, 36 pages cover sources and endnotes or references. It was published in Germany 2023]
Horst Kleinschmidt, 18 Feb 2024.
See new Activism page.
THE GOEDGEDACHT CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE OLIVE PEACE GROVE INAUGURATION
10 December 2023
Dear friends,
The Christian Institute Olive Peace Grove was planted during a memorable event at Goedgedacht Farm on 2 December 2023. Thank you to the over 100 of you who could attend; sorry about the other 150 who could not attend. But here is the video link that captures the essence in about seven minutes: https://youtu.be/rqCZ85nZtbA. And a few pics from the event.
When the booklet of short biographies and portraits of the 27 persons is available as a pdf I shall circulate it.
Goedgedacht are working on a web-page that will include the above and more: copies of the addresses delivered by the speakers, the well-wishes sent, more pictures etc. And we will inform you about the next event when another 10 or more persons not included this time, will be remembered and celebrated will have a tree planted for them. You will be invited!
Disquiet about the political situation in our own country but also elsewhere was expressed with urgency by the speakers and voices from the audience. Taking memory and what the past imparts, into the present demands our involvement. More about this on another occasion.
Best wishes,
Horst
10 December 2023
Dear friends,
The Christian Institute Olive Peace Grove was planted during a memorable event at Goedgedacht Farm on 2 December 2023. Thank you to the over 100 of you who could attend; sorry about the other 150 who could not attend. But here is the video link that captures the essence in about seven minutes: https://youtu.be/rqCZ85nZtbA. And a few pics from the event.
When the booklet of short biographies and portraits of the 27 persons is available as a pdf I shall circulate it.
Goedgedacht are working on a web-page that will include the above and more: copies of the addresses delivered by the speakers, the well-wishes sent, more pictures etc. And we will inform you about the next event when another 10 or more persons not included this time, will be remembered and celebrated will have a tree planted for them. You will be invited!
Disquiet about the political situation in our own country but also elsewhere was expressed with urgency by the speakers and voices from the audience. Taking memory and what the past imparts, into the present demands our involvement. More about this on another occasion.
Best wishes,
Horst
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Three cousins have a chance meeting at Cape Town Airport on 22 October 2023 when Ursula Trüper changed flights from Windhoek to Berlin: Kenneth, Ursula and Horst |
Horst’s 52nd Newsletter
www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za
September 2023
Watch this space! It's work in progress!!
Above: Sarcocaulon herrei Steinkopf Winter Rain. The village that is forever associated with Zara and Hinrich Schmelen has a unique plant found profusely only in Steinkopf, named after it. |
SA Heritage Day in Steinkopf 2023 addressed by Kenneth Makatees and Horst Kleinschmidt |
Above: The book to remember Albert Nolan has includes 70 essays. One is by myself.
In the 2 September edition of Der Spiegel is a substantial article about the decline in our country. It’s a hard hitting on SA. If you go to the link you can probably get to an English version of it. One section is the interview with myself. Reference is made to Nelson asking me for $60,000 and the deep faultiness. I did speak of this in a much wider context but there it is. A schoolfriend now living in Germany wrote yesterday, based on the description of us living in St James: You serve as a vital time-witness. There are many bad people in the world. Although Jacobs Ladder leads to heaven, take care and make sure you archive is preserved.
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/suedafrika-wie-sich-das-land-durch-gangs-korruption-und-zerfall-zum-failed-state-entwickelt-a-50754c02-3f18-4ec2-b257-1aecf793f68a?giftToken=8cd0b98d-740a-4783-9d65-1912f17b397f
Here the link to the hand-over of Cedric’s 1982 letter in 2023 to the son of Koslov, the KGB agent he befriended in prison. I failed to get an English text-over - maybe you know how to. Small snippets show our house and I aswer a few questions. There is a sub theme. Koslov they allege found evidence ca. 1980 about SA nuclear armament capacity. I am asked the question whether I am pleased that SA today is without such capacity. I affirm this. No mention of Apartheid disbanding this capacity to avoid it getting into ANC hands.
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/rgxTFDReZyJ_EQ
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/suedafrika-wie-sich-das-land-durch-gangs-korruption-und-zerfall-zum-failed-state-entwickelt-a-50754c02-3f18-4ec2-b257-1aecf793f68a?giftToken=8cd0b98d-740a-4783-9d65-1912f17b397f
Here the link to the hand-over of Cedric’s 1982 letter in 2023 to the son of Koslov, the KGB agent he befriended in prison. I failed to get an English text-over - maybe you know how to. Small snippets show our house and I aswer a few questions. There is a sub theme. Koslov they allege found evidence ca. 1980 about SA nuclear armament capacity. I am asked the question whether I am pleased that SA today is without such capacity. I affirm this. No mention of Apartheid disbanding this capacity to avoid it getting into ANC hands.
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/rgxTFDReZyJ_EQ
Horst’s 51st Newsletter
www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 2023
Greetings,
It’s been a while.
Here, once more are my thoughts, reflections, musings and acerbic commentary on the way we were and the way we are – now.
I always enjoy your feed-back. And, go look at my website where I added images and photos I cannot include here.
1. The meaning and importance of solidarity. What Steve Biko taught me.
A unique privilege. I treasure it deeply. As a young student activist in the late 1960s and again when I worked at the Christian Institute in the early 1970s I worked with Steve, considered him a friend and was influenced profoundly by his teaching.
We met by accident at a NUSAS student conference in 1967. I then visited him and his medical student colleagues on many a week-end in Durban where he put me up at the residence for Black students called Salisbury Island. We debated continuously and remained friends after he formed SASO in 1968. In Apartheid South Africa he was Black, I was White.
In 1972 he was deputy at the Black Community Programme (BCP) and I became deputy at the White Community Programme. Both operated under the auspices of the Christian Institute. Our joint sponsor was Ds Beyers Naudé. The BCP was expressly told it was independent with its own governance structure, whilst the WCP was answerable to the Christian Institute. Naudé had broken the liberal and paternalistic tradition which Steve had challenged so fundamentally. Beyers Naudé thus sought no influence or control over the BCP. Instead he exercised solidarity with the BCP in so far as he had the means to raise the funds from donors abroad. I met Steve at bi-annual meetings when respectively, we signed-off reports and motivations for further funding. BCP was the large programme and WCP as a much smaller partner.
When Steve was banned and banished to King William’s Town and continued his work through Mapetla Mohapi and Dr Mamphela Ramphele, I visited them. Steve put me up at his mother’s home in Ginsberg location. I slept in his bed and he made do on the veranda. I helped raise funds for the Zimele Trust – a Black Consciousness initiative to support the men from Robben Island, who, having served their sentences, were restricted to the near-by township of Mdantsane. Steve was exercising solidarity with those who had gone to prison in the name of the ANC and PAC. I, in my then Christian Institute capacity, exercised solidarity in that we still had the means to raise funds they needed. Our respective solidarities, BC and the CI, differentiated themselves by a fundamental distinction. His was the act of solidarity by those oppressed with other oppressed people; the victim-to-victim solidarity which Black Consciousness gave life and expression to. Ours, the dominantly White Christian Institute, was the act of solidarity that was made consciously, under Apartheid and class rule, that was exercised by the perpetrator class; an identity we, the Whites, could not run away from.
Solidarity is not charity. Important as empathy is, it is not solidarity! Rev Frank Chikane told us that in 1980, they went to Beyers Naudé and other Whites and said to them: real support demands that you ‘commit class suicide’. What did he mean?
When is solidarity demanded and when is solidarity a nice-to-have?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined solidarity as: My action must entail the same potential penalty as that which the victim is exposed to, either a passive victim or a victim in resistance to the oppression they suffer. He expressed this in two ways. He helped smuggle Jewish people from Nazi Germany to Switzerland and he helped form a resistance, for both of which he could and, as eventually happened, he was hanged on 9 April 1945. He further postulated that killing another person is always a sin, but that there are situations when the tyrant is such that the sin of killing is demanded – it is however a ‘lesser’ sin. (I’m no theologian but that is how I understand Bonhoeffer’s morality). A friend added comment – see below[1].
Bonhoeffer wrestled with his class background. He came from the better-off class. He was deeply conscious that this class was complicit long before the Nazi’s came to power, in the material exploitation of the poor and importantly, the foundations of hatred toward the ‘other’, Jews and other people’s.
This caused him to define what solidarity means when you come from the perpetrator class. Beyers Naudé and a handful of other Whites wrestled with the same matter. Beyers did not formulate a South African theology or South African ethics about this, but his morality led him to the same or similar motivations.
When Beyers funded the BCP his act of solidarity was a first tentative step only. The essence of it was: I will enable you to have the funds you need and I seek no involvement or control over how you use those funds. He took the vital step of saying: from the class from whence I come I will trust you in what you do and how you do it. This included him telling the Dutch and German church funders: your administrative reporting will be measured not in accounting terms (that too, as Steve and his colleagues provided) but your solidarity in this case is defined as that of coming from the ‘perpetrators’ and neither they nor their intermediary (Beyers) have a right to shape, amend or indirectly control what the choices or actions the oppressed who seek their liberation, seek to exercise.
If support for BPC was ‘tentative’, then Beyers exercised solidarity in the fuller sense, two years after he and his colleagues were banned on 19 October 1977. Initially, and within a week of his banning he tried, with his colleagues in the Christian Institute to reconstitute the CI organisation in the underground. But this was not to be. His closest colleagues, each one of them, foresaw different ways to carry on the struggle, or how to carry on with their compromised lives.
Toward the end of 1979 Beyers and his erstwhile colleague Cedric Mayson re-defined their role in the underground. Their connection was to an underground grouping, based mainly in Soweto. The Rev Frank Chikane, his brother Moss and some twenty others were already deep into secret work. Other key members were Ref Mashwabada ‘Castro’ Mayathula and Rev Drake Tshengkeng both detained at Modder B prison from the same time the CI staff were banned. They are the key to the internal resistance decision to seek a strategic relationship with the ANC. In the prison yard they debated each day with the opposing group opting to form Azapo upon their release. They were able to debate intensively each day because their detention was under a clause of the Terrorism Act akin to holding them in concentration camp conditions. This differed from Section 6 under the Act which determined solitary confinement, interrogation for information so that charges could be laid against them. The seventy-odd Modder B detainees were released toward mid 1978.
There is much, much more to say about this key moment. But on the subject of solidarity, this is the time that Beyers, as much as his colleague Cedric, decided to be actors within a ‘victim’ group rather than being the instigators or leaders of such a group. This defines the moment when they ‘commit class suicide’. They are willing to face the same punishment, the gallows potentially, if found out. Both survived but not without Cedric being tortured and standing trial and Beyers being on the hit list of people the Special Branch men intended to kill.
What Beyers contributed to that underground group and the risks Cedric took require separate description and analyses. The essence was that they gave that which they had access to, and that which this Soweto et al group needed, to complement the requirements in the final assault on Apartheid during the 1980s. Uniquely, and not without mistakes and set-backs, the group survived throughout the 1980s, a major feat of internal resistance not yet adequately located in the narrative about liberation struggle.
Footnote 1: Bonhoeffer defined Nazi Germany as tyrant rule. The actions that Beyers and Cedric took as committed Christians demanded that they too, came to see Apartheid as rule by a tyranny that demanded actions in opposition, including that of the use of violence. Bonhoeffer made such a decision and then took steps that were intended to end the life of Adolf Hitler. Beyers, in his Afrikaans autobiography makes it clear that he was not prepared to pick up arms but neither was he going to condemn those who did. After all, he joined a struggle well in progress and he did so when he was well advanced in years. He states that he helped young people who wanted to leave the country for military training abroad.
It is important to explain when the definition of tyrant applies. Not least it demands ethical consideration and cannot be based on one person’s view, or even that of an arbitrary group of persons. In both the German and the South African situations, the definition of ‘tyrant’ applied. The history of what events contributed to such a conclusion have not been evaluated here but in the South African situation they include: The SACP decision to operate underground after it was outlawed in 1950, the ANC decision to start the underground armed struggle in 1961, the Cottesloe resolution of 1961, the message to the People of South Africa by the SA Churches in 1968, the Belhar Confession in 1982, the Kairos Document of 1985 and more.
What Steve Biko brought to the national debate from the late 1960s onward is not confined to the liberation of the Black mind only, he liberated that section of Whites who came to understand what ‘class suicide’ meant in the context of overthrowing rather than reform Apartheid. Did the negotiated settlement the ANC signed with Apartheid postpone the revolutionary overthrow? No. The conditions for overthrow or revolution do not obtain today. This does not mean abandoning the demands for egalité – especially after the new ruling elite betrayed its base of support so scandalously. This requires political education – something we lost after 1994.
Footnote 2: After the Black Consciousness movement organisations were outlawed in 1977, many of its leaders felt deeply aggrieved that White radicals sided with ANC. Such condemnation is faulty in my estimation. The BCM could not advocate its historic call for a greater humanity as the ultimate goal of Black Consciousness, and tell White person ready to commit ‘class-suicide’, to fold their arms and do nothing at all. As it is, BCM failed to build an exile movement after it’s internal structures were curbed. The BCM provided, rightly by its own calling, no space for White engagement. The ANC had opened its doors and hence in the 1980s very many White’s, not least war resisters, joined the ANC.
Footnote 3: Solidarity from those in other countries. We South Africans benefitted enormously in our struggle through the international solidarity of Anti-Apartheid movements. We saw it as one of the four pillars of our struggle. The AAM’s of Western Europe and North America were critical in curbing the outright support Apartheid rulers got from former colonial and related powers. Support for victims of racism and oppression in other countries today must ring true to South Africans who were part of the struggle and who know that Apartheid is being practiced today in a country that gave immense support to Apartheid: Israel. Those who are serious about solidarity cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening to the Palestinians. As Rev Frank Chikane, a visitor to the Region observes, ‘it is far worse than Apartheid’. The moral imperative of real solidarity demands that we look beyond our national boundaries.
2. On being a spectator at many a political ping-pong match.
Neither side wanted to beat the other. Each player lobbed the ball carefully across the net and each return was as carefully manoeuvred. It was as though they were warming up for tournament - to which I was never invited.
I’ve been back home for thirty years after fifteen years in exile. Despite the reputation of us exiles, I believe that I did what was within me to help re-build and grow a better society ever since I am back. I served on many NGO/NPO Boards, Trusts and Foundations, sharing my experience. To this day I cannot let go of being an activist in the cause of human rights and social justice. It was a privilege serving these many organisations after hours and in my spare time, often leading at the head of the curve rather than just going with the flow. And I was rewarded with appreciation. In no instance ever was I paid for serving on these Boards.
But there is another dimension. The Boards of the NGO/NPO and philanthropic organisations, where the children spend the profits their fathers once made, are also the places where ping-pong is being played. Repeatedly I found myself in situations where, in a manner of speaking, I would turn my head left, then right and left again. I found this tiresome because the ball was never played in my direction. I seemed to be consigned to being a spectator, even when I had been elected to chair meetings.
The Black and White members of several Boards I served, were - it took some time for me to work it out - playing polite ping-pong, sizing each other up, getting used to one another, through banter, and easily overlooking the social faux-pas that were inherited from a previous age. I did not want to be left out. Why did I sit around the same table but no-one played the ball to me? Was I guilty of racially insensitive behaviour? At the next meeting I learnt of the laughter that took place the previous Saturday night, but where was I? Was my social IQ too low to warrant a dinner invite?
Eventually it dawned on me why my head turned left-right-left-right. I was relegated to being a spectator at a match because I had no bat. Neither had I the white money nor did I have the dark complexion. White money was meeting potential Black entrepreneurs. The emerging Black middle, even millionaire class was being shaped. The courting across the Boardroom excluded me. Those with no struggle involvement, with little sensitivity for what White and colonial history, were using their ill-gotten gains from a previous era to re-defined the rules, no longer based on colour but on class.
A new elite has by now been constructed. Money rules politics - it always has. White monopoly now becomes a mixed-colour monopoly. The class of underlings – not me - but the majority South African population – their hope for a better life has once more been relegated to nothingness. Don’t trust the new elite, the elite of Ramaphosa and Motsepe and Sewale and Macosoma. Their profits are made in the same way White profits were made in the past. And the White elite: they have saved themselves once more. As one of them said to me and my spouse: Fortunately this country is rich enough (in resources) and we can afford the incorporation of ‘them’.
3. A Country in Crises!
There is no time to despair! Despite the sell-out, the betrayal, the dishonesty, the theft by our rulings elites each day, there are good young people showing their mettle. Below is a report on a meeting held in St George’s Cathedral the day before President Ramaphosa delivered his State of the Nation Address in the make-shift Parliament (since the actual Parliament burnt down last year – due to neglect!). The Country in Crises meeting was called the Real State of the Nation – addressed by a new crop of able and committed young folk. I urge you to listen to the contributions and also the interview on the SABC afterwards. It takes time to watch it, but it is important:
A Country in Crisis: A Call out for Ethical and Effective Leadership at all Levels
"Our democracy is a daily affair"On the 8th February 2023, Defend our Democracy (DoD) facilitated a public rally at St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town hosting hundreds of civil society members, activists, community networks and ordinary citizens to reflect, speak and develop a common understanding on the kind of crises faced by the country and the common solidarity that needs to be forged across sectors to deal with it.
This all took place in the year of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the United Democratic Front (UDF). Rev. Frank Chikane, who was the Vice-President of the UDF Transvaal region from 1983 to 1985 and was an initiator of the Defend our Democracy campaign in 2021, did not mince his words in stating that it is nothing else but the coming together of ordinary people in South Africa which will steer the country out of crisis.
This call was bolstered by speakers spanning from the largest trade union movement in Africa, COSATU, the South African Communist Party, views from the perspective of business, the faith sector, and emerging and established civil society organisations. Organisations and speakers included:
To watch the live recording, click HERE
Click, HERE, HERE and HERE for media reports, interviews, and write-ups about the public rally.
#UniteBehind hosts rally on energy crisis
On the 9th February 2023, the day of the SoNA, #UniteBehind held a public rally in District 6, Cape Town under the title #FixEskom. Scores of community members and organisations came together to deliver the same message. The people must hold the government accountable to move South Africa forward and out of the state it is in. Defend our Democracy was represented at the event and called on those present to stand up to corruption and state capture, to hold government accountable and ensure that those in power know that trust is earned; as well as to foster solidarity in communities and amongst organisations across the country.
#UniteBehind delivered a memorandum which was received by Adv. Victor Ngaleka which was endorsed by Defend or Democracy. You can access the full memorandum HERE.
4. Woe!
The commentators and contributors in the above section have said it better than I can. I will however add the following:
- The ANC says it is ‘renewing’ itself. Don’t hold your breath - the chances of that happening look ever more dismal.
- Once renewal fails, disastrously the ANC will have paved the road for anti-democrats, populists and racists to gain power in 2024. The possibility of this stares us in the face.
- The implosion of the civil service is all pervasive. The consequences will haunt us for generations to come.
. The culture of let-me-help-myself at the cost of others is rapidly having a domino effect down the social pyramid.
- Unethical conduct at the top has spawned greed and lawlessness right down the social pyramid.
- We need new voices in Parliament who speak truth rather than jockey for power. Such representatives need to be found now!
- The awful circus at our Metros and City Councils will repeat itself at National level after the 2024 elections when the ANC has lost its majority. The conduct at city level will further reduce voter turn-out. No political party escapes criticism, including the DA, who are incapable of shaking off their white/privilege mantle.
Civil society needs to unite to compel politicians to account regularly at constituency level on the burning issues of inequality, unemployment, housing, sanitation, water – and electricity. Our Bill of Rights must be given expression to! Civil society, a new UDF can make it happen!
Today we have a national hunger crises, unemployment crises, structural injustice crises. We recite that we are the most unequal country globally, shrug our shoulders and move on. This is an emergency that needs principled co-operation instead of the (male) ego politics we witness at Metro level. To earn trust with the electorate: re-priorities budgets, remove the benefits the bloated politicians award themselves, rid us of fancy receptions and blue-light brigades! The rich need to cede their monopolies. Redistribution is not only a land question!
Some might have expected the SACP to be a whistle-blower along the way, some thought COSATU would not brook the get-rich-quick class project. But no, they are both are complicit in our country’s demise. They did not call out the immoral, the un-principled, the unethical, the anti-equality, the power-at-all cost behaviour that dominates. Their complicity has robbed us of the chance we had.
Read: Raymond Suttner’s piece below is engaging and important. My sense of egalité and his come to same base values or ethics.
https://www.polity.org.za/article/being-or-not-being-a-communist-in-south-africa-today-2023-02-27?fbclid=IwAR0zy3e5MazMFVz6MODHYIwq9j0equZnFEfBn6MdP9Xbzq2h_zgZWJ-zKek#.Y_zXUBRDgdE.facebook
5, Thoughts on the passing of the British Queen.
Like on British Postage Stamps, the country she lived in does not need mentioning. Everyone knows that her profile on a stamp makes it Britain and similarly it is superfluous to say The Queen of Great Britain – just saying ‘the Queen’ is enough for those from Accra to Zanzibar and from Belize to Bangladesh. They know.
The director of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Sello Hatang, on radio relayed a pertinent anecdote. Veteran struggle comrade from Robben Island, Cathy Cathrada, one morning entered Nelson’s presidential office when Nelson was on the phone. Nelson kept saying ‘Elizabeth this’ and ‘Elizabeth that….’ After the call Cathy asked whom he was speaking to. Nelson replied: the Queen of England. Cathy cautiously enquired if Nelson should not have been more reverential in addressing her, to which Nelson replied, ‘oh no she kept on addressing me as Nelson’.
I have my own recollections about the Queen. The first was in 1953 when she was crowned after the death of her father George VI. South Africa was a member of the British Commonwealth. Every mourning my father would take us from our home in Orange Grove along Louis Botha Avenue to the German School in Hillbrow. At one point we had to circumnavigate the large roundabout known then as Clarendon Circle. At each of the four approaches stood a traffic policeman doing what is today done with traffic lights. Elizabeth’s coronation was celebrated in Johannesburg by a massive replica of her crown built on the whole of the this traffic circle. In my child’s eye and with vehement scorn from dad, the structure was three-stories high. Only a slither of South Africans identified with that royalty. And, the traffic was disrupted because the four traffic officers could not see each other because of the b… crown obscured their view making any co-ordination impossible.
Vivid colour, pageantry and pomp rubs off on others. My mother was one of those it rubbed off on to. She bought illustrated German magazines that invariably celebrated British royalty which made them into lovable pop stars. When Charles - now known as King Charles III - and Diana got married in St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1981 my mother was visiting me, in exile, in London. I did not have a TV but friend Gloria offered her hospitality. My mother spent all day glued to the television and she had only adoring words for the couple afterwards, despite my scorn for the royals, not conveyed in the words my father used, but those of a left-wing activist. With idolatry come virtues. My mother insisted the Queen was kind, considerate, wise, despite never hearing her in language other than the carefully choreographed pieces by her advisors. The fact that the Queen’s mother was an admirer of Hendrik Verwoerd no doubt helped my mother in this acceptance.
Sir Shridath Ramphal, secretary of the Commonwealth was friends with retired Archbishop Trevor Huddleston who, in the 1980s became Chairperson of the IDAF Board. I became IDAF director in 1983. I received invitations to Commonwealth receptions to which my Chairperson expected me to come to. These were immensely pompous affairs which the Guyana-born Secretary, appeared to revel in. The apartheid diplomats were no longer invited to these events but instead, the London based representatives of the ANC and Swapo were invited. I recall being goaded into a trellis when the Queen arrived. Next to me were Shapua Kaukungua the Swapo representative and the (later infamous) Solly Smith representing the ANC. In customary fashion she extended her gloved hand to everyone in turn, slowly moving down the line. My compatriots to the left and right of me obliged but I thought otherwise – and did not extend my hand. She moved on as though I did not exist - and - doubts about my little act of defiance stayed with me.
____________
6. A flyer that may interest you:
Network, Inform, Educate, Organise, Act!
Let us build responses to the Crises in our Country!
You, we all, are deeply concerned that the crises in our country will not be resolved in the short-term. The months ahead, the elections in 2024 and the period thereafter all have the potential to increase instability in our politics and then increasingly threaten our young democracy. Global events may well enhance our precarious situation.
We must never wallow in doom! We cannot just point fingers! We must become the new beginning! Begrudging silence, complaining or shouting does not solve our problems! THE SCOPE FOR POPULISM AND CHEAP GROUP OR ETHNIC JIBES IS A GROWING DANGER TO OUR BODY POLITIC! This cannot be allowed. We must organise, educate and act!
There is no quick fix to our electricity crises, to the rising mafia syndicates or to dysfunctional municipalities. SLOGANS AND CHARISMATIC EGO POLITICS WILL NOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEM.
As activists committed to building a strong civil society we have formulated some ideas for active civic engagement. We can :
The crises we face cannot be solved by kind deeds and charity, much as they are needed in the face of poverty, hunger, unemployment, injustices and the broken civil service. Our crises are systemic and addressing these demands planned programmes built on unambiguous political principle.
We will support or collaborate and co-operate with like-minded national structures. But here, right now, we must build a: Progressive Citizens Movement
Please come and join us on Sunday the 26 March, 2.30 -5.00pm and help shape a programme of action. The Venue is
The International Peace College
44 Johnson Road [corner of Hood & Duine Street]
Rylands, Athlone.
Kevin Patel, Horst Kleinschmidt, Ari Sitas, Goolam Aboobaker, Judy Favish
[1] Bonhoeffer insisted that in acting thus one could not and never should claim that one was acting with the permission of God – that is, it was a human action, not a divinely sanctioned one. This is crucial because it is precisely such a claim that allows for horrendous acts in the name of religion, which Bonhoeffer well understood (he also later, especially as recorded by his brother-in-law Bethge in Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Paper from Prison, spoke of ‘religionless Christianity’).
www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 2023
Greetings,
It’s been a while.
Here, once more are my thoughts, reflections, musings and acerbic commentary on the way we were and the way we are – now.
I always enjoy your feed-back. And, go look at my website where I added images and photos I cannot include here.
1. The meaning and importance of solidarity. What Steve Biko taught me.
A unique privilege. I treasure it deeply. As a young student activist in the late 1960s and again when I worked at the Christian Institute in the early 1970s I worked with Steve, considered him a friend and was influenced profoundly by his teaching.
We met by accident at a NUSAS student conference in 1967. I then visited him and his medical student colleagues on many a week-end in Durban where he put me up at the residence for Black students called Salisbury Island. We debated continuously and remained friends after he formed SASO in 1968. In Apartheid South Africa he was Black, I was White.
In 1972 he was deputy at the Black Community Programme (BCP) and I became deputy at the White Community Programme. Both operated under the auspices of the Christian Institute. Our joint sponsor was Ds Beyers Naudé. The BCP was expressly told it was independent with its own governance structure, whilst the WCP was answerable to the Christian Institute. Naudé had broken the liberal and paternalistic tradition which Steve had challenged so fundamentally. Beyers Naudé thus sought no influence or control over the BCP. Instead he exercised solidarity with the BCP in so far as he had the means to raise the funds from donors abroad. I met Steve at bi-annual meetings when respectively, we signed-off reports and motivations for further funding. BCP was the large programme and WCP as a much smaller partner.
When Steve was banned and banished to King William’s Town and continued his work through Mapetla Mohapi and Dr Mamphela Ramphele, I visited them. Steve put me up at his mother’s home in Ginsberg location. I slept in his bed and he made do on the veranda. I helped raise funds for the Zimele Trust – a Black Consciousness initiative to support the men from Robben Island, who, having served their sentences, were restricted to the near-by township of Mdantsane. Steve was exercising solidarity with those who had gone to prison in the name of the ANC and PAC. I, in my then Christian Institute capacity, exercised solidarity in that we still had the means to raise funds they needed. Our respective solidarities, BC and the CI, differentiated themselves by a fundamental distinction. His was the act of solidarity by those oppressed with other oppressed people; the victim-to-victim solidarity which Black Consciousness gave life and expression to. Ours, the dominantly White Christian Institute, was the act of solidarity that was made consciously, under Apartheid and class rule, that was exercised by the perpetrator class; an identity we, the Whites, could not run away from.
Solidarity is not charity. Important as empathy is, it is not solidarity! Rev Frank Chikane told us that in 1980, they went to Beyers Naudé and other Whites and said to them: real support demands that you ‘commit class suicide’. What did he mean?
When is solidarity demanded and when is solidarity a nice-to-have?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined solidarity as: My action must entail the same potential penalty as that which the victim is exposed to, either a passive victim or a victim in resistance to the oppression they suffer. He expressed this in two ways. He helped smuggle Jewish people from Nazi Germany to Switzerland and he helped form a resistance, for both of which he could and, as eventually happened, he was hanged on 9 April 1945. He further postulated that killing another person is always a sin, but that there are situations when the tyrant is such that the sin of killing is demanded – it is however a ‘lesser’ sin. (I’m no theologian but that is how I understand Bonhoeffer’s morality). A friend added comment – see below[1].
Bonhoeffer wrestled with his class background. He came from the better-off class. He was deeply conscious that this class was complicit long before the Nazi’s came to power, in the material exploitation of the poor and importantly, the foundations of hatred toward the ‘other’, Jews and other people’s.
This caused him to define what solidarity means when you come from the perpetrator class. Beyers Naudé and a handful of other Whites wrestled with the same matter. Beyers did not formulate a South African theology or South African ethics about this, but his morality led him to the same or similar motivations.
When Beyers funded the BCP his act of solidarity was a first tentative step only. The essence of it was: I will enable you to have the funds you need and I seek no involvement or control over how you use those funds. He took the vital step of saying: from the class from whence I come I will trust you in what you do and how you do it. This included him telling the Dutch and German church funders: your administrative reporting will be measured not in accounting terms (that too, as Steve and his colleagues provided) but your solidarity in this case is defined as that of coming from the ‘perpetrators’ and neither they nor their intermediary (Beyers) have a right to shape, amend or indirectly control what the choices or actions the oppressed who seek their liberation, seek to exercise.
If support for BPC was ‘tentative’, then Beyers exercised solidarity in the fuller sense, two years after he and his colleagues were banned on 19 October 1977. Initially, and within a week of his banning he tried, with his colleagues in the Christian Institute to reconstitute the CI organisation in the underground. But this was not to be. His closest colleagues, each one of them, foresaw different ways to carry on the struggle, or how to carry on with their compromised lives.
Toward the end of 1979 Beyers and his erstwhile colleague Cedric Mayson re-defined their role in the underground. Their connection was to an underground grouping, based mainly in Soweto. The Rev Frank Chikane, his brother Moss and some twenty others were already deep into secret work. Other key members were Ref Mashwabada ‘Castro’ Mayathula and Rev Drake Tshengkeng both detained at Modder B prison from the same time the CI staff were banned. They are the key to the internal resistance decision to seek a strategic relationship with the ANC. In the prison yard they debated each day with the opposing group opting to form Azapo upon their release. They were able to debate intensively each day because their detention was under a clause of the Terrorism Act akin to holding them in concentration camp conditions. This differed from Section 6 under the Act which determined solitary confinement, interrogation for information so that charges could be laid against them. The seventy-odd Modder B detainees were released toward mid 1978.
There is much, much more to say about this key moment. But on the subject of solidarity, this is the time that Beyers, as much as his colleague Cedric, decided to be actors within a ‘victim’ group rather than being the instigators or leaders of such a group. This defines the moment when they ‘commit class suicide’. They are willing to face the same punishment, the gallows potentially, if found out. Both survived but not without Cedric being tortured and standing trial and Beyers being on the hit list of people the Special Branch men intended to kill.
What Beyers contributed to that underground group and the risks Cedric took require separate description and analyses. The essence was that they gave that which they had access to, and that which this Soweto et al group needed, to complement the requirements in the final assault on Apartheid during the 1980s. Uniquely, and not without mistakes and set-backs, the group survived throughout the 1980s, a major feat of internal resistance not yet adequately located in the narrative about liberation struggle.
Footnote 1: Bonhoeffer defined Nazi Germany as tyrant rule. The actions that Beyers and Cedric took as committed Christians demanded that they too, came to see Apartheid as rule by a tyranny that demanded actions in opposition, including that of the use of violence. Bonhoeffer made such a decision and then took steps that were intended to end the life of Adolf Hitler. Beyers, in his Afrikaans autobiography makes it clear that he was not prepared to pick up arms but neither was he going to condemn those who did. After all, he joined a struggle well in progress and he did so when he was well advanced in years. He states that he helped young people who wanted to leave the country for military training abroad.
It is important to explain when the definition of tyrant applies. Not least it demands ethical consideration and cannot be based on one person’s view, or even that of an arbitrary group of persons. In both the German and the South African situations, the definition of ‘tyrant’ applied. The history of what events contributed to such a conclusion have not been evaluated here but in the South African situation they include: The SACP decision to operate underground after it was outlawed in 1950, the ANC decision to start the underground armed struggle in 1961, the Cottesloe resolution of 1961, the message to the People of South Africa by the SA Churches in 1968, the Belhar Confession in 1982, the Kairos Document of 1985 and more.
What Steve Biko brought to the national debate from the late 1960s onward is not confined to the liberation of the Black mind only, he liberated that section of Whites who came to understand what ‘class suicide’ meant in the context of overthrowing rather than reform Apartheid. Did the negotiated settlement the ANC signed with Apartheid postpone the revolutionary overthrow? No. The conditions for overthrow or revolution do not obtain today. This does not mean abandoning the demands for egalité – especially after the new ruling elite betrayed its base of support so scandalously. This requires political education – something we lost after 1994.
Footnote 2: After the Black Consciousness movement organisations were outlawed in 1977, many of its leaders felt deeply aggrieved that White radicals sided with ANC. Such condemnation is faulty in my estimation. The BCM could not advocate its historic call for a greater humanity as the ultimate goal of Black Consciousness, and tell White person ready to commit ‘class-suicide’, to fold their arms and do nothing at all. As it is, BCM failed to build an exile movement after it’s internal structures were curbed. The BCM provided, rightly by its own calling, no space for White engagement. The ANC had opened its doors and hence in the 1980s very many White’s, not least war resisters, joined the ANC.
Footnote 3: Solidarity from those in other countries. We South Africans benefitted enormously in our struggle through the international solidarity of Anti-Apartheid movements. We saw it as one of the four pillars of our struggle. The AAM’s of Western Europe and North America were critical in curbing the outright support Apartheid rulers got from former colonial and related powers. Support for victims of racism and oppression in other countries today must ring true to South Africans who were part of the struggle and who know that Apartheid is being practiced today in a country that gave immense support to Apartheid: Israel. Those who are serious about solidarity cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening to the Palestinians. As Rev Frank Chikane, a visitor to the Region observes, ‘it is far worse than Apartheid’. The moral imperative of real solidarity demands that we look beyond our national boundaries.
2. On being a spectator at many a political ping-pong match.
Neither side wanted to beat the other. Each player lobbed the ball carefully across the net and each return was as carefully manoeuvred. It was as though they were warming up for tournament - to which I was never invited.
I’ve been back home for thirty years after fifteen years in exile. Despite the reputation of us exiles, I believe that I did what was within me to help re-build and grow a better society ever since I am back. I served on many NGO/NPO Boards, Trusts and Foundations, sharing my experience. To this day I cannot let go of being an activist in the cause of human rights and social justice. It was a privilege serving these many organisations after hours and in my spare time, often leading at the head of the curve rather than just going with the flow. And I was rewarded with appreciation. In no instance ever was I paid for serving on these Boards.
But there is another dimension. The Boards of the NGO/NPO and philanthropic organisations, where the children spend the profits their fathers once made, are also the places where ping-pong is being played. Repeatedly I found myself in situations where, in a manner of speaking, I would turn my head left, then right and left again. I found this tiresome because the ball was never played in my direction. I seemed to be consigned to being a spectator, even when I had been elected to chair meetings.
The Black and White members of several Boards I served, were - it took some time for me to work it out - playing polite ping-pong, sizing each other up, getting used to one another, through banter, and easily overlooking the social faux-pas that were inherited from a previous age. I did not want to be left out. Why did I sit around the same table but no-one played the ball to me? Was I guilty of racially insensitive behaviour? At the next meeting I learnt of the laughter that took place the previous Saturday night, but where was I? Was my social IQ too low to warrant a dinner invite?
Eventually it dawned on me why my head turned left-right-left-right. I was relegated to being a spectator at a match because I had no bat. Neither had I the white money nor did I have the dark complexion. White money was meeting potential Black entrepreneurs. The emerging Black middle, even millionaire class was being shaped. The courting across the Boardroom excluded me. Those with no struggle involvement, with little sensitivity for what White and colonial history, were using their ill-gotten gains from a previous era to re-defined the rules, no longer based on colour but on class.
A new elite has by now been constructed. Money rules politics - it always has. White monopoly now becomes a mixed-colour monopoly. The class of underlings – not me - but the majority South African population – their hope for a better life has once more been relegated to nothingness. Don’t trust the new elite, the elite of Ramaphosa and Motsepe and Sewale and Macosoma. Their profits are made in the same way White profits were made in the past. And the White elite: they have saved themselves once more. As one of them said to me and my spouse: Fortunately this country is rich enough (in resources) and we can afford the incorporation of ‘them’.
- Read Pieter du Toit, The ANC Billionaires; Big Capital’s Gambit and the Rise of the Few, Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2022. Reading it I felt kicked in the gut by those I once called my leaders. It is they who wined and dined their way to power and to riches behind our backs. The book also is an indictment of those who might not have become super rich but served as the enablers – the ping-pong players. The games started around 1985, when the majority of those fighting for their liberation still believed our leaders were with us!
3. A Country in Crises!
There is no time to despair! Despite the sell-out, the betrayal, the dishonesty, the theft by our rulings elites each day, there are good young people showing their mettle. Below is a report on a meeting held in St George’s Cathedral the day before President Ramaphosa delivered his State of the Nation Address in the make-shift Parliament (since the actual Parliament burnt down last year – due to neglect!). The Country in Crises meeting was called the Real State of the Nation – addressed by a new crop of able and committed young folk. I urge you to listen to the contributions and also the interview on the SABC afterwards. It takes time to watch it, but it is important:
A Country in Crisis: A Call out for Ethical and Effective Leadership at all Levels
"Our democracy is a daily affair"On the 8th February 2023, Defend our Democracy (DoD) facilitated a public rally at St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town hosting hundreds of civil society members, activists, community networks and ordinary citizens to reflect, speak and develop a common understanding on the kind of crises faced by the country and the common solidarity that needs to be forged across sectors to deal with it.
This all took place in the year of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the United Democratic Front (UDF). Rev. Frank Chikane, who was the Vice-President of the UDF Transvaal region from 1983 to 1985 and was an initiator of the Defend our Democracy campaign in 2021, did not mince his words in stating that it is nothing else but the coming together of ordinary people in South Africa which will steer the country out of crisis.
This call was bolstered by speakers spanning from the largest trade union movement in Africa, COSATU, the South African Communist Party, views from the perspective of business, the faith sector, and emerging and established civil society organisations. Organisations and speakers included:
- Rev Michael Weeder – Dean of Cape Town
- Rev Edwin Arrison – SACLI
- Axolile Notywala – Movement for CARE
- Rachel Fischer – OUTA
- Tessa Dooms – Rivonia Circle
- Francesa de Gasparis – SAFCEI
- Kholwani Simelane – The Green Connection
- Lukho Nozaza - Equal Education
- Shaykh Ighsaan Taliep – MJC
- Pamela Silwane – Gugulethu CAN
- Nick Binedell – Business Sector
- Matthew Parks – COSATU
- Solly Mapaila – SACP
- Zackie Achmat – Unite Behind
To watch the live recording, click HERE
Click, HERE, HERE and HERE for media reports, interviews, and write-ups about the public rally.
#UniteBehind hosts rally on energy crisis
On the 9th February 2023, the day of the SoNA, #UniteBehind held a public rally in District 6, Cape Town under the title #FixEskom. Scores of community members and organisations came together to deliver the same message. The people must hold the government accountable to move South Africa forward and out of the state it is in. Defend our Democracy was represented at the event and called on those present to stand up to corruption and state capture, to hold government accountable and ensure that those in power know that trust is earned; as well as to foster solidarity in communities and amongst organisations across the country.
#UniteBehind delivered a memorandum which was received by Adv. Victor Ngaleka which was endorsed by Defend or Democracy. You can access the full memorandum HERE.
4. Woe!
The commentators and contributors in the above section have said it better than I can. I will however add the following:
- The ANC says it is ‘renewing’ itself. Don’t hold your breath - the chances of that happening look ever more dismal.
- Once renewal fails, disastrously the ANC will have paved the road for anti-democrats, populists and racists to gain power in 2024. The possibility of this stares us in the face.
- The implosion of the civil service is all pervasive. The consequences will haunt us for generations to come.
. The culture of let-me-help-myself at the cost of others is rapidly having a domino effect down the social pyramid.
- Unethical conduct at the top has spawned greed and lawlessness right down the social pyramid.
- We need new voices in Parliament who speak truth rather than jockey for power. Such representatives need to be found now!
- The awful circus at our Metros and City Councils will repeat itself at National level after the 2024 elections when the ANC has lost its majority. The conduct at city level will further reduce voter turn-out. No political party escapes criticism, including the DA, who are incapable of shaking off their white/privilege mantle.
Civil society needs to unite to compel politicians to account regularly at constituency level on the burning issues of inequality, unemployment, housing, sanitation, water – and electricity. Our Bill of Rights must be given expression to! Civil society, a new UDF can make it happen!
Today we have a national hunger crises, unemployment crises, structural injustice crises. We recite that we are the most unequal country globally, shrug our shoulders and move on. This is an emergency that needs principled co-operation instead of the (male) ego politics we witness at Metro level. To earn trust with the electorate: re-priorities budgets, remove the benefits the bloated politicians award themselves, rid us of fancy receptions and blue-light brigades! The rich need to cede their monopolies. Redistribution is not only a land question!
Some might have expected the SACP to be a whistle-blower along the way, some thought COSATU would not brook the get-rich-quick class project. But no, they are both are complicit in our country’s demise. They did not call out the immoral, the un-principled, the unethical, the anti-equality, the power-at-all cost behaviour that dominates. Their complicity has robbed us of the chance we had.
Read: Raymond Suttner’s piece below is engaging and important. My sense of egalité and his come to same base values or ethics.
https://www.polity.org.za/article/being-or-not-being-a-communist-in-south-africa-today-2023-02-27?fbclid=IwAR0zy3e5MazMFVz6MODHYIwq9j0equZnFEfBn6MdP9Xbzq2h_zgZWJ-zKek#.Y_zXUBRDgdE.facebook
5, Thoughts on the passing of the British Queen.
Like on British Postage Stamps, the country she lived in does not need mentioning. Everyone knows that her profile on a stamp makes it Britain and similarly it is superfluous to say The Queen of Great Britain – just saying ‘the Queen’ is enough for those from Accra to Zanzibar and from Belize to Bangladesh. They know.
The director of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Sello Hatang, on radio relayed a pertinent anecdote. Veteran struggle comrade from Robben Island, Cathy Cathrada, one morning entered Nelson’s presidential office when Nelson was on the phone. Nelson kept saying ‘Elizabeth this’ and ‘Elizabeth that….’ After the call Cathy asked whom he was speaking to. Nelson replied: the Queen of England. Cathy cautiously enquired if Nelson should not have been more reverential in addressing her, to which Nelson replied, ‘oh no she kept on addressing me as Nelson’.
I have my own recollections about the Queen. The first was in 1953 when she was crowned after the death of her father George VI. South Africa was a member of the British Commonwealth. Every mourning my father would take us from our home in Orange Grove along Louis Botha Avenue to the German School in Hillbrow. At one point we had to circumnavigate the large roundabout known then as Clarendon Circle. At each of the four approaches stood a traffic policeman doing what is today done with traffic lights. Elizabeth’s coronation was celebrated in Johannesburg by a massive replica of her crown built on the whole of the this traffic circle. In my child’s eye and with vehement scorn from dad, the structure was three-stories high. Only a slither of South Africans identified with that royalty. And, the traffic was disrupted because the four traffic officers could not see each other because of the b… crown obscured their view making any co-ordination impossible.
Vivid colour, pageantry and pomp rubs off on others. My mother was one of those it rubbed off on to. She bought illustrated German magazines that invariably celebrated British royalty which made them into lovable pop stars. When Charles - now known as King Charles III - and Diana got married in St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1981 my mother was visiting me, in exile, in London. I did not have a TV but friend Gloria offered her hospitality. My mother spent all day glued to the television and she had only adoring words for the couple afterwards, despite my scorn for the royals, not conveyed in the words my father used, but those of a left-wing activist. With idolatry come virtues. My mother insisted the Queen was kind, considerate, wise, despite never hearing her in language other than the carefully choreographed pieces by her advisors. The fact that the Queen’s mother was an admirer of Hendrik Verwoerd no doubt helped my mother in this acceptance.
Sir Shridath Ramphal, secretary of the Commonwealth was friends with retired Archbishop Trevor Huddleston who, in the 1980s became Chairperson of the IDAF Board. I became IDAF director in 1983. I received invitations to Commonwealth receptions to which my Chairperson expected me to come to. These were immensely pompous affairs which the Guyana-born Secretary, appeared to revel in. The apartheid diplomats were no longer invited to these events but instead, the London based representatives of the ANC and Swapo were invited. I recall being goaded into a trellis when the Queen arrived. Next to me were Shapua Kaukungua the Swapo representative and the (later infamous) Solly Smith representing the ANC. In customary fashion she extended her gloved hand to everyone in turn, slowly moving down the line. My compatriots to the left and right of me obliged but I thought otherwise – and did not extend my hand. She moved on as though I did not exist - and - doubts about my little act of defiance stayed with me.
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6. A flyer that may interest you:
Network, Inform, Educate, Organise, Act!
Let us build responses to the Crises in our Country!
You, we all, are deeply concerned that the crises in our country will not be resolved in the short-term. The months ahead, the elections in 2024 and the period thereafter all have the potential to increase instability in our politics and then increasingly threaten our young democracy. Global events may well enhance our precarious situation.
We must never wallow in doom! We cannot just point fingers! We must become the new beginning! Begrudging silence, complaining or shouting does not solve our problems! THE SCOPE FOR POPULISM AND CHEAP GROUP OR ETHNIC JIBES IS A GROWING DANGER TO OUR BODY POLITIC! This cannot be allowed. We must organise, educate and act!
There is no quick fix to our electricity crises, to the rising mafia syndicates or to dysfunctional municipalities. SLOGANS AND CHARISMATIC EGO POLITICS WILL NOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEM.
As activists committed to building a strong civil society we have formulated some ideas for active civic engagement. We can :
- Demand regular accountability meetings of MPs in every Ward throughout the country, no matter what Political Party has the majority in your area.
- Let us hold all candidates and political parties accountable in the upcoming election and demand that they address the real problems in our country!
- Let us support progressive political education platforms that counter the populism that aims to get the support of the poor only then to become unaccountable and authoritarian rule.
- Let us get ready now and build networks, create reliable channels of information, support existing networks and establishing such where there are none.
- Let us build a civil society that challenges the ruling elites of politicians, business, faith leaders, academia, traditional leaders and others.
The crises we face cannot be solved by kind deeds and charity, much as they are needed in the face of poverty, hunger, unemployment, injustices and the broken civil service. Our crises are systemic and addressing these demands planned programmes built on unambiguous political principle.
We will support or collaborate and co-operate with like-minded national structures. But here, right now, we must build a: Progressive Citizens Movement
Please come and join us on Sunday the 26 March, 2.30 -5.00pm and help shape a programme of action. The Venue is
The International Peace College
44 Johnson Road [corner of Hood & Duine Street]
Rylands, Athlone.
Kevin Patel, Horst Kleinschmidt, Ari Sitas, Goolam Aboobaker, Judy Favish
[1] Bonhoeffer insisted that in acting thus one could not and never should claim that one was acting with the permission of God – that is, it was a human action, not a divinely sanctioned one. This is crucial because it is precisely such a claim that allows for horrendous acts in the name of religion, which Bonhoeffer well understood (he also later, especially as recorded by his brother-in-law Bethge in Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Paper from Prison, spoke of ‘religionless Christianity’).
The Naidoo family of Rocky Street
A brief history of the Naidoo's of Rocky Street, narrated by Dr Natalia Dinat I invite you to visit this important YouTube link to get to know about this remarkable family, the Naidoo's: https://youtu.be/H7om4RZVxLM
A brief history of the Naidoo's of Rocky Street, narrated by Dr Natalia Dinat I invite you to visit this important YouTube link to get to know about this remarkable family, the Naidoo's: https://youtu.be/H7om4RZVxLM
Above: Chez Highcliffe, early 2023 when the bourgainvilla in full bloom.
Back: Paul Pretorius, Barry Streek, Graham Walker, ??, Deon Irish.
Front: Rob Greg, Neville Curtis, Ken Costa, Horst Kleinschmidt
Front: Rob Greg, Neville Curtis, Ken Costa, Horst Kleinschmidt
HORST’S 50TH NEWSLETTER
August 2022
www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear friends,
The more I delay the more there is to report. Bear with me.
Go to my website to see and read about the topics I list below. AND: scroll down to read my observations about the sorry state we are in, in South Africa.
The following are new entries on my website:
4. Listen to a fine and thoughtful address by Fr. Michael Lapsley on the occasion earlier in 2022 when he was awarded the Japanese Niwano Peace Prize.
5. Lest we forget! In memory of Mapetla Mohapi – a foremost Black Consciousness leader and close associate of Steve Biko, and at one time a colleague of mine – killed while held in detention by the Apartheid police in 1976. See the review of a new book about him.
6. Read from the Rand Daily Mail article of 20 May 1978: ‘Three-year-old is refused passport’. Yes, Zindzi my daughter, was refused the means to visit me in exile until she was nine years old. See cutting on website.
7. The Rand Daily Mail, 13th October 1978 reported: ‘Peyton Place is back – after 21 years’. This was announced in the same Government Gazette that made it an offence to possess a copy of the Dutch translation of my article (pamphlet form) of ‘my reasons to support the ANC’.
8. See photographs from 1952. My brother, sister, father and me in Sydenham, Johannesburg. See those dreaded Lederhosen with Hosen-träger we were made to wear year in and year out.
9. A photo of me with ex-President Thabo Mbeki earlier this year, when I interviewed him about Beyers Naudé and Cedric Mayson.
10. And if you scroll down to the bottom of the Christian Institute pages of the website, there are two new entries about Websites, one in the Netherlands and one in the USA, where source material on the Anti-Apartheid struggle can be accessed.
And now,
Yes, there is a connection between illegal gold mining, the theft of copper wire that ruins what is left of our rail system, the divers who pillage abalone off our coast – and Al Capone. They all want(ed) to get rich quick, but that’s only the obvious answer.
As head of Fisheries (2000-2005) I was tasked to rid the Department and its unholy relationship with the fishing industry and of related corruption. Minister Valli Moosa was a rare and honest ally who covered my back. Corruption had many faces: un-just quota allocations to whites only; over-fishing of Patagonian toothfish, south-coast rock lobster, and the flesh of the mollusk, locally known as perlemoen or abalone. It is highly desirable to Chinese men who believe it enhances their virility. They pay astronomical prices, especially for the South African variant. Its extinction is not far away.
I set out on mission impossible. What stared everyone in the face was men with goggles in wet-suits and oxygen flasks on small, motorized boats. Brazenly they deliver their catch into the shallows of the sea where runner-boys collect and take the abalone to waiting trucks. After that the story is murky about how exactly the contraband reached Hong Kong. Despite the regular arrests of runner-boys and those near them, the problem kept getting bigger. The fallacy to do the same thing over and over again and hoping for a solution was so entrenched that nobody, including MPs and the press cast sufficient doubt on the modus operandi.
One day I decided to attend – unannounced – a regular meeting of fisheries inspectors, local law enforcement and SAPS to find out whether we were making progress, regress or just muddling along. One of my own inspectors had the audacity to say that I did not have ‘security clearance’ to be present. I stayed, now conscious of two things: they will all censure themselves for as long as I’m in the room and, there are officers present here who are complicit in poaching. (Two years later I had the evidence that 14 Fisheries Inspectors were on the permanent payroll of at least one prominent fishing company – and was able to prosecute and/or dismiss them). Despite this, to my astoundment, the officers I had joined on that day in Hermanus seemed to have a wealth of evidence and knowledge about poaching. Why were there no prosecutions higher up the poaching chain? The answer was that the prosecutorial services failed them too often, and then they were always the ones to be blamed.
What I gleaned from the meeting was: there were more than 15 syndicates that bought poached product. One syndicate was “white”, one was “black” and based in Zwelihle and all the others “coloured”, mostly based in Hawston. Here homes with large safe’s where the tell-tale of a syndicate leader. I later succeeded to bring the ‘white’ Marx syndicate to book. Their arrogance as being untouchable amongst the syndicates, was their downfall.
But I had not gone very far yet. So, I made an appointment to meet with the prosecution teams in Pretoria. During a long and frustrating morning, I concluded that collusion with the poaching machinery had a long history here too. During lunch I asked an elderly Advocate who seemed not part of them, if he would go for a walk with me. I appealed to him on environmental grounds – that soon SA would have no abalone left and how this impacted on the wider eco-system. He seemed sympathetic and said he would invoke the Al Capone rule after lunch. I was mystified.
The poaching chain starts with the divers who worked for competing syndicates. They drop their catch in rocky inter-tidal waters where runner-boys carry the loot across beaches into the bush and to waiting pick-up trucks, managed by this or that syndicate. Then it went in refrigeration trucks, without fail, to a cold-storage facility in Jet Park Industrial suburb near ORT airport in Johannesburg. From here it was exported to Harare or Gaborone without due description. Why? Because from there it would be re-exported as a SADC ‘product’ via Johannesburg International airport to Hong Kong. Because we have friendly relations with our SADC partners no real checks of the frozen product took place. Naturally at each airport paid customs officials could be relied – they got a kick-back every time they closed their eyes.
Who ran the Jet Park operation? And who bought the product in Hong Kong. No secret to the prosecutors. A South African bought the product in Hong Kong and the Jet Park facility was run by a Triad member, one of three Chinese living in South Africa. Despite this knowledge, so they said, they could not pin a charge on him. The kindly advocate now pounced: Let’s instead of chasing the abalone link, do a tax check on the Jet Park owner. And bingo, a few days later the suspect was arrested for failing to pay income tax. He was charged and held in custody. The 15+ syndicates must have been worried. Al Capone could not be caught for breaking the Prohibition rules in the USA in the 1930s but was caught as a tax-dodger. In the Jet Park case, the outstanding tax was soon paid by someone in Hong Kong.
I tell this tale because illegal gold mining, copper theft, abalone/rhino horn, drugs and much else that attains a high price, without doubt has a similar pyramidal chain. Thus: stop chasing the runner-boys, and instead go for those at the top who buy and pay those lower down the chain. Or is it that they, at the top of the chain, enjoy protection by complicit politicians?
2. The ANC step-aside.
The ANC is currently pre-occupied with one matter above others: the interpretation of their step-aside resolution. In lay-man’s terms this defines who can stand for or retain political office when charges against a politician of theirs’ are pending. The charges vary from crime, sexual assault to stealing from the public purse. The ANC acrobatics over definitions of allegations, charges etc. was center stage at the ANC’s recent Policy Conference. In my humble view a political party in need of such resolution should shut shop! The party abounds with officials and wannabe candidates whose ethics are in doubt or are tarnished.
3. Truth telling then and now.
First:
Fake news has always been around. It just used to be packaged differently. Fascist ideology of the 1930s or formal apartheid ideology after 1948 had little or nothing to do with fact or truth – both engaged in massive propaganda to dupe those whom they used as tools to gain power. Key to such strategy is always to conjure up an enemy, to blame someone ‘not like me’. Demagogues spread their hate, riding on the lie that they will make it better for their adherents and propose to achieve this by taking away from the ones they have ‘othered’. Hatred is their means – never more terribly expressed and exercised than during the twelve years they ruled in Nazi Germany. Apartheid did not do the same but similarly used race as the vehicle by which to avenge ‘poor-white’ poverty post the Anglo-Boer war and the depression of the 1930s. And today, as SA and global poverty escalates, fake news merchants again seek ascendency – the syndrome of men with a swagger and who seek power on the back of others, is on the ascent. They come in all colours. As usual, they care little about the poor, dispossessed and alienated; instead, they use them. The greatest hate that is being revved up in SA now is against African foreigners residing in our country as political or economic refugees or migrants. The EFF, operation Dudula and sections of the ANC are making themselves guilty of this at this very moment. It will get worse! Spaza shops and other traders from Africa are their target. Violent language is abundant. And violence against them is taking place. Real illegals, and there are those, should be dealt with by the police but it is they together with home affairs officials, that is fanning the fire in our country. Do not be surprised if, what is currently called xenophobia will later be turned against others they can ‘other’. Right now I hear of the worry and fear felt by the DRCongo car-guards living solely from charity – for fifteen years and more. They are being ‘othered’ once again. Corruption at Home Affairs, hopeless politicians and Congolese officials, stops them getting work permits.
Second:
The Rev. Frank Chikane makes two vital observations about the struggle against Apartheid. With the benefit of hindsight, he says that ethics, morality if you like, should have been foregrounded in the struggle years. He suggests that such absence (inadequacy) during the struggle years landed us in the mess we are in today. I believed that if we fought for égalité, ethics would be self-evident. I was wrong: I believed that we fought for the progressive realization of equality and my assumption about ethics was misplaced.
In paying tribute to Ds Beyers Naudé, Chikane says: we asked him to commit class-suicide and by him so doing he made our struggle one for humanity rather than tempting us into a Black versus White analyses. He rightly asserts that class not race lies at the core. It can never be race or religion or any form of sectionalism, created by the men who advance such rule by using fake legends as though they are the ‘truth’. Whether xenophobia or blaming ‘Indians’ or ‘Whites’ in the unfolding hate speech, Chikane’s vital point needs once more to be amplified.
Third:
Beyers Naudé, having fought against Apartheid, was part of the ANC contingent at what are known as the Groote Schuur talks. Those talks were the first formal encounter, in 1990, between the apartheid adversary and those who fought for the end to racial rule. I wanted to know why Beyers was post Groote Schuur, not part of the negotiations that led to our first democratic elections in 1994. The subsequent talks are known as the Codesa talks. He provides the answer in his Afrikaans autobiography My Land van Hoop. He makes it clear that it was right, morally too, that he fought in the trenches with all us all during the 70s and 80s, but he says, when peace talks took place and a new order was being negotiated, he would rather be a truth teller. He says that he once compromised with truth – when he was both a Minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and a foremost member of the Afrikaner Broederbond. He had learnt that there is a time and place for truth tellers and in the post ’94 South Africa he wanted, through painful experience, make sure he’d call out corruptors, power-abusers, or convenience-arguers.
We need truth-tellers and whistle-blowers! Always! Beyers was an uncompromising truth-teller in the fight against Apartheid. He spoke (and acted) for the truth even when Apartheid agents set out to kill him. Beyers Naudé and Babita Deokaran are worthy of the same honors. Beyers stood up against an evil system; Babita stood up against evildoers who have it in them to (re)-create an evil system.
Fourth:
With the ANC in terminal decay, South Africa enters un-charted waters. Demagogues and opportunists will want to capture the popular imagination and vote. Two things stand out for me: Beyond actively defending and extending our democracy we need a strong articulation of an honest collective that speaks in the public domain. However, limited its reach initially, such voice needs a place in Parliament after the 2024 elections. It needs a new and young voice. They must not be remote-controlled by old ANC gatekeepers, nor must they be sponsored by the super-rich do-gooders with their power and their agendas. They must speak to us as the most unequal country in the world; they must speak to wealth – not only land – redistribution; they must be directly accountable to voting constituents; they must shun the trimmings and glitz displayed by the current elite.
My pennies’ worth is that, yes, we need proper oversight, tighter rules and laws, support for whistle-blowers, a free press and a political programme that delivers better education, health and that re-distributes wealth, but we also need truth-tellers – a voice for egalité that is not part of those who rule. The faith communities, with very few exceptions, are once again sleepwalking through our countries’ devastation. But truth-telling is not the preserve of the religious only. The good people in the ANC and in other parties and especially from civil society need to gather around principled social and economic objectives that address the deep crises that confronts us. The coalition politics taking place in Metros currently is a far cry from this.
4. The common good.
The display of greed and the display of opulence at the top of our society is simultaneously a message of disregard and of disdain for those waiting for equality and justice. The elite’s conduct has a knock-on effect that ripples down and throughout our society; it translates into ‘I’m in this for myself’. Whether in personal behaviour or acting ‘for my family’ or for my clan, or group, or racial identity, or religious association, the callous conduct at the top is increasingly defining the behaviour of those down the line. The belief in the common good, doing something for the greater collective, of doing ‘for others’ without recompense, is the direct result of the pot-bellied men at the top of the chain – many civil servants included. Apartheid made it tough to act for the common good, the past 28 years compound it.
5. ‘Comrade’ and ‘Revolution’
It does not cease to astound me that ANC rhetoric is constantly embroidered with the words ‘revolution’ and ‘comrade’. This is espoused by the very people who for 30 years have diddled the public pursue to get very rich, very quickly. There are exceptions but the band of fraudsters and thieves parading as revolutionary comrades is nauseating. And Cyril settled it for me: There is no good vs bad section in the ANC; whichever faction eventually trades with the name ANC, they all sold out the poor and disempowered people of this land, whatever their rhetoric. They got rich at the expense of those they claimed they fought and struggled for. The words comrade and national revolution have become political fashion attributes.
Enough said. Had to get this off my chest!
Horst
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August 2022
www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za.
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Dear friends,
The more I delay the more there is to report. Bear with me.
Go to my website to see and read about the topics I list below. AND: scroll down to read my observations about the sorry state we are in, in South Africa.
The following are new entries on my website:
- See the announcement and first reviews of the book published in Germany, Koloniale Vergangenheit – Postkoloniale Zukunft? Edited by Henning Melber and Kristin Platt. It tackles the failures and short-comings of the long-debated agreement between Namibia and Germany about Germany’s terrible colonial past. I contributed a chapter about my family’s existence through that conflict and beyond.
- See the announcement of a historical novel about the Zara, the Khoi-Khoi woman who made such a powerful impact during her life and the generations that followed. The author is Ursula Trueper, my cousin in Berlin. It will be on the shelves in November this year, and I’d love to see it published in South Africa and Namibia, in Afrikaans and English.
4. Listen to a fine and thoughtful address by Fr. Michael Lapsley on the occasion earlier in 2022 when he was awarded the Japanese Niwano Peace Prize.
5. Lest we forget! In memory of Mapetla Mohapi – a foremost Black Consciousness leader and close associate of Steve Biko, and at one time a colleague of mine – killed while held in detention by the Apartheid police in 1976. See the review of a new book about him.
6. Read from the Rand Daily Mail article of 20 May 1978: ‘Three-year-old is refused passport’. Yes, Zindzi my daughter, was refused the means to visit me in exile until she was nine years old. See cutting on website.
7. The Rand Daily Mail, 13th October 1978 reported: ‘Peyton Place is back – after 21 years’. This was announced in the same Government Gazette that made it an offence to possess a copy of the Dutch translation of my article (pamphlet form) of ‘my reasons to support the ANC’.
8. See photographs from 1952. My brother, sister, father and me in Sydenham, Johannesburg. See those dreaded Lederhosen with Hosen-träger we were made to wear year in and year out.
9. A photo of me with ex-President Thabo Mbeki earlier this year, when I interviewed him about Beyers Naudé and Cedric Mayson.
10. And if you scroll down to the bottom of the Christian Institute pages of the website, there are two new entries about Websites, one in the Netherlands and one in the USA, where source material on the Anti-Apartheid struggle can be accessed.
And now,
- Zama-Zama illegal gold mining, cable theft, abalone poaching and Al Capone.
Yes, there is a connection between illegal gold mining, the theft of copper wire that ruins what is left of our rail system, the divers who pillage abalone off our coast – and Al Capone. They all want(ed) to get rich quick, but that’s only the obvious answer.
As head of Fisheries (2000-2005) I was tasked to rid the Department and its unholy relationship with the fishing industry and of related corruption. Minister Valli Moosa was a rare and honest ally who covered my back. Corruption had many faces: un-just quota allocations to whites only; over-fishing of Patagonian toothfish, south-coast rock lobster, and the flesh of the mollusk, locally known as perlemoen or abalone. It is highly desirable to Chinese men who believe it enhances their virility. They pay astronomical prices, especially for the South African variant. Its extinction is not far away.
I set out on mission impossible. What stared everyone in the face was men with goggles in wet-suits and oxygen flasks on small, motorized boats. Brazenly they deliver their catch into the shallows of the sea where runner-boys collect and take the abalone to waiting trucks. After that the story is murky about how exactly the contraband reached Hong Kong. Despite the regular arrests of runner-boys and those near them, the problem kept getting bigger. The fallacy to do the same thing over and over again and hoping for a solution was so entrenched that nobody, including MPs and the press cast sufficient doubt on the modus operandi.
One day I decided to attend – unannounced – a regular meeting of fisheries inspectors, local law enforcement and SAPS to find out whether we were making progress, regress or just muddling along. One of my own inspectors had the audacity to say that I did not have ‘security clearance’ to be present. I stayed, now conscious of two things: they will all censure themselves for as long as I’m in the room and, there are officers present here who are complicit in poaching. (Two years later I had the evidence that 14 Fisheries Inspectors were on the permanent payroll of at least one prominent fishing company – and was able to prosecute and/or dismiss them). Despite this, to my astoundment, the officers I had joined on that day in Hermanus seemed to have a wealth of evidence and knowledge about poaching. Why were there no prosecutions higher up the poaching chain? The answer was that the prosecutorial services failed them too often, and then they were always the ones to be blamed.
What I gleaned from the meeting was: there were more than 15 syndicates that bought poached product. One syndicate was “white”, one was “black” and based in Zwelihle and all the others “coloured”, mostly based in Hawston. Here homes with large safe’s where the tell-tale of a syndicate leader. I later succeeded to bring the ‘white’ Marx syndicate to book. Their arrogance as being untouchable amongst the syndicates, was their downfall.
But I had not gone very far yet. So, I made an appointment to meet with the prosecution teams in Pretoria. During a long and frustrating morning, I concluded that collusion with the poaching machinery had a long history here too. During lunch I asked an elderly Advocate who seemed not part of them, if he would go for a walk with me. I appealed to him on environmental grounds – that soon SA would have no abalone left and how this impacted on the wider eco-system. He seemed sympathetic and said he would invoke the Al Capone rule after lunch. I was mystified.
The poaching chain starts with the divers who worked for competing syndicates. They drop their catch in rocky inter-tidal waters where runner-boys carry the loot across beaches into the bush and to waiting pick-up trucks, managed by this or that syndicate. Then it went in refrigeration trucks, without fail, to a cold-storage facility in Jet Park Industrial suburb near ORT airport in Johannesburg. From here it was exported to Harare or Gaborone without due description. Why? Because from there it would be re-exported as a SADC ‘product’ via Johannesburg International airport to Hong Kong. Because we have friendly relations with our SADC partners no real checks of the frozen product took place. Naturally at each airport paid customs officials could be relied – they got a kick-back every time they closed their eyes.
Who ran the Jet Park operation? And who bought the product in Hong Kong. No secret to the prosecutors. A South African bought the product in Hong Kong and the Jet Park facility was run by a Triad member, one of three Chinese living in South Africa. Despite this knowledge, so they said, they could not pin a charge on him. The kindly advocate now pounced: Let’s instead of chasing the abalone link, do a tax check on the Jet Park owner. And bingo, a few days later the suspect was arrested for failing to pay income tax. He was charged and held in custody. The 15+ syndicates must have been worried. Al Capone could not be caught for breaking the Prohibition rules in the USA in the 1930s but was caught as a tax-dodger. In the Jet Park case, the outstanding tax was soon paid by someone in Hong Kong.
I tell this tale because illegal gold mining, copper theft, abalone/rhino horn, drugs and much else that attains a high price, without doubt has a similar pyramidal chain. Thus: stop chasing the runner-boys, and instead go for those at the top who buy and pay those lower down the chain. Or is it that they, at the top of the chain, enjoy protection by complicit politicians?
2. The ANC step-aside.
The ANC is currently pre-occupied with one matter above others: the interpretation of their step-aside resolution. In lay-man’s terms this defines who can stand for or retain political office when charges against a politician of theirs’ are pending. The charges vary from crime, sexual assault to stealing from the public purse. The ANC acrobatics over definitions of allegations, charges etc. was center stage at the ANC’s recent Policy Conference. In my humble view a political party in need of such resolution should shut shop! The party abounds with officials and wannabe candidates whose ethics are in doubt or are tarnished.
3. Truth telling then and now.
First:
Fake news has always been around. It just used to be packaged differently. Fascist ideology of the 1930s or formal apartheid ideology after 1948 had little or nothing to do with fact or truth – both engaged in massive propaganda to dupe those whom they used as tools to gain power. Key to such strategy is always to conjure up an enemy, to blame someone ‘not like me’. Demagogues spread their hate, riding on the lie that they will make it better for their adherents and propose to achieve this by taking away from the ones they have ‘othered’. Hatred is their means – never more terribly expressed and exercised than during the twelve years they ruled in Nazi Germany. Apartheid did not do the same but similarly used race as the vehicle by which to avenge ‘poor-white’ poverty post the Anglo-Boer war and the depression of the 1930s. And today, as SA and global poverty escalates, fake news merchants again seek ascendency – the syndrome of men with a swagger and who seek power on the back of others, is on the ascent. They come in all colours. As usual, they care little about the poor, dispossessed and alienated; instead, they use them. The greatest hate that is being revved up in SA now is against African foreigners residing in our country as political or economic refugees or migrants. The EFF, operation Dudula and sections of the ANC are making themselves guilty of this at this very moment. It will get worse! Spaza shops and other traders from Africa are their target. Violent language is abundant. And violence against them is taking place. Real illegals, and there are those, should be dealt with by the police but it is they together with home affairs officials, that is fanning the fire in our country. Do not be surprised if, what is currently called xenophobia will later be turned against others they can ‘other’. Right now I hear of the worry and fear felt by the DRCongo car-guards living solely from charity – for fifteen years and more. They are being ‘othered’ once again. Corruption at Home Affairs, hopeless politicians and Congolese officials, stops them getting work permits.
Second:
The Rev. Frank Chikane makes two vital observations about the struggle against Apartheid. With the benefit of hindsight, he says that ethics, morality if you like, should have been foregrounded in the struggle years. He suggests that such absence (inadequacy) during the struggle years landed us in the mess we are in today. I believed that if we fought for égalité, ethics would be self-evident. I was wrong: I believed that we fought for the progressive realization of equality and my assumption about ethics was misplaced.
In paying tribute to Ds Beyers Naudé, Chikane says: we asked him to commit class-suicide and by him so doing he made our struggle one for humanity rather than tempting us into a Black versus White analyses. He rightly asserts that class not race lies at the core. It can never be race or religion or any form of sectionalism, created by the men who advance such rule by using fake legends as though they are the ‘truth’. Whether xenophobia or blaming ‘Indians’ or ‘Whites’ in the unfolding hate speech, Chikane’s vital point needs once more to be amplified.
Third:
Beyers Naudé, having fought against Apartheid, was part of the ANC contingent at what are known as the Groote Schuur talks. Those talks were the first formal encounter, in 1990, between the apartheid adversary and those who fought for the end to racial rule. I wanted to know why Beyers was post Groote Schuur, not part of the negotiations that led to our first democratic elections in 1994. The subsequent talks are known as the Codesa talks. He provides the answer in his Afrikaans autobiography My Land van Hoop. He makes it clear that it was right, morally too, that he fought in the trenches with all us all during the 70s and 80s, but he says, when peace talks took place and a new order was being negotiated, he would rather be a truth teller. He says that he once compromised with truth – when he was both a Minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and a foremost member of the Afrikaner Broederbond. He had learnt that there is a time and place for truth tellers and in the post ’94 South Africa he wanted, through painful experience, make sure he’d call out corruptors, power-abusers, or convenience-arguers.
We need truth-tellers and whistle-blowers! Always! Beyers was an uncompromising truth-teller in the fight against Apartheid. He spoke (and acted) for the truth even when Apartheid agents set out to kill him. Beyers Naudé and Babita Deokaran are worthy of the same honors. Beyers stood up against an evil system; Babita stood up against evildoers who have it in them to (re)-create an evil system.
Fourth:
With the ANC in terminal decay, South Africa enters un-charted waters. Demagogues and opportunists will want to capture the popular imagination and vote. Two things stand out for me: Beyond actively defending and extending our democracy we need a strong articulation of an honest collective that speaks in the public domain. However, limited its reach initially, such voice needs a place in Parliament after the 2024 elections. It needs a new and young voice. They must not be remote-controlled by old ANC gatekeepers, nor must they be sponsored by the super-rich do-gooders with their power and their agendas. They must speak to us as the most unequal country in the world; they must speak to wealth – not only land – redistribution; they must be directly accountable to voting constituents; they must shun the trimmings and glitz displayed by the current elite.
My pennies’ worth is that, yes, we need proper oversight, tighter rules and laws, support for whistle-blowers, a free press and a political programme that delivers better education, health and that re-distributes wealth, but we also need truth-tellers – a voice for egalité that is not part of those who rule. The faith communities, with very few exceptions, are once again sleepwalking through our countries’ devastation. But truth-telling is not the preserve of the religious only. The good people in the ANC and in other parties and especially from civil society need to gather around principled social and economic objectives that address the deep crises that confronts us. The coalition politics taking place in Metros currently is a far cry from this.
4. The common good.
The display of greed and the display of opulence at the top of our society is simultaneously a message of disregard and of disdain for those waiting for equality and justice. The elite’s conduct has a knock-on effect that ripples down and throughout our society; it translates into ‘I’m in this for myself’. Whether in personal behaviour or acting ‘for my family’ or for my clan, or group, or racial identity, or religious association, the callous conduct at the top is increasingly defining the behaviour of those down the line. The belief in the common good, doing something for the greater collective, of doing ‘for others’ without recompense, is the direct result of the pot-bellied men at the top of the chain – many civil servants included. Apartheid made it tough to act for the common good, the past 28 years compound it.
5. ‘Comrade’ and ‘Revolution’
It does not cease to astound me that ANC rhetoric is constantly embroidered with the words ‘revolution’ and ‘comrade’. This is espoused by the very people who for 30 years have diddled the public pursue to get very rich, very quickly. There are exceptions but the band of fraudsters and thieves parading as revolutionary comrades is nauseating. And Cyril settled it for me: There is no good vs bad section in the ANC; whichever faction eventually trades with the name ANC, they all sold out the poor and disempowered people of this land, whatever their rhetoric. They got rich at the expense of those they claimed they fought and struggled for. The words comrade and national revolution have become political fashion attributes.
Enough said. Had to get this off my chest!
Horst
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Colonial Past - Post-colonial Future? appeared (in German), in March 2022. It takes a critical look at the Germany-Namibia 'reconciliation agreement' meant to deal with the brutal past the former imposed on the country I was born in. The book includes a chapter I contributed. I tell of the implications for our family who either became victims of white colonial rule or those of us who 'made it' as pretend-whites. Reviews of the book are also attached.
Reviews of above book:
Deutsch https://calendar.boell.de/de/event/koloniale-vergangenheit-postkoloniale-zukunft
Englisch https://calendar.boell.de/en/event/colonial-past-postcolonial-future
https://www.welt-sichten.org/tipps-und-termine/40454/es-bleibt-noch-viel-aufzuarbeiten
<buch melber platt koloniale vergangenheit - besprechung se stender 22-07 az.pdf>
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/07/18/we-need-to-interrogate-the-north-south-dichotomy-in-african-studies-publishing
https://www.iz3w.org/zeitschrift/ausgaben/392_darktourism/MelberPlatt
A clear English translation: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00358533.2022.2105540
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This historical novel (below) is about the Schmelen-Kleinschmidt-Hegner family, written by my cousin Ursula Trüper in Berlin, will appear in November 2022. Those of you who read German, and if this interests you, consider purchasing a copy.
Exeter University wrote: The recording of your project Dialogue is now on the IF YouTube channel, here - (1) IF Dialogue 5 (Horst Kleinschmidt; Mark Kaplan; Geraldine Frieslaar) - YouTube
Roger Southall is a friend, the author of below newly published book. With so much unfinished business by and about Whites in South Africa, I commend this book to you
Below link takes you to the obituary of Lorna de Smit, written by her husband Graham de Smit. It is a remarkable story - not least because they got married across the apartheid 'colour line'. The man who illegally married them was Rev Theo Kotze of the Christian Institute in Cape Town. And what Graham is careful not to talk about - presumably because, living in England, he knew not whose permission he could ask, is that Cedric Mayson, also from the Christian Institute, flew them illegally across the border into Botswana. Cedric's courage was exceptional. I was the first person he flew into exile in 1976.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/06/lorna-de-smidt-obituary?CMP=share_btn_link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/06/lorna-de-smidt-obituary?CMP=share_btn_link
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Father Michael Lapsley is a friend who lost both arms and an eye when Apartheid agents sent him parcel bomb (in exile), disguised as a book he had ordered. Below is the Japanese honour was bestowed on him recently. His acceptance speech he titled 'Let us all be midwives'. It is remarkable and I urge you to watch/listen to it here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M51mtWCSK0E&feature=youtu.be
"The Niwano Peace Prize is hereby presented to Father Michael Lapsley SSM. You have dedicated yourself to the abolition of Apartheid in South Africa and to the liberation of people in suffering. Your journey to peace in which you have been greatly traumatized by violent attrocities and yet strongly committed to the restoration of people's humanity continues to inspire peace and hope throughout the world. You have created a new initiative called "Healing of Memories" because you believe that the Gospel's message is to heal emotional wounds suffered hy the victims of various forms of violence. You have also provided a place where those who have been hurt by the absurdity and injustice of society can tell their stories and at the same time regain their peace of mind. The Niwano Peace foundation sincerely respects and is deeply moved by your believe in your God-given mission to heal the hearts of those who have faced hardship and to lead them to hope. Therefore, it is with great pride that we present to you the 39th Niwano Peace Prize."
June 14, 2022
Nichiko Niwano
Honorary President Niwano Peace Foundation
Hiroshi M Niwano, Chairperson Niwano Peace Foundation
Father Michael Lapsley is a friend who lost both arms and an eye when Apartheid agents sent him parcel bomb (in exile), disguised as a book he had ordered. Below is the Japanese honour was bestowed on him recently. His acceptance speech he titled 'Let us all be midwives'. It is remarkable and I urge you to watch/listen to it here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M51mtWCSK0E&feature=youtu.be
"The Niwano Peace Prize is hereby presented to Father Michael Lapsley SSM. You have dedicated yourself to the abolition of Apartheid in South Africa and to the liberation of people in suffering. Your journey to peace in which you have been greatly traumatized by violent attrocities and yet strongly committed to the restoration of people's humanity continues to inspire peace and hope throughout the world. You have created a new initiative called "Healing of Memories" because you believe that the Gospel's message is to heal emotional wounds suffered hy the victims of various forms of violence. You have also provided a place where those who have been hurt by the absurdity and injustice of society can tell their stories and at the same time regain their peace of mind. The Niwano Peace foundation sincerely respects and is deeply moved by your believe in your God-given mission to heal the hearts of those who have faced hardship and to lead them to hope. Therefore, it is with great pride that we present to you the 39th Niwano Peace Prize."
June 14, 2022
Nichiko Niwano
Honorary President Niwano Peace Foundation
Hiroshi M Niwano, Chairperson Niwano Peace Foundation
We shall never forget! In memory of Mapetla Mohapi, killed by apartheid Special Branch men in detention in 1976. I knew him first during student days and then when he worked with Steve Biko at the Black Community Programme, which was associated with the Christian Institute.
Our family lot in 1978: Father in exile, implicated in a trial, mother Ilona about to serve a prison sentence for refusing to testify against Winnie Mandela and our daughter Zindzi being refused a passport. When Helen Suzman asked the responsible Minister in Parliament his reply was: I know the age of the applicant, I still deny her a passport. For three moths Zindzi was cared for by close friends and Ilona's mother.
Below cutting from 1978 refers to the Apartheid Publications Control Board telling South Africans what they could and what they were prohibited from reading. Here, in the same week we are told that we could now read the book Peyton Place twenty years after it was prohibited reading it. In the same week it became an offence to be in possession of a pamphlet in which I explained, in Dutch, why I was supporting the liberation movement, the African National Congress.
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From the annals:
ca. 1952. Brother Immo, my, my mother, father and I in the garden at our home in Sneddon Street, Sydenham, Johannesburg. The company car was a 1949 Chevrolet Fleetline. |
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On 25 February 2022 I interviewed former President, Thabo Mbeki and how Beyers Naudé and twenty others sustained regular communication with the exile ANC, a linkage that involved Mbeki, Aziz Pahad and myself. As is evident from the Beyers Naudé SB files, they were desperate to infiltrate this group but failed. The link was sustained for more than ten years.
In the picture, from the left: HK, Thabo Mbeki, Ds Andre Bartlett (he succeeded Beyers Naudé at Beyers' congregation Aasvoelkop after Beyers resigned. On the right is Mark Kaplan the producer of the film we are making on the above history. |
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Horst’s 49th Newsletter
January 2022
______________________________________________________
January 2022
______________________________________________________
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Irish poet William Butler Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, written in 1919, is about foreboding, chaos, prophecy and meaninglessness. Yeats sees a world falling apart and a new ominous reality that may emerge. The idea of ‘the Second Coming’ Yeats insisted, is not meant in a Biblical sense.
Dear friends, dear relations, herewith my take:
- THE STATE OF US
Never was it more urgent for South Africa to implement that which the Bill of Rights in our Constitution provides for. The ANC Government has failed to deliver when it could have during past decades. It’s talk of renewal now fails to inspire. No opposition party has come to fill the glaring gap. Instead all the parties hog the centre-right where old and new elites grab of the cake whatever they can. I perceive growing anger and alienation by those who have nothing. Doing for the common good is ever more distant. The July 2021 Durban moment, the countrywide multiple daily demonstrations and the violent political debate tells me that the centre is not holding.
To take a closer look at the mounting tensions in our country you might like to read Dinga Sikwebu, Sisulu’s political inauthenticity is astonishing
https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/dinga-sikwebu-sisulus-political-inauthenticity-is-astonishing-20220119
Durban moments can erupt any moment as the gap between rich and poor widens further. The populist faction in the ANC, hostile to democracy, is planning for war the Rev Frank Chikane told a meeting recently. The EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) and now the super-funded Action South Africa (Herman Mashaba) party are openly racist in their populist rhetoric. Like elsewhere we may soon find ourselves ruled by a right-wing – pretending to do it ‘for the people’. It has happened before. The right-wing threat, as so often, arises when political and economic elites are feathering their nests beyond the endurance of those looking on.
It is not viable for an incapable ANC to hold on to its centre-right position and believe it is the only or best option to stop populist right-wing rule. The masses of the poor, unemployed, disaffected and aggrieved will be swayed by the right that is in the making. At the same time those with viable progressive agenda’s are no-where to be found. Those like Abahlali Basemjondolo are too small to politically educate and organise adequately amongst the poor and in that way counter the would-be dictators from finding traction. It looks all too much as though we are sleep-walking into our self-made morass.
The first State Capture Commission report by acting Chief-Justice Raymond Zondo catalogues the extent of ANC, and thus state failure. The consequences of this will revisit us in coming years! Zondo in summary says that those who now want to correct the corrosion of the Zuma years, seemed to ‘simply [to] not care….or slept on the job, or had no clue what to do’. This accusation points at the very people who now speak of ‘renewing’ the ANC!
You hear my anger and frustration. I feel shame that I fell for the rhetoric in exile that the ANC would bring equality and justice to all and today the poor are remain marginalised. I wrongly believed that I worked for and within a movement that would deliver us from racism and exploitation. Despite this, in my remaining time, I will be there wherever honest progressive voices emerge.
- ON LEARNING THAT ONCE I WAS A WHISTLE-BLOWER TOO
Throughout the early years of democracy there were many who wanted to build a new and capable administration – as the Zondo report shows – but who were removed. Many others were edged out. The still-entrenched ANC gate-keepers use their pet words ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and enemies of ‘transformation’ to assert their way.
I too lost my job as head of the Fisheries department in 2005 for countering political interference, exposing corruption and not allocating fishing quotas to ANC front companies, COSATU trade unions and Transkei royalty. When I blew the whistle on a fishing company and fishing inspectorate collusion to secure great riches for the corruptor and the corrupted, guns were bought and people hired to take me out. To be precise, the car park on the first floor at Foretrust building was the place where I would be killed. Nominal support came from the then Scorpions. The corruptors pursued me in the courts for fifteen years, long into my retirement. If it had not been for a lawyer friend who was equally hounded I would have come to financial ruin. Those at the top were disinterested, could not care.
I knew my time as a civil servant was up when the fickle and mostly lazy ANC MPs designated to oversee fisheries asked me (January 2005) why I had become an “enemy of transformation”. I was asked why I had not kicked-out eminent and highly experienced marine scientists and replaced them with (Black) honours graduates. Where previously the MPs addressed me as “comrade Horst” I now became Mr Kleinschmidt. I thought even if I could defend myself I would not be heard. I thus asked the up-and-coming other-complexioned young scientist Theresa Akkers to describe what we had achieved to support Black marine scientists. She told the MPs, that since 1994, 40-odd scientists had been supported up to Masters level – only one was White, and she was female. Her report was accepted but I was called back to the podium. What had I done to rid my Department of 180 too many “Coloureds” (my total staff complement was around 750). Attempts to explain that the demographics of the Western Cape (“Coloured” majority) from where the Department operated, and the historic connection to fisheries, was dismissed. My retort to the acting Director-General that she demanded a racial quota system was reminiscent of Nazi Germany, was a fatal mis-step. I said that her ruling reminded one of Nazi Germany when Jewish lawyers, it was ruled should not exceed as a percentage, the percentage number of Jews living in Germany at the time.
I was edged out. I became just another White man tainted with apartheid. The former Apartheid National Party Minister, now ANC Fisheries Minister begged me to become his advisor. Mistakenly and without a job or pension to look forward to I accepted to become his advisor. My input to him was fruitless but much worse was that I had agreed to stay mum about the reasons, why I left my job. – I regret my choice.
Fast-forward to 2022. I am not alone to say that we who spent a vast part of our life for what we believed was for the common good, that we feel betrayed by a group who cannot get beyond words of ‘renewal of the ANC’. They are the collective group who feel that the end justifies the means, who wanted power more than wanting justice for all, equality for all, land and wealth re-distribution, and access to decent education, health care, housing, water, sanitation and electricity supply for all. The worst is that we now stand embarrassed and humiliated in front of those who never joined us, who had qualms about apartheid but in the end thought the system could be reformed who, I sense laugh or belittle us and say: I told you so. They say that we waisted our lives in a cause that sold us out. I know because I am white and meet them more often than maybe others and I cannot escape their pity. I might not care about it, but I feel I’ve had to cede the moral high-ground I once thought I occupied.
Right now what we need is for civil society to get organised once again, like it did when the UDF project was launched in 1983.It is civil society who this time must not be hoodwinked by fault-ridden exiles who wanted power without wanting it for the majority. We now need democratic socialism! We need selfless and accountable leadership not swayed by the trimmings of glitter and riches. We must be able to dismiss by popular action those who betray the people.
- ALARMING INDICATORS.
The SA barometer must be measured by the steepness of our social and economic pyramid – the exceptionally high and increasing distance between the 1% (or 5%) and the rest. Besides what the media report I think the following merits alarm:
- Statistics say that more South Africans buy groceries from supermarkets than virtually any other country – over 75% - this tells us how caught and beholden we are to the monopoly that Checkers, PnP, Woolworths and Spar constitute. They exercise hugest control over producers – farmers and manufacturers – all, to allegedly, bring us the cheapest product. Can we ever escape this noose?
- Apartheid demanded disdain and hatred of the ‘other’. It seemed reasonable to expect that those who succeeded them would show solidarity with those previously downtrodden. Alas this did not happen. Neither ruling politicians nor the buddy-buddy system of civil servants they appoint (in general) show little compassion, kindness or fairness, never mind professionalism. ‘Othering’ has changed from race to class.
- He who pays the piper calls the tune. The recent disclosure of party funding (for the municipal elections) requires our attention.
- The ANC got R5.8m from Patrice Motsepe, the Presidents brother-in-law, who himself donated R366,000 to ANC coffers. The other big ANC donor was Chancellor House, an ANC big money group who gave R15m to the ANC. So: roughly R21m to gain the loyalty 45.5% of the voting population. Add to this the non-voting population xxx
- The DA got one super-large donation of R15m from a Mr Moshal. Who is he to play big politics in SA? That budget, besides smaller donations got the DA 21.6% of the vote.
- Action SA (Herman Moshaba) got R9.9m from three Oppenheimer heirs – no surprises there – the Cecil Rhodes tradition of creating beholden relations remains perfectly intact. But the mysterious Mr Moshal also gave Mashaba R5m. These four donors paid a lot for the 2.34% of the vote this racist party got. (Admittedly they were a new party and did not campaign nationally)
- All the other parties who declared their income sink into insignificance by comparison. The odd million here or their but most parties got less than R1m in total.
- The EFF failed to say who financed them or what budget they were working on!
- And now some personal news.
Christine and I have come through Covid and lockdowns comparatively well. We’ve not been tested positive at any point but mild versions may have manifested themselves without being branded Covid. Christine’s Studio-Gallery in the heart of Kalk Bay has had fewer visitors and fewer buyers, but the rent gets covered and the artist remains inspired. We know what privilege it is to live here and to have False Bay to look across, to have friends nearby and at 76 and 74 respectively, to be old enough not to restlessly wait to book the next trip overseas. We long for the daughters and grandchildren to visit – and plans for them to visit are in the making.
I wake up on the open-air veranda each morning feeling positive and strong to ‘work’. The past year was taken up by writing chapters for very different kinds of books: A chapter for a book that celebrates Swedish-South African friendship is due to appear later this year. My contribution concerns the colossal act of solidarity of Sweden’s contributions to the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF) that I had the privilege of leading in the 1980’s until we closed shop; the job was done. A much shorter chapter on IDAF’s solidarity with those in the trenches of the struggle against apartheid appears in International Brigade Against Apartheid published by Jacana in December 2021. A very different contribution is my chapter to a book due to appear in Germany about the inadequacies of reparations by Germany for the genocide against Nama and Herero people in Namibia during the colonial period. In the chapter I trace our family, over a hundred year - as victims and as perpetrators caught in the race dictums of both the colonial and apartheid periods. After the book is published I will, though this website, provide an English version of my contribution. Lastly I contributed to a Cape Muslim publication the meaning of inter-faith (and non-faith) solidarity that stands proud here at the Southern tip of Africa to this day. Remembering the death in detention of Imam Abdullah Haron in 1969 gave rise to this.
Many of you know of my penchant to keep documents and to have recorded events that in some way or other affected my life. My family and my own past spans close to 20 meters of date-ordered box files. They have attracted increasing attention from academics. Associated is an index with annotation that covers 3150 items – and growing by the day. In a collaboration with Exeter University an initial 20 box files, covering the period 1972 – 1977 is currently being digitised and coded such that it meets academic standards with search facilities that meet international standards. With two academic assistants we will complete this phase by end January. I am hopeful that the next phase will cover the period 1978 – 1990, covering the height of the struggle as connected with by myself.
The above project has provided the impulse to register, in coming months, a family trust and to have the Schmelen-Kleinschmidt-Bam-Uirab and wider family records to be digitised and logged in a way so they become accessible to family and researchers. This will, I hope, lead to a wider family collaboration such that records held in Finland, Germany, Namibia, here and elsewhere are linked and become accessible. The planned Trust and digitisation project are also intended as a hand-over to the next generation.
Lastly, my website has many new entries. New texts and images deal with current debates, books that stirred me (see review below) and items from my archive that might interest you.
Thank you all for your emails and good wishes. I do appreciate these very much.
Yours,
Horst.
- BOOK REVIEW.
In my previous Newsletter I commented on the former SB cop Paul Erasmus. His autobiography ‘Confessions of a Stratcom Hitman’ was published, posthumously, by Jacana.
My review of the book:
Forgiveness cannot be attained by writing a racy political thriller.
My sense of the man up till the last page: deceptive and manipulative till the end. I interviewed Paul Erasmus twice on camera last year. We wanted more than what he told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, principally because Beyers Naudé was number two on his list of people to dispose of. His ‘confessions’ have just appeared in book form. He died, aged 65 in July 2021. I take no pleasure in kicking a man no longer able to defend himself.
Other attributes I would accord him: eloquent, intelligent, confident, obscure and dishonest. A man who spent his life in the service of the apartheid police and got to work for Vlakplaas, Koevoet and Stratcom; the worst of the worst killing machines apartheid operated. Yet he made it no further than Warrant Officer – he complains about repeatedly. Why do some treat him as an oracle on the doings of the worst elements of the police killing machines? Why are his statements to the TRC treated as confessions? Is he viewed as a ‘hitman’ just because the real hitmen did not come forward and never confessed?
Our interviews like his book, never speaks to his act of torturing or his having pulled the trigger. No names of his victims. “I was given some 13 orders to kill various people while I was in the SB” but he does not say once that he actually killed anyone. Was that a why they did not to promote him? Rev Frank Chikane and Ds Beyers Naudé were on the ‘list’ Capt Cronwright asked him to kill. He sought and got amnesty for 500 offences “that I committed during my time in service” (P252-3).
Somehow the killer or torturer is always the guy next to him or those ‘bad guys’ in the force, all of whom he claims to have fought against. He wants us to believe that he was a decent man amongst a group of thugs. Only once does he admit to lunging out hitting someone. And the only time he ‘nearly’ uses his pistol is when he points between the eyes of his wife – who wanted to divorce him. On page 129: “We didn’t blow up, set alight or murder people – at least not directly. Instead we were trained to manipulate people’s minds – and, yes, often with physical interventions” – what a euphemism for torture!
He did not ‘confess’ because of qualms about what he had done for several decades. No, it’s his increasingly bad relationships colleagues and superiors that cause him to testify, initially, before the Goldstone Commission; not moral qualms about what ‘they’ did. He is frustrated about the lack of recognition or promotion, that motivates him, not morals. This leads him to the TRC to ‘tell’ but not a belated ethical awakening. One gets the impression that he’s a productive and inventive cog in the police structures but his rancorous personality stops him getting the promotions he wants. There is, in the end, a vast distance between telling ‘all’ and feeling personal shame.
Those who look for great revelations will not find such in this book. In his TRC testimony and my interviews with him, he engages with real events but none of the apartheid murders or acts of torture are concretized. He’s no Jeffrey Benzine who showed the TRC Commissioners how he sat himself upon his spread-eagled victims , face-down on the floor, to torture them. Clearly he knows of detailed events that I, for one, knew about from the other side. That is chilling, coupled with his incredible memory of detail, but never that which might have indicted him then or that impinges on the hero figure he wants his children to believe in.
As a foremost agent of disinformation in the police – according to him one of the best there was – I read the book wondering how many times he writes, in his book, to yet further manipulate and get away with his fabrications. His prowess as an information manipulator gave him as much pleasure one concludes as petrol-bombing, on duty but in drunken stupor Beyers and Ilse’s car in the driveway or painting a hammer and sickle on our garden wall – and then first to leak these pranks to his journalist informers.
His entire engagement with Winnie Mandela is a mix of spreading falsehoods then and more falsehoods now. Did Winnie truly give his, Paul’s daughter Candice the wedding-ring Nelson once gave to Winnie? Did Winnie call him to express her indignation at Thabo Mbeki having hit at her on a public platform? For him and her to have travelled to Nairobi to meet a quack who had a medicine against AIDS. He revels in Winnie’s ‘forgiveness’ with the remotest sense of humility. Both appear to be casualties and are damaged – the one as the police’s victim the other as their perpetrator.
Stratcoms engagement with British MP’s with far-rightwing group takes his machinations to foreign shores. Their hope: to smear the ANC abroad, notably in London, by inferring links to the ‘terrorist’ IRA. His mention MP Hunter (page 81) I recall because Hunter tried to implicate me in IRA links. The occasion was the Irish AAM annual meeting in Dublin. Both Jerry Adams (IRA) and I addressed the meeting and were seen to sit next to each other in the audience. Someone took a photo and a few weeks later MP Hunter waved the photo in the House of Commons to ‘prove’ that the ANC and IRA were working together.
Another apparent close shave he describes is when they rented offices in Portland Place, Jorrissen Street, Braamfontein. Here were also the offices of the SACC, CI and related organisations before Pharmacy House (later re-named Diakonia House) across the road was purchased. Erasmus et al wanted to launch a fake new political party here – whilst eavesdropping on their neighbours. When they appear to have moved in, most of us had already moved out, but eavesdropping with directional micro-phones across the road was probably still in their sights. As it was in CI days, all sensitive talk did not happen in our offices but on the roof of Diakonia House. SB files on Beyers Naudé and myself reveal no successful bugging in this aspect. – A amusing addendum I recall: Long after all church folk had left Portland Place, the landlord asked us to remove a locked and heavy cupboard from one of the corridors. Inside we found hundreds of copies of the book ‘Black Theology’, banned several years earlier. We were delighted and made sure we got it to as many worthy recipients as possible.
His relationship with money raises some questions. On at least two occasions he seems to have stolen money or goods (Jay Naidoo’s mobile phone) from those whose premises he and others were raiding. He complains that as a Warrant Officer he was always short of money and that his family suffered accordingly. Despite this his lifestyle afforded him ownership of homes, including one overlooking the sea, a boat – and ultimately a property, where I visited to interview him.
One intriguing, laughable and stereo-typical admission appears on page 21: “Attempts to show that Naudé was running the banned SACP, or that he was a surrogate of Bram Fischer, or that he was in the leadership of the underground ANC within the country’s borders, were all bungled”. As Beyers Naudé’s SB files reveal, they suspected but never found out about the role Naudé played in the popular underground in the 1980’s, nor how he applied foreign funds to build and sustain that underground.
Those who believe that the SBs had skill and prowess, if nothing else will see by his admissions what a shambolic alcohol-infused operation the highest apartheid security operation was a lot of the time.
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This 64 Chapter 350 page page book celebrates international solidarity -- probably the largest such collaboration ever. And it was a critical pillar in our struggle.
One may well argue with the interpretation by the editors who hold on to a history they want to be true - that of locating armed struggle at the heart of the struggle. In so doing it undermines the organised mass movement that culminated in the UDF and its wide support from the wide civil society. Chapter 38 provides an overview of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa. I was its author. You can read the text as Pdf on the IDAF pages of this website. |
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See my review of this book in my Newsletter 49 and further comment on my encounters with Paul Erasmus in my Newsletter 48.
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Rev Brian Brown was an important figure in the SA Christian Institute (CI), right next to Ds Beyers Naudé. With Beyers he was banned in October 1977. A while later he and his family took an exit permit and they settled in the UK. There Brian played a leading role in British church life. In the early years his focus was on building the church solidarity movement that complemented the struggle for liberation back home in South Africa.
More recently he has engaged with Israeli and Palestinian people, facing the same intractable issues of race, class, identity, privilege, power and repression he first dealt with in his native South Africa. This qualifies him uniquely to have written the book: Apartheid South Africa! Apartheid Israel? His book is important. His goal is for both sides to exist, in equality, mutual respect and dignity next to each other. He explores the comparable ethics, morals and means to attain liberation from oppression in the context of both situations. He is keenly aware of not stereo-typing an ‘enemy’ and of the dangers of debate and criticism not mixing with anti-Semitism. To avoid detractors of his work dismissing him as not comparing like with like, he removes all that constituted ‘petty Apartheid’. His comparisons deal with ‘grand Apartheid’ and what he observes in Israeli policy. The book is rich in source documents over the ages, notably the related Kairos documents. |
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First published in 2016 this remains an important reader for anyone searching for the fault-lines in the ANC that predate our liberation. All was not well when the ANC was forced into exile and when it lost effective links internally with the oppressed. Copies are now hard to come by but if you want a copy I can link you to Terry Bell who still has copies. |
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Just so I retain a bit of the Dutch I learnt when I spent my first years in exile (1976-1979)n The Netherlands, I read this fascinating family history that explores intimate relationships between slave-owner and slave in the southern United States 200 years ago. The dangers and humiliations faced by those who lived honourable lives across the divide are reminiscent of South Africa and Namibia - and thus of what happened in my own family also. |
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Let us remember Ahmed Timol - killed 50 years ago today, 27 October 2021
A few days before his murder the SB raided Ilona's and my flat in Milnerton Cape Town. I was charged with having received illegal literature - apparently from Ahmed Timol. I had never met him. I was found not guilty under the Suppression of Communism Act because Judge King said: The explanation that this young man had not yet read what he received in the post is conceivable. He therefore cannot be held responsible for the literature.
Four years later (September 1975) I was in the same John Vorster Square on the 10th floor where Ahmed was thrown out of the window. I was paraded by Capt. Olivier past all the SB men, each sitting at their desks next to a potentially fatal window. They were told to get a good view of what ‘a terrorist’ looks like. After cursory questions by Col. Johan Coetzee and by Olivier I was taken to Pretoria Central Prison to serve 3 months in solitary confinement - under the Terrorism Act.
When Capt. Spyker van Wyk and other SB bundled me into the back of the police-issue Chrysler Valiant (no hub caps, I recall), in the yard at the back of John Vorster Square, before driving along Louise Botha Avenue toward Pretoria, they pointed to row of petrol pumps and Spyker said something like: What a mess when Timol jumped and fell on to those pumps.
The Star newspaper had poster along the road to Pretoria saying: Senior Christian Institute man detained. Spyker said that this was last anyone would hear of me. At the Pretoria prison I was locked in one of the cells outside the gallows. The graffiti on the walls told me where I was. On the 2nd or 3rd night I knew a man would be hung the next morning. The (Black) prisoners were singing for him all night. A commotion outside my cell door around 6am confirmed to me where I was. I never found out who went to the gallows that morning.
Let us remember Ahmed, let us also celebrate that we no longer hang people in this country (Pretoria once was the hanging Capital of the world), that we have a Constitu93b5797c-1233-e738-b46b-84e49bc550ca.jpgtion and the rule of law. - Those who bemoan the situation in South Africa today should always remember where we come from.
For reports, TRC film clips and analyses visit:
Ahmed Timol Trust
P O Box 1888
Garsfontein
Pretoria, Gp 0060
South Africa
A few days before his murder the SB raided Ilona's and my flat in Milnerton Cape Town. I was charged with having received illegal literature - apparently from Ahmed Timol. I had never met him. I was found not guilty under the Suppression of Communism Act because Judge King said: The explanation that this young man had not yet read what he received in the post is conceivable. He therefore cannot be held responsible for the literature.
Four years later (September 1975) I was in the same John Vorster Square on the 10th floor where Ahmed was thrown out of the window. I was paraded by Capt. Olivier past all the SB men, each sitting at their desks next to a potentially fatal window. They were told to get a good view of what ‘a terrorist’ looks like. After cursory questions by Col. Johan Coetzee and by Olivier I was taken to Pretoria Central Prison to serve 3 months in solitary confinement - under the Terrorism Act.
When Capt. Spyker van Wyk and other SB bundled me into the back of the police-issue Chrysler Valiant (no hub caps, I recall), in the yard at the back of John Vorster Square, before driving along Louise Botha Avenue toward Pretoria, they pointed to row of petrol pumps and Spyker said something like: What a mess when Timol jumped and fell on to those pumps.
The Star newspaper had poster along the road to Pretoria saying: Senior Christian Institute man detained. Spyker said that this was last anyone would hear of me. At the Pretoria prison I was locked in one of the cells outside the gallows. The graffiti on the walls told me where I was. On the 2nd or 3rd night I knew a man would be hung the next morning. The (Black) prisoners were singing for him all night. A commotion outside my cell door around 6am confirmed to me where I was. I never found out who went to the gallows that morning.
Let us remember Ahmed, let us also celebrate that we no longer hang people in this country (Pretoria once was the hanging Capital of the world), that we have a Constitu93b5797c-1233-e738-b46b-84e49bc550ca.jpgtion and the rule of law. - Those who bemoan the situation in South Africa today should always remember where we come from.
For reports, TRC film clips and analyses visit:
Ahmed Timol Trust
P O Box 1888
Garsfontein
Pretoria, Gp 0060
South Africa
Horst’s 48th NEWSLETTER
October 2021.
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Hello there,
Here goes with my new Newsletter. It’s a follow-up on the previous one. Besides the essay below I invite you to go to my website (www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za) where I added new images with texts. (see cover page and the ‘Schmelen’ pages especially).
Please keep writing back.
Loving fathers whose sins befall their sons.
The emotional burdens passed on to children.
If the past imposes trauma on those descending from oppressive, violent and murderous regimes there surely is emotional weight also, if acknowledged, for the descendants of those who executed the inhumanness in the past? Whether as perpetrator or beneficiary! Seeing, knowing and feeling the inherited burden of complicity could be a powerful part of a journey for a new togetherness between the two opposites. To say ‘I acknowledge’ or, ‘I am sorry’ is a language and a sentiment Germans and white South Africans (or Namibians), in general avoid. Their perceived silence communicates itself as the refusal to admit complicity. For reconciliation to be a prospect the children of wrong-doers or passive participants Nazism and in apartheid would do well to examine the emotional baggage that is theirs.
‘I had to do it’ I heard an apartheid prosecutor defend himself on radio recently. The words ‘I am sorry for what I did’ (sending people to prison) seemed for him impossible to say. The same holds for the story I tell below of my encounter with former SB cop Paul Erasmus. I prompted him to express the emotion of sorrow for the terror he unleashed on Beyers Naudé or Ilona and my daughter Zindzi in the 1980’s. He managed to go as far as saying ‘I’ve told the truth’ for which the TRC gave him amnesty. For him too, the word ‘sorry’ seemed one step too far.
Thank you all who engaged with me after my last Newsletter. It centred on what I knew and have come to know about my own father’s part in the fascist Germany and here in South Africa.
Why? Why did you not feel remorse?
In his defence I observe that his identity was shaped by the absence of anything else to embrace as the means to escape dire circumstances he faced as a young man. The circumstances are complex, but his pursuit to gain self-worth, to gain Identity had much to do with it. He was looking for a place to better survive and then thrive. This was fertile ground to ‘other’ those who were not like him – or in our family instance, even othering his own kith and kin.
The 20th century taught us that nationalism, including imperialism, is invariably brutal and afterwards leave behind brokenness and divisions the children of the victims and those from the perpetrator group have to navigate. My definition of perpetrator is broad and I include not only the Gestapo or the Special Branch cop in the service of the apartheid machinery, I include those who indirectly derived benefit. It includes those who became complicit through their silence. And I include those whose fortunes collude to create perverse outcomes. Racist nationalisms thrive not least because of royalty, nobility, economic oligarchy and monopoly and the über-rich. It is they who dig the schisms between us and them. It is in privilege that hate politics thrives. Present-day South Africa is no exception to this. Our political elite, in collusion with the former upper class, whose greed condemns the majority to wretchedness.
“The injustice of inequality is not that one lives in a shack, but that the shack sits in the shadow of a palace” writes Wahbie Long in his book Nation on the Couch – Inside South Africa’s Mind (2021), borrowing from the sentiment first articulated by Karl Marx.
What some of you wrote to me after my last Newsletter made me jump to my father’s defence. His morality and ethics were not that different from my own – or that of my friends. He was kind – and though patronising, he was not any worse than those who bathed in the privileges apartheid brought. I never saw him act violently toward the people he ‘othered’. But, but, but … twice in his lifetime he unwaveringly supported authoritarian regimes – and they did the violence – in a way – on his behalf.
Why do I keep asking him? Why can I not leave this past behind me?
And … I am not doing this ‘to keep beating myself up’. I was fortunate to have broken with the perpetrator class at an early age; I lived and live for the full meaning of egalité. Whether successfully or not I helped break the wall, the barrier of white silence.
I seek to confront this: The beneficiaries of class and racial power, ordinary white South Africans, need to know the trauma that apartheid left us all with and then find words that give meaning to a conversation yet to be had. The offer of reconciliation and forgiveness by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu does not absolve us. De Klerk said nothing that bridges the divide. Kader and Louise Asmal co-authored a book in 1996 called ‘Reconciliation through Truth’. It justifies a re-read in the present time when the Black Lives Matter/Rhodes-must-fall calls ring again. They demand an engagement – part of which I seek to construct through these lines.
When the Schmelen-Kleinschmidt-Bam-Uirab-Rautanen clan met in 2014 and again in 2016 there was an elephant in the room: Those wronged in the past spoke of their loss and pain. They spoke as ordinary South African and Namibian citizens. In our own family Truth and Reconciliation gathering a vital question was: what would we, from the former other side of the fence, say? Had we the words to express shame or remorse or sorrow even if we opposed apartheid but still derived untold benefit from it?
Even now – my father died fifty years ago - I thunder at him, pounding my fists on his chest shouting: ‘how could you have thought that …. why could you not see and admit the error of what you supported? Grandpa Jatow (on my mother’s side) called his association with Nazism “a monumental mistake” and resorted to silence after six years in South African internment camps. His son, my uncle, Hermann (Männe) called it ‘the shit that robbed him of his youth’. Being trained as a pilot in the Luftwaffe, he flew the first sorties into the USSR in June 1941. He was promptly shot down and spent until the end of the war in a POW camp – Siberia, I heard him say. After the war they walked home enduring the indignity of shame, spat at by Russian, Ukrainian, Polish villagers to a Hamburg in ruins. Dad, you spent the war years, not interned, selling British Lever Brothers products from Swakopmund. You were not interned; were not a POW. Is there something more I should need to know? Why did you not regret? Was it pride? Would it have cost you your fought-for identity? Was our ‘playing white’ when we have Nama blood relatives contingent on being 150% behind the Aryan or white cause? Did you fear us being re-classified from ‘white’ to ‘coloured’?
My pursuit is not to ‘prove’ that you had an evil heart. Instead I want to understand how people like you – today - who see or perceive themselves to be driven downhill politically or economically, are tempted to ‘other’. Ultimately I think it destroyed you, in an alternation of negativity and nostalgia rooted in defeat, both personal and your ‘Weltanschauung’/ worldview.
The comparison may irk some but listen to the countless calls on radio talk shows by people who feel our 27 year-old democracy has not delivered what it promised. They feel cheated, alienated, marginal and are poor. Like my father they point their collective finger at the affluent elite ‘up there’ in in Pretoria or Bishopscourt or Stellenbosch flaunting their riches and power over the political establishment. My unemployed father – ten years after WWI – pointed his finger at a rich cabal in Berlin. The Weimar Republic was a sham his mentors told him. Similarly today, SA’s status as the most unequal country globally has the potential to galvanise nationalism parading as socialism. EFF demagogues may well be a political veneer also born out of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Hate speech is already their stock in trade.
The lesson I draw from this: Unless the rich and powerful yield of that which they have we are handing the disaffected majority in South Africa to hateful nationalists only because we left the centre-left space empty, while the sum of our political parties crowd out efforts to please the centre-right (speak unfettered capitalism). The reason this has not come to pass yet is because the ANC can still rely on the poor to vote for them. But their gamble is close to expiring.
Paul Erasmus: The former apartheid cop who got amnesty from the TRC.
On 14 July 2021 Paul Erasmus died; not of Covid. He was 65. He got amnesty for 500 acts of terror and torture by the TRC in 199x. His name is associated with the SB (Special Branch), Soweto 1976, Vlakplaas, Koevoet and Stratcom.
I called him in February 2021. Mark Kaplan, a friend with whom I am making a documentary film on Beyers Naudé, had saved his phone number since the TRC days when he first interviewed him. Now at the end of his life, would he confront his ghosts and finally admit to more? I rang the number. “Is that Paul Erasmus? My name is Horst Kleinschmidt.” His instant reply, “oh the man from 65a 5th Avenue, Melville, Johannesburg”. Indeed I lived there from 1974 to 1976 after which I fled to neighbouring Botswana. He agreed to be interviewed at his comfortable small-holding outside George in the Eastern Cape.
For the next four hours I tried to get more from him. Why, as opposed to nearly all others, did he spill some of the beans about apartheid’s most notorious and violent repression machineries? Besides telling some of ‘the Truth’ and getting more Reconciliation than was his due – brought about by a conversion to Christianity – could he say sorry to the Naudé children or indeed to my former wife and our daughter Zindzi? As it turned out – even when we went back for a second visit and another four-hour long interview – saying ‘sorry’ was one step too far. For telling the truth, Winnie Mandela forgave him. He had been part of the dirty tricks campaign to implicate her in the murder of Stompie Sepei. Amnesty, forgiveness and bits of the truth does not yet amount to saying ‘sorry’ to someone.
He admitted that he used to get pleasure out of hurting other people emboldened by being given the license to do so by his superiors and mentors, FW de Klerk etc. He says it suited his predisposition. “From your brown VW beetle you saw Ilona and my daughter enter and leave at 65a, on more nights than you can count, you knew how vulnerable they were, especially after I had to leave in April 1976. Was there nothing in you that said stop painting slogans on the garden walls, pouring paint over the roof of the car?” No, he was on a mission: “We wanted to chase all the lefty whites out of the country; just like we achieved with Dr (sic) Kleinschmidt. It was the white left that made Blacks rebellious and if we were rid of them South Africa would be at peace”. The racism of his ilk was that Blacks could not think for themselves – they needed white mentors. The big prize would be to get Beyers to leave, or to kill him. “Beyers was number two on my list of fifteen people to get rid of … but we were told not to leave any evidence … that opportunity never quite came”.
It was deeply unsettling to sit for hours in the home of this man, with his son Dylan and his wife Gretchen constantly at his side taking in every word. “Oh we have firearms here – unlicensed – (why?) – because my former colleagues have still not forgiven me for spilling the beans”. “I will not go down without a fight” I hear him say. The more I listen to him the more I dislike the man. Since seeing him I ask myself, do I feel revenge, does he conjure up hate in me, do I think he should suffer more than he patently already does? This tragic trio, one clinging on to the other in a seemingly lonely psycho-drama who have no sense of belonging, no destination worth going to – just reassuring each other, ad infinitum led by Paul himself. He needs them and has made them need him. Dylan refuses to be interviewed. Gretchen might one day, but she was not there when it happened, is still a newcomer to the father-son embrace. I don’t wish them ill – but despite them nearly begging for acceptance, even for support, I cannot give them that. I cannot do what Winnie Mandela and her daughters did - embrace him and - it would seem - forgiving him. Paul is smart and articulate – we even share a funny clip on WhatsApp but I’m glad when our second interview is over and we are back on the road to Cape Town.
Paul tells us that as much time as he spent outside 65a, he also spent outside of “26 Hoylake Road, Greenside”, the home of Ilse and Beyers Naudé, the place where Beyers endured nearly eight years of his banning order. What did you expect to happen in the night, I ask? We had instructions, stupid as they seem today, to see if communists visited these homes or if they went off to report to communists somewhere. “After Braam Fischer of the Communist Party died we were convinced that Beyers Naudé took over the SACP”. He accepts today that this was far-fetched and showed up the poor levels of knowledge or analyses.
“One night we stood outside Beyers’ house. As usual we had a flagon of Lieberstein – cheap, sweetish white wine in a gallon jar – and we were bored, especially when the flagon was empty. So we syphoned petrol from the tank of our car into the flagon and put a wick into the opening. We threw this Molotov cocktail at the back window of Beyers’s Peugeot 404, or was it a 504 – and he rattled down the registration plate number - standing in the drive-way. When our bomb exploded and with it the car, we imagined Beyers coming out (correct??) and in the mayhem we would shoot him and disappear. The next day we would spread news that this was internecine warfare between different ANC factions. This seemed pretty primitive I venture to say. Well, alcohol and dare-devil was our modus and I was pretty good at it, including writing the press releases the liberal press would pick not knowing they came from us. As it turned out the flagon did not break, nor did the back window of the car, but exploded in the garden after rolling off the back of the car. No mayhem and they scrammed.
Why did you not kill Beyers? - He explains that the Beyers case had to be treated with sensitivity. What he does not know is that the files from the Security Branch, which are now accessible, reveal that Beyers had two formidable factors on his side. Within the Afrikaner establishment, including his Dutch Reformed Church, he continued to enjoy important support. And the support Beyers enjoyed in Western Europe was such that the SA Foreign Affairs Department kept advising that any adversarial action against Naudé would have a negative effect on their lobbying politicians in Europe they hoped would support apartheid. This was most valuable strategic support, but something Beyers could only have guessed at the time.
You followed Beyers when he left home, notably on late Friday afternoons. (Beyers’ banning order was not house arrest and he was not confined to his home at night). “Yes, and we knew that he knew he was being followed. He was on his usual Friday night visit to the Westcliff home of Ernst and Petra Kahle – we raided their place on occasion – but on his way Beyers would stop at different places to enter shops or supermarkets. We’d follow him but this was tedious and we went back to our car to wait for him to emerge”. I say: Beyers would look as though he went shopping, maybe for a bottle of wine to take to his hosts, but at an appointed time he would stand at a cluster (every week at a different cluster) of phone call boxes awaiting my call from – different - call boxes in London. We’d exchange information in coded language. “Even when we found out that this was going on we could never tap the wires because we did not know which call box he would be heading for”. Beyers had, long before, walked the streets of Braamfontein, Hillbrow and the City to take down all call-box numbers and write a time and a date against each one. This was one of the ways in which we got messages into and out of the country. Beyers’ SB files reveal no interception of the calls despite suspecting him of intense communication with the ANC abroad. The communication endured for a decade, until it was no longer needed in 1990.
I ask Erasmus if they ever intercepted written communication? Oh yes he says. From upstairs in his home he produces what he called the stolen log book of intercepted letters the SBs kept. He shows me entries of letters intercepted: from me, astonishingly, to my daughter and Ilona, steamed open, re-sealed and categorised into non-intelligence and thus for onward transmission or intelligence “in which case it would go upstairs for analysis”. He can’t remember if anything ever went ‘upstairs’. The entries in his log book reveal nothing. In fact the regular mail between Ilona and myself that he intercepted dealt with divorce matters we were communicating about.
I ask him if he knows about micro-film and tell him that we never communicated through the post. Had he ever seen the micro-film images that served our communication? I showed him an actual micro-film strip smuggled from Beyers to me in London. He shakes his head, he’s clearly never associated micro-film with the cross-border communication between Beyers and myself in London. The strips were hidden in ‘gifts’ we sent each other, carried by the endless string of different clergy visiting South Africa at the time – generally sent on ‘fact-finding missions’ to assess what sanctions their respective denominations might advocate to isolate the apartheid regime. I had a network throughout Europe and North America who let me know about upcoming visits. Although the SBs suspected many clergy to be messengers it was considered diplomatically unwise to search men and women of the cloth on entering or leaving Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg. Some knew they were messengers, others carried a ‘gift’ for Beyers, or a ‘gift’ for me without knowing that it concealed micro-film images. Over at least ten years hundreds of messages were safely transmitted (I was relieved to hear), the Naudé and Kleinschmidt SB files reveal no detection by them of this link. Naudé’s means of communicating with London constitutes one of the longest successful underground linkages during the height of the struggle until the time when the regime was begging to negotiate.
Since Beyers could not type, he wrote most of his letters by hand. Today evidence of this communication remains safely in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology in the Theology Department of the University of Stellenbosch.
Erasmus freely admitted – on camera – that the SB agents lacked skills, efficiency and a real grasp of how to counter the enemy they sought to defeat.
Apartheid’s perpetrators are rapidly disappearing. The damage and trauma they leave behind remains a deep scar on this nation’s history and unless acknowledged and dealt with will forever undermine a more democratic future. The dysfunction in our young democracy is in large measure due to them and those who enabled them, justified their privileges as if they had a birth right to carry out such deeds, to live the lives they did cosseted in luxury while the neighbouring shacks sit in their towering shadow. That is what created the foundation of one of the most unequal societies on earth that endures to this day.
Dylan Erasmus will live the burden of his father’s deeds. Will he retreat into sullen silence or might he seek to do what Wilhelm Verwoerd, grandson of the ‘architect’ of apartheid has done and continues to do: speak and act the truth about where he comes from, who is able to engage the Black Lives Matter debate, who continues to love the members of his family AND in all this retains his integrity?
October 2021.
________________________________________________________
Hello there,
Here goes with my new Newsletter. It’s a follow-up on the previous one. Besides the essay below I invite you to go to my website (www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za) where I added new images with texts. (see cover page and the ‘Schmelen’ pages especially).
Please keep writing back.
Loving fathers whose sins befall their sons.
The emotional burdens passed on to children.
If the past imposes trauma on those descending from oppressive, violent and murderous regimes there surely is emotional weight also, if acknowledged, for the descendants of those who executed the inhumanness in the past? Whether as perpetrator or beneficiary! Seeing, knowing and feeling the inherited burden of complicity could be a powerful part of a journey for a new togetherness between the two opposites. To say ‘I acknowledge’ or, ‘I am sorry’ is a language and a sentiment Germans and white South Africans (or Namibians), in general avoid. Their perceived silence communicates itself as the refusal to admit complicity. For reconciliation to be a prospect the children of wrong-doers or passive participants Nazism and in apartheid would do well to examine the emotional baggage that is theirs.
‘I had to do it’ I heard an apartheid prosecutor defend himself on radio recently. The words ‘I am sorry for what I did’ (sending people to prison) seemed for him impossible to say. The same holds for the story I tell below of my encounter with former SB cop Paul Erasmus. I prompted him to express the emotion of sorrow for the terror he unleashed on Beyers Naudé or Ilona and my daughter Zindzi in the 1980’s. He managed to go as far as saying ‘I’ve told the truth’ for which the TRC gave him amnesty. For him too, the word ‘sorry’ seemed one step too far.
Thank you all who engaged with me after my last Newsletter. It centred on what I knew and have come to know about my own father’s part in the fascist Germany and here in South Africa.
Why? Why did you not feel remorse?
In his defence I observe that his identity was shaped by the absence of anything else to embrace as the means to escape dire circumstances he faced as a young man. The circumstances are complex, but his pursuit to gain self-worth, to gain Identity had much to do with it. He was looking for a place to better survive and then thrive. This was fertile ground to ‘other’ those who were not like him – or in our family instance, even othering his own kith and kin.
The 20th century taught us that nationalism, including imperialism, is invariably brutal and afterwards leave behind brokenness and divisions the children of the victims and those from the perpetrator group have to navigate. My definition of perpetrator is broad and I include not only the Gestapo or the Special Branch cop in the service of the apartheid machinery, I include those who indirectly derived benefit. It includes those who became complicit through their silence. And I include those whose fortunes collude to create perverse outcomes. Racist nationalisms thrive not least because of royalty, nobility, economic oligarchy and monopoly and the über-rich. It is they who dig the schisms between us and them. It is in privilege that hate politics thrives. Present-day South Africa is no exception to this. Our political elite, in collusion with the former upper class, whose greed condemns the majority to wretchedness.
“The injustice of inequality is not that one lives in a shack, but that the shack sits in the shadow of a palace” writes Wahbie Long in his book Nation on the Couch – Inside South Africa’s Mind (2021), borrowing from the sentiment first articulated by Karl Marx.
What some of you wrote to me after my last Newsletter made me jump to my father’s defence. His morality and ethics were not that different from my own – or that of my friends. He was kind – and though patronising, he was not any worse than those who bathed in the privileges apartheid brought. I never saw him act violently toward the people he ‘othered’. But, but, but … twice in his lifetime he unwaveringly supported authoritarian regimes – and they did the violence – in a way – on his behalf.
Why do I keep asking him? Why can I not leave this past behind me?
And … I am not doing this ‘to keep beating myself up’. I was fortunate to have broken with the perpetrator class at an early age; I lived and live for the full meaning of egalité. Whether successfully or not I helped break the wall, the barrier of white silence.
I seek to confront this: The beneficiaries of class and racial power, ordinary white South Africans, need to know the trauma that apartheid left us all with and then find words that give meaning to a conversation yet to be had. The offer of reconciliation and forgiveness by Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu does not absolve us. De Klerk said nothing that bridges the divide. Kader and Louise Asmal co-authored a book in 1996 called ‘Reconciliation through Truth’. It justifies a re-read in the present time when the Black Lives Matter/Rhodes-must-fall calls ring again. They demand an engagement – part of which I seek to construct through these lines.
When the Schmelen-Kleinschmidt-Bam-Uirab-Rautanen clan met in 2014 and again in 2016 there was an elephant in the room: Those wronged in the past spoke of their loss and pain. They spoke as ordinary South African and Namibian citizens. In our own family Truth and Reconciliation gathering a vital question was: what would we, from the former other side of the fence, say? Had we the words to express shame or remorse or sorrow even if we opposed apartheid but still derived untold benefit from it?
Even now – my father died fifty years ago - I thunder at him, pounding my fists on his chest shouting: ‘how could you have thought that …. why could you not see and admit the error of what you supported? Grandpa Jatow (on my mother’s side) called his association with Nazism “a monumental mistake” and resorted to silence after six years in South African internment camps. His son, my uncle, Hermann (Männe) called it ‘the shit that robbed him of his youth’. Being trained as a pilot in the Luftwaffe, he flew the first sorties into the USSR in June 1941. He was promptly shot down and spent until the end of the war in a POW camp – Siberia, I heard him say. After the war they walked home enduring the indignity of shame, spat at by Russian, Ukrainian, Polish villagers to a Hamburg in ruins. Dad, you spent the war years, not interned, selling British Lever Brothers products from Swakopmund. You were not interned; were not a POW. Is there something more I should need to know? Why did you not regret? Was it pride? Would it have cost you your fought-for identity? Was our ‘playing white’ when we have Nama blood relatives contingent on being 150% behind the Aryan or white cause? Did you fear us being re-classified from ‘white’ to ‘coloured’?
My pursuit is not to ‘prove’ that you had an evil heart. Instead I want to understand how people like you – today - who see or perceive themselves to be driven downhill politically or economically, are tempted to ‘other’. Ultimately I think it destroyed you, in an alternation of negativity and nostalgia rooted in defeat, both personal and your ‘Weltanschauung’/ worldview.
The comparison may irk some but listen to the countless calls on radio talk shows by people who feel our 27 year-old democracy has not delivered what it promised. They feel cheated, alienated, marginal and are poor. Like my father they point their collective finger at the affluent elite ‘up there’ in in Pretoria or Bishopscourt or Stellenbosch flaunting their riches and power over the political establishment. My unemployed father – ten years after WWI – pointed his finger at a rich cabal in Berlin. The Weimar Republic was a sham his mentors told him. Similarly today, SA’s status as the most unequal country globally has the potential to galvanise nationalism parading as socialism. EFF demagogues may well be a political veneer also born out of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Hate speech is already their stock in trade.
The lesson I draw from this: Unless the rich and powerful yield of that which they have we are handing the disaffected majority in South Africa to hateful nationalists only because we left the centre-left space empty, while the sum of our political parties crowd out efforts to please the centre-right (speak unfettered capitalism). The reason this has not come to pass yet is because the ANC can still rely on the poor to vote for them. But their gamble is close to expiring.
Paul Erasmus: The former apartheid cop who got amnesty from the TRC.
On 14 July 2021 Paul Erasmus died; not of Covid. He was 65. He got amnesty for 500 acts of terror and torture by the TRC in 199x. His name is associated with the SB (Special Branch), Soweto 1976, Vlakplaas, Koevoet and Stratcom.
I called him in February 2021. Mark Kaplan, a friend with whom I am making a documentary film on Beyers Naudé, had saved his phone number since the TRC days when he first interviewed him. Now at the end of his life, would he confront his ghosts and finally admit to more? I rang the number. “Is that Paul Erasmus? My name is Horst Kleinschmidt.” His instant reply, “oh the man from 65a 5th Avenue, Melville, Johannesburg”. Indeed I lived there from 1974 to 1976 after which I fled to neighbouring Botswana. He agreed to be interviewed at his comfortable small-holding outside George in the Eastern Cape.
For the next four hours I tried to get more from him. Why, as opposed to nearly all others, did he spill some of the beans about apartheid’s most notorious and violent repression machineries? Besides telling some of ‘the Truth’ and getting more Reconciliation than was his due – brought about by a conversion to Christianity – could he say sorry to the Naudé children or indeed to my former wife and our daughter Zindzi? As it turned out – even when we went back for a second visit and another four-hour long interview – saying ‘sorry’ was one step too far. For telling the truth, Winnie Mandela forgave him. He had been part of the dirty tricks campaign to implicate her in the murder of Stompie Sepei. Amnesty, forgiveness and bits of the truth does not yet amount to saying ‘sorry’ to someone.
He admitted that he used to get pleasure out of hurting other people emboldened by being given the license to do so by his superiors and mentors, FW de Klerk etc. He says it suited his predisposition. “From your brown VW beetle you saw Ilona and my daughter enter and leave at 65a, on more nights than you can count, you knew how vulnerable they were, especially after I had to leave in April 1976. Was there nothing in you that said stop painting slogans on the garden walls, pouring paint over the roof of the car?” No, he was on a mission: “We wanted to chase all the lefty whites out of the country; just like we achieved with Dr (sic) Kleinschmidt. It was the white left that made Blacks rebellious and if we were rid of them South Africa would be at peace”. The racism of his ilk was that Blacks could not think for themselves – they needed white mentors. The big prize would be to get Beyers to leave, or to kill him. “Beyers was number two on my list of fifteen people to get rid of … but we were told not to leave any evidence … that opportunity never quite came”.
It was deeply unsettling to sit for hours in the home of this man, with his son Dylan and his wife Gretchen constantly at his side taking in every word. “Oh we have firearms here – unlicensed – (why?) – because my former colleagues have still not forgiven me for spilling the beans”. “I will not go down without a fight” I hear him say. The more I listen to him the more I dislike the man. Since seeing him I ask myself, do I feel revenge, does he conjure up hate in me, do I think he should suffer more than he patently already does? This tragic trio, one clinging on to the other in a seemingly lonely psycho-drama who have no sense of belonging, no destination worth going to – just reassuring each other, ad infinitum led by Paul himself. He needs them and has made them need him. Dylan refuses to be interviewed. Gretchen might one day, but she was not there when it happened, is still a newcomer to the father-son embrace. I don’t wish them ill – but despite them nearly begging for acceptance, even for support, I cannot give them that. I cannot do what Winnie Mandela and her daughters did - embrace him and - it would seem - forgiving him. Paul is smart and articulate – we even share a funny clip on WhatsApp but I’m glad when our second interview is over and we are back on the road to Cape Town.
Paul tells us that as much time as he spent outside 65a, he also spent outside of “26 Hoylake Road, Greenside”, the home of Ilse and Beyers Naudé, the place where Beyers endured nearly eight years of his banning order. What did you expect to happen in the night, I ask? We had instructions, stupid as they seem today, to see if communists visited these homes or if they went off to report to communists somewhere. “After Braam Fischer of the Communist Party died we were convinced that Beyers Naudé took over the SACP”. He accepts today that this was far-fetched and showed up the poor levels of knowledge or analyses.
“One night we stood outside Beyers’ house. As usual we had a flagon of Lieberstein – cheap, sweetish white wine in a gallon jar – and we were bored, especially when the flagon was empty. So we syphoned petrol from the tank of our car into the flagon and put a wick into the opening. We threw this Molotov cocktail at the back window of Beyers’s Peugeot 404, or was it a 504 – and he rattled down the registration plate number - standing in the drive-way. When our bomb exploded and with it the car, we imagined Beyers coming out (correct??) and in the mayhem we would shoot him and disappear. The next day we would spread news that this was internecine warfare between different ANC factions. This seemed pretty primitive I venture to say. Well, alcohol and dare-devil was our modus and I was pretty good at it, including writing the press releases the liberal press would pick not knowing they came from us. As it turned out the flagon did not break, nor did the back window of the car, but exploded in the garden after rolling off the back of the car. No mayhem and they scrammed.
Why did you not kill Beyers? - He explains that the Beyers case had to be treated with sensitivity. What he does not know is that the files from the Security Branch, which are now accessible, reveal that Beyers had two formidable factors on his side. Within the Afrikaner establishment, including his Dutch Reformed Church, he continued to enjoy important support. And the support Beyers enjoyed in Western Europe was such that the SA Foreign Affairs Department kept advising that any adversarial action against Naudé would have a negative effect on their lobbying politicians in Europe they hoped would support apartheid. This was most valuable strategic support, but something Beyers could only have guessed at the time.
You followed Beyers when he left home, notably on late Friday afternoons. (Beyers’ banning order was not house arrest and he was not confined to his home at night). “Yes, and we knew that he knew he was being followed. He was on his usual Friday night visit to the Westcliff home of Ernst and Petra Kahle – we raided their place on occasion – but on his way Beyers would stop at different places to enter shops or supermarkets. We’d follow him but this was tedious and we went back to our car to wait for him to emerge”. I say: Beyers would look as though he went shopping, maybe for a bottle of wine to take to his hosts, but at an appointed time he would stand at a cluster (every week at a different cluster) of phone call boxes awaiting my call from – different - call boxes in London. We’d exchange information in coded language. “Even when we found out that this was going on we could never tap the wires because we did not know which call box he would be heading for”. Beyers had, long before, walked the streets of Braamfontein, Hillbrow and the City to take down all call-box numbers and write a time and a date against each one. This was one of the ways in which we got messages into and out of the country. Beyers’ SB files reveal no interception of the calls despite suspecting him of intense communication with the ANC abroad. The communication endured for a decade, until it was no longer needed in 1990.
I ask Erasmus if they ever intercepted written communication? Oh yes he says. From upstairs in his home he produces what he called the stolen log book of intercepted letters the SBs kept. He shows me entries of letters intercepted: from me, astonishingly, to my daughter and Ilona, steamed open, re-sealed and categorised into non-intelligence and thus for onward transmission or intelligence “in which case it would go upstairs for analysis”. He can’t remember if anything ever went ‘upstairs’. The entries in his log book reveal nothing. In fact the regular mail between Ilona and myself that he intercepted dealt with divorce matters we were communicating about.
I ask him if he knows about micro-film and tell him that we never communicated through the post. Had he ever seen the micro-film images that served our communication? I showed him an actual micro-film strip smuggled from Beyers to me in London. He shakes his head, he’s clearly never associated micro-film with the cross-border communication between Beyers and myself in London. The strips were hidden in ‘gifts’ we sent each other, carried by the endless string of different clergy visiting South Africa at the time – generally sent on ‘fact-finding missions’ to assess what sanctions their respective denominations might advocate to isolate the apartheid regime. I had a network throughout Europe and North America who let me know about upcoming visits. Although the SBs suspected many clergy to be messengers it was considered diplomatically unwise to search men and women of the cloth on entering or leaving Jan Smuts airport in Johannesburg. Some knew they were messengers, others carried a ‘gift’ for Beyers, or a ‘gift’ for me without knowing that it concealed micro-film images. Over at least ten years hundreds of messages were safely transmitted (I was relieved to hear), the Naudé and Kleinschmidt SB files reveal no detection by them of this link. Naudé’s means of communicating with London constitutes one of the longest successful underground linkages during the height of the struggle until the time when the regime was begging to negotiate.
Since Beyers could not type, he wrote most of his letters by hand. Today evidence of this communication remains safely in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology in the Theology Department of the University of Stellenbosch.
Erasmus freely admitted – on camera – that the SB agents lacked skills, efficiency and a real grasp of how to counter the enemy they sought to defeat.
Apartheid’s perpetrators are rapidly disappearing. The damage and trauma they leave behind remains a deep scar on this nation’s history and unless acknowledged and dealt with will forever undermine a more democratic future. The dysfunction in our young democracy is in large measure due to them and those who enabled them, justified their privileges as if they had a birth right to carry out such deeds, to live the lives they did cosseted in luxury while the neighbouring shacks sit in their towering shadow. That is what created the foundation of one of the most unequal societies on earth that endures to this day.
Dylan Erasmus will live the burden of his father’s deeds. Will he retreat into sullen silence or might he seek to do what Wilhelm Verwoerd, grandson of the ‘architect’ of apartheid has done and continues to do: speak and act the truth about where he comes from, who is able to engage the Black Lives Matter debate, who continues to love the members of his family AND in all this retains his integrity?
The brokenness of Tulbagh. Time to ‘wag ‘n bietjie’.
Halfway down Van Der Stel Street stands the former Rhenish Mission church and the Oefeningshuis, both once used as schools for Khoi and Slave adult and children alike. The Tulbagh Tourist Information map makes no mention of either building. Information signs (by the Conservation Trust) tell inadequate stories about underlings and their masters. Few tourists stop to read these and those who do, walk away un-engaged. The impact of the earthquake of 1969 interests them far more.
On Heritage Day, 24 September 2021, Calvin van Wijk (Rhenish Mission historian) and Shurine van Niekerk (Tulbagh Museum Manager) unpacked, to an invited gathering, this untold painful history but equally expressed the hope that these buildings might yet come to represent. The launch of Calvin van Wijk trilogy of books on the Rhenish Mission (1830 - 1965) provides detail and insight that impressed, not least myself, a descendent of Rhenish missionaries. Calvin offers socio-political insight that former writers, such as Elfie Strassberger were blind to. Calvin’s work is ground-breaking and marks a departure from the white paternalism the Rhenish made themselves guilty of, not to speak of their political collusion with colonial and apartheid rulers. Cautiously Calvin qualifies this when he writes “… it is true that this approach [the proselytizing of local people] caused much cultural conflict and uncertainty [but] it is equally true that the cultural shift prepared the non-White population … for the large-scale westernization that would eventually overtake the world”. (Calvin van Wijk, page 16, Missionaries of the Rhenish Mission Society in South Africa, 1830 – 1965.)
This Rhenish Church (built in 1844) and its associated Oefeningshuis (started in 1814) were located in the heart of Tulbagh before the apartheid Group Areas Act wanted those who served them, and the institutions they worshipped in, out of sight - except for the hours when their labour was needed. Apartheid rule demanded that the Rhenish erect a new church in a designated Coloured ‘Group Area’.
In 1969 the earthquake severely damaged and partly destroyed many buildings, including this church. During the restoration of the rest of Tulbagh, the yellow pulpit and roof beams were stolen. No culprit was ever brought to book. Being without a congregation this church was not restored but instead was fashioned to suit its new owners - a shoe factory. The belfry was demolished. The church and the Oefeningshuis were declared National Monuments in the 1970s but other than the inadequate information tablets, nothing was done to restore the physical and emotive past these places represent.
For this commemoration and exhibition in the Rhenish Church on this Heritage Day, we owe profound gratitude to the pioneering roles played by Calvin van Wijk and to Shurine van Niekerk, Museum manager in Tulbagh. Calvin’s lifelong collection of data, pictures and artefacts finally have a place for all to see and learn from. This finally locates appropriately the terrible history of oppression and genocide of San, Khoi and former Slave.
It cannot be that this town exclusively celebrates its white and privileged past, which it couples to undue indulgence of the earth-quake damage. The absence of reference to the impact on those who suffered and continue to suffer needs rectification through memorialisation. Failure to grasp the impact the history of subjugation and denial of dignity continues to have an impact on the children of this past. Those who descend from the perpetrator class are callous and compound the pain of our entangled history should they deny this.
Calvin van Wijk has given the impulse for a new possible path. The empty church in the heart of Tulbagh offers the opportunity to memorialize this past. Those still living on the edge of this town, despite the end of official apartheid, should have a touch-stone in the town they were once thrown out of. And those descending from the perpetrator class need humbly bow and acknowledge each time they pass this memorial in the making.
The compassion the missionaries thought they represented never extended to equality between rulers and those ruled. The descendants from both sides of the South African great divide can remember, grieve or show remorse, grasp and understanding for past failures by lending support to this venture. Our willingness to learn and listen to the trauma and the scars that second-class, under-class, Untermensch and slave once imposed on our fellow citizens, can have us regain humaneness that our parents and grandparents denied themselves.
The Rhenish Church and the Oefeningshuis facilities need to portray and then implore us all to: 'Wag ‘n Bietjie* – to know that the thorn that entangles us demands that we stand still, reverse and reflect before we can go forward; if we do not take that step back and reflect on this past, the prospect of one South African nation will remain a distant dream.
Horst Kleinschmidt,
A descendent from Rhenish and London missionaries
September 2021.
Halfway down Van Der Stel Street stands the former Rhenish Mission church and the Oefeningshuis, both once used as schools for Khoi and Slave adult and children alike. The Tulbagh Tourist Information map makes no mention of either building. Information signs (by the Conservation Trust) tell inadequate stories about underlings and their masters. Few tourists stop to read these and those who do, walk away un-engaged. The impact of the earthquake of 1969 interests them far more.
On Heritage Day, 24 September 2021, Calvin van Wijk (Rhenish Mission historian) and Shurine van Niekerk (Tulbagh Museum Manager) unpacked, to an invited gathering, this untold painful history but equally expressed the hope that these buildings might yet come to represent. The launch of Calvin van Wijk trilogy of books on the Rhenish Mission (1830 - 1965) provides detail and insight that impressed, not least myself, a descendent of Rhenish missionaries. Calvin offers socio-political insight that former writers, such as Elfie Strassberger were blind to. Calvin’s work is ground-breaking and marks a departure from the white paternalism the Rhenish made themselves guilty of, not to speak of their political collusion with colonial and apartheid rulers. Cautiously Calvin qualifies this when he writes “… it is true that this approach [the proselytizing of local people] caused much cultural conflict and uncertainty [but] it is equally true that the cultural shift prepared the non-White population … for the large-scale westernization that would eventually overtake the world”. (Calvin van Wijk, page 16, Missionaries of the Rhenish Mission Society in South Africa, 1830 – 1965.)
This Rhenish Church (built in 1844) and its associated Oefeningshuis (started in 1814) were located in the heart of Tulbagh before the apartheid Group Areas Act wanted those who served them, and the institutions they worshipped in, out of sight - except for the hours when their labour was needed. Apartheid rule demanded that the Rhenish erect a new church in a designated Coloured ‘Group Area’.
In 1969 the earthquake severely damaged and partly destroyed many buildings, including this church. During the restoration of the rest of Tulbagh, the yellow pulpit and roof beams were stolen. No culprit was ever brought to book. Being without a congregation this church was not restored but instead was fashioned to suit its new owners - a shoe factory. The belfry was demolished. The church and the Oefeningshuis were declared National Monuments in the 1970s but other than the inadequate information tablets, nothing was done to restore the physical and emotive past these places represent.
For this commemoration and exhibition in the Rhenish Church on this Heritage Day, we owe profound gratitude to the pioneering roles played by Calvin van Wijk and to Shurine van Niekerk, Museum manager in Tulbagh. Calvin’s lifelong collection of data, pictures and artefacts finally have a place for all to see and learn from. This finally locates appropriately the terrible history of oppression and genocide of San, Khoi and former Slave.
It cannot be that this town exclusively celebrates its white and privileged past, which it couples to undue indulgence of the earth-quake damage. The absence of reference to the impact on those who suffered and continue to suffer needs rectification through memorialisation. Failure to grasp the impact the history of subjugation and denial of dignity continues to have an impact on the children of this past. Those who descend from the perpetrator class are callous and compound the pain of our entangled history should they deny this.
Calvin van Wijk has given the impulse for a new possible path. The empty church in the heart of Tulbagh offers the opportunity to memorialize this past. Those still living on the edge of this town, despite the end of official apartheid, should have a touch-stone in the town they were once thrown out of. And those descending from the perpetrator class need humbly bow and acknowledge each time they pass this memorial in the making.
The compassion the missionaries thought they represented never extended to equality between rulers and those ruled. The descendants from both sides of the South African great divide can remember, grieve or show remorse, grasp and understanding for past failures by lending support to this venture. Our willingness to learn and listen to the trauma and the scars that second-class, under-class, Untermensch and slave once imposed on our fellow citizens, can have us regain humaneness that our parents and grandparents denied themselves.
The Rhenish Church and the Oefeningshuis facilities need to portray and then implore us all to: 'Wag ‘n Bietjie* – to know that the thorn that entangles us demands that we stand still, reverse and reflect before we can go forward; if we do not take that step back and reflect on this past, the prospect of one South African nation will remain a distant dream.
Horst Kleinschmidt,
A descendent from Rhenish and London missionaries
September 2021.
- Why Wag ‘n Bietjie? See below or go to www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za.
Reparations to the Nama and Herero of Namibia: debates
Defend our DemocracyDefend our Democracy is the country-wide call by all who stand up against corruption and the parlous situation Jacob Zuma got our country into during his time as President of South Africa - and of the ANC. Orange is the colour of the overalls prisoners wear in this country. The colour orange in the campaign signifies that we want the corrupt behind bars! And we want Zuma's enablers, the Gupta's extradited from the UAE to stand trial here!
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In compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) that came into effect on 1 July 2021, I am notifying you that I will protect your privacy and information. I would love to keep sending you my Newsletter, however I also need to make you aware that you have the option to unsubscribe should you no longer wish to receive communications from me. No action is required from you if you are happy to stay on my mailing list. Note that you can unsubscribe at any time in the future by writing to [email protected]. Should you have any queries, please feel free to get in touch by replying to this email.
Horst's Newsletter 47.
July 2021.
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Hi there,
Thank you all who wrote in response to my 46th Newsletter. I’ve never had so many detailed responses! And my writ was translated into Afrikaans and reproduced in the online weekly, Vrye Weekblad.
“Why don’t you throw it all away” was Christine’s soft suggestion when we packed up in London, for me to return to South Africa after 15 years in exile and for her to immigrate to a country she knew only through the lens of anti-apartheid demo’s and writings. A big ask of her from me indeed! She came with me. We chose to settle in Pretoria because it was the only city in SA where both of us were offered work; she with the then 'white' department of health and I with Lawyers for Human Rights. On a visit to SA in 1991, in an effort to make her look forward to SA, Pretoria was the only city in South Africa I had not taken her to! It was there where in 1975 I served detention, in the prison for white men.
1. Putting up an independent candidate in all-white elections in 1974.
SA will hold municipal election on 27 October 2021. For the first time independent candidates are able to stand, either at ward level or as proportional candidates. Could the forthcoming elections serve to put forward new ideas? Might we see candidates not hell-bent on telling lies to get their job and thus their secured incomes back? After 27 years of democracy the political offer - across the board - is stale, conservative or populist. The majority of contesting parties are crowding-out the center-right. Poor people will be lied to once again to serve a corrupt elite.
From the annals of my archive: The story of an independent candidate in 1974 - during whites-only elections! We were gatvol with apartheid and used the election platform to challenge the prevailing self-serving utterings of the National Party, the United Party and the Progressive Party; the latter being broadly the DA today. It's admirable sole MP, Helen Suzman represented the constituency where the richest people lived, the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. The PP posed as the progressives - seeking to enfranchise only those people of colour who had 'enough education and enough money' (!)
The idea to put up an independent candidate arose in the Christian Institute (CI) of Oom Beyers Naudé. We noted that during elections the limitations on the freedom of speech were lifted if you registered a candidate. Our preferred candidate, Fr. Cosmas Desmond was disapproved by the authorities on the basis that he was serving house arrest. So we put up Peter Randall, my boss at the CI's Programme for Social Change. – I was made his election agent. We created a Social Democrat committee and we chose to contest the Von Brandis constituency – adjacent to where the CI offices were. The real advantage of the constituency was that it was here where white mine workers, many now retired, lived in high rise flats. We banked on the older amongst them having a history in the (white) mine workers strike of 1922, and that they might have belonged to the now defunct Labour Party - thus hopefully a fertile ground for discussion.
Our chances were slight, just to get 10% of this white vote – a target to claim back the deposit we had to pay in order to register. Without a budget but plenty of youthful energy we called meetings, did door-to-door calls, printed leaflets, hung up posters and attracted the interest of the press – albeit often, to deride us. We used the election to say the things the other parties ignored, nay opposed. We said to the voters:
We are “democratic: i.e. all the people must have the right to participate in decisions that affect their destinies”.
We are “socialist: i.e. the redistribution of power, land and resources amongst all the people of the land”.
We argued for a national health system, for the right to collective bargaining and for the protection of the environment.
Peter got just shy of 1000 votes and we got our deposit back.
Below Pdf describes our objectives in more detail..
July 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hi there,
Thank you all who wrote in response to my 46th Newsletter. I’ve never had so many detailed responses! And my writ was translated into Afrikaans and reproduced in the online weekly, Vrye Weekblad.
“Why don’t you throw it all away” was Christine’s soft suggestion when we packed up in London, for me to return to South Africa after 15 years in exile and for her to immigrate to a country she knew only through the lens of anti-apartheid demo’s and writings. A big ask of her from me indeed! She came with me. We chose to settle in Pretoria because it was the only city in SA where both of us were offered work; she with the then 'white' department of health and I with Lawyers for Human Rights. On a visit to SA in 1991, in an effort to make her look forward to SA, Pretoria was the only city in South Africa I had not taken her to! It was there where in 1975 I served detention, in the prison for white men.
1. Putting up an independent candidate in all-white elections in 1974.
SA will hold municipal election on 27 October 2021. For the first time independent candidates are able to stand, either at ward level or as proportional candidates. Could the forthcoming elections serve to put forward new ideas? Might we see candidates not hell-bent on telling lies to get their job and thus their secured incomes back? After 27 years of democracy the political offer - across the board - is stale, conservative or populist. The majority of contesting parties are crowding-out the center-right. Poor people will be lied to once again to serve a corrupt elite.
From the annals of my archive: The story of an independent candidate in 1974 - during whites-only elections! We were gatvol with apartheid and used the election platform to challenge the prevailing self-serving utterings of the National Party, the United Party and the Progressive Party; the latter being broadly the DA today. It's admirable sole MP, Helen Suzman represented the constituency where the richest people lived, the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. The PP posed as the progressives - seeking to enfranchise only those people of colour who had 'enough education and enough money' (!)
The idea to put up an independent candidate arose in the Christian Institute (CI) of Oom Beyers Naudé. We noted that during elections the limitations on the freedom of speech were lifted if you registered a candidate. Our preferred candidate, Fr. Cosmas Desmond was disapproved by the authorities on the basis that he was serving house arrest. So we put up Peter Randall, my boss at the CI's Programme for Social Change. – I was made his election agent. We created a Social Democrat committee and we chose to contest the Von Brandis constituency – adjacent to where the CI offices were. The real advantage of the constituency was that it was here where white mine workers, many now retired, lived in high rise flats. We banked on the older amongst them having a history in the (white) mine workers strike of 1922, and that they might have belonged to the now defunct Labour Party - thus hopefully a fertile ground for discussion.
Our chances were slight, just to get 10% of this white vote – a target to claim back the deposit we had to pay in order to register. Without a budget but plenty of youthful energy we called meetings, did door-to-door calls, printed leaflets, hung up posters and attracted the interest of the press – albeit often, to deride us. We used the election to say the things the other parties ignored, nay opposed. We said to the voters:
We are “democratic: i.e. all the people must have the right to participate in decisions that affect their destinies”.
We are “socialist: i.e. the redistribution of power, land and resources amongst all the people of the land”.
We argued for a national health system, for the right to collective bargaining and for the protection of the environment.
Peter got just shy of 1000 votes and we got our deposit back.
Below Pdf describes our objectives in more detail..
| Social-Democrat candidate to stand for election - April 1974.pdf |
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| Th above Soc-Dem images as .pdf |
2. 120 years later and Germans still fail to make amends.
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Dr Wolfram Hartman is the voice of German speakers in Namibia I identify with. Thank you Wolfram for your courage and for saying it clearly! I herewith identify myself with your views.
Read also the interview with Hartman in Der Spiegel. And if you read German, read below article.
"Namibian genocide: why Germany's bid to make amends isn't enough" by Reinhart Kössler and Henning Melber. — https://theconversation.com/namibian-genocide-why-germanys-bid-to-make-amends-isnt-enough-161820
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3.
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Having been born on the wrong side of history, into a Nazi German family in colonial and apartheid South Africa, it was with some trepidation that I bought Hitler’s Spies by Evert Kleynhans. Published earlier in 2021, it provides details of the Nazi secret agents in the “intelligence war in South Africa”.
I no longer fear rejection or ostracism as much as I used to when talking about my background, but it still pains me to consider it — and I quickly searched through the index the index of the book. To my relief, neither the name of my father nor any other relative appeared. So, I can at least assume that none were in leadership positions or were found to be responsible for any notorious actions. But my father and my grandfather were very much involved in Nazi machinations.
Both joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party). When these were outlawed in South Africa and South West Africa (SWA, now Namibia), my father was active in establishing undercover structures in Cape Town and maybe elsewhere. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s the ultra nationalist and neo-Nazi Afrikaner Ossewabrandwag (OB) was never far from the German fascist movements.
The story Kleynhans tells, and which I expand on below, reveals how dangerously close the Nazis came to having a client state here in South Africa. It stands as a warning to us today. Defending our Democracy now depends on people standing up – and calling for the implementation of the Bill of Rights. Just moaning when you meet friends on Saturday is tantamount to inviting the enemy to march through the gates of liberty and decency.
Unfortunately, Hitler’s Spies is not as exhaustive as it could have been. The author relied on official records only. As a result, the former pro-Nazi Grey Shirts and later, OB, leader Louis Weichardt, for example, gets just one passing reference; the Gryshemde (Grey-Shirts) are not mentioned at all. Yet I knew, courtesy of my father, that Weichardt — he became a National Party senator for Natal — pursued his aims well into the 1960s.
When our family was living in Johannesburg in the early 1960s Weichardt was instrumental in arranging for us to look after a fugitive Austrian SS officer, Theodor Soucek. At Weichardt’s request, we also hosted the former German commando officer Otto Skorzeny when his biography was launched in South Africa. Kleynhans would have found ample evidence in the pre-war annals of the German School in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Some of my teachers in the 1950’s were actors in a story yet to be told. (I hope to expand on above matters in future mailings - relying not least on materials I inherited)
I no longer fear rejection or ostracism as much as I used to when talking about my background, but it still pains me to consider it — and I quickly searched through the index the index of the book. To my relief, neither the name of my father nor any other relative appeared. So, I can at least assume that none were in leadership positions or were found to be responsible for any notorious actions. But my father and my grandfather were very much involved in Nazi machinations.
Both joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party). When these were outlawed in South Africa and South West Africa (SWA, now Namibia), my father was active in establishing undercover structures in Cape Town and maybe elsewhere. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s the ultra nationalist and neo-Nazi Afrikaner Ossewabrandwag (OB) was never far from the German fascist movements.
The story Kleynhans tells, and which I expand on below, reveals how dangerously close the Nazis came to having a client state here in South Africa. It stands as a warning to us today. Defending our Democracy now depends on people standing up – and calling for the implementation of the Bill of Rights. Just moaning when you meet friends on Saturday is tantamount to inviting the enemy to march through the gates of liberty and decency.
Unfortunately, Hitler’s Spies is not as exhaustive as it could have been. The author relied on official records only. As a result, the former pro-Nazi Grey Shirts and later, OB, leader Louis Weichardt, for example, gets just one passing reference; the Gryshemde (Grey-Shirts) are not mentioned at all. Yet I knew, courtesy of my father, that Weichardt — he became a National Party senator for Natal — pursued his aims well into the 1960s.
When our family was living in Johannesburg in the early 1960s Weichardt was instrumental in arranging for us to look after a fugitive Austrian SS officer, Theodor Soucek. At Weichardt’s request, we also hosted the former German commando officer Otto Skorzeny when his biography was launched in South Africa. Kleynhans would have found ample evidence in the pre-war annals of the German School in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Some of my teachers in the 1950’s were actors in a story yet to be told. (I hope to expand on above matters in future mailings - relying not least on materials I inherited)
Above watercolour looks idyllic but it conceals treachery. It depicts my parents courting in the early 1940s in Swakopmund (in today’s Namibia). The drawing is by a friend Herbert Laschien. He’s poking fun at Wilhelm and Eva, calling it the Hotel to the Red Lantern – garden delicacies – family destination. My parents married in 1944; I was born in October 1945. But that’s not all….
Elsewhere in the world there was war and death for millions.
The hotel was built during the German colonial era – 1884–1915. In its day it probably was a house of ill repute. Its actual name was Löwenhaus - The Lion House. It stood on the first sandy elevation overlooking Swakopmund harbour. During the viscous European scramble for Africa, Britain in 1978 annexed Walfish Bay, eighteen kilometres to the south of Swakopmund – formally it was a very tiny sub-colony of the Cape colony. The Walfish bay is the only sheltered bay along the 1500km coastline. When the Germans came in 1884 they wanted the vast hinterland, today known as Namibia, but it had no harbour. German narrative: ‘nasty Britain took it so we would fail!’. As a result Germany built a half-mile jetty perpendicular to a dry river-mouth. It served as the port to what was to become German South West Africa. Plans to double the length of the jetty came to nought in 1915 when South African militia defeated the German ‘Schutztruppe’ in GSWA. From then on Walfish Bay became the harbour for the whole country – today’s Namibia.
After the German defeat, Swakopmund became a backwater. Like scores of others, the former hotel stood empty with endemic dense fog spells or hot desert storms alternating, taking their toll on the building the Löwenhaus. Until my father rented it during WWII.
What does the picture conceal?
Why is my father not in an internment camp? Most other German men were by then at facilities in Baviaanspoort or Andalucia in South Africa. Mom’s father, Hermann Jatow was detained there – he was the chairperson of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in Swakopmund when the war started. Exceptionally, dad’s father was not interned. He was not remotely a suspect. He was not amongst those who supplanted a human deity with the Christ he worshipped.
Dad, here in Swakopmund was still with T&C who now imported British Lever Brother products. Did dad escape internment because dad’s secretary was the daughter of Major Short, the South African police authority in Swakopmund? Might she have been spying on him and his kind? Or was he bribing – through her – Major Short with Flag cigarettes? (after the war dad could not account to the company what happened to consignments of cigarettes). Were they deceiving each other?
Look again at the picture and notice the empty bottles leading to a cellar. Mother told me that dad had an illegal radio receiver down there. Here he listened to Radio Zeesen broadcasting from Berlin. Indeed, dad spoke of listening to Lord Haw-Haw, a British defector to the Nazi cause. Did dad have aspirations to not just receive news and maybe receive coded messages or did he aspire to transmit messages to Berlin? Mom thought he spent much time in the cellar – at one point she had to rescue him from the depth of his hideout because the ladder to get out had collapsed. The easy legend is that dad would listen to German propaganda and initial military victories, and relay the information to the many war-widows, to keep up their morale for the German cause. This was treasonable in itself under martial law. But was dad a wannabe spy for Germany? – I say wannabe, because if he had been able to send (coded) radio messages to Germany, it is most likely that he would have been tried after the war. Could he have been privy to any sensitive information? German U-boats landed agents along this coast – like Robby Leibrandt. I shall never know the truth – and must not let theories get the better of me.
In the Windhoek National Archive there is a file on my father. Some years ago I read my way through it. I found were letters of German war-widows denouncing my father. He had imparted news he culled from his illegal radio installation to them. Several women were not amused. Some claimed that their husbands were not sympathetic to the Nazi cause, yet they were interned, not least because of people like my father. Others called on the authorities to detain my father whom they believed was the real villain.
Connecting other dots.
The mission grandpa worked for had gone bust after WWI when German subsidies stopped. The family struggled to make a living. By 1930 both dad and his older brother Helmut were sent home from boarding school in Swakopmund – unpaid fees – and to an uncertain future. Neither had finished their schooling. Dad tried his luck in Windhoek. He got a job as an assistant to a travelling salesman, Herr Beckurts of Taeuber, Corssen & Co. (T&C). In 1933 his boss invited dad to join the Nazi party. He joined willingly but faced an instantaneous crises: he had to put into writing evidence that he was truly Aryan. He had a problem. He invented a different ancestor to Zara – our Khoi-khoi ancestor. No doubt this substitution of the name Maria Bam had been rehearsed in the family before – in case anyone question their assumed status as being part of the white population.
In 1935 dad led a German boys delegation from SWA (Namibia) to the Hitler World Youth Festival in Germany. He held up high his delegation’s flag when the Nazi race laws were adopted at the Nuremberg rally that year! The trip remained the highlight of his life: six months of youth and party gatherings – or indoctrination - and six months of training in factories. If connections to German intelligence came about it was during this period. From around 1937 he once again was working for T&C, but now in Cape Town. His extra-mural life cantered on the German youth club, a front for Nazi activities. He ascended to the position of Vice Chair. They met at the German club in Cape Town. Oddly he resigned this position, on friendly terms, just prior to the outbreak of the war.
In Hitler’s Spies, published in Cape Town in 2021, Evert Cruywagen quotes British intelligence suspicions that the Nazi underground in SWA and South Africa had plans to stage a coup in SWA on Hitler’s birthday – 20 April 1939 – to return the former colony of SWA to Germany. There is no evidence that this was attempted.
PS: When the war started in September 1939, dad happened to be in Durban. Family folklore recalled a conversation between dad and the German Consul. Dad asks for assistance to get to Germany. The Consul replies that this is not possible because of the allied blockade. Dad replied: then let me travel to Japan and via the USSR I can get to Germany to offer my services. The Consul ends the conversation with: ‘Young man, by the time you get to Germany, we will have won the war’. Well ….
Elsewhere in the world there was war and death for millions.
The hotel was built during the German colonial era – 1884–1915. In its day it probably was a house of ill repute. Its actual name was Löwenhaus - The Lion House. It stood on the first sandy elevation overlooking Swakopmund harbour. During the viscous European scramble for Africa, Britain in 1978 annexed Walfish Bay, eighteen kilometres to the south of Swakopmund – formally it was a very tiny sub-colony of the Cape colony. The Walfish bay is the only sheltered bay along the 1500km coastline. When the Germans came in 1884 they wanted the vast hinterland, today known as Namibia, but it had no harbour. German narrative: ‘nasty Britain took it so we would fail!’. As a result Germany built a half-mile jetty perpendicular to a dry river-mouth. It served as the port to what was to become German South West Africa. Plans to double the length of the jetty came to nought in 1915 when South African militia defeated the German ‘Schutztruppe’ in GSWA. From then on Walfish Bay became the harbour for the whole country – today’s Namibia.
After the German defeat, Swakopmund became a backwater. Like scores of others, the former hotel stood empty with endemic dense fog spells or hot desert storms alternating, taking their toll on the building the Löwenhaus. Until my father rented it during WWII.
What does the picture conceal?
Why is my father not in an internment camp? Most other German men were by then at facilities in Baviaanspoort or Andalucia in South Africa. Mom’s father, Hermann Jatow was detained there – he was the chairperson of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in Swakopmund when the war started. Exceptionally, dad’s father was not interned. He was not remotely a suspect. He was not amongst those who supplanted a human deity with the Christ he worshipped.
Dad, here in Swakopmund was still with T&C who now imported British Lever Brother products. Did dad escape internment because dad’s secretary was the daughter of Major Short, the South African police authority in Swakopmund? Might she have been spying on him and his kind? Or was he bribing – through her – Major Short with Flag cigarettes? (after the war dad could not account to the company what happened to consignments of cigarettes). Were they deceiving each other?
Look again at the picture and notice the empty bottles leading to a cellar. Mother told me that dad had an illegal radio receiver down there. Here he listened to Radio Zeesen broadcasting from Berlin. Indeed, dad spoke of listening to Lord Haw-Haw, a British defector to the Nazi cause. Did dad have aspirations to not just receive news and maybe receive coded messages or did he aspire to transmit messages to Berlin? Mom thought he spent much time in the cellar – at one point she had to rescue him from the depth of his hideout because the ladder to get out had collapsed. The easy legend is that dad would listen to German propaganda and initial military victories, and relay the information to the many war-widows, to keep up their morale for the German cause. This was treasonable in itself under martial law. But was dad a wannabe spy for Germany? – I say wannabe, because if he had been able to send (coded) radio messages to Germany, it is most likely that he would have been tried after the war. Could he have been privy to any sensitive information? German U-boats landed agents along this coast – like Robby Leibrandt. I shall never know the truth – and must not let theories get the better of me.
In the Windhoek National Archive there is a file on my father. Some years ago I read my way through it. I found were letters of German war-widows denouncing my father. He had imparted news he culled from his illegal radio installation to them. Several women were not amused. Some claimed that their husbands were not sympathetic to the Nazi cause, yet they were interned, not least because of people like my father. Others called on the authorities to detain my father whom they believed was the real villain.
Connecting other dots.
The mission grandpa worked for had gone bust after WWI when German subsidies stopped. The family struggled to make a living. By 1930 both dad and his older brother Helmut were sent home from boarding school in Swakopmund – unpaid fees – and to an uncertain future. Neither had finished their schooling. Dad tried his luck in Windhoek. He got a job as an assistant to a travelling salesman, Herr Beckurts of Taeuber, Corssen & Co. (T&C). In 1933 his boss invited dad to join the Nazi party. He joined willingly but faced an instantaneous crises: he had to put into writing evidence that he was truly Aryan. He had a problem. He invented a different ancestor to Zara – our Khoi-khoi ancestor. No doubt this substitution of the name Maria Bam had been rehearsed in the family before – in case anyone question their assumed status as being part of the white population.
In 1935 dad led a German boys delegation from SWA (Namibia) to the Hitler World Youth Festival in Germany. He held up high his delegation’s flag when the Nazi race laws were adopted at the Nuremberg rally that year! The trip remained the highlight of his life: six months of youth and party gatherings – or indoctrination - and six months of training in factories. If connections to German intelligence came about it was during this period. From around 1937 he once again was working for T&C, but now in Cape Town. His extra-mural life cantered on the German youth club, a front for Nazi activities. He ascended to the position of Vice Chair. They met at the German club in Cape Town. Oddly he resigned this position, on friendly terms, just prior to the outbreak of the war.
In Hitler’s Spies, published in Cape Town in 2021, Evert Cruywagen quotes British intelligence suspicions that the Nazi underground in SWA and South Africa had plans to stage a coup in SWA on Hitler’s birthday – 20 April 1939 – to return the former colony of SWA to Germany. There is no evidence that this was attempted.
PS: When the war started in September 1939, dad happened to be in Durban. Family folklore recalled a conversation between dad and the German Consul. Dad asks for assistance to get to Germany. The Consul replies that this is not possible because of the allied blockade. Dad replied: then let me travel to Japan and via the USSR I can get to Germany to offer my services. The Consul ends the conversation with: ‘Young man, by the time you get to Germany, we will have won the war’. Well ….
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In 2021 we ask again and again: How could it have all gone so wrong? How could the liberation movement we worked with have squandered 27 breaking the country instead of building it? How is it that the ideals of the Freedom Charter ring hollow when our politicians invoke its clauses today?
The Lusaka Years by Hugh Macmillan is instructive. It traces the deep fault-lines of our movement during the years in exile. Because of the culture of secrecy in exile, I am educated - and frankly stunned - by what I read. I recommend it to all who seek answers to so many of the problems we face today. Not all the faults are ours. The politics of the cold war often led us - and all of Africa - into terrible options. |
On 2 July 2021 I attended the virtual funeral of Bishop John Osmers who died of covid, ages 86 - in Zambia. I knew John in exile - met him just after an apartheid parcel bomb had blown off his hand. It was a consignment of ANC Sechbaba’s that the SB had intercepted. It happened in 1979. At the time he lived in Lesotho. At the time of his death he was blind.
Below is the link to a film clip shown at John's funeral. The film clip includes the funeral in Zambia of John Makathini in 1988. See below also the extract from the book The Lusaka Years by Hugh Macmillan. Note in it the reference to Beyers Naudé - in the clip at that funeral - before he prayed - in Afrikaans!
Below is the link to a film clip shown at John's funeral. The film clip includes the funeral in Zambia of John Makathini in 1988. See below also the extract from the book The Lusaka Years by Hugh Macmillan. Note in it the reference to Beyers Naudé - in the clip at that funeral - before he prayed - in Afrikaans!
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Here is the link to the 8 minute video in case you want to send to your list.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9qqkrgga3kqean/UncleJohnEdit_DRAFT1.mp4?dl=0
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Horst’s Newsletter 46
February 2021
_____________________________________________________
Dear friends and relations,
It might be the lonely silence of lockdown or because of a growing awareness that the years are creeping up on me. But it is also prompting by friends, that reflections of my slightly unusual life should be recorded. Here’s my 2021 resolution: a monthly column with the provisional title ‘Memories of setting myself free’.
I’ve always collected things. It must have been my mother nurturing stamp collecting and my admiration of uncle Richard Jaacks’ stamp collection that made me never throw away but store everything: stamps, pen-pal letters, books, documents, minutes, photos and more. Uncle Richard came to German South West Africa as a volunteer soldier of the deceptively named Schutztruppe (Protection army) in fact there to oppress and subjugate. Decades later, I only knew him as the kindly book-keeper of Callisen’s bookshop in Kaiser Street, Windhoek. He arrived in 1913 but by 1915 it was all over – South African troops had defeated the Schutztruppe. He and many others stayed on. I still have hundreds of first day envelope covers that celebrate colonial and apartheid rule, even those of its vassal states, the so-called homelands (see the example below). Those colourful tiny images on an infinite variety of stamps served the purpose of ideological propaganda in the age before electronic communication. The challenge – and the envelopes intrinsic value – was to obtain an envelope, preferably addressed to myself, with the date stamp that commemorated or celebrated one or other, sometimes inane but often shameful colonial or other racist achievement.
In my rather large archive I still have all the letters sent to me by three girls in Hokkaido, Japan dating back to my early teens. How exotic it was to receive post from same-aged scholars in far-away countries. Or the letters from Doris Weber in Erfurt, living in communist East Germany. My mother had corresponded with Doris’ mother since the 1920s – and I’m still in touch with Doris and her family. Never let anything go. And I kept diary notes.
February 2021
_____________________________________________________
Dear friends and relations,
It might be the lonely silence of lockdown or because of a growing awareness that the years are creeping up on me. But it is also prompting by friends, that reflections of my slightly unusual life should be recorded. Here’s my 2021 resolution: a monthly column with the provisional title ‘Memories of setting myself free’.
I’ve always collected things. It must have been my mother nurturing stamp collecting and my admiration of uncle Richard Jaacks’ stamp collection that made me never throw away but store everything: stamps, pen-pal letters, books, documents, minutes, photos and more. Uncle Richard came to German South West Africa as a volunteer soldier of the deceptively named Schutztruppe (Protection army) in fact there to oppress and subjugate. Decades later, I only knew him as the kindly book-keeper of Callisen’s bookshop in Kaiser Street, Windhoek. He arrived in 1913 but by 1915 it was all over – South African troops had defeated the Schutztruppe. He and many others stayed on. I still have hundreds of first day envelope covers that celebrate colonial and apartheid rule, even those of its vassal states, the so-called homelands (see the example below). Those colourful tiny images on an infinite variety of stamps served the purpose of ideological propaganda in the age before electronic communication. The challenge – and the envelopes intrinsic value – was to obtain an envelope, preferably addressed to myself, with the date stamp that commemorated or celebrated one or other, sometimes inane but often shameful colonial or other racist achievement.
In my rather large archive I still have all the letters sent to me by three girls in Hokkaido, Japan dating back to my early teens. How exotic it was to receive post from same-aged scholars in far-away countries. Or the letters from Doris Weber in Erfurt, living in communist East Germany. My mother had corresponded with Doris’ mother since the 1920s – and I’m still in touch with Doris and her family. Never let anything go. And I kept diary notes.
Above: in 1989 Commemorating four missionaries are commemorated, two of them my relation: J.H. Schmelen my gr gr gr grandfather and F.H. Kleinschmidt my gr gr grandfather. For images of other First Day covers go to my website www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. *
Hiking at Silvermine, Table Mountain National Park, February 2021
Brother Immo and myself, Swakopmund 1947/8.
My brother Immo and me, both donning Tirolese felt hats made by my mother, at the beach in Swakopmund (ca. 1948)
That’s me watering nasturtiums and sunflowers, ca. 1947 in the yard behind our rented house in Swakopmund. A high wooden fence prevented the hot desert sand from destroying the little plant life then existing in this desert town.
David, the oshiVambo-speaking servant, who worked for the family for decades. Frieda and Hermann Jatow, my grandparents. In front of Hermann the children Ruth, an unknown playmate, and Hermann Männe Jr. At the back their children Horst and Ilse with my mother Eva in front.
“Old David used to say, things were much better under German rule. When they punished us they gave us a beating and it was over. When the English (meaning South Africans) came we were charged, had to appear in court, pay a fine or go to jail”, my mother says on another occasion. Incongruous words intended somehow to mitigate the memory of former German colonial rule. 
Lucas worked for my parents in Swakopmund from around 1945 - 1949 after which we moved to Johannesburg. This picture dates from around 2005 when he visited my mother at her old age home. He only knew me as a toddler before. When he retired he returned to his family in Ovamboland
Otto and Manda Uirab in Cape Town at the National Library viewing the Schmelen Bible
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Whence I come from.
Episode 1. THE PAST BURDENING THE PRESENT: BITTER ROOTS. The ‘wall of silence’ that has been erected over many years and that weighs heavily on the families of the victims and on the oppressors is almost impossible to break down because the descendants, the second and even the third generations, continue to hand down the myths current in the family, thus becoming ‘accomplices’ of the older generation. Paraphrased from Israeli psychologist Dan Bar-On. “An open bread-roll with dead missionary and chopped onion. And two cups of coffee” my aged mother said, in German, to the young neatly dressed Black waiter in Café Treff. Without a moment’s hesitation he heads to the kitchen. It is 2009 in an eatery in Sam Nujoma Avenue, until recently known as Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse. I was born here in Swakopmund in 1945, a coastal village in a country that has changed name three times over the past one hundred years. It was colonised as German South West Africa (1884 – 1915), then became South West Africa under colonial and apartheid South African rule and finally attained majority rule in 1990[1] now Namibia. At Café Treff old habits die hard and my mother is pleased to have given me a bit of the taste of the past. With a pleasing smile the waiter arrives with the brötchen sliced in half with steak tartare, a raw egg yolk, chopped onion, pepper and salt. In my childhood it was common practice in German establishments to serve ‘dead missionary’. No one knew why or how this name slipped into Süd-Wester Deutsch. In our family past there are at least a dozen missionaries but this tongue-in-cheek description never caused offence. What it meant or symbolised to be eating our forebears was left un-said. We stroll home. Mutti, as we called our mother, is ninety-three, her arm tucked under mine. We slowly shuffle back to the Lions Home for the Aged. On our way she points to a house and says “that is where Mrs Hitler stays”. This time I am jolted but I also hear irony in her voice. Mrs Hitler I ask? Well that’s not her name but your sister and I call her that after a recent incident. “We bumped into Frau Leineweber” an old acquaintance in a village where people know each other since childhood. “She asked me if I had applied for my Aryan passport yet?”. My mother: what is that? What for? Frau Leineweber, as though it’s self-evident: You should apply you know. My sister interjects: that won’t work - we have a Black grandmother. Frau Leineweber retorts without a flicker of doubt, “You should not admit to that, don’t talk about it”. I page back in my diary. In January 2008 I also visited Mutti. On a Sunday afternoon we are invited by Karin Arends, born Schuster, for afternoon coffee and cake with Schlagsahne (whipped cream). The words “entschuldige, aber diese Scheissk……” (pardon me, but these bloody K…s) is used frequently. The word ‘pardon’ seems to be said out of deference to me. In this environment I know that family and friends felt sorry for my parents because of my political engagement at the other end of the political spectrum. I stopped countering their derisive vocabulary long ago. This generation is beyond redemption. Instead I encourage the conversation and ask questions. I want to tap into their knowledge of both the German and the apartheid past. And it pours out. Karin says: yes, my father served in the German army and he was high up in the Nazi party in Berlin. My grandfather was a career soldier who believed army and politics should not mix. At the end of the war grandpa said to my dad: leave, get out of Germany, after all the crap you have caused (die Scheisse die Ihr hier gemacht habt); they will come after you. He emigrated to SWA. Karin says she later challenged her father’s convenient amnesia when he denied that he was ever a Nazi. She reveals that her parents personally knew Hermann Göring and that her parents, out of loyalty to Göring called her Karin, the name of a country estate (Gut) Göring had appropriated from someone. Back at home, in an effort to assert the world I live in, I read Mutti a chapter I wrote about Oliver Tambo, contained in a book on his life. He was the leader of the African National Congress, the liberation movement I had joined and worked for. Mutti knows he was a Black man and she knows that I know that she called liberation fighters terrorists. Because of her children, Mutti made many adaptations, but as she got older I saw lapses in what I thought she had internalized through my siblings and myself. After my tribute to Oliver Tambo she asks: “did I not take a secret parcel for you from abroad to someone in South Africa once?” And then adds: “you know when I was young I once had to take some secret Nazi papers for Opa (my grandfather) from Swakopmund to Windhoek – it was in the 1930’s’. I shudder at the incongruity. The next morning at breakfast Mutti says that it is probably good that Vati – the way we addressed our father - did not live to see the changes that came with liberation in Namibia and South Africa. And she adds: he was not a friend of the K… (kein Kaffernfreund). My diary entry a year earlier (16 January 2007), when visiting Mutti, I recorded her saying: Under Hitler everyone got jobs and everything was so positive, “aber die Sache mit den Juden, das war verkehrt, Aber davon hatten wir ja nichts gewusst” (but this matter with the Jews, that was wrong, but after all, we did not know anything about this). Mutti says that Vati saw National Socialism as the means for poor people to get jobs and regain dignity. A few days later a neighbour in the old age home tells me that she joined the Bund Deutscher Mädchen (women’s wing of the Hitler Youth). She explains that in 1935-1936 she got eighteen months of free training in Germany. She learnt cooking, dressmaking and secretarial skills. She adds: The problem with Hitler was that his mother worked for Jews who exploited her. As I commit these words to paper I feel discomfort and embarrassment. Is committing these recollections to paper disloyal to my parents? Does it mean I don’t love them or that I reject their love. I think not but readers may judge me differently. I want to separate myself from the past, but I equally seek to embrace my parents. I wish I am not an amalgam of such contradictions[2]. And I seek to tell this truth. Does it liberate me? The first-ever democratic elections were held in Namibia in March 1990. In the run-up to this my mother visited us, in exile, in London. I told her I knew the Swapo President and that he knew I had family in Namibia. I had spoken to him about the race attitudes of the white population and their emphatic opposition to black majority rule. He urged me to tell my mother that SWAPO was not anti-white and, would I convey his personal greetings to her and would she consider voting for SWAPO in the upcoming elections. I was there for the independence celebrations and my mother told me that she put her cross in favour of SWAPO, mainly out of deference to her children. She begged me however, not tell any of her friends. After Germany’s defeat in 1945, many Germans engaged in what they called Bewältigung der Vergangenheit, broadly translated as confronting the atrocities committed in their name and thereby dealing with complicity and collective guilt[1]. Wiedergutmachung became another new word in the German language – making good for what you have broken. No such injunction or demand ever arose for the White population in this former German outpost. They don’t feel defeated, instead, like most Whites in South Africa, they feel that they are party to a negotiated settlement, thus no reason to recant, to say sorry or accept any guilt. Racism of all types continues to flourish here and countless conversations are laced with prejudice. Today it is no longer overt anti-Semitism; in fact the Jews of Israel are much admired. Instead hostility or disdain is directed at Blacks, Muslims, communists and gender equality. Otherness remains the motivation of the old white generation. It asserts their identity which in turn affirms their feeling of superiority. Fast forward to 2017. We are on the road from Cape Town to Swakopmund to scatter the ashes of my sister in the Namib Desert. Halfway on this three-day trip I have a pre-dinner drink in the bar of the only hotel in Grünau. The owner and two patrons have their eyes fixed on the TV screen. Commentators are discussing the latest rugby defeats suffered by the South African team. These heavy men identify with South African rugby. The owner is quick to offer his analyses: If they would take politics out of rugby, South African rugby would return to glory. The others voice their agreement. Being looked upon as white myself, they assume my complicity in the actual meaning of what is being said: If teams were chosen without Black players, South Africa would become champions once more. Then my cousin and wife enter to join me at the bar. An uneasy silence descends. My blood cousins, Otto and Manda are Damara (see insert on left) and the shade of their skin colour gives them away. The rugby fraternity watch the rest of the game in silence. Your racial feelings are only expressed when you are amongst your own. There lies a long road ahead. Under the palm trees in Swakopmund, down by the beach, inter-locking pavers are being laid to create neat pathways. (Black) municipal workers are hard at work laying the pavers. A wry smile: ”That’s Ovambo Lego”. The message is clear and affirms itself amongst the whites each day: ‘we are cleverer than them; they can’t do what we are capable of doing’. It’s a way of life. Everyday produces its new crop of race related belittlements. The divisions between black and white remain absolute. And, there is no fear that those who are the object of this denigration might get to hear this racist bunk. There is a profusion of German language publications in Namibia. In one book an anecdote is repeated and voiced to any European visitor who cares to engage: A farmer one day shows his Black farm hands the framed black silhouette cut‘s, dating from a former age in Germany. He points to the framed Scherenschnitte (Silhouette profiles are cut from black paper and then mounted on a white background) hanging on the wall in his dining room and explains that they represent his parents and grandparents. It is said that all gasped in amazement and then the senior farm-hand says: Oh dear, and all of them Black! Despite my social distance from that world today not a day passes without me being reminded that I come from here and that this was part of the formative years of my life. First socially and then politically I turned my back on this past. Until I was twenty, German was my first and Afrikaans, my second language. Today I converse in English with my brother. My mother thought it shameful when she detected that my Schriftdeutsch had become less than perfect. Rejection of that Weltanschauung and the values I was taught did not happen overnight. I discover testing myself to this day to be sure that prejudice is not left in some hidden corner in my head. Maybe that is as good as it gets. It might also explain why, once I started on my journey, that I could not stop in the middle; I felt compelled to cross the spectrum to the other side. Racism, injustice and inequality are not countered by extricating myself from its tentacles and then do nothing about it – somewhere in the middle. My natural progression was to stand up against it – all my life. But I continue to look for reasons, for explanations and even for mitigations for the society I came from. I want to get beyond the trite narrative that some are instinctively, even genetically, evil or predisposed to be on the sinful side of history. We moved to Johannesburg when I was four years old but every summer holiday we drove back to Swakopmund. We built sand castles on the beach and once won a prize (beer mugs) for the most elaborate structure. We prided ourselves with a Christmas tree made from the leafless white thorn bush with candles burning on its bare twigs. We visited Vlodskasbaken, an hour’s drive north, where white people erected shacks in their desire to experience the ‘old days’ or getting back to nature. There we ate freshly smoked catfish, a delicacy second to none. Further north we went to the seal colony at Cape Cross in the midst of which stood a replica of a cross erected in 1486 by the Portuguese seafarer Diego Cao, long before the Cape or Namibia were colonized. On these holidays to Swakopmund, we being the visitors who had driven for four days to get here, somehow felt superior. We represented the big city – and looking down on the locals provided odd satisfaction. In Swakopmund my father met up with his mates of old. They celebrated and drank in the less salubrious hotels of the town, the Hotel Zum Grünen Kranz and the Europahof. These run-down Inns were remnants of a previous era where closing time was unheard of. My father could drink! He believed life was there to have a party. There was an occasion when he returned from a New Year’s Eve celebration on the morning of the second of January. We kids felt unease when, on our way to the beach, we caught a glimpse through the pub’s swing-doors where drunk men remonstrated and sang lieder probably sung in the Bierkeller in Munich in the 1930s. Vati expressed some pride that he could outlast the others at the bar counter. He was famous for calling the barman and calling ‘for a round’ for everyone there. He had debts at several hotels. We never owned a car or a house. My father had a scar on his forehead caused when he and a friend, after a long night out, drove their Willy’s Jeep into a lamppost in front of the Post Office. They blamed it on the heavy Swakopmund fog. The manual switchgear for the wiper at the top of the passenger screen had caused an injury that caused the scar. Alcohol was his downfall. He died after several heart attacks, not yet 58. When I rushed to be at his funeral a cold front between us had prevailed for several years. Unfinished business. Can I make peace with my father? In the early 1970s my parents returned to SWA/Namibia. My brother and I were at Witwatersrand University by now. I had the privilege of having a state scholarship. My brother Immo and I regularly motored from Johannesburg to Swakopmund, initially by getting lifts with others, but then in my own car. Because of the chronic lack of money at home I worked as a barman from school days till university time. I bought a 1958 Borgward Isabella for R320.00. It’s front fender was badly dented but with the car jack between chassis and the indentation could, albeit roughly, be reversed. We drove the fifteen hundred kilometre journey through the Kalahari and then Namib deserts at night, to keep the engine from over-heating. Once in Swakopmund I got more work as a waiter or barman. To double my income I also delivered bread for Bäckerei Putensen, later re-named Café Treff. [1] Kaiser Wilhelm was imperial regent when Germany embarked on its disastrous colonial conquests during the last quarter of the 19th century. Sam Nujoma was the first President after Namibia attained independence from foreign rule in 1990. Nujoma was also the long-serving president of the main liberation movement, the South West African People’s Party, SWAPO. [2] [1] My father died in 1972, my mother nearly 100 years old, died in 2015. [3] The German Duden lexicon defines Vergangenheitsbewältigung as "public debate within a country on a problematic period of its recent history—in Germany on National Socialism, in particular"—where "problematic" refers to traumatic events that raise sensitive questions of collective culpability. In Germany, and originally, the term refers to embarrassment about and often remorse for Germans' complicity in the war crimes of the Wehrmacht, Holocaust, and related events of the early and mid-20th century, including World War II. In this sense, the word can refer to the psychological process of denazification. With the accession into the current Federal Republic of Germany of the German Democratic Republic in the reunification of 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Vergangenheitsbewältigung can also refer to coming to terms with the excesses and human rights abuses associated with that former one-party state. |
If ever the moods takes you ...
please visit Christine's website and see her fabulous paintings
please visit Christine's website and see her fabulous paintings
Masiphumelele February 2021. Just prior to Christmas 2020, 1000 basic huts (shacks) burnt down in one night. The authorities, after 3 months, provided below temporary emergency shacks (see below), no floor, no ceiling. As applies for the past 20 years, temporary becomes permanent.
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For a strong view on the subject visit:
https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/guestcolumn/paul-hoffman-the-inconvenient-truth-about-masiphumelele-20210223. Left: The new accommodation, concentration camp style. |
Below photo possibly dates from the early 1990's. Ilse and Beyers Naudé are sharing in laughter with (on the left) an unknown person but next is a young Jackson Mthembu. Until recently he was Minister in the Presidency, under President Cyril Ramaphosa. In February 2021 he died of covid related complications.
NEWSLETTER 45
January 2021
Horst Kleinschmidt
January 2021
Horst Kleinschmidt
Dear friends and relations,
My occasional Newsletters date back to 2009. My intention initially was to discover, record and share the hidden history in my family – the divide between those who claimed to be ‘white’ and did so at the expense of those in the family whose shade of skin colouration did not meet their paradigm of ‘whiteness’ and all that this entailed. My side of the family were part of the colonial and apartheid system that used “race” to assert a crass class divide. It served the purpose of exceptional power and privilege for those at the top of the pile.
Despite this, in my family, those who asserted whiteness did not make it far up the white hierarchy. There are complex reasons for this, but the ‘white’ side did not end up with land or material wealth. Nor did they rise to high office in the political dispensations. In retrospect that is something to be grateful for but it does not detract from the role we played directly and indirectly to perpetuate minority rule. The burden of this past still weighs heavily on us/me.
To confront the past my quest was to have the two strands of the family face one another and for those from the ‘wrong’ side of history to acknowledge and ask to be reconciled with those wronged in the past. These two parts of our family met in 2014 and again 2016 – 150 of us on each occasion coming from Namibia, South Africa, Germany, Finland and the USA. The healing process had started and today we visit and communicate across the former divide – the 100 years of schism is in some measure overcome.
Our family journey still needs emulating! Tens of thousands of families at the southern tip of Africa remain divided in that the ‘white’ families maintain separation to perpetuate an identity of superiority. Like our family they have darker complexioned cousins. They deny their own uncles, grandmothers or nieces. There is no rainbow – such as Bishop Tutu once hoped – as long as a big part of ‘white’ South Africa and Namibia continue to stand aloof and deny what happened in the past. This requires an apology by actual perpetrators and acknowledgement by their children.
Our family project still needs nurturing. Unlearning an upbringing rooted in ‘them’ and ‘othering’, is complex and difficult. I am grateful to school friend, Reinoud Boers who pointed me to a recent essay by Inge Kühne – deputy Editor of Rapport. As someone also from the ‘perpetrator class’ she explores ‘forgiveness’ and ‘paying reparations’ in present-day South Africa. I urge you to read her contribution. Her piece was published in Daily Maverick. I identify with most that she says and then add a caveat: unless we build equal (more equal) societies the exploitation or oppression of one group over another will repeat itself.
In our own family not everyone is at the joint family table yet. Otto Uirab challenged me when we met in Fransfontein in 2016 to bring the remaining outsiders to the joint table. This task is still outstanding. It remains on my to-do list.
My recent Newsletters have been concerned with broad societal issues but their essence is another part of the unfinished business I refer to in our family. I temporarily left research and re-interpretation of our family past and am engaged in social issues, also activism, in the broad societal and political spheres. Now the baton of family research is being taken up by cousin Kenneth Makatees who registered for a Masters degree with Stellenbosch University to research our family history. His focus will be on the third daughter of the Zara and Hinrich Schmelen, Friederika (Friederike) who married Christian Bam. From what we know the tragic divide cut deeply here too – similar to the Kleinschmidt branch of the family.
As to personal news: Christine and I are well and have been supportive and productive during the confinement of the epidemic. We have not been ill. Christine continues to paint and runs her small studio shop from above the Olympia Café in Kalk Bay. The absence of visitors to come and appreciate her work does at times dampen her spirits, but – see on the front page of my webpage – she recently painted a portrait of Beyers Naudé. The painting complements work I am busy with (see below).
We have both escaped the harm of covid, not least because of the fortuitous conditions in which we are able to live.
My work involves:
Horst.
My occasional Newsletters date back to 2009. My intention initially was to discover, record and share the hidden history in my family – the divide between those who claimed to be ‘white’ and did so at the expense of those in the family whose shade of skin colouration did not meet their paradigm of ‘whiteness’ and all that this entailed. My side of the family were part of the colonial and apartheid system that used “race” to assert a crass class divide. It served the purpose of exceptional power and privilege for those at the top of the pile.
Despite this, in my family, those who asserted whiteness did not make it far up the white hierarchy. There are complex reasons for this, but the ‘white’ side did not end up with land or material wealth. Nor did they rise to high office in the political dispensations. In retrospect that is something to be grateful for but it does not detract from the role we played directly and indirectly to perpetuate minority rule. The burden of this past still weighs heavily on us/me.
To confront the past my quest was to have the two strands of the family face one another and for those from the ‘wrong’ side of history to acknowledge and ask to be reconciled with those wronged in the past. These two parts of our family met in 2014 and again 2016 – 150 of us on each occasion coming from Namibia, South Africa, Germany, Finland and the USA. The healing process had started and today we visit and communicate across the former divide – the 100 years of schism is in some measure overcome.
Our family journey still needs emulating! Tens of thousands of families at the southern tip of Africa remain divided in that the ‘white’ families maintain separation to perpetuate an identity of superiority. Like our family they have darker complexioned cousins. They deny their own uncles, grandmothers or nieces. There is no rainbow – such as Bishop Tutu once hoped – as long as a big part of ‘white’ South Africa and Namibia continue to stand aloof and deny what happened in the past. This requires an apology by actual perpetrators and acknowledgement by their children.
Our family project still needs nurturing. Unlearning an upbringing rooted in ‘them’ and ‘othering’, is complex and difficult. I am grateful to school friend, Reinoud Boers who pointed me to a recent essay by Inge Kühne – deputy Editor of Rapport. As someone also from the ‘perpetrator class’ she explores ‘forgiveness’ and ‘paying reparations’ in present-day South Africa. I urge you to read her contribution. Her piece was published in Daily Maverick. I identify with most that she says and then add a caveat: unless we build equal (more equal) societies the exploitation or oppression of one group over another will repeat itself.
In our own family not everyone is at the joint family table yet. Otto Uirab challenged me when we met in Fransfontein in 2016 to bring the remaining outsiders to the joint table. This task is still outstanding. It remains on my to-do list.
My recent Newsletters have been concerned with broad societal issues but their essence is another part of the unfinished business I refer to in our family. I temporarily left research and re-interpretation of our family past and am engaged in social issues, also activism, in the broad societal and political spheres. Now the baton of family research is being taken up by cousin Kenneth Makatees who registered for a Masters degree with Stellenbosch University to research our family history. His focus will be on the third daughter of the Zara and Hinrich Schmelen, Friederika (Friederike) who married Christian Bam. From what we know the tragic divide cut deeply here too – similar to the Kleinschmidt branch of the family.
As to personal news: Christine and I are well and have been supportive and productive during the confinement of the epidemic. We have not been ill. Christine continues to paint and runs her small studio shop from above the Olympia Café in Kalk Bay. The absence of visitors to come and appreciate her work does at times dampen her spirits, but – see on the front page of my webpage – she recently painted a portrait of Beyers Naudé. The painting complements work I am busy with (see below).
We have both escaped the harm of covid, not least because of the fortuitous conditions in which we are able to live.
My work involves:
- I try and be an ongoing watchdog over the hopelessly inadequate role by the City of Cape Town over my neighbours in Masiphumelele – they are Black! See below. On 20 December 2020 a fire destroyed 1000 homes in one night leaving 6000 people without a roof over their head.
- With friend Walter Sauer, we aim to complete a book on the secret letters Beyers Naudé smuggled out of South Africa between 1976 and 1990.
- Complementing the above book is my recent task with film director Mark Kaplan to produce a documentary film on the secret and undercover work Beyers Naudé was involved in.
- The Rev Mashwabada ‘Castro’ Mayathula was a colleague at the Christian Institute and a particular source of inspiration to Beyers Naudé. Recently his family inaugurated the Mashwabada and Monica Mayathula Foundation. I was asked to address the gathering – part gathering in Museum Africa in Johannesburg, part ‘virtual’. In my address to the meeting I seek to show layers of complexity to the way the struggle developed in the 1980s; between internal-external, between political structures vs MK structures; of Black Consciousness, UDF and ANC. The subject deserves far more attention and found a fertile response amongst those present. See below or on my website.
- I also was asked to write and submitted a chapter for a book (due to the epidemic it will only be published in 2022) on the extraordinary relationship between Sweden and the people of South Africa who fought for freedom during the apartheid years. My focus is on the history of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa. IDAF received extraordinary support from the Swedish public, its Government and public institutions. I pay tribute to this.
- Go the IDAF page to see a tribute to ES Reddy - diplomat with a purpose.
Horst.
| Can white South Africans repay the debt for apartheid by Inge Kühne..docx |
| Mayathula Foundation HK address, 28 November 2020.pdf |
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Portrait of Beyers Naudé by Christine Crowley, December 2020
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THE LIE OF 1652 - by Patrick Tariq Mellet, an important and provocative book.
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Masiphumelele:
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On 20 December I wrote:
I blame the fire in Masi on the City of Cape Town politicians - all of them, the Democratic Alliance and the ANC in opposition. At least 1000 homes burnt down in a single night. At least 6000 people are currently without a roof over their heads. Some 15% of the ghetto burnt down. Every person in Masi is affected.
Some social media comment is racist in reaction to the fire: ’They’ are blamed for living so closely together, for coming ‘here’ in the first place etc.
Another (rich white) reaction is charity: blankets, clothes, toys etc. Yes, but it fails the address the cause of the fire. Again!
Tshepo Moletsane (Masi Civic Organisation) is quoted as saying that the City, the Public Protector and the SA HRC have not honoured an agreement he was asked to co-sign with them in 2017. It foresaw the orderly relocation of those whose houses, now burnt down, to Erf 5131 (remainder of). Since then nothing has happened. The City bought more land for Masi - years ago - and Parks Board have offered more land. But local politicians are sitting on their hands.
Moletsane is chairperson of the Masi Civic. They represent 11 wards in Masi. The City, the NGO/NPO’s and the charity industry ignore the local voice. In fact, the City of Cape Town is downright hostile to Moletsane.
Before anyone says, yes, but …. Here are some relevant factors.
1. The Masi population is 40,000 on roughly 2 sq km. Surrounding it are 40 sq km with a population of roughly 40,000 also.
2. Masi is where ‘Black' people live, the rest is where ‘White’ folk live.
3. If you are a work-seeker - and there are plenty of jobs in the area - the only place that you are not immediately evicted from is Masi.
4. Masi is fenced in, hemmed in, it is our own Southern Peninsula ghetto.
5. The destroyed homes are in a so-called ‘wetland’. This is untrue! Nature Conservation have long said this is a former wetland.
6. Nonetheless the City evicts people on the basis of protecting the ‘wetland’ which is in fact the flow-off of water from all adjacent suburbs.
7. Recently the City arranged for the wetland to not be a wetland anymore since it plans an inappropriate highway through the area.
8. It may be a useful coincidence for the City that the homes burnt down are in the very area they want to build the highway through.
9. The highway is ill-conceived and will serve as a Northern border to Masi. No thought is given to integrate Masi entrepreneurs.
10. The budget for the highway and the new fire station are wasteful expenditure. The money should have gone on urban design, incl. Masi.
11. It is no secret that DA politicians don’t want Masi. Their apartheid thinking wants the working/labouring class to move to Blikkiesdorp etc.
12. They want domestic workers, gardeners, factory workers to travel vast distances to work - spend a large % of their earnings of transport.
13. Prof Julian Cook has - once more - made proposals that can limit fires running out of control. I attach his proposal.
No amount of goodwill and charity provided, once again, counters the anger, feelings of disaffection from wider society, hopelessness to ever build a stable future for ones children and the likelihood of political party exploitation on the grounds skin colour.
Call my remarks bleak, but here in the most unequal society in the world, we need reminding that this is a time-bomb waiting to explode.
Horst.
I blame the fire in Masi on the City of Cape Town politicians - all of them, the Democratic Alliance and the ANC in opposition. At least 1000 homes burnt down in a single night. At least 6000 people are currently without a roof over their heads. Some 15% of the ghetto burnt down. Every person in Masi is affected.
Some social media comment is racist in reaction to the fire: ’They’ are blamed for living so closely together, for coming ‘here’ in the first place etc.
Another (rich white) reaction is charity: blankets, clothes, toys etc. Yes, but it fails the address the cause of the fire. Again!
Tshepo Moletsane (Masi Civic Organisation) is quoted as saying that the City, the Public Protector and the SA HRC have not honoured an agreement he was asked to co-sign with them in 2017. It foresaw the orderly relocation of those whose houses, now burnt down, to Erf 5131 (remainder of). Since then nothing has happened. The City bought more land for Masi - years ago - and Parks Board have offered more land. But local politicians are sitting on their hands.
Moletsane is chairperson of the Masi Civic. They represent 11 wards in Masi. The City, the NGO/NPO’s and the charity industry ignore the local voice. In fact, the City of Cape Town is downright hostile to Moletsane.
Before anyone says, yes, but …. Here are some relevant factors.
1. The Masi population is 40,000 on roughly 2 sq km. Surrounding it are 40 sq km with a population of roughly 40,000 also.
2. Masi is where ‘Black' people live, the rest is where ‘White’ folk live.
3. If you are a work-seeker - and there are plenty of jobs in the area - the only place that you are not immediately evicted from is Masi.
4. Masi is fenced in, hemmed in, it is our own Southern Peninsula ghetto.
5. The destroyed homes are in a so-called ‘wetland’. This is untrue! Nature Conservation have long said this is a former wetland.
6. Nonetheless the City evicts people on the basis of protecting the ‘wetland’ which is in fact the flow-off of water from all adjacent suburbs.
7. Recently the City arranged for the wetland to not be a wetland anymore since it plans an inappropriate highway through the area.
8. It may be a useful coincidence for the City that the homes burnt down are in the very area they want to build the highway through.
9. The highway is ill-conceived and will serve as a Northern border to Masi. No thought is given to integrate Masi entrepreneurs.
10. The budget for the highway and the new fire station are wasteful expenditure. The money should have gone on urban design, incl. Masi.
11. It is no secret that DA politicians don’t want Masi. Their apartheid thinking wants the working/labouring class to move to Blikkiesdorp etc.
12. They want domestic workers, gardeners, factory workers to travel vast distances to work - spend a large % of their earnings of transport.
13. Prof Julian Cook has - once more - made proposals that can limit fires running out of control. I attach his proposal.
No amount of goodwill and charity provided, once again, counters the anger, feelings of disaffection from wider society, hopelessness to ever build a stable future for ones children and the likelihood of political party exploitation on the grounds skin colour.
Call my remarks bleak, but here in the most unequal society in the world, we need reminding that this is a time-bomb waiting to explode.
Horst.
| 2017 Masi Agreement between the City of Cape Town, the Public Protector, the SA Human Rights Commission and the Masi Civic Organisation. .pdf |
| Address to Mayathula Foundation - file doc as above |
Newsletter 44
October 2020
Horst Kleinschmidt
Dear friends,
My jaundiced view at this time: an ANC heading to self-destruct; no political alternatives; a failing economy; frightening unemployment ahead; continuing collapse of state administrative systems; an incapable education system; continuing corruption; wealth flight/theft out of the country by a super-rich elite; more hate speech at both ends of the black-white spectrum; a compromised and crooked audit fraternity; yet to be uncovered: corporate theft and corruption a la Steinhoff. Crookedness is not the preserve of the ANC alone!
It pains me that so many, once my comrades, betrayed us and what we stood for – not because they signed a settlement or truce with the enemy in 1990 – but because of their limitless lust for power and riches. In a recent social-media film-clip a once top SACP man (who now has neither power or riches) confessed that his party omitted to pay attention to the economic dispensation when the ANC (in his name!) made a pact with the devil. In other words: unfettered capitalism was given the red carpet from apartheid into the present. It beggars belief. It pains me that I cannot stand proud and make bold of that which we thought we fought for. Yes, there were fault-lines throughout and in exile. Asking questions and debating, real debating, was smothered. The holy grail at the top cast those who kept asking as anti-revolutionary, ultra-left, maybe even enemy agents. - When a new generation goes into battle for égalité, this is one lesson from the past they must learn from.
At this time President Ramaphosa’s is, only just, the glue that holds the center together, but his economic proposals for a post-covid economy are, in my view, timid and too conventional to inspire.
For inspiration I urge you to watch the YouTube the lecture by Prof Mahmood Mamdani, giving this year’s Tambo Foundation lecture, held on 21 October 2020. His recasting of our recent history is important. His take on the roles of the externally-based ANC, on the internal mass democratic movement during the 1980’s, on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and more deserves our attention. Go to: https://youtu.be/K7DKfAyuz64
My 44th Newsletter – for what is worth – deals with recording and reflecting that of the past I was fortunate to share in.
October 2020
Horst Kleinschmidt
Dear friends,
My jaundiced view at this time: an ANC heading to self-destruct; no political alternatives; a failing economy; frightening unemployment ahead; continuing collapse of state administrative systems; an incapable education system; continuing corruption; wealth flight/theft out of the country by a super-rich elite; more hate speech at both ends of the black-white spectrum; a compromised and crooked audit fraternity; yet to be uncovered: corporate theft and corruption a la Steinhoff. Crookedness is not the preserve of the ANC alone!
It pains me that so many, once my comrades, betrayed us and what we stood for – not because they signed a settlement or truce with the enemy in 1990 – but because of their limitless lust for power and riches. In a recent social-media film-clip a once top SACP man (who now has neither power or riches) confessed that his party omitted to pay attention to the economic dispensation when the ANC (in his name!) made a pact with the devil. In other words: unfettered capitalism was given the red carpet from apartheid into the present. It beggars belief. It pains me that I cannot stand proud and make bold of that which we thought we fought for. Yes, there were fault-lines throughout and in exile. Asking questions and debating, real debating, was smothered. The holy grail at the top cast those who kept asking as anti-revolutionary, ultra-left, maybe even enemy agents. - When a new generation goes into battle for égalité, this is one lesson from the past they must learn from.
At this time President Ramaphosa’s is, only just, the glue that holds the center together, but his economic proposals for a post-covid economy are, in my view, timid and too conventional to inspire.
For inspiration I urge you to watch the YouTube the lecture by Prof Mahmood Mamdani, giving this year’s Tambo Foundation lecture, held on 21 October 2020. His recasting of our recent history is important. His take on the roles of the externally-based ANC, on the internal mass democratic movement during the 1980’s, on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and more deserves our attention. Go to: https://youtu.be/K7DKfAyuz64
My 44th Newsletter – for what is worth – deals with recording and reflecting that of the past I was fortunate to share in.
- About Khoekhoegowab – the now agreed term for the language that includes Nama, Damara and Haiǁom–ǂĀkhoe dialects. See below.
- A letter to my daughter Zindzi at the time of Zindzi Mandela’s passing in July 2020. Reflections on a the entwined past we share. See below.
- Review of a book Women in Solitary – and a personal connection to what they experienced in solitary confinement. Read Women in Solitary – Inside the female resistance to apartheid, by Shantini Naidoo, published by Tafelberg. See below.
- Cousin Rainer Heller in Köln, wrote in August 2020: Unsere Oma kommt kommt ins Museum! - zu einer Ausstellung des Historischen Museums Berlin. (Our granny is going to be in the Museum). His reference is to Tilly, my great-aunt, denied in colonial times, the right to marry a white man. See Zara and Hinrich pages.
- My obituary on the passing of Priscilla Jana with whom I shared a part of our turbulent past. See below.
- A question to those visiting my website about who nurse Ella Kleinschmidt from District Six was – and the answers that came from Mackie and Mark Kleinschmidt. See website entry.
- Thoughts about social and economic revival post covid in our neighbourhood, Muizenberg. See below
- Enemies of the State - INDEX OF APARTHEID-ERA SECURITY LEGISLATION DIRECTORATE FILES ON INDIVIDUALS. (Previously posted but it showed no content) See below.
- A letter – signed with friends – to Mayor Dan Plato about homelessness and the City’s failures. See the Ubumelwane page of my website.
- New (modest) additions on the Christian Institute and Family History pages. See on website pages.
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Khoekhoegowab – It should be South Africa’s 12th official language. It is however not recognized as an official language. Amongst its dialects are Namaqua and Damara – the language my great, great, great grandmother spoke and the language spoken to this day by my cousins, the Uirab branch of the family.
Mâtisa = Hello ||Khawammûgus = Good-bye !Gâi ||goas = Good morning !Gâi karab. = Good afternoon !Gâi !oes. = Good evening Gangans. = Thank you !Gâi go I. = You are welcome |
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Priscilla Jana, another fellow fighter with whom we shared the vitality of resistance and often the subsequent agony and pain, has passed away. Born 5 December 1943, died 10 October 2020.
She deserves deep respect and remembrance. In the 80’s when fighting apartheid was at its fiercest, her law practice kept its doors open to the young lions, whatever the hour and not least, also to provide empathy and consideration. Long before then, in the early 1970’s, when Black Consciousness had brought new life to the struggle for liberation I recall having dinner at her home in Lenasia. She reluctantly allowed us to leave before food was served - because young fire-brands, counter to the best of what I believe BC stood for, refused to share a meal with white people. That was not Priscilla doing but such were the times. When I fled into exile she provided support and care to Ilona (then my wife) and daughter Zindzi. She was there when Ilona was imprisoned and our daughter had neither parent to be with. Priscilla, and Ilona, later as her second-in-command, provided legal support and compassion without compare during the last decade of the struggle. So intertwined were the two that often those emerging from interrogation and torture, then suddenly facing charges, confused who was Priscilla and who was Ilona. Priscilla and I collaborated for over a decade when I was at IDAF. We sent money for legal fees and welfare support – via a complicated mechanism necessary then, to elude the prying SA security apparatus. The most well-known case was the trial of Solomon Mahlangu. He was sentenced to death and hung on 6 April 1979. The night before, the United Kingdom Anti-Apartheid movement held an all-night vigil on Trafalgar Square, London, outside the South African Embassy. I was amongst those demonstrating. Just after dawn, by arrangement, I called Priscilla to know whether the execution had taken place. She said his last words were: “Tell my people that I love them, they must continue the fight. My blood will nourish the tree that bears the fruit of freedom”. I jotted this on a piece of paper in a freezing public call-box cubicle. Minutes later Mike Terry, head of the AAM, read Solomon’s last words to a tired and rain-drenched solemn gathering. Solomon’s words had just become immortal. In 2016 the autobiography of Priscilla appeared. It describes correctly the trial and its shocking end. Sadly Priscilla chronicled her life without careful research causing there to be errors, generalities, and unwarranted claims. It is not a book historians will be able to rely on. The real contribution by Priscilla still needs to be written. |
Above caption reads: “White woman consoles Indians”.
“The 12 SASO members who appeared in court yesterday, after the alleged pro-Frelimo demonstrations on 24 September last year, did not only have support from the Black audience but from a number of young whites who repeatedly greeted the accused enthusiastically. After the hearing three white girls openly engaged with the families of the accused. The girl on the right at one stage put her arm around the shoulders of an Indian woman. Die Transvaler, 8 February 1975. | ||
Survival and Revival of Muizenberg After Covid-19.
Office space in the Cape Town CBD became vacant as Covid-19 forced people to work from home. And many offices will stay empty long after the Covid-19 pandemic itself fades away.
This is because people who were initially compelled to work from home are likely to continue to work from home – if not fully then part-time.
Working from home is already seen by many as having increased productivity. Not having to travel will give them far more time for leisure, or to actually make a living.
Several businesses based in the CBD are now assessing output not on the basis of ‘time at the office’ but measured in ‘completion of tasks’ instead.
Working from home won’t be free — IT services, furniture, cleaning etc. cost money — but the overall savings, especially for small businesses and freelancers, will be significant.
The IT revolution has made this possible. And the pandemic has made us realize the importance of changing our social and economic ways much more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case.
The impact and benefit of ‘virtual’ meetings is that people can be included who were previously excluded because of distance and travel costs – also into the CBD.
Projections of road traffic and the desire for better and faster private transport — the building of roads — will need to be re-thought and re-assessed.
As the City becomes ‘de-concentrated’ a new mix of residential and commercial will shape those suburbs especially suited to such development.
South African cities could become more like, for example, European cities because our residential areas are generally far from commercial areas (as in the CBD).
Thus the changes forced by the pandemic will have a profound effect on suburbs. The sense of ‘neighborhood’ will get new meaning.
Fewer cars will head in and out the City each day. Peak hour congestion will shift as ‘office hours’ are replaced with ‘productivity output’.
How big this ‘revolution’ will be is unknown. But planning and anticipating its problems, requires our attention now!
It has enormous potential for a re-imagined Muizenberg which has vast under-utilized potential .
What if, in the short and medium term, only 25% of people in the area no longer commute every day? What if they head to the City twice a week instead of five days a week?
Two-car families might sell one car. Homes will be redesigned to provide dedicated working space — and perhaps enough space to hire staff with specialist skills.
Whatever the impact, the ‘footprint’ of office-style presence will increase in residential areas – in Muizenberg with its ever-increasing surfer enthusiasts.
How can Muizenberg benefit from this and how might it plan for this?
If Muizenberg is to take full advantage of its good weather, its beautiful beach, mountains, fine restaurants and bars, we should plan now.
Muizenberg needs a new and progressive vision, clearly and positively articulated. Let’s have a citizens debate about it.
Horst Kleinschmidt
Former director, International Defence and Aid Fund, Kagiso and Mvula Trusts,
Former head, Fisheries Department
Office space in the Cape Town CBD became vacant as Covid-19 forced people to work from home. And many offices will stay empty long after the Covid-19 pandemic itself fades away.
This is because people who were initially compelled to work from home are likely to continue to work from home – if not fully then part-time.
Working from home is already seen by many as having increased productivity. Not having to travel will give them far more time for leisure, or to actually make a living.
Several businesses based in the CBD are now assessing output not on the basis of ‘time at the office’ but measured in ‘completion of tasks’ instead.
Working from home won’t be free — IT services, furniture, cleaning etc. cost money — but the overall savings, especially for small businesses and freelancers, will be significant.
The IT revolution has made this possible. And the pandemic has made us realize the importance of changing our social and economic ways much more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case.
The impact and benefit of ‘virtual’ meetings is that people can be included who were previously excluded because of distance and travel costs – also into the CBD.
Projections of road traffic and the desire for better and faster private transport — the building of roads — will need to be re-thought and re-assessed.
As the City becomes ‘de-concentrated’ a new mix of residential and commercial will shape those suburbs especially suited to such development.
South African cities could become more like, for example, European cities because our residential areas are generally far from commercial areas (as in the CBD).
Thus the changes forced by the pandemic will have a profound effect on suburbs. The sense of ‘neighborhood’ will get new meaning.
Fewer cars will head in and out the City each day. Peak hour congestion will shift as ‘office hours’ are replaced with ‘productivity output’.
How big this ‘revolution’ will be is unknown. But planning and anticipating its problems, requires our attention now!
It has enormous potential for a re-imagined Muizenberg which has vast under-utilized potential .
What if, in the short and medium term, only 25% of people in the area no longer commute every day? What if they head to the City twice a week instead of five days a week?
Two-car families might sell one car. Homes will be redesigned to provide dedicated working space — and perhaps enough space to hire staff with specialist skills.
Whatever the impact, the ‘footprint’ of office-style presence will increase in residential areas – in Muizenberg with its ever-increasing surfer enthusiasts.
How can Muizenberg benefit from this and how might it plan for this?
- Gradually the demand for restaurants, coffee shops and bars will pick up (to the detriment of similar facilities in the CBD.)
- To handle this increase, Muizenberg needs to design and brand itself around Surfers Corner as a preferred entertainment hub. Tourists need put Muizenberg at the top of their lists.
- York Road, Beach Road, Palmer Road and the elevated walkway along the beach can be re-thought and re-designed to cater better for the work-from-home locals and for tourists alike.
- Muizenberg has partly adapted to surfers – a largely young white group. But the surfer composition is increasingly mixed in age and colour.
- Muizenberg is already a growing destination for people from the former racially designated areas. The shift is away from Monwabisi and Strandfontein. The public facilities and open spaces of Muizenberg need expanding and upgrading.
- The pavilion must, of course, be re-thought!
- The Railway station, the Police Museum and the VOC Posthuis need to be engaged to help re-focus Muizenberg’s identity.
- Pedestrian zones are at the heart of cities in many parts of the world. People flock there to meet, eat, drink, flirt, play boulle and chess and generally have a good time. Business deals are done. Musicians play music. Jugglers juggle. Magicians perform miracles.
If Muizenberg is to take full advantage of its good weather, its beautiful beach, mountains, fine restaurants and bars, we should plan now.
Muizenberg needs a new and progressive vision, clearly and positively articulated. Let’s have a citizens debate about it.
Horst Kleinschmidt
Former director, International Defence and Aid Fund, Kagiso and Mvula Trusts,
Former head, Fisheries Department
In July 2020 I participated in a Mandela Day Webinar arranged by the Austrian SA Documentation Centre (SADOCC) The event and all speakers can be seen and listened to at
https://youtu.be/hsY8sAZKyXg
https://youtu.be/hsY8sAZKyXg
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Nurse Kleinschmidt from D6 worked at Peninsula Maternity Hospital. Can anyone help and provide more information about her? There is no date but the photo must have been taken prior to the apartheid eviction of the 1960's.
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Review: Women in Solitary – Inside the female resistance to apartheid.
By Shantini Naidoo. Tafelberg publishers 2020.
Review by Horst Kleinschmidt, September 2020.
‘An eloquent salute to the women whose shoulders we walk on. A vital reminder’, is how respected journalist Ferial Haffajee describes this book. The book is about four women whose lives remind us of the bad times when detention and torture including solitary isolation was common in our country; when bestial cops had the job to keep people like these four women locked up, so that a white elite was able to live in infinite comfort and amass untold wealth. Theirs’ is the recall of trauma, defiance and loyalty. They also remind us that the quest for equality and justice continues. Rightly, their families are proud of them. So should we. The unbelievable injustice done to them happened 50 years ago. It culminated in the trial known as The State versus (Samson) Ndou and 21 others. Conveniently they were accused of terrorism. Despite the odds against them none were ever found guilty.
One night when reading the book, I had a rare but frightening nightmare: I was arrested, detained, humiliated, manhandled by the same policemen who held me in solitary in Pretoria Central prison 45 years ago, five years after these women were in the same prison this book is about. In my case I was in the white section of the prison. In my dream I wanted to know why they were all the same white SB’s who interrogated me all those years ago. They laughed at me. I’m not clear how my dream ended.
Like these women describe, I faced the same aperture, known as the Judas-hole in my cell door. A small window in the opposite wall was too high for me to reach. One night the Black prisoners somewhere in this red-brick prison, sang – all night. From Hugh Lewin’s book Bandiet, which was banned but I’d read it secretly long before my arrest, I knew that the singing was for a condemned person. Someone would be hung in the morning – just like the women describe in the book. I was terrified when at day-break the singing stopped. All I heard was a commotion and the clanking of keys. Worse, the commotion seemed to stop outside my prison door. Had they been singing for me? More commotion. Then silence. The lid on the Judas hole opened and a voice said “wat is djay hie voor?” I said Terrorism Act. The aperture shut. Then it opened again and through it came a piece of newspaper with Tabaco wrapped in it. The Judas hole opened again and this time the side of a match box and matches were squeezed through. It opened once more and the voice said: good luck! More commotion, screams. I constituted that those outside my prison door where prisoners, taken along to collect the dead body of the person hanging from the noose, here, right in the vicinity of my cell. They had wheelbarrow to do their job. Then the shrill screech of the wheel disappeared into bowels of the building. I wanted to scream. The six cells next to the gallows were used to try and break us. Scrawls on the walls told of desperate thoughts. I knew some of the names of who wrote on the walls. They, I knew, had not gone to the gallows, not been tortured to death, but were taken here to be broken. I added my name and left the tobacco and matches in a crevasse between the bricks, hoping it would comfort someone who in time would be here after me.
The book takes you into the excruciating agony these women went through. Their ordeal was worse than mine: they spent far longer in solitary, and when they eventually were tried and acquitted the Special Branch re-detained them for more torture and solitary confinement; their suffering made even worse because of their gender and the colour of their skin.
These women deserve our salute, our gratitude and we need them to continue to inspire us. Do them the honour by reading about them. I was lucky to have known some of those whose story is told. I am drawn to the story because I have a connection. But anyone who treasures the freedoms we enjoy today is duty-bound to pay homage to them by knowing who they are. We show our respect by knowing of the trauma that never left them. They acted selflessly and sought no reward. You and the next generation can show your indebtedness by not forgetting that we walk on the shoulders of these women.
One of the women in the book is Shanthi Naidoo. Her heroism stands higher even, I aver, because she additionally served imprisonment for refusing to testify against the others. One step beyond being treated as the enemy, was the attempt to make you an impimpi against your own people and comrades. Shanthie refused. I first met Shanthie at her mother’s home in Rocky Street, shortly after her release. With me, as guest of the student organization, was Denis Healey, British Labour MP and later Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made no big deal of her experience as she implored him to take steps abroad that would complement our freedom struggle. I was again with the Naidoo family at the airport when Shanthie was obliged to leave South Africa on a one-way ticket into exile. The image of the agony of her parting from her mother will never leave me. When I was exiled years later, Shanthie and I worked together in London at the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF).
The author makes frequent reference to IDAF. It was the vision of an outstanding man, Canon John Collins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London who responded to the call of Chief Albert Luthuli when he and others were charged with treason in 1956. It motivated Collins to collect funds so that the accused, and later those in the Rivonia trial could be afforded a legal defence. In 1966 IDAF was banned in South Africa but Canon Collins did not give up. Through secret means he kept sending money so that those detained and charged in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and South West Africa had what legal protection it was possible to give. The trial of Ndou and the 21 others was equally funded by IDAF. Those imprisoned were helped by IDAF in another way. Canon Collins got money to the spouses of those incarcerated by arranging that citizens the world over would send the suffering families money by International Postal Orders. In the 1980’s 2000 families scattered across the globe wrote and sent Collins’ postal orders to sustain families of political prisoners, also to pay for an annual visit to Robben Island or other prisons. The security police never cracked the system. But they tried, as the TRC was told many years later. IDAF also recorded and published about the discrimination and repression. IDAF books were sold globally and appeared in a dozen different languages. It served to keep the conscience of the world alive. Shanthini Naidoo (no relation to Shantie) draws on all three of the IDAF assistances to tell the four women’s stories.
I am sorry that the author does not pay adequate attention to historic detail and instead dwells overly on emotion to elevate the women. The neglect of historic accuracy, of nuance and context detracts from an otherwise worthy book.
In a time when the image of the ruling party is ever more tarnished, the history of what it stood for and aimed to do in the years we call the struggle, is questioned, even dismissed, by those of the next generations. Yes, fault lines there were but nothing diminishes what these women are about. They represent the honourable attributes that guide any generation, past and future! If you can find a way, let them know that you will not forget what they did for us.
HK
By Shantini Naidoo. Tafelberg publishers 2020.
Review by Horst Kleinschmidt, September 2020.
‘An eloquent salute to the women whose shoulders we walk on. A vital reminder’, is how respected journalist Ferial Haffajee describes this book. The book is about four women whose lives remind us of the bad times when detention and torture including solitary isolation was common in our country; when bestial cops had the job to keep people like these four women locked up, so that a white elite was able to live in infinite comfort and amass untold wealth. Theirs’ is the recall of trauma, defiance and loyalty. They also remind us that the quest for equality and justice continues. Rightly, their families are proud of them. So should we. The unbelievable injustice done to them happened 50 years ago. It culminated in the trial known as The State versus (Samson) Ndou and 21 others. Conveniently they were accused of terrorism. Despite the odds against them none were ever found guilty.
One night when reading the book, I had a rare but frightening nightmare: I was arrested, detained, humiliated, manhandled by the same policemen who held me in solitary in Pretoria Central prison 45 years ago, five years after these women were in the same prison this book is about. In my case I was in the white section of the prison. In my dream I wanted to know why they were all the same white SB’s who interrogated me all those years ago. They laughed at me. I’m not clear how my dream ended.
Like these women describe, I faced the same aperture, known as the Judas-hole in my cell door. A small window in the opposite wall was too high for me to reach. One night the Black prisoners somewhere in this red-brick prison, sang – all night. From Hugh Lewin’s book Bandiet, which was banned but I’d read it secretly long before my arrest, I knew that the singing was for a condemned person. Someone would be hung in the morning – just like the women describe in the book. I was terrified when at day-break the singing stopped. All I heard was a commotion and the clanking of keys. Worse, the commotion seemed to stop outside my prison door. Had they been singing for me? More commotion. Then silence. The lid on the Judas hole opened and a voice said “wat is djay hie voor?” I said Terrorism Act. The aperture shut. Then it opened again and through it came a piece of newspaper with Tabaco wrapped in it. The Judas hole opened again and this time the side of a match box and matches were squeezed through. It opened once more and the voice said: good luck! More commotion, screams. I constituted that those outside my prison door where prisoners, taken along to collect the dead body of the person hanging from the noose, here, right in the vicinity of my cell. They had wheelbarrow to do their job. Then the shrill screech of the wheel disappeared into bowels of the building. I wanted to scream. The six cells next to the gallows were used to try and break us. Scrawls on the walls told of desperate thoughts. I knew some of the names of who wrote on the walls. They, I knew, had not gone to the gallows, not been tortured to death, but were taken here to be broken. I added my name and left the tobacco and matches in a crevasse between the bricks, hoping it would comfort someone who in time would be here after me.
The book takes you into the excruciating agony these women went through. Their ordeal was worse than mine: they spent far longer in solitary, and when they eventually were tried and acquitted the Special Branch re-detained them for more torture and solitary confinement; their suffering made even worse because of their gender and the colour of their skin.
These women deserve our salute, our gratitude and we need them to continue to inspire us. Do them the honour by reading about them. I was lucky to have known some of those whose story is told. I am drawn to the story because I have a connection. But anyone who treasures the freedoms we enjoy today is duty-bound to pay homage to them by knowing who they are. We show our respect by knowing of the trauma that never left them. They acted selflessly and sought no reward. You and the next generation can show your indebtedness by not forgetting that we walk on the shoulders of these women.
One of the women in the book is Shanthi Naidoo. Her heroism stands higher even, I aver, because she additionally served imprisonment for refusing to testify against the others. One step beyond being treated as the enemy, was the attempt to make you an impimpi against your own people and comrades. Shanthie refused. I first met Shanthie at her mother’s home in Rocky Street, shortly after her release. With me, as guest of the student organization, was Denis Healey, British Labour MP and later Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made no big deal of her experience as she implored him to take steps abroad that would complement our freedom struggle. I was again with the Naidoo family at the airport when Shanthie was obliged to leave South Africa on a one-way ticket into exile. The image of the agony of her parting from her mother will never leave me. When I was exiled years later, Shanthie and I worked together in London at the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF).
The author makes frequent reference to IDAF. It was the vision of an outstanding man, Canon John Collins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London who responded to the call of Chief Albert Luthuli when he and others were charged with treason in 1956. It motivated Collins to collect funds so that the accused, and later those in the Rivonia trial could be afforded a legal defence. In 1966 IDAF was banned in South Africa but Canon Collins did not give up. Through secret means he kept sending money so that those detained and charged in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and South West Africa had what legal protection it was possible to give. The trial of Ndou and the 21 others was equally funded by IDAF. Those imprisoned were helped by IDAF in another way. Canon Collins got money to the spouses of those incarcerated by arranging that citizens the world over would send the suffering families money by International Postal Orders. In the 1980’s 2000 families scattered across the globe wrote and sent Collins’ postal orders to sustain families of political prisoners, also to pay for an annual visit to Robben Island or other prisons. The security police never cracked the system. But they tried, as the TRC was told many years later. IDAF also recorded and published about the discrimination and repression. IDAF books were sold globally and appeared in a dozen different languages. It served to keep the conscience of the world alive. Shanthini Naidoo (no relation to Shantie) draws on all three of the IDAF assistances to tell the four women’s stories.
I am sorry that the author does not pay adequate attention to historic detail and instead dwells overly on emotion to elevate the women. The neglect of historic accuracy, of nuance and context detracts from an otherwise worthy book.
In a time when the image of the ruling party is ever more tarnished, the history of what it stood for and aimed to do in the years we call the struggle, is questioned, even dismissed, by those of the next generations. Yes, fault lines there were but nothing diminishes what these women are about. They represent the honourable attributes that guide any generation, past and future! If you can find a way, let them know that you will not forget what they did for us.
HK
|
Letter to my daughter 17 July 2020
Dear Zindzi, On the eight o’clock news, this Monday (13 July 2020), we heard that Zindzi Mandela died in a Johannesburg hospital after a short illness. She was till then SA’s Ambassador to Denmark. The announcement said nothing about the corona virus. As you know you are named after her. I thought this is a moment to for me to recall the turbulent times when you were born. I feel sad at Zindzi’s passing - and only 59 years of age! She grew up, lived and carved her own legacy despite two iconic parents. Her life was exceptional by any measure. I recall your birth, just before Christmas in 1974 and my having to register you. For this to happen you needed a name. Ilona and I were dithering. We had agreed on Nadja because it was less common. We asked friends, including Winnie to offer suggestions. In her indomitable style she pronounced that our child should be called Zindzi, after her own thirteen year-old daughter (at that time). There were recent events, prior to your birth that prompted Winnie's suggestion. But let me start at the beginning. You might like to know how the connection to Winnie came about. In May 1969 I was a student at Wits. Winnie, poet Wally Serote and 19 others were detained and tortured without court appearance, without charges laid against them nor had they access to a lawyer. I had never met any of the detainees but we knew that they represented resistance to apartheid - since the 1950’s. Under the banner of NUSAS - I had recently been elected to the executive - we marched from the campus to their place of detention - John Vorster Square in downtown Johannesburg. There were about 300 of us, all white students. It was risky to organise this but we wanted to show our rejection of the police state that South Africa was. Just outside J V Square the police charged us in their hundreds. We told the students to sit down. We were carried into the police station. In December that year some thirty of us were charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act. Influential lawyers, fathers of several of the accused, talked to the prosecution and we got away with a fine. I never found out who paid my fine, but I now had a criminal record. In all these detainees were held for 491 days. My Special Branch file – accessible now - says that on 16 May, the day after the march, I appealed to students unions abroad to support us. In 1972 Ilona and I returned to Johannesburg to both go and work for the left-leaning Christian Institute. We moved in with and shared a rented house with the banned Catholic cleric, Cosmas Desmond. This posed several risks. On the face of it we were sub-tenants in a separate part of the house – a rouge intended to make it difficult for the police to monitor Cos. Cos’ house arrest forbade him company from 6pm to 6am. When cops raided, when there was that knock on the door, he’d rush to his side of the house leaving no evidence of his being with us – not his slippers, plate of food or glass of wine. They knew that Ilona and I were helping him break the terms of his order but they needed evidence to get him. On repeated raids we succeeded to deny them what they wanted. An anecdote: We brewed our own beer but gave up when one night a bottle with too much yeast, exploded, breaking all the other bottles in the process. When the bang woke us we first thought the police had thrown a petrol bomb into the house. - We stopped brewing beer. We got on well with Cosmas and our cover provided for him to attend house parties and for him to be with his future wife, Snoeks. Cosmas had left the Franciscan Order. To be moral and ethical was no longer dependent on membership of a church institution. Organised religion had too often sided with injustice, Cosmas pointed out in his writings. He and Snoeks had two children and adopted a third. When Ilona or I would buy us take-away dinners at the Portuguese shop a block away from our house - greasy, porky ‘russian’ sausages and chips was our favourite - the short walk was also to verify that we were still under surveillance. One or two of the standard issue Chrysler Valiant cars, without hub-caps, was the surest evidence that they were watching us. And there they were, each night – like in the movies, spotted drawing on their cigarettes in the dark. One night we mocked the policeman who, during a raid, rushed to find Cos’ ‘formal’ shoes, put his hands into them and claimed they were still warm, thus proving that Cos had secretly been out for the evening. Yes we were frightened, but defiance won out over fear. One evening we came home from work to find someone sitting in ‘our’ lounge. She told us she was let in by Cos via the back door – the servants door, technically speaking. If the police came she would be in ‘our’ lounge waiting for us. She introduced herself as Winnie Mandela. Once we turned on the light it was evident – her appearance well-known from press photos, She needed to talk to Cosmas but she was also banned and two banned persons were not allowed to communicate with each other. Cos joined us in our lounge and Ilona and I kept watch in case the police pounced. After she left Cos solicited our support. Winnie was helping young women and men flee the country – illegally. Neither Cos, nor did we, ask any questions. We assumed – rightly – that they had no passport and stood no chance of getting one – and aimed to join the ANC in exile. Could we at appointed times and places pick a person – not talk to them - and drive them to a point of their choosing. The purpose was for these young folk to throw off any ‘tails’, of police following them. Ours was a tiny task in a bigger scheme. Such was the world we entered into now. When Ilona and I considered our driving them into the night too dangerous – for them - we asked friends to act for us. You know Malcolm, he was one such person. Winnie visited more often and we became friends. We visited her at her Orlando West house and got to know Zenani and Zindzi when they were home from school in Swaziland - a school where they could escape discrimination, official or social. The hefty school fees were paid by Sir Robert Birley in the UK – someone we also got to know. For us to visit Soweto involved risks, as white people required a permit. We knew we stood no chance of getting such permits. But we regularly dared the system. If we saw police patrols on the only road into Soweto – you could see the blockade from the intersection with Main Reef Road - and we’d turn away. Winnie was one of only twelve people in Soweto allowed a telephone, no doubt to monitor her. I recall her, more than once, in the middle of the night, calling us, screaming over the phone that police were attacking her house and terrorising her and the children. She wanted someone outside to know she might be killed. The police vandalized her house, at one time even ripping sheets of iron off the roof. We did not know how to help. Our usual response was to phone Dr Motlana, one other Sowetan with a phone. He usually told us that Winnie had called already and he would be on his way to her house. And we told our reporter friends at the Rand Daily Mail. The terror attacks on Winnie’s house made her ask for a fence around her house – not real safety but a deterrent of sorts. Our friend Jackie Bosman put up most of the money and then I got a man to put up a slatted concrete wall. No sooner was it up and the City Council demanded it be pulled down. The reason? It was not erected on the survey perimeters and encroached on City Council land. I protested and explained that we had it built exactly along the line of a hedge that had seen better days. In fact, Winnie explained, Nelson had planted the hedge before he went into hiding. Well, it turned out, Nelson had not conformed with City rules either. The fence had to be moved six inches to the right. Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach and his wife Yolanda, after attending the conference of Afrikaner rebel writers in Stellenbosch, visited Beyers Naudé in Johannesburg in 1973/4. They asked afterwards, if he could introduce them to Winnie Mandela. That is how I met Breyten and Yolanda. Beyers had not yet met Winnie but knew that Ilona and I were associated with her. I took them to Noord Street, opposite the segregated Black rail station, to the shop where Winnie earned her living. They also asked me to take a photo of the three of them together. The negative of that photograph was later used as a key to introduce me to Breyten’s secret messengers to South Africa. In the false bottom of a matchbox I would find the negative and thus could trust the persons introducing themselves to me. – Therein lies the fateful story of what led to my detention in September 1975. But that’s another story. A friend of Winnie’s we got to know, was Rand Daily Mail photographer Peter Magubane. A banning order was slapped on him too, ruining his career. Winnie and Peter were charged for talking to each other. Evidence by the prosecution of their ‘transgression’ was that Winnie shouted to Peter, sitting in the his car: It is raining, will you take my girls home. Both were sentenced to six months imprisonment on 14 October 1974. As Peter was led from the dock he asked if I would buy one of his cameras, a Nikkormat, and would I use the money to support his daughter during his imprisonment. I still have the camera. Minutes earlier as Winnie was taken down after her sentence was pronounced, her lawyer, George Bizos halted the process. He raised the problem that Zeni and Zindzi would not have a legal guardian since both parents would be in jail. He told the court that guardians had to be appointed – to avoid the girls being handed over to the, inevitably hostile, state social services. The judge was impatient but George persisted. I was one of very few people in the gallery, there to show support and solidarity. It was arranged that I be appointed as the legal guardian of the girls for the six months. George said this required both Winnie’s and Nelson’s signatures. I said to Winnie, how could Nelson sign such rights to a person unknown to him. To this Winnie replied: Don’t worry, Nelson knows who you are. When Winnie was eventually led away and the girls said goodbye, Zindzi broke out in tears. Winnie reprimanded her and said: don’t ever cry in front of your enemy; show them you are strong; if you cry don’t let them see you. 11th December 74: My diary: “When I arrived at work I found myself going up in the lift with SB man Pitout and SB man Liebenberg. I have seen them before on a number of occasions. They were also in court when Winnie’s suspended sentences became operative. They address me by name and therefore obviously know me. I have decided to hand over my passport without any fuss, in particular because I don’t want them to search through either our house or the office. They ‘thank’ me for not causing a fuss. I’m pleased they don’t come for more.” 13 April 1975: My diary: Winnie Mandela released after 6 months in prison. This ended my guardianship over the Mandela daughters. Peter Magubane was released at the same time. Both remained banned. For those six months Ilona and I did what we could to exercise parental duty over the two girls. Being Black they could not come and stay with us and we had extreme problems visiting them at their Soweto home. A curfew on all Blacks meant they had to be back in Soweto by nightfall. We worried about two teenage girls living alone having to face nearly impossible conditions. At the time Elias Tsomo had completed his prison sentence on Robben Island. His family home was not far from the Mandela home. He became our effective guardian presence for the girls. He was diligent but too faced impossible problems for us to solve. The girls were up too late and he wondered if they had friends or boyfriends with them, he wondered. Elias’ own banning order prevented him from going out at night. During the day the girls would come to the CI offices in Braamfontein. They called us auntie Ilona and uncle Horst. 16.5.77. Winnie Mandela forcibly is removed from Orlando to Brandfort and at the CI Utrecht office I issue a statement condemning Winnie’s banishment to Brandfort. See telex in my archive. After my detention and then fleeing from South Africa meant I did not see them again until 1990 in London. One of my Newsletters I wrote about the encounter – and our differences over where to buy winter coats for them: Harrods or Marks and Spencer? The last time I saw Winnie and the girls – by no means girls anymore, was in 2004 at Beyers Naudé’s funeral in Northcliffe, Johannesburg. Both greeted me with ‘uncle Horst’. Zindzi, this is a vignette from the lives of your mother and your father - and how it was that we wanted you to be named Zindzi. Your name not merely connects you to the iconic Mandela family but is stems from the heart of the very dark days of struggle. The ending of the letter is omitted here. __________________ |
“Mrs Ilona Kleinschmidt hugs her 3-year-old daughter, Zinzi, after she was refused a passportto visit her father in Holland. Mrs Kleinschmidt’s own passport has been taken away. Zinzi’s father has fled the country”. newspaper cutting.
Above: The camera Peter Magubane sold me in court after being sentenced for speaking to Winnie. Would I support his daughter while he was in prison, was his request.
Below: Zenani, Winnie and Zindzi when Winnie was released from prison, ending my guardianship of her two daughters. 
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Newsletter 43:
8 July 2020:
It’s my pleasure to send you my new Newsletter - number 43. Write back and engage me if you like. I cover the following:
1. Soup kitchens in the time of Covid.
2. Unemployment in the context of Covid.
3. Measures to shape post-covid South Africa:
- Building the National Health System now
- Inheritance tax - and wealth tax.
- Toward a permanent Basic Income Grant
4. Violence against South African Women - we need more than slogans.
5. My Neighbours, my Ubumelwane - Masiphumelele.
6. Tribute to Cor Groenendijk, Dutch anti-apartheid activist.
7. Reflections on Sweden closing the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister, Olof Palme.
8. Revelations from my SB file.
9. Palestine-Israel: my vote 50 years ago and my signature now.
10. The extraordinary Naidoo’s of Rocky Street - view the video.
11. Defining race, racism and colour, new thoughts about Germany's constitution.
12. Escape from Pretoria - a film with Daniel Radcliffe.
Yours,
Horst
8 July 2020:
It’s my pleasure to send you my new Newsletter - number 43. Write back and engage me if you like. I cover the following:
1. Soup kitchens in the time of Covid.
2. Unemployment in the context of Covid.
3. Measures to shape post-covid South Africa:
- Building the National Health System now
- Inheritance tax - and wealth tax.
- Toward a permanent Basic Income Grant
4. Violence against South African Women - we need more than slogans.
5. My Neighbours, my Ubumelwane - Masiphumelele.
6. Tribute to Cor Groenendijk, Dutch anti-apartheid activist.
7. Reflections on Sweden closing the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister, Olof Palme.
8. Revelations from my SB file.
9. Palestine-Israel: my vote 50 years ago and my signature now.
10. The extraordinary Naidoo’s of Rocky Street - view the video.
11. Defining race, racism and colour, new thoughts about Germany's constitution.
12. Escape from Pretoria - a film with Daniel Radcliffe.
Yours,
Horst
| Horst's Newsletter 43 |
The need in my hood - Masiphumelele. Kindly help if you can.
4 May 2020.
Dear friends,
You will be pressed to support one or more causes at this time. If you cannot respond to this request please see below as information. This is a good example of supporting an elected community civic association to help rather than going via the many charities - seldom based in the communities they serve. I have also gone to the wider neighbourhood in the Fish Hoek Valley, Kommetjie, Noordhoek area as the first point of call - and they have responded. I know the people of the MCO for many years - we have always worked well together.
I very much hope you might assist, however little it is.
Sincerely yours,
Horst
From: Horst Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>
Subject: Reporting and thanks from Masiphumele Civic Organisation
Date: 04 May 2020 at 11:00:49 SAST
To: Horst Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>, Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
4 May 2020
Dear local and overseas supporters of Masiphumelele,
Your response to our call for solidarity and support since the lockdown has been fantastic. We are grateful that you placed your trust in the Masiphumelele Civic Organisation. To date we have received R40,021.90. At R250 per food parcel this resulted in 149 homes being supported by the end of Saturday 2 May, 2020. On the assumption that each parcel assisted a family of around 5 we reached some 750 people. Expenditure is R37,250.00 plus R800.00 for transport expenses and we are left with a small balance.
Masi Civic Organisation purchased the food parcels from Pick n Pay, Longbeach Mall and collectively the 11 committee members assessed which homes were most in need. ‘We ensured that each parcel got to the homes we identified. We have had immense co-operation from the entire community’.
‘We know that 149 parcels helps families for about one week, maybe a little longer. But the need is much larger and every day new families come and ask for help. Worst of all we face the reality that we should provide a second round of help. With your contribution we hope we can provide another round of help in May. While we had a committee meeting on Saturday evening we were disrupted by a group of people demanding food as well. We adjourned our meeting to address them. So far we have managed to clarify everything to the people and they are happy with our explanation on the process we have followed to distribute the food parcels to the most needy people’.
‘We, the civic, are grateful that Masi is helped by other initiatives too. The soup kitchen initiative operating from Ukhanyo Primary School feeds many. The numbers increase each day. We from MCO work closely with them – some of our committee members volunteer at the kitchen.There is also the initiative operated by Living Hope and CAN. We are confident that there is no overlap or misuse of the food provided by the different groups. We will keep a close eye on matters as we go forward to ensure that fair and equal distribution is maintained and goes to the most needy.’
We keep all purchase vouchers and our account of income and expenditure is open for inspection if needed.
If you are unable to make another grant to us in May, please will you consider sending this request to a friend who might help.
Sincerely yours,
Tshepo and Horst
Payment can be made to account: Masiphumele Civic Organisation, FNB Bank Gold Business Account, Branch: Long Beach 260300, account: 62749945971. The reference person to be informed is Mr
Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
Dear friends,
You will be pressed to support one or more causes at this time. If you cannot respond to this request please see below as information. This is a good example of supporting an elected community civic association to help rather than going via the many charities - seldom based in the communities they serve. I have also gone to the wider neighbourhood in the Fish Hoek Valley, Kommetjie, Noordhoek area as the first point of call - and they have responded. I know the people of the MCO for many years - we have always worked well together.
I very much hope you might assist, however little it is.
Sincerely yours,
Horst
From: Horst Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>
Subject: Reporting and thanks from Masiphumele Civic Organisation
Date: 04 May 2020 at 11:00:49 SAST
To: Horst Kleinschmidt <[email protected]>, Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
4 May 2020
Dear local and overseas supporters of Masiphumelele,
Your response to our call for solidarity and support since the lockdown has been fantastic. We are grateful that you placed your trust in the Masiphumelele Civic Organisation. To date we have received R40,021.90. At R250 per food parcel this resulted in 149 homes being supported by the end of Saturday 2 May, 2020. On the assumption that each parcel assisted a family of around 5 we reached some 750 people. Expenditure is R37,250.00 plus R800.00 for transport expenses and we are left with a small balance.
Masi Civic Organisation purchased the food parcels from Pick n Pay, Longbeach Mall and collectively the 11 committee members assessed which homes were most in need. ‘We ensured that each parcel got to the homes we identified. We have had immense co-operation from the entire community’.
‘We know that 149 parcels helps families for about one week, maybe a little longer. But the need is much larger and every day new families come and ask for help. Worst of all we face the reality that we should provide a second round of help. With your contribution we hope we can provide another round of help in May. While we had a committee meeting on Saturday evening we were disrupted by a group of people demanding food as well. We adjourned our meeting to address them. So far we have managed to clarify everything to the people and they are happy with our explanation on the process we have followed to distribute the food parcels to the most needy people’.
‘We, the civic, are grateful that Masi is helped by other initiatives too. The soup kitchen initiative operating from Ukhanyo Primary School feeds many. The numbers increase each day. We from MCO work closely with them – some of our committee members volunteer at the kitchen.There is also the initiative operated by Living Hope and CAN. We are confident that there is no overlap or misuse of the food provided by the different groups. We will keep a close eye on matters as we go forward to ensure that fair and equal distribution is maintained and goes to the most needy.’
We keep all purchase vouchers and our account of income and expenditure is open for inspection if needed.
If you are unable to make another grant to us in May, please will you consider sending this request to a friend who might help.
Sincerely yours,
Tshepo and Horst
Payment can be made to account: Masiphumele Civic Organisation, FNB Bank Gold Business Account, Branch: Long Beach 260300, account: 62749945971. The reference person to be informed is Mr
Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
17 April 2020
Dear friends,
In my neighbourhood we have what may politely be called a massive labour camp. It is racially defined and its boundaries are enforced mostly, by invisible walls - making life extremely tough at the best of times. The place is called Masiphumelele and its 40,000 inhabitants are loosing out. At the end of week three of the lockdown hunger is now the biggest issue facing, especially those living in shacks adjacent to four open sewers or as back-yarders behind and in front of more formal housing. Many men depended an income by sitting next to a main road from early morning, hoping someone might use their labour for a day’s cash wages - this source of income is gone. Others have lost their jobs, also women doing domestic work in the surrounding suburbs. Yes, many employers continue to pay wages, but with the collapse of small businesses, the people who suffer most live here. A soup kitchen and food-parcel scheme has been organised but they need supplies.
My response to this urgent request is premised on:
- My appeal must go (and is going) firstly to the well-to-do folk in my own neighbourhood where our solidarity and humanness is called upon. After that is not enough, I appeal to you who live further away, in Europe and the USA.
- Government must, and in part is doing its part, but for all three tiers of government, municipal, provincial and national, this task is far beyond their capacities.
- I want to avoid the paternalism that springs into action at this time where well-meaning ‘whites’ arrange and distribute food or other relief on behalf of ‘for the people’ in Masi.
To not repeat this mode we must work with Masi’s own initiatives. We must respond to their calls and trust their judgements.
Here are the building blocks that are best placed to help as I see it:
1. The Masiphumelele Civic organisation (registered as a NPO) comprises 11 wards each with an elected representative. The chairperson is Tshepo Moletsane, a seasoned and trusted leader - and long-time friend of mine.
2. A feeding scheme launched from within Masi called Precious Lives Matter, led by Life Ndlovu. With the support of Michael Tyhali headmaster of Ukhanyo Primary School, the school kitchen has been made available to prepare meals. Children receive the required sanitary attention, are made to stand 1.5m apart and bring their own food containers. The response is overwhelming. Two of the civic leaders are involved here. Civic leaders play their role to see that food parcels are equitably allocated.
3. Pick n Pay supermarket at Longbeach Mall have agreed, for payment, to supply food and/or prepare food parcels to the school on a daily basis.
Tshepo Moletsane adds: “All community leaders will be involved; foreign nationals will be supported; records of expenditure will be kept and accounted for; those most at risk will be given priority; team volunteers will be added when and where necessary."
The need is growing by the day. (There are at least two other initiatives providing food in the area but this is the initiative I recommend)
There are no recorded cases of Covid 19 at the time of writing.
I want to encourage you to make donations to help this initiative. Payment can be made to account: Masiphumele Civic Organisation, FNB Bank Gold Business Account, Branch: Long Beach 260300, account: 62749945971. The reference person to be informed is Mr
Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
You might also engage Mr. Moletsane directly at above email.
This is a time like no other to show solidarity across borders and across divides. This is not about big donations, but a willingness that shows empathy.
For further reading: https://theconversation.com/lockdowns-threaten-childrens-nutrition-why-extra-care-is-needed-135837
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-09-lockdown-in-the-kasi-a-matter-of-interpretation/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-10-sandf-and-polices-violent-easter-gift-to-masiphumelele/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-13-easter-is-also-about-not-giving-up-life-in-masiphumelele-beyond-desperation-and-police-violence/
Yours sincerely,
Horst
Dear friends,
In my neighbourhood we have what may politely be called a massive labour camp. It is racially defined and its boundaries are enforced mostly, by invisible walls - making life extremely tough at the best of times. The place is called Masiphumelele and its 40,000 inhabitants are loosing out. At the end of week three of the lockdown hunger is now the biggest issue facing, especially those living in shacks adjacent to four open sewers or as back-yarders behind and in front of more formal housing. Many men depended an income by sitting next to a main road from early morning, hoping someone might use their labour for a day’s cash wages - this source of income is gone. Others have lost their jobs, also women doing domestic work in the surrounding suburbs. Yes, many employers continue to pay wages, but with the collapse of small businesses, the people who suffer most live here. A soup kitchen and food-parcel scheme has been organised but they need supplies.
My response to this urgent request is premised on:
- My appeal must go (and is going) firstly to the well-to-do folk in my own neighbourhood where our solidarity and humanness is called upon. After that is not enough, I appeal to you who live further away, in Europe and the USA.
- Government must, and in part is doing its part, but for all three tiers of government, municipal, provincial and national, this task is far beyond their capacities.
- I want to avoid the paternalism that springs into action at this time where well-meaning ‘whites’ arrange and distribute food or other relief on behalf of ‘for the people’ in Masi.
To not repeat this mode we must work with Masi’s own initiatives. We must respond to their calls and trust their judgements.
Here are the building blocks that are best placed to help as I see it:
1. The Masiphumelele Civic organisation (registered as a NPO) comprises 11 wards each with an elected representative. The chairperson is Tshepo Moletsane, a seasoned and trusted leader - and long-time friend of mine.
2. A feeding scheme launched from within Masi called Precious Lives Matter, led by Life Ndlovu. With the support of Michael Tyhali headmaster of Ukhanyo Primary School, the school kitchen has been made available to prepare meals. Children receive the required sanitary attention, are made to stand 1.5m apart and bring their own food containers. The response is overwhelming. Two of the civic leaders are involved here. Civic leaders play their role to see that food parcels are equitably allocated.
3. Pick n Pay supermarket at Longbeach Mall have agreed, for payment, to supply food and/or prepare food parcels to the school on a daily basis.
Tshepo Moletsane adds: “All community leaders will be involved; foreign nationals will be supported; records of expenditure will be kept and accounted for; those most at risk will be given priority; team volunteers will be added when and where necessary."
The need is growing by the day. (There are at least two other initiatives providing food in the area but this is the initiative I recommend)
There are no recorded cases of Covid 19 at the time of writing.
I want to encourage you to make donations to help this initiative. Payment can be made to account: Masiphumele Civic Organisation, FNB Bank Gold Business Account, Branch: Long Beach 260300, account: 62749945971. The reference person to be informed is Mr
Tshepo Richard Moletsane <[email protected]>
You might also engage Mr. Moletsane directly at above email.
This is a time like no other to show solidarity across borders and across divides. This is not about big donations, but a willingness that shows empathy.
For further reading: https://theconversation.com/lockdowns-threaten-childrens-nutrition-why-extra-care-is-needed-135837
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-09-lockdown-in-the-kasi-a-matter-of-interpretation/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-10-sandf-and-polices-violent-easter-gift-to-masiphumelele/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-13-easter-is-also-about-not-giving-up-life-in-masiphumelele-beyond-desperation-and-police-violence/
Yours sincerely,
Horst
Newsletter 42 - March 2020
Dear friends and relations,
Here is my Newsletter 42. Regrettably I have not had time to pay attention to family research or new initiatives to continue our family endeavour. But I intend to return to this when my current research and writing engagements are fulfilled.
The contents of Newsletter 42 covers the following:
1. Those the police killed in apartheid jails, reflexions and a tribute.
2. Calling on Ramaphosa and the National Prosecuting Agency to act against the state capture proponents.
3. FW de Klerk, unrepentant, unreconstructed – calling him to account.
4. The Enablers - banks, audit firms and big business in the corruption chain.
5. Jobless in SA.
6. My impressions on attending the recent International Bonhoeffer Congress in Stellenbosch.
7. A visit to Pelican Park Primary - I saw a ray of light
8. Two intriguing extracts from my Security Police file. (Translating from Afrikaans)
9. A call to turn Golfing greens into affordable housing estates.
10. Cyril Ramaphosa on National Health minimum standards for SA.
11. Prof Heribert Adam reviews two recent books on Winnie Mandela.
12. Namibia: notice of new book edited by Wolfram Hartmann
New on the subject pages:
Here is my Newsletter 42. Regrettably I have not had time to pay attention to family research or new initiatives to continue our family endeavour. But I intend to return to this when my current research and writing engagements are fulfilled.
The contents of Newsletter 42 covers the following:
1. Those the police killed in apartheid jails, reflexions and a tribute.
2. Calling on Ramaphosa and the National Prosecuting Agency to act against the state capture proponents.
3. FW de Klerk, unrepentant, unreconstructed – calling him to account.
4. The Enablers - banks, audit firms and big business in the corruption chain.
5. Jobless in SA.
6. My impressions on attending the recent International Bonhoeffer Congress in Stellenbosch.
7. A visit to Pelican Park Primary - I saw a ray of light
8. Two intriguing extracts from my Security Police file. (Translating from Afrikaans)
9. A call to turn Golfing greens into affordable housing estates.
10. Cyril Ramaphosa on National Health minimum standards for SA.
11. Prof Heribert Adam reviews two recent books on Winnie Mandela.
12. Namibia: notice of new book edited by Wolfram Hartmann
New on the subject pages:
- Simonstown-Ocean View-Gugulethu: An idea comes to life, a pamphlet on the Wag ‘n Bietjie project.
- Christian Institute: notice of a new book on Anne Hope by Stephanie Kilroe.
1. About those the police killed in apartheid jails
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Looksmart Ngudle, Achmet Timol and Neil Aggett were amongst the 67 persons who paid with their lives to build the South Africa we dreamed of. They, others and ultimately we agreed to forsake a normal life and career to bring an end to apartheid. Nothing is or was more important in South African history. We built incredible social as well as strategic alliances in the quest for the egalité we wanted for all the people of our land. Tribute. I speak for many when I say let us pay tribute, at this difficult time to South Africans who paid with their lives for fighting apartheid. And we must pay tribute to their spouses, children and friends who have to re-live the trauma of this past now, when at last the inquests into these deaths in jails have been re-opened. However painful, may this bring some peace to all who have asked for truth to come out and perpetrators be called to account. Tribute belongs to those detained but not killed. And tribute equally belongs to the spouses and children of all of them. This is to recognise Dr Liz Floyd (spouse of Neil Aggett), Kagiso Chikane (wife of Frank), Penelope Mayson (wife of Cedric) and countless others. Have we gone to them? Have we tried finding them? To express solidarity and empathy when they re-live the horrors of the past? Thanks and warm embraces must go to each one who testified in the recent Timol and Aggett inquest hearings. Civil society should express this support and recognition also when further inquests are re-opened. – Show that you care that they stood up and fought the racist and authoritarian evil that was apartheid! Those detained with Neil, who testified in the re-opened inquest were jailed in the cells next to him. They at that time lived the fear of being murdered also. I think of Jabu Ngwenya, Momo Momoniat, Maurice Smithers, Auret van Heerden, Cedric Mayson (Cedric is deceased but his wife and children all are deeply affected by the re-opened inquest) Read: https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/inquests-another-way-to-truth-and-reconciliation-43292550 The re-opening of these inquests is important. There are hundreds of families who want the truth, no matter how long the delay. The Ahmed Timol and Neil Aggett trials open the way for many others to come. In 1963 Looksmart Ngudle was the first-ever apartheid detainee to be killed by the police. I never met him but someone I helped re-vive the ANC underground in 1976, shortly after my own release from detention, was Magalies Martin Ramokgadi. He told me how after one day’s interrogation and beating (in 1963) he was thrown into a cell. He was pleased it was Friday afternoon and he would re-gather his strength over the weekend. It was 5 September 1963. However, in his cell, he found the body of a friend, Looksmart, who had been thrown into the cell earlier. After some hours Magalies realised that Looksmart would not wake up. He was killed by the SB’s and thrown into his cell. Magalies lived the rest of the weekend next to the dead man, believing his turn to be killed would await him come Monday morning. Martin survived. He was sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island. When he was released he was in his late 60’s. When I met him at the Naidoo home shortly after his release he was ready to continue the battle against apartheid. He sought my support and help. I was working at the Christian Institute and had recently been released from three months of solitary confinement. We regularly met at donga-hideouts near Alexandra township. John Nkadimeng, his comrade, came to check me out – we met on the undulating lawns near the old Civic Centre in Braamfontein. I assisted them without asking questions. One day Magalies told me there was a leak in Swaziland and I should leave the country immediately. Magalies was caught months later – he served another seven years on Robben Island. Ahmed Timol. His family have done sterling work to have the deaths in detention during apartheid re-opened. See http://www.ahmedtimol.co.za/prosecuting-apartheid-atrocities-why-an-indictment-for-a-single-murder-in-the-ahmed-timol-case-is-not-enough. I never met Ahmed Timol but amongst the things he did, he distributed underground or forbidden literature. I was the recipient of such. The SB’s had gained access to his mailing list. In late October 1971 people all over SA had their homes raided. We had our early-dawn knock on the door in our tiny Milnerton flat. They found what they were looking for. I was charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. My defence was that I could not stop what people sent to me, and that I had not read the mail yet, so was unaware of its ‘dangerous’ content. The judge gave me the benefit of the doubt and let me go. I was very lucky. The third person, Neil Aggett, I also never met. But detained with him was my comrade in struggle, Cedric Mayson. When we heard of Neil’s killing on 5 February 1982, his family thought that this might next happen to Cedric too. In fact within days of his arrest the SB’s brought him back and re-raided his home for “things he had hidden”. Penelope, his wife saw a tuft of hair ripped out of his skull. He whispered that he had been handcuffed, made to stand naked for the days and nights since his arrest. His feet were swollen and he looked ‘grey’. The beatings impaired his hearing. It is to the survivors and their families who nearly always carried on despite the odds, that we pay our respect and admiration at this time. |
“We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person.” ~ Hermann Hesse 
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2. Calling on Ramaphosa and the NPA to act. Under the auspices of St Georges Cathedral, Cape Town and organised by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation - endorsed by 29 Civil Society organisations
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3. FW DE KLERK
FW de Klerk. Unrepentant and unreconstructed
Callous and self-justifying remarks by FW de Klerk rightly found indignation with all but a band of white supremacists that continue to make themselves heard and felt in our country. If you have not read about the indignation De Klerk’s denialism led to, I urge you to read a fine piece by Fr Michael Lapsley, himself a survivor of a parcel bomb the SB had detonated in his face. He lost his hands, part of his arms, and an eye. Read: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-02-17-apartheid-was-fundamentally-evil-and-fw-de-klerk-must-face-that-fact/
In a significant move Ds Riaan de Villiers, of the Groote Kerk, here in Cape Town has, as a response to de Klerk, on Human Rights Day, 21st March this year, invited to his church “especially those who in no way were touched adversely during apartheid, so that for a moment they can can fit on the shoes of their fellow citizens whose freedom, human dignity and violence was denied them because of the evil system. On this day we will tell the stories of those humiliated”.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission or Nuremberg trials? – Reflexions in 2020 by Oscar van Heerden. Read:
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-03-04-the-past-never-ended-its-time-for-trc-justice-to-be-realised/
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The article on the left appeared in the Cape Times on 9 March 2020. Donen is listed as council for the International Criminal Court | ||
4. THE ENABLERS
OPEN SECRETS AND SWI (SHADOW WORLD INVESTIGATIONS) SHINES MUCH-NEEDED LIGHT ON:
THE ENABLERS, THE CORRUPT BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT WHO SELDOM GET THE KIND OF ATTENTION OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENT GETS.
'The Enablers takes a forensic and detailed look at the manner in which private sector actors have enabled the process of State Capture in South Africa. The services provided by banks, audit firms, lawyers and the offshore world of company formation, agents and tax havens have been central to State Capture and the looting of scarce public resources. Many of these enablers have links to or are based in the UK. This highligts the UK’s deeply problematic role in facilitating grand corruption around the world.
'Read the analysis of the theft of funds from the Estina/Vrede Dairy Project, which complements Amabunganes first submission to the Zondo Commission in December 2019: Our research shows, for the first time, how the financial aspect of the scam operated, and show that only 7% of the nearly R300m paid to Estina (a Gupta front) was actually spent delivering a dairy project. The rest was laundered, washed and recycled to the benefit of the Gupta criminal enterprise, which relied heavily on the failure of local and international banks to intervene and stop the process.
'SWI has also highlighted the role of a UK-based company formation agent – Stephen MS Lai – in setting up the Hong Kong companies used by Gupta lieutenants to received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes flowing from Transnet’s calamitous and controversial multi-billion dollar purchase of locomotives from China South Rail.
'Together, Open Secrets and SWI call on the Zondo Commission to fully investigate the role of enablers, including a full public accounting of what local and international banks did or did not do to stop the swindling of the South African purse.
'You can read the full report through our website at https://shadowworldinvestigations.org/projects-and-publications/the-state-capture-project/, and click below to watch a short video introduction.'
THE ENABLERS, THE CORRUPT BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT WHO SELDOM GET THE KIND OF ATTENTION OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENT GETS.
'The Enablers takes a forensic and detailed look at the manner in which private sector actors have enabled the process of State Capture in South Africa. The services provided by banks, audit firms, lawyers and the offshore world of company formation, agents and tax havens have been central to State Capture and the looting of scarce public resources. Many of these enablers have links to or are based in the UK. This highligts the UK’s deeply problematic role in facilitating grand corruption around the world.
'Read the analysis of the theft of funds from the Estina/Vrede Dairy Project, which complements Amabunganes first submission to the Zondo Commission in December 2019: Our research shows, for the first time, how the financial aspect of the scam operated, and show that only 7% of the nearly R300m paid to Estina (a Gupta front) was actually spent delivering a dairy project. The rest was laundered, washed and recycled to the benefit of the Gupta criminal enterprise, which relied heavily on the failure of local and international banks to intervene and stop the process.
'SWI has also highlighted the role of a UK-based company formation agent – Stephen MS Lai – in setting up the Hong Kong companies used by Gupta lieutenants to received hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes flowing from Transnet’s calamitous and controversial multi-billion dollar purchase of locomotives from China South Rail.
'Together, Open Secrets and SWI call on the Zondo Commission to fully investigate the role of enablers, including a full public accounting of what local and international banks did or did not do to stop the swindling of the South African purse.
'You can read the full report through our website at https://shadowworldinvestigations.org/projects-and-publications/the-state-capture-project/, and click below to watch a short video introduction.'
5. Jobless in SA
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Ten, more likely eleven million are unemployed in South Africa! That is close to 1:5. Only 42% of adults work. Since 2008, the number of working age adults has increased by nearly 7m but those who found employment increased by 2m only. Youth unemployment is well over 50%. We have amongst the highest unemployment in world. Add this stat to being one of the most unequal countries in the world. Read: The potentially explosive reality of joblessness by Terry Bell.
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6. International Bonhoeffer Congress
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Impressions from the 13th International Bonhoeffer Congress held in Stellenbosch,
19-23 January 2020. Horst Kleinschmidt, 5.2.2020. The sub-title to the conference read: ‘How the coming generation is to go on living? Bonhoeffer and the response to our crises and hope’. ‘And hope’ seemed nearly, an obligatory add-on. In his opening remarks Prof Reggie Nel (Dean Theology Faculty) welcomed us but also reminded the 200 delegates from many parts of the world that we were meeting in a town that was “becoming one of the most unequal towns in South Africa”. This in a country that ranks as one of the most unequal in the world! My expectations were high. My identification with Bonhoeffer is about the man whose beliefs led him to action – for this Nazi Germany executed him in April 1945. The words ‘speak truth’ echoed in all the presentations. However important that connection is, I kept seeking more evidence of truth that made people act; act out of their conscience against whatever the odds. Having worked with courageous Christians like Ds Beyers Naudé and others, I wanted to hear about truth - action, whether in Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa – that of defiance and resistance as exemplified by Bonhoeffer in truth-speaking and truth-acting. I first became aware of Bonhoeffer in the 1970’s when I heard the pastors Martin Niemöller and Horst Symanofski speak on Wits campus. I later adapted Niemöllers famous words to apply to South Africa - see below. The Christian Institute printed it as a poster. In 1973, in the company of Ds Beyers Naudé I met Dierich Bonhoeffers biographer, Eberhard Bethge who himself was imprisoned by the Nazi’s. I recall that during an intense conversation Eberhard said to Beyers: I don’t think South Africa is ready for a ‘confessing church’ or secret and underground church. After Beyers was banned in late 1977 he pondered this question once more. This is not the place to expand on this. There is a further nexus for me in Bonhoeffer: He came from the perpetrator group. He was not the classified object or victim. What ethics cause people from the safety and comfort of truth-telling to get to truth-acting? I attended the Stellenbosch congress to learn. ‘Are we still of any use?’ Bonhoeffer asked. What I learnt from the conference is that Bonhoeffer's legacy should not be appropriated solely for civil action when injustice prevails but that his theological reflections provide incisive thought for new and revolutionary ethical thinking. His theological writings right up to the moment when he is to be executed provide rich reflection to this day. There was some high-level thinking about our unequal-ness in the world (and indeed in South Africa), but if there are practitioners of Bonhoeffer in South Africa today, they were in short supply or had not been invited. We need an equal just society more than ever before, said Wolfgang Huber. Our ‘empathy’ with other people remains our centre that no digital invention can ever replace and he said, current times are leading us to the biggest divide ever between those with riches and privilege and those with none. Raplh Wüstenberg addressed ‘past guilt’ and how German ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung‘ (on dealing with the past to overcome it) provided a basis for Jewish-German dialogue. He carried this further: without justice and truth-acknowledgement the basis for reconciliation does not exist. Nico Koopman’s call to arms was the cry of the 80’s in South Africa: conscientise (make aware), organise and mobilise. But Koopman’s words, as were the wise and challenging words of Mark Braverman, did not come from the ‘perpetrator’ communities. My interest is in those from the other side of the great divide – those who persecuted and if they might say: I am sorry. And if I was not the perpetrator myself, to say: I acknowledge and am ashamed of what was done in my name, I seek to repair. And those humble enough to say this can then ask: how do we educate against nationalism, elitism, inequality, religious intolerance etc? Bonhoeffer spoke of the ‘vulnerable’ in his short and war-based life. In my mind, had he lived, he would have equated ‘vulnerable’ with egalité, with class difference, with socio-economic rights – and redistribution. I cannot conceive of a Bonhoeffer handing out alms to the poor only. If Bonhoeffer thinking has something to offer to South Africa it must be in the arena of responding in action to the deep and growing social conflict that is going to envelope us here in time to come. Already the many daily ‘delivery’ protests constitute a low-level civil war. It is urgent to discuss the justice that results from re-distribution of power, land and wealth. Empirical evidence shows that rights don’t equate to justice and have become hollow words for the poor in the SA context. There is urgency and a great need for White South Africa to do its own Vergangenheitsbewältigung. All evidence at the moment points toward a different narrative. Where are the courageous Christians – from the (former) perpetrator side? Alan Boesak implored us to do. He was a theological activist in the 1980’s who showed the way. But he too does not come from those who should show ‘Sühne’ (reflecting on the damage caused by my past) – in word and in deed! The task of theological academia in SA should be to seek and test evidence of those motivated by their Christian belief and how their truth-telling became truth-action. There is evidence that Bonhoeffer inspired many in the struggle against apartheid. Surely it cannot be that those with knowledge of the holocaust did not see a revival of race persecution in South Africa and that no-one acted? Surely we must search for those who spoke truth and then acted truth? For it is they who in the SA apartheid-tragedy would have something to say to the questioning youth of SA today. I know Christians who, once they decided to act, turned to socialism and away from their churches. But there are those who acted in the struggle and suffered for it like Fr Michael Lapsley, Fr John Osmers, Fr Cosmas Desmond, Ds Beyers Naudé, Rev Cedric Mayson, Fr Bernie Wrankmore, Ds Frikkie Conradie, Rev Theo Kotze and others – all from the perpetrator community. Their names, through thesis and substantiation should have engaged us when Bonhoeffers name was brought to SA. I detract nothing from the quality of the debate or the papers that were delivered. But I wanted to see at least some focus to be put on truth-action motivated by the faith and theology Bonhoeffer offered. Some statements from the ‘youth’-speakers were pertinent: Bonhoeffers questions are not a white man’s questions in a white context – they speak to humanity as such; to be a Bonhoeffer disciple does not require being a Christian; because life always is full of questions Bonhoeffer is one person who helps us look at old yet universal and timeless questions. One person asked: Are you prepared to go to jail? Another said: Engage always, evaluate and only then act. No person deserves more thanks for making Bonhoeffer real in South Africa than Prof John de Gruchy. He saw and connected the dots of struggle against Nazi Germany and those in Apartheid South Africa and he wrote about it at a time when it was most unpopular to do so. It is his light that brought this congress to us. In my humble view this excellently organised event did academically, not aim high enough. |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German: 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German evangelical pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.[1]
Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.[2] He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then hanged on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing. 21 days later Adolf Hitler committed suicide. |
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After listening to Pastor Martin Niemöller speaking to students at Wits in 1973, I adapted his famous text: First they came for the communists … the Jews … it did not concern me … when they came for the Christians … there was no-one left to support me. The poster on the right, adapted to SA was published by the White Consciousness, Programme for Social Change, a subsidiary structure of the Christian Institute.
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Ernesto Cardinal, Nicaraguan liberation theologian died. Read: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/06/ernesto-cardenal-obituary?CMP=share_btn_link
7. Revealed from my SB (Security Police) file, released in terms of the Freedom of Information Act
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Above paragraphs are from my SB (Security Police) file, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
It reads: "During a meeting on 21.7.1974 at the house of Kleinschmidt, where the possibility of a formal foundation of a Social Democratic Party was discussed, a Mrs Josie Fanon, wife of the well-known black consciousness anarchist and writer of 'The Wretched of the Earth" - Franz Fanon, turned up. She said that a radical and quick change in RSA [Republic of ...] was inevitable after the events in the Portuguese territories in Africa. It was clear that she was thoroughly influenced by the radical thinking of her husband. Kleinschmidt, according to the source who attended the meeting, voiced his clear support for her views". [Today I do not recall who attended the meeting. We certainly did not know of an informer amongst us - even though we always suspected such. Visiting students Frank Hirtz and Renate Pollvogt, from Germany, had been gone from Johannesburg to Maputo to join in the independence celebrations in Mozambique. There they met Josie Fanon and brought her back to meet folk at the Christian Institute and at Wits University.
The second paragraph reads: "According to information that became available in October 1974 it appears that Kleinschmidt made use of a courier, one Böhning to take materials to Lenelotte von Bothmer. It also seems Kleinschmidt is a contact person for the anti-RSA groups in West Germany. It has also emerged that the wife of Kleinschmidt, Illona [sic] visited West Germany where she obtained financial help for local anti-government purposes. It is also known that Kleinschmidt and his groep sent a telex to the UNO which purpose was to discredit the image of the RSA overseas."
It reads: "During a meeting on 21.7.1974 at the house of Kleinschmidt, where the possibility of a formal foundation of a Social Democratic Party was discussed, a Mrs Josie Fanon, wife of the well-known black consciousness anarchist and writer of 'The Wretched of the Earth" - Franz Fanon, turned up. She said that a radical and quick change in RSA [Republic of ...] was inevitable after the events in the Portuguese territories in Africa. It was clear that she was thoroughly influenced by the radical thinking of her husband. Kleinschmidt, according to the source who attended the meeting, voiced his clear support for her views". [Today I do not recall who attended the meeting. We certainly did not know of an informer amongst us - even though we always suspected such. Visiting students Frank Hirtz and Renate Pollvogt, from Germany, had been gone from Johannesburg to Maputo to join in the independence celebrations in Mozambique. There they met Josie Fanon and brought her back to meet folk at the Christian Institute and at Wits University.
The second paragraph reads: "According to information that became available in October 1974 it appears that Kleinschmidt made use of a courier, one Böhning to take materials to Lenelotte von Bothmer. It also seems Kleinschmidt is a contact person for the anti-RSA groups in West Germany. It has also emerged that the wife of Kleinschmidt, Illona [sic] visited West Germany where she obtained financial help for local anti-government purposes. It is also known that Kleinschmidt and his groep sent a telex to the UNO which purpose was to discredit the image of the RSA overseas."
8. The joy of Pelican Park Primary School
The essence of humanity: To Build when all around you seems unbearable.
The case of Pelican Park Primary.
HK 6.3.2020.
On the wind and sand-swept Cape Flats, a cohort of good teachers act beyond the call of duty. I had the privilege to listen to them and why their primary school turns out capable children, adults and families more likely to be freed from the poverty trap they arise from.
This is not a project that takes a slice from within the problem and applies a remedy that informs the donor that the right outcome-boxes have been ticked. Nor does it attempt to solve the problem with visions imposed from outside.
Here a collaboration of teachers (from the surrounding area), led by a capable principal, supported by a ground-level NGO, mobilise parents and community to improve the child environment in three key aspects: the home the child comes from, the classroom and in the extra-murals. The school is in the fifth year of a long-term, whole school community development programme. They have a broad but compelling strategy:
‘Schooling needs to be augmented with real parent and community involvement and support providing skills absent from conventional teacher training. For this to happen we work closely with an NGO (PBO, public benefit organisation), whose task is to generate local agency, optimise existing school and community resources, and test, demonstrate and support new, appropriate, democratic practices to achieve that’.
Here is a powerful example of an all-embracing or holistic approach that responds to the impoverished, marginalised and under-resourced South Africa left behind by apartheid and not yet given a chance.
The origins of the school go back to an apartheid ‘group area’ designated for people of Indian descent. What they had to face and solve since the school’s inception in 1995 is formidable indeed. The school has grown from serving 300 young learners to 900 today. The state did provide extra prefabricated class rooms but those are temporary and already overcrowded. They have none of the amenities found in the affluent and private schools of Cape Town. Here, there are sand-blown wastes where sports fields should be. Despite this no litter is found inside the perimeter fence. Volunteer parents, working on a roster basis, patrol the school through the day to stop gangs, drug dealers and other consequences of social dysfunction from affecting conventional school routines. Gang fights, also fatal shootings have happened in the streets abutting the school.
Maybe the most innovative but also bravest task befalls the parents who each morning arrange what is termed ‘walking buses’. Organised groups of parents gather at appointed places in the far-flung catchment area of the school to gather their charges and then walk them safely to the school. As poverty and state dysfunction deepens, their protective role on the streets to the school is critical. Commitment and drive, emanating from the school principal down to the very often unemployed mothers and fathers is visibly evident. The State plays a limited supportive role through the Expanded Public Works Programme, affording the unemployed parent volunteers a monthly stipend.
Of the 900 pupils, 600 of their parents are too poor to pay the R3300 annual school fee needed to supplement Government’s limited input to the school. Ultimately there are only 200 parents who pay, knowing that their effort subsidises those with less than they have. Link this to the challenge that a large proportion of children come to school hungry or undernourished. The mothers of those who can provide, cook meals and feed the hungry at school. Great effort is invested in ensuring that poverty is not stigmatised. Besides hunger, those from difficult housing and home situations often display behaviour disruptive to normal classes. With empathy and sensitivity the school (with external and NGO help) attend to such cases by engaging both pupils and parents.
The challenges to the school run deep. Large-scale social (RDP) housing as well as shack settlements during the past decade have changed the social structure, composition and culture of the school and its community. From being on the city’s outskirts, it is now an urban setting but without the basic the amenities you’d expect in suburban Cape Town. From being an English language school it now caters for children and families from English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa backgrounds – and it does so determinedly! School events embrace all religious and cultural backgrounds on an equal basis – Hindi, Muslim and Christian. It may also be noted that a small minority of children come from what used to be considered white homes.
What underlies this purpose and shift from the norm? In order to build and sustain such a massive social effort, outside help is indispensable. This includes the Metro South Education District who selected them, since 2013, for a pilot ‘whole school community development programme’, facilitated by the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP), a Cape Town based NGO. An extract from a recent report by the school’s principal and development team states:
‘The first step of the pilot was to improve parent involvement, development and support (PIDS), the second step was to improve governance, and the third step was to expand extra-mural opportunities for the learners and local community…We know that we cannot reach and support the child and have a well functioning, well governed school with high academic standards without active parent engagement and “learning-rich” homes. Moreover we recognised that we had to build a cohesive connection between New Horizons (the newly resident community), the c informal housing community and the established community on all the priorities addressed by the pilot program.
We applied for and were accepted into the PIDS program and have through trial and error enthusiastically been executing and benefitting from its activities since term 3 of 2013’.
EMEP is a grass-roots development and support organisation working with a selection of primary schools at the heart of the crossover of the huge social change that is enveloping our society. Their programme is a three-phase approach to whole school community development. The first phase, involved testing and demonstrating with the staff and general parent body the value of teacher-parent cooperation and successfully building a parent- and teacher-friendly school. Phase two, the current phase, is a 3-year pilot project with a volunteer group of teachers from Grade R to 4 to bring parent involvement and personalised child support into the class – this is the inspirational group of teachers I met with. Out of this pilot phase will come the third phase, to scale-up this approach (rather than sectoral/piecemeal interventions) within the school and its parent body as a whole.
Placing development focus on the collaboration of teachers and parents to serve the interests of the whole child both at home and school is critical, ground-breaking work. It deserves wide attention, not least by the largely failed education departments. When the Pelican Park Primary project is done the lessons need to be taken to the authorities to persuade them to replace this as government departmental policy and approach – if we desire real different outcomes.
There is widespread doubt about development/humanitarian aid and the outcomes once hoped for. International donors rightly are re-assessing whether their interventions have changed anything. This is justified and good. What we have at Pelican Park Primary and its partnership interventions is not the ‘sliced’ sectoral support but a broad social support plan. It may not tick all the boxes of quick fixes that donor bosses are keen on. It might not yield the results that can be measured within the traditional funding cycles, but it shows us something far more basic and useful: how to facilitate community participation, and accountability in a highly vulnerable, hugely damaged and rapidly changing poor society. The big lesson to be learnt here for Government and its agencies is: silo-based approaches in general do not help. If we want capacitated urban communities then there is much here to learn from.
The case of Pelican Park Primary.
HK 6.3.2020.
On the wind and sand-swept Cape Flats, a cohort of good teachers act beyond the call of duty. I had the privilege to listen to them and why their primary school turns out capable children, adults and families more likely to be freed from the poverty trap they arise from.
This is not a project that takes a slice from within the problem and applies a remedy that informs the donor that the right outcome-boxes have been ticked. Nor does it attempt to solve the problem with visions imposed from outside.
Here a collaboration of teachers (from the surrounding area), led by a capable principal, supported by a ground-level NGO, mobilise parents and community to improve the child environment in three key aspects: the home the child comes from, the classroom and in the extra-murals. The school is in the fifth year of a long-term, whole school community development programme. They have a broad but compelling strategy:
‘Schooling needs to be augmented with real parent and community involvement and support providing skills absent from conventional teacher training. For this to happen we work closely with an NGO (PBO, public benefit organisation), whose task is to generate local agency, optimise existing school and community resources, and test, demonstrate and support new, appropriate, democratic practices to achieve that’.
Here is a powerful example of an all-embracing or holistic approach that responds to the impoverished, marginalised and under-resourced South Africa left behind by apartheid and not yet given a chance.
The origins of the school go back to an apartheid ‘group area’ designated for people of Indian descent. What they had to face and solve since the school’s inception in 1995 is formidable indeed. The school has grown from serving 300 young learners to 900 today. The state did provide extra prefabricated class rooms but those are temporary and already overcrowded. They have none of the amenities found in the affluent and private schools of Cape Town. Here, there are sand-blown wastes where sports fields should be. Despite this no litter is found inside the perimeter fence. Volunteer parents, working on a roster basis, patrol the school through the day to stop gangs, drug dealers and other consequences of social dysfunction from affecting conventional school routines. Gang fights, also fatal shootings have happened in the streets abutting the school.
Maybe the most innovative but also bravest task befalls the parents who each morning arrange what is termed ‘walking buses’. Organised groups of parents gather at appointed places in the far-flung catchment area of the school to gather their charges and then walk them safely to the school. As poverty and state dysfunction deepens, their protective role on the streets to the school is critical. Commitment and drive, emanating from the school principal down to the very often unemployed mothers and fathers is visibly evident. The State plays a limited supportive role through the Expanded Public Works Programme, affording the unemployed parent volunteers a monthly stipend.
Of the 900 pupils, 600 of their parents are too poor to pay the R3300 annual school fee needed to supplement Government’s limited input to the school. Ultimately there are only 200 parents who pay, knowing that their effort subsidises those with less than they have. Link this to the challenge that a large proportion of children come to school hungry or undernourished. The mothers of those who can provide, cook meals and feed the hungry at school. Great effort is invested in ensuring that poverty is not stigmatised. Besides hunger, those from difficult housing and home situations often display behaviour disruptive to normal classes. With empathy and sensitivity the school (with external and NGO help) attend to such cases by engaging both pupils and parents.
The challenges to the school run deep. Large-scale social (RDP) housing as well as shack settlements during the past decade have changed the social structure, composition and culture of the school and its community. From being on the city’s outskirts, it is now an urban setting but without the basic the amenities you’d expect in suburban Cape Town. From being an English language school it now caters for children and families from English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa backgrounds – and it does so determinedly! School events embrace all religious and cultural backgrounds on an equal basis – Hindi, Muslim and Christian. It may also be noted that a small minority of children come from what used to be considered white homes.
What underlies this purpose and shift from the norm? In order to build and sustain such a massive social effort, outside help is indispensable. This includes the Metro South Education District who selected them, since 2013, for a pilot ‘whole school community development programme’, facilitated by the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP), a Cape Town based NGO. An extract from a recent report by the school’s principal and development team states:
‘The first step of the pilot was to improve parent involvement, development and support (PIDS), the second step was to improve governance, and the third step was to expand extra-mural opportunities for the learners and local community…We know that we cannot reach and support the child and have a well functioning, well governed school with high academic standards without active parent engagement and “learning-rich” homes. Moreover we recognised that we had to build a cohesive connection between New Horizons (the newly resident community), the c informal housing community and the established community on all the priorities addressed by the pilot program.
We applied for and were accepted into the PIDS program and have through trial and error enthusiastically been executing and benefitting from its activities since term 3 of 2013’.
EMEP is a grass-roots development and support organisation working with a selection of primary schools at the heart of the crossover of the huge social change that is enveloping our society. Their programme is a three-phase approach to whole school community development. The first phase, involved testing and demonstrating with the staff and general parent body the value of teacher-parent cooperation and successfully building a parent- and teacher-friendly school. Phase two, the current phase, is a 3-year pilot project with a volunteer group of teachers from Grade R to 4 to bring parent involvement and personalised child support into the class – this is the inspirational group of teachers I met with. Out of this pilot phase will come the third phase, to scale-up this approach (rather than sectoral/piecemeal interventions) within the school and its parent body as a whole.
Placing development focus on the collaboration of teachers and parents to serve the interests of the whole child both at home and school is critical, ground-breaking work. It deserves wide attention, not least by the largely failed education departments. When the Pelican Park Primary project is done the lessons need to be taken to the authorities to persuade them to replace this as government departmental policy and approach – if we desire real different outcomes.
There is widespread doubt about development/humanitarian aid and the outcomes once hoped for. International donors rightly are re-assessing whether their interventions have changed anything. This is justified and good. What we have at Pelican Park Primary and its partnership interventions is not the ‘sliced’ sectoral support but a broad social support plan. It may not tick all the boxes of quick fixes that donor bosses are keen on. It might not yield the results that can be measured within the traditional funding cycles, but it shows us something far more basic and useful: how to facilitate community participation, and accountability in a highly vulnerable, hugely damaged and rapidly changing poor society. The big lesson to be learnt here for Government and its agencies is: silo-based approaches in general do not help. If we want capacitated urban communities then there is much here to learn from.
9. Housing on Rondebosch Golf greens
To: The City of Cape Town Property Manager: Magda MurrayCheap rent for the rich? Object to the Rondebosch Golf Course lease. Read NU
Campaign created by
Ndifuna Ukwazi You have the power to stop the City of Cape Town’s unsustainable and exclusive use of public land. But we have to act now, we only have until Monday 9 March 2020 to make our voices heard. Make a submission to object to the lease renewal of 45,99 hectares of prime public land that should be used for affordable housing.
In the face of the worst housing affordability crisis in the country, the City of Cape Town continues to subsidise the rich by renting out prime state land at massively discounted amounts for private use – land that could better be used to reverse the City’s apartheid legacy.
On 29 January 2020, the City of Cape Town asked the public to submit comments or objections to their plans to renew the lease of 45,99 hectares of City-owned land (the equivalent of 45 rugby fields or a small suburb) to the Rondebosch Golf Club for a period of ten years at a nominal rental of R1 058 per year – or just R88,17 per month [1]. This prime land is close to the best hospitals, top-performing schools in the province, a police station and two train stations – making it perfect for the development of affordable housing. Yet the City plans to lease this land to a golf club for the exclusive use of its wealthy members, members that can afford to pay membership fees of R17 000 per year [2].
Why is this important?Cape Town is the most spatially divided city in the country - it is still separated along race and class lines. The City has consistently blamed this spatial injustice on the lack of well-located land that could be used for affordable housing. But the City often misses the most obvious solution: It already owns massive pieces of land in well-located areas. Land that is unused or not being used to its full potential, that could provide ample space for affordable housing and reverse the City’s apartheid legacy.
Last year, Ndifuna Ukwazi released a research report exposing how the City is disposing of the public land it owns by leasing it to private organisations at massively discounted rentals [3]. This land includes parking lots that are empty for up to 18 hours a day, bowling greens with very few members, and massive golf courses that provide enjoyment to only a few wealthy residents on the weekends. This is an inefficient, exclusive and unsustainable way to deal with well-located public land. Surely this land should be put to better use?
If we are serious about addressing Cape Town’s apartheid legacy, we need to make our voices heard. Object to the lease renewal of 45,99 hectares of prime public land that should be used for affordable housing before 9 March 2020.
The experts at Ndifuna Ukwazi have put together this progressive submission you can use when sending in your own objection. If enough of us send in our objections we can stop the City of Cape Town from renewing the Rondebosch Golf Club lease.
[1] Cape Town’s course of injustice: Subsidising the rich to exclude the poor, Michael Clark for the Daily Maverick January 28 2020
[2] https://rondeboschgolfclub.com/membership
[3] Ndifuna Ukwazi: Cape Town’s failure to redistribute land https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pxly1G47qbC79l58Oss4vKvvK4AO71M-/view
An example of civic action in Observatory: A petition was circulated by Change.org: "Voice your opposition to the River Club Development - preserve environment and heritage".
Read the update "The anniversary of the defeat of Admiral d’Almeida in 1510: History of the River Club land" below, and join me in supporting this campaign by signing the petition! http://chng.it/7QGJNt8L72
Campaign created by
Ndifuna Ukwazi You have the power to stop the City of Cape Town’s unsustainable and exclusive use of public land. But we have to act now, we only have until Monday 9 March 2020 to make our voices heard. Make a submission to object to the lease renewal of 45,99 hectares of prime public land that should be used for affordable housing.
In the face of the worst housing affordability crisis in the country, the City of Cape Town continues to subsidise the rich by renting out prime state land at massively discounted amounts for private use – land that could better be used to reverse the City’s apartheid legacy.
On 29 January 2020, the City of Cape Town asked the public to submit comments or objections to their plans to renew the lease of 45,99 hectares of City-owned land (the equivalent of 45 rugby fields or a small suburb) to the Rondebosch Golf Club for a period of ten years at a nominal rental of R1 058 per year – or just R88,17 per month [1]. This prime land is close to the best hospitals, top-performing schools in the province, a police station and two train stations – making it perfect for the development of affordable housing. Yet the City plans to lease this land to a golf club for the exclusive use of its wealthy members, members that can afford to pay membership fees of R17 000 per year [2].
Why is this important?Cape Town is the most spatially divided city in the country - it is still separated along race and class lines. The City has consistently blamed this spatial injustice on the lack of well-located land that could be used for affordable housing. But the City often misses the most obvious solution: It already owns massive pieces of land in well-located areas. Land that is unused or not being used to its full potential, that could provide ample space for affordable housing and reverse the City’s apartheid legacy.
Last year, Ndifuna Ukwazi released a research report exposing how the City is disposing of the public land it owns by leasing it to private organisations at massively discounted rentals [3]. This land includes parking lots that are empty for up to 18 hours a day, bowling greens with very few members, and massive golf courses that provide enjoyment to only a few wealthy residents on the weekends. This is an inefficient, exclusive and unsustainable way to deal with well-located public land. Surely this land should be put to better use?
If we are serious about addressing Cape Town’s apartheid legacy, we need to make our voices heard. Object to the lease renewal of 45,99 hectares of prime public land that should be used for affordable housing before 9 March 2020.
The experts at Ndifuna Ukwazi have put together this progressive submission you can use when sending in your own objection. If enough of us send in our objections we can stop the City of Cape Town from renewing the Rondebosch Golf Club lease.
[1] Cape Town’s course of injustice: Subsidising the rich to exclude the poor, Michael Clark for the Daily Maverick January 28 2020
[2] https://rondeboschgolfclub.com/membership
[3] Ndifuna Ukwazi: Cape Town’s failure to redistribute land https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pxly1G47qbC79l58Oss4vKvvK4AO71M-/view
An example of civic action in Observatory: A petition was circulated by Change.org: "Voice your opposition to the River Club Development - preserve environment and heritage".
Read the update "The anniversary of the defeat of Admiral d’Almeida in 1510: History of the River Club land" below, and join me in supporting this campaign by signing the petition! http://chng.it/7QGJNt8L72
10. Cyril Ramaphosa on health care for all citizens - from his weekly Newsletter.
CR: It is one of the greatest travesties of our time that access to decent and quality health care services is determined by one’s ability to pay.
South Africa has two parallel health care systems. Around R250 billion is spent annually on less than 20% of the population. This is the section of our population that has access to private medical insurance. On the other hand our country spendsR220 billion on rest of the population.
This flies in the face of the Constitutional right of access to health care for all citizens regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances. It is a situation that cannot continue. It is inefficient and unsustainable. It is unfair and unjust.
The introduction of National Health Insurance will be among the most far-reaching acts of social transformation this country has experienced since 1994. We have enough resources in this country to enable every man, woman and child to receive appropriate standardised quality health care.
Our past has taught us that we must never be a country that promotes the interests of the few at the expense of the majority. In 1713 the Dutch colonialists who had brought a smallpox epidemic to our shores imported medicines from Batavia to treat those affected. They used the medicine to treat their own, leaving the indigenous Khoisan to be decimated by the outbreak.
The segregation of health services brings back bitter memories. Back in the 18th Century it was on the basis of colonial settler status. Under apartheid it was on the basis of skin colour. Today it is on the basis of who can afford to pay.
The key fundamental principles underpinning NHI are equity, solidarity, the acceptance and recognition of the equal worth of every individual, as well as the right of everyone to receive the medical care they need cost effectively. This is something for which we must all fight.
South Africa has two parallel health care systems. Around R250 billion is spent annually on less than 20% of the population. This is the section of our population that has access to private medical insurance. On the other hand our country spendsR220 billion on rest of the population.
This flies in the face of the Constitutional right of access to health care for all citizens regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances. It is a situation that cannot continue. It is inefficient and unsustainable. It is unfair and unjust.
The introduction of National Health Insurance will be among the most far-reaching acts of social transformation this country has experienced since 1994. We have enough resources in this country to enable every man, woman and child to receive appropriate standardised quality health care.
Our past has taught us that we must never be a country that promotes the interests of the few at the expense of the majority. In 1713 the Dutch colonialists who had brought a smallpox epidemic to our shores imported medicines from Batavia to treat those affected. They used the medicine to treat their own, leaving the indigenous Khoisan to be decimated by the outbreak.
The segregation of health services brings back bitter memories. Back in the 18th Century it was on the basis of colonial settler status. Under apartheid it was on the basis of skin colour. Today it is on the basis of who can afford to pay.
The key fundamental principles underpinning NHI are equity, solidarity, the acceptance and recognition of the equal worth of every individual, as well as the right of everyone to receive the medical care they need cost effectively. This is something for which we must all fight.
11. Prof Heribert Adam reviews two very different recent books on Winnie Mandela
Review of two books on Winnie Mandela:
https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n05/heribert-adam/i-will-make-you-pay
London Review of Books
Vol. 42 No. 5 · 5 March 2020
I will make you pay
Heribert Adam
2379 words
The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela
by Sisonke Msimang.
Jonathan Ball, 173 pp., £20, September 2018, 978 1 86842 955 4
Truth, Lies and Alibis: A Winnie Mandela Story
by Fred Bridgland.
Tafelberg, 311 pp., £25, October 2018, 978 0 624 08425 9
https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n05/heribert-adam/i-will-make-you-pay
London Review of Books
Vol. 42 No. 5 · 5 March 2020
I will make you pay
Heribert Adam
2379 words
The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela
by Sisonke Msimang.
Jonathan Ball, 173 pp., £20, September 2018, 978 1 86842 955 4
Truth, Lies and Alibis: A Winnie Mandela Story
by Fred Bridgland.
Tafelberg, 311 pp., £25, October 2018, 978 0 624 08425 9
12. New or important Texts on Namibia
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Sunrise over False Bay, September 2019.
Horst's Newsletter 41. October 2019Below text and images expand on this Newsletter |
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Above right: In Germany they call them Stolpersteine - a stone that stands out so you stumble each time you leave home or return. This is to remind you that an atrocity was once committed at this place when people, mostly Jewish people, were evicted from hundreds of thousands of homes to be taken to their death in concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of South Africans were also once forcibly evicted from their homes because of their race or the colour of their skin. They were not killed but they lost home and income, and designated second class citizens. In Simon's Town, South Africa, we have started something we call wag 'n bietjie, after a thorn bush makes you move backward before you can be freed to move forward again. The intention is to remind those that pass that race discrimination once took place wherever a wag 'n bietjie memorial sign is erected. Read more in the PDF file above. |
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Above: Former Simon's Town residents at this years reminder of their forced removal 50 years ago. Top right: holding up the names of the streets from where they were evicted. The other images are of the benches with mosaic inlays that require City approval before they are located on the streets they once lived in.
Above: Carlos Amorales was born and lives in Mexico. He created this Art Wall in the entrance to the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum.
2. Robben Island and the call for recognition of David Stuurman. The issue at stake is contained in the body of my Newsletter above.
My early morning walk while at a conference on Robben Island, April 2019, remembering 400 years of pain inflicted.
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Re-imagining Robben Island: A prison experience; Rev Ivan Abrahams 'shackled' at the wrist to myself; marched in a 'span' from the harbour, past the prison to the lime quarry.
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Above is the only reference I found on Robben Island to the International Defence and Aid Fund. IDAF provided the defence costs for the majority of those imprisoned here from the 1960's to 1990. Had they not been defended many more would have been sentenced to death.
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For further context go to my Newsletters and see Newsletter 21, A foot-soldier remembers the Mandela family, written in December 2013, shortly after Nelson Mandela passed away.
Disturbing as this book may be, it cannot be ignored. Truth, Lies and Alibi’s by Fred Bridgland is published by Tafelberg, Cape Town. ISBN: 978-0-624-0-8425-9 Epub: 978-o-624-0-8426-6 Mobi: 978-0-624-0-8427-3 |
4. International Mandela Day in Vienna, 18 July 2019
TOPNEWS, SÜDAFRIKA IN ÖSTERREICH
18. Juli 2019, reprinted on the SA Embassy Website, Austria.
NELSON MANDELA DAY, VIENNA, NELSON MANDELA PLATZ, 18 JULY 2019
[Ansprache war in Deutsch gehalten - siehe Text unten]
18. Juli 2019, reprinted on the SA Embassy Website, Austria.
NELSON MANDELA DAY, VIENNA, NELSON MANDELA PLATZ, 18 JULY 2019
[Ansprache war in Deutsch gehalten - siehe Text unten]
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Wien, Mandela Tag, 18.7.2019. Horst Kleinschmidt. (See English version below)
Nelson Mandela hätte sich gefreut zu wissen, daß es 2019 in Österreich Menschen wie Euch gibt, die immer noch wissen, was Solidarität heißt und ist. Er hätte sich gefreut zu wissen, daß es Menschen gibt, die sich für die Verteidigung von Demokratie, Freiheit, Menschenwürde und Gleichheit engagieren – und das auch international. Weltweit sind viele Demokratien heute wieder in Gefahr. Um offene und gerechte Gesellschaften zu verteidigen, müssen wir für soziale und wirtschaftliche Gleichheit aufstehen und gegen Rassismus und alle Formen von Vorurteilen. Wir müssen viel besser die Verbindung zur Rüstungsindustrie verstehen, die Kriege – und heute noch mehr, nämlich Stellvertreterkriege – schürt. Zum Beispiel, wenn die deutsche Rheinmetall in Südafrika – nicht weit von dort, wo ich in Kapstadt wohne – jene Bomben baut, die dann nach Saudi-Arabien exportiert werden, um den Jemen zu bombardieren. Abgesehen davon, daß dieser und andere Kriege Menschen töten, sind sie auch eine Ursache für die anhaltenden Flüchtlingsströme. Nelson Mandela würde uns heute daran erinnern, daß auch unsere junge südafrikanische Demokratie von innen her bedroht ist, daß korrupte Politiker und Geschäftsleute die Demokratie, derer wir uns seit 25 Jahren erfreuen, ausgehöhlt haben. Unsere Demokratie wurde untergraben, die Stabilität unseres Landes bedroht. Etliche Jahre von diesen 25 haben wir verloren und sind wir zurückgefallen, weil der damalige Präsident Zuma und Co. mit in- wie ausländischen Verbündeten, mit weißen wie schwarzen Landsleuten den Spielraum für Transparenz, Fairness und angemessenes Verhalten eingeengt und dadurch unsere offene demokratische Gesellschaft untergraben haben. Wir hoffen und glauben, daß diesem Versuch jetzt ein Ende gemacht wird. Die drei Untersuchungsausschüsse, Präsident Cyril Ramaphosa selbst und die bemerkenswert unabhängige Gerichtsbarkeit haben die Bremse gezogen, damit Südafrika nicht in die Kategorie eines „failed state“ fällt. Wir sind voller Hoffnung, daß eine neue Basis geschaffen worden ist, um gegen die vielen Widersprüchlichkeiten in unserem Land zu arbeiten. Unsere Aufgabe ist groß: Wir können nicht das Land mit der größten sozialen Ungleichheit der Welt bleiben. Wir können nicht mit einem verfehlten Erziehungssystems weitermachen, das wir unseren jungen Menschen aufgezwungen haben. Wir müssen und können Grund und Boden nach offenen und demokratischen Prinzipien umverteilen. Wir müssen unsere Städte erneuern, die noch immer nach Schwarz/Arm und Weiß/Reich getrennt bzw. durch Rasse und Klasse strukturiert sind. Wir begrüßen die Ankündigung unserer Staatsanwaltschaft, die fast 300 Verfahren, die ihr vor fast zwanzig Jahren von der Wahrheits- und Versöhnungskommission übergeben wurden, wiederaufzurollen. Das ist wichtig. Das Leid und die Gebrochenheit, die von der Apartheid erzeugt wurden, können nicht aufgearbeitet werden, wenn es hier nicht zu Anklagen kommt – wenn Verbrechen nicht bestraft und öffentlich gemacht werden. Daher fordere ich Euch am heutigen Tag auf, bei all Eurem Eintreten gegen ungünstige Tendenzen in Eurem eigenen Land uns nicht zu vergessen. Fahrt fort, uns in Solidarität, auch mit Kritik wenn erforderlich, zu begleiten. Unsere Tage des Aufschwungs und des Erfolgs werden wiederkehren. Bleibt dran! Das ist ein nobles Unterfangen: Bildung, um Aufmerksamkeit hervorzubringen. Ihr macht genau das Richtige. Die Welt, in der wir leben, braucht internationale Solidarität. Wir brauchen Euch – und ich bin sicher, daß Ihr uns in gleicher Weise braucht! uns in gleicher Weise braucht! |
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5. Fires in Masiphumelele, 2019
Fires ravage Masi several times each year. The only way to prevent these from happening is to allocate City owned land to the exceptionally overcrowded conditions.
6. Kritisches Christentum. On smuggling copies into SA during the 1980's
| Kritisches Christentum (Austria).pdf |
Below: Perspektiven is a Windhoek religious-based publication. This edition speaks to white inhabitants and deals with colonial history.
My article appears in English
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| One family's quest to confront its own past in a racially divided society. In Perspektiven, Windhoek, mid 2019.pdf |
8. Ghaub, game lodge with Kleinschmidt family history
| Welcome to Ghaub1.pdf |
9. Below: A study-series on colonialism and racism, appeared in Berlin recently. This edition deals extensively with our family - the Schmelens, Baumanns, Kleinschmidts and Hegners. Ursula Trüper is the author of piece on our family. (full text to be uploaded later)
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11. Franco worked closely with us at the CI. His art and wit helped us make strong and challenging points. Here is an extract of his memoire with images he created for us. |
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| Franco Frescuras greatest hits 2.jpeg.pdf |
12.
MEMORIES OF RAIN. This DVD is also available in English. It is about two former MK members and their reflections post the struggle years. I can arrange for you to purchase a copy.
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| Security Police (SB) file on myself from 1968-1975. |
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My Filofax organiser that the story opposite talks about.
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| In Newsletter 37 I dealt with Restitution and that the 2018 Conference on the subject would lead to a Charter that is open to discussion. Here it is, titled 'A complex Hope'. |
See new entry under Social Commentary dealing with national Reconciliation Day on 16 December 2018
| Newsletter 38 Remembering Cedric Mayson at the Fort Prison, recalling my own jailers and more |
Newsletter 38, December 2018.
Dear friends,
Herewith my latest offering. I hope it adds depth and dimension to the quest for egalité and real democracy.
This Newsletter can be viewed on my website (no charges or passwords required). www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. Images too large to include here, can also be viewed on the website.
My best wishes for the festive season and the coming year!
Yours,
Horst
The contents:
1. New noon-gun to be heard over Johannesburg, unfinished business and recalling my jailers.
2. Where we live: St James, Simonstown, Ocean View and Masiphumelele.
3. Bombs on Yemen manufactured near us.
4. Autumn leaves falling; the passing of Rev Chris Wessels, Paddy Kearney, Mendi Msimang and Alex Boraine.
5. ‘The making of a dissident Afrikaner’, Ruhan Fourie on Beyers Naudé (Huffington Post).
6. Fake News and the supposed slaying of white farmers.
Dear friends,
Herewith my latest offering. I hope it adds depth and dimension to the quest for egalité and real democracy.
This Newsletter can be viewed on my website (no charges or passwords required). www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. Images too large to include here, can also be viewed on the website.
My best wishes for the festive season and the coming year!
Yours,
Horst
The contents:
1. New noon-gun to be heard over Johannesburg, unfinished business and recalling my jailers.
2. Where we live: St James, Simonstown, Ocean View and Masiphumelele.
3. Bombs on Yemen manufactured near us.
4. Autumn leaves falling; the passing of Rev Chris Wessels, Paddy Kearney, Mendi Msimang and Alex Boraine.
5. ‘The making of a dissident Afrikaner’, Ruhan Fourie on Beyers Naudé (Huffington Post).
6. Fake News and the supposed slaying of white farmers.
The Fort Prison - memories, reminders, never again.
Installation of new exhibition includes Cedric Mayson
Prison cells at The Fort Prison, Hospital Hill, Johannesburg. At different times Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Joe Slovo, Baruch Hirson, and in the early 1980's Cedric Mayson, Rob Adam, Alan Fine and others were held here. The cells are now part of the museum.
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The noon gun that will sound over Johannesburg each day to remind all that the struggle for democracy was hard won.
Penelope, wife of Cedric Mayson at the cells on 5 Dec 2018. After Cedric's detention he was an awaiting trial prisoner and she visited him here with her children
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Once Cedric was an awaiting trial prisoner he was allowed to conduct services that other prisoners were allowed to attend.
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Heritage Day, Simonstown - 24 September 2018
With other speakers and musical contributions I addressed the 50 year remembrance in St Francis Church. My appeal was to the current Simonstown residents to mark the forced evictions in a way that is akin to Stolpersteine in Germany.
| HK appeal in 2018 to the residents of Simonstown. |
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Newsletter 37 - Restitution - September 2018
My Newsletter 37 (September 2018 pdf file below) looks at the delay or resistance to restitution in post apartheid South Africa. Matters promised in the Constitution (Bill of Rights) or raised but not resolved by the TRC remain outstanding. The ruling ANC is to blame for the shrill expropriation without compensation debate that now engulfs us. It is the ANC Government who failed to act despite having the tools it was given in terms of the Constitution. The ANC's mega failure will haunt us for a long time. It now promises to do more. But will it? Has it the capacity to do the job? Will it retain the confidence of its supporters? The ANC's failure has provided the facist-leaning EFF with a platform which in turn, has spawned new far right white racism represented by AfriForum. Both use racial and racist language instead of class as the basis for analyses. The ANC once espoused non-racialism but has mostly forgotten this base of its policy.
The hopeless and disastrous Zuma years are coming home to roost. The judge Zondo enquiry into 'state capture' provide us with shock and disbelief each day a new witness testifies. Zuma, his son Duduzane, the Gupta brothers and a league of crooked politicians and civil servants are not in the dock. Will they eventually be charged? The treasury and State Owned Enterprises coffers they looted will impede getting out of the recession we are now in once more. Real unemployment is probably at around 40%, sixteen million monthly grant recipients cannot expect a reliant or competent service to receive their monthly payments, our financial barons consider it their right to withhold billions in accumulated profits before they invest again (on their terms), our education system is failing terribly (reading with comprehension and math rank us bottom in the world) and the gulf between rich and poor keeps growing without a plan to arrest, let alone reverse our fall into the abyss. Add to this the low-level civil war that erupts each day throughout the country in the form of tyre burning and demonstrations at any number of places.
Defeated? No. We need cool heads to talk. The shift of the debate toward the real meaning of restitution must be taken seriously.
My Newsletter looks at restitution. I also focus on restorative justice in Namibia, with lessons for us. I provide a number of internet links to quality debates and analyses. In the attached Newsletter I deal with:
1. Restitution discussed between Lukhanyo Calata (son of slain anti-apartheid fighter Fort Calata) and Wilhelm Verwoerd (grandson of apartheid’s architect, HF Verwoerd)
2. The current Namibia and Germany debate and the failure of, but also pressure on, Germany to say ’sorry’ to the Nama and Herero genocide descendants.
3. The Achmed Timol initiative and their quest to bring to justice those who perpetrated human rights crimes.
4. The debate on expropriation of land without compensation - a collection of pieces that helps one to navigate understanding of what is being said.
5. Masiphumele and the continued spacial apartheid in our cities. The focus is on urban land and services.
Please visit my website for more entries and images, not possible to add in an email.
As always I look forward to hearing from you, in agreement or in opposition.
The hopeless and disastrous Zuma years are coming home to roost. The judge Zondo enquiry into 'state capture' provide us with shock and disbelief each day a new witness testifies. Zuma, his son Duduzane, the Gupta brothers and a league of crooked politicians and civil servants are not in the dock. Will they eventually be charged? The treasury and State Owned Enterprises coffers they looted will impede getting out of the recession we are now in once more. Real unemployment is probably at around 40%, sixteen million monthly grant recipients cannot expect a reliant or competent service to receive their monthly payments, our financial barons consider it their right to withhold billions in accumulated profits before they invest again (on their terms), our education system is failing terribly (reading with comprehension and math rank us bottom in the world) and the gulf between rich and poor keeps growing without a plan to arrest, let alone reverse our fall into the abyss. Add to this the low-level civil war that erupts each day throughout the country in the form of tyre burning and demonstrations at any number of places.
Defeated? No. We need cool heads to talk. The shift of the debate toward the real meaning of restitution must be taken seriously.
My Newsletter looks at restitution. I also focus on restorative justice in Namibia, with lessons for us. I provide a number of internet links to quality debates and analyses. In the attached Newsletter I deal with:
1. Restitution discussed between Lukhanyo Calata (son of slain anti-apartheid fighter Fort Calata) and Wilhelm Verwoerd (grandson of apartheid’s architect, HF Verwoerd)
2. The current Namibia and Germany debate and the failure of, but also pressure on, Germany to say ’sorry’ to the Nama and Herero genocide descendants.
3. The Achmed Timol initiative and their quest to bring to justice those who perpetrated human rights crimes.
4. The debate on expropriation of land without compensation - a collection of pieces that helps one to navigate understanding of what is being said.
5. Masiphumele and the continued spacial apartheid in our cities. The focus is on urban land and services.
Please visit my website for more entries and images, not possible to add in an email.
As always I look forward to hearing from you, in agreement or in opposition.
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50 years ago 600 families were forcibly evicted from Simonstown because of their 'race'. We shall remember with them this Heritage Day (24 September 2018) their immense loss. The loss of material and social being impacts to this very day those apartheid victimised. The white community is still ignoring the history they came from. Restitution demands that they stop looking the other way.
Family wedding in Namibia. Can anyone help putting names to those below, from left to right?
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Tshepo Moletsane flanked by Rose Milbank and Horst Kleinschmidt outside the City of Cape Town Sub-Council offices with the poster Where is the Masi Plan? Holding two such posters in silence in silence during the Sub-Council meeting was deemed a demonstration and Rose and Horst were evicted by Law Enforcement officers. Read the full story in Newsletter 37. |
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1972: A whites only election in South Africa. We, members of the Christian Institute put up one candidate in the white working-class constituency of Von Brandis in Johannesburg. Our objective: challenge white attitudes. Election rules meant we could state openly what otherwise attracted the attention of the Security Police. We retained our deposit! Many of the pensioners, living here were retired miners, former members of the SA Labour Party.
On 12 July 2018, Christine hosted a launch at her studio and gallery of Omar Badsha's acclaimed photographic memory of South Africa
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Below:
Heady days in 1990, outside the offices of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF). Nelson Mandela was released and with his wife Winnie visited London. Winnie wanted to visit IDAF because of long-standing support we had provided her through our programme that sent postal orders to those persecuted and those whose spouses were in jail. She also wanted to see me who was the legal guardian of her children in 1974 before being exiled in 1976. She had named our daughter Zindzi, born in December 1974, shortly after Winnie was released from serving imprisonment for breaking her banning order. A short while later we decided we could not provide funds for the legal costs when Winnie was charged in relation to the 'Stompie' trial.
On the far right, Sister Bernard Ncube, prominent resistance fighter. I the middle Winnie Mandela outside the IDAF offices at 64 Essex Road, Islington. To her left, Horst Kleinschmidt, Director of IDAF from 1982 - 1991.
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IDAF staff outside IDAF offices in 1990. From left to right are George Tobias, behind him Thembe Luxomo, Harlene Jassat, Ramni Dinat, Winnie Mandela on her first visit abroad visiting IDAF, and Horst Kleinschmidt, right. In front Barry Feinberg
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From left to right: Themba Luxomo, IDAF Treasurer, then Harlene Jassat, from the prisoner support section, then Winnie, Horst and Eleanor Khanyile.
Our history: In June 1990 people of the Black Consciousness Movement met in Harare, Zimbabwe. The event was organised by the
Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches
“An attempt at producing an analytical, reflective understanding of an important part in the history of South Africa. Steve Biko and the black consciousness movement have a major bearing on the subsequent events in South Africa up to today” – The words of Barney Pityana, in June 1990 then a director of the World Council of Churches Programme to Combat Racism. Above delegates attended at the Sheraton Hotel in Harare.
Amongst those present: Back row, 2nd from left: Lindelwe Mabandla, 3rd Cedric mayson, 5th Wally Serote, 7th Cosmas Desmond, 8th Barney Pityana, 10th David Russell.
Standing in front of them: In red striped shirt: Sipho Pityana, in beige jersey Saki Macozoma and in yellow shirt Neville Curtis.
Front row: 5th Mampela Ramphele and far right Francis Wilson. Who can identify the others?
Amongst those present: Back row, 2nd from left: Lindelwe Mabandla, 3rd Cedric mayson, 5th Wally Serote, 7th Cosmas Desmond, 8th Barney Pityana, 10th David Russell.
Standing in front of them: In red striped shirt: Sipho Pityana, in beige jersey Saki Macozoma and in yellow shirt Neville Curtis.
Front row: 5th Mampela Ramphele and far right Francis Wilson. Who can identify the others?
Institute for Healing of Memories
On 16 April 2018 Christine and I hosted Fr Michael Lapsley and his colleague Fatima Swartz at our home. A group of us wanted to know more about the work of the Institute for Healing of Memories. There are many remedies our country is need of and one of them is the trauma discrimination and hatred our past left us with.
Please visit their website www.healing-memories.org. We encourage you to consider funding the Institute with individual monthly donations, as we now do. Their work must go on! |
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| Newsletter 36: After Zuma; the rise of Ramaphosa and the passing of Winnie Mandela. |
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On 21 December 1979, our daughter Zindzi was five years old. A week earlier, on 13 December, her mother Ilona started a two month prison sentence for refusing to make a statement to the Special Branch about Winnie. Ilona's closest friend, Jackie Bosman served three months for the same act of defiance. I, as Zindzi's father was in exile since April 1976 and by 1979 deeply involved in ANC work. If I were to return to South Africa, I would stand trial, charged with complicity in the Tokyo Sexwale and 11 others trial, and in the impending trial against Cedric Mayson. I pay tribute to Janie Aronson, Ilona's mother and to Karel Tip, the man Ilona had married, for standing in for the parents my daughter did not have - then and at other times. And I thank Zindzi, named by Winnie Mandela after her own youngest daughter, for her love and forgiveness of her parents, who chose the struggle over the warmth and protection of a home she desired and deserved. |
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Christine's new Studio and Gallery in bohemian Kalk Bay
Translating the Bible into Namaqua in 1831. Events and consequences that haunted the Schmelen-Kleinschmidt family for the ensuing century. Two talks delivered in March 2018, to audiences in Windhoek and Swakopmund, one in English the other in German (see both talks below).
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Listen to and watch this beautiful lullaby in Khoekhoegowab, language of the Nama and Damara speaking communities in Namibia.
https://www.facebook.com/daveguy061/videos/g.1501101606840495/1854389761239310/?type=2&ifg=1
https://www.facebook.com/daveguy061/videos/g.1501101606840495/1854389761239310/?type=2&ifg=1
The extraordinary story of Hendrik Witbooi, told by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee
https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/the-extraordinary-story-of-hendrik-witbooi-told-by-nobel-prize-winner-j-m-coetzee/
https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/the-extraordinary-story-of-hendrik-witbooi-told-by-nobel-prize-winner-j-m-coetzee/
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Berlin-Postkolonial is a public initiative in Germany. They have at last been able to get Street Names from the colonial era replaced Africans who fought for freedom. One person to have a street named after him is Cornelius Frederick - an ancestor of Chief David Frederick. See, in German:
Web: http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/cms/index.php/9-news/kurzmeldungen/131-12-4-pressemitteilung
Web: http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/cms/index.php/9-news/kurzmeldungen/131-12-4-pressemitteilung
Christine's portrayal of South Africa's poet laureate Keorapetse
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Chief David Frederick of the !Aman has died (1933-2018)
KEETMANSHOOP, 12 JAN (NAMPA) – Chief David Frederick of the !Aman Traditional Authority of Bethanie has died.
The Nama clan chief, widely respected by many in the south of Namibia and beyond for his firm leadership and humility, died at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital Friday afternoon.
Governor of the //Kharas Region, Lucia Basson, confirmed the passing of Frederick, telling Nampa Friday evening that the chief died at 16h50.
Basson, who spent the afternoon at the hospital before and after Frederick’s death, said he was surrounded by many of his family members.
“I was with his family at the hospital, his room was full,” she said.
Frederick died after a long illness.
“He has been sickly since 2014, but he was a strong man, his heart and mind was strong and many times, we forgot that he was unwell,” Basson said.
She described Frederick as a unifier and peacemaker.
“He just wanted the whole Nama clans to be united and to live in peace. From what I was told, he called all his children and sat with them on Sunday, telling them to remain together and to live in peace with one another,” the governor said.
Frederick’s death is a huge loss in many ways, she said, more so as he was a great historian.
“Oupab [Grandpa] was good for us all and he knew everything about Nama history and our country’s history.”
Frederick often highlighted the plight of the southern people and was vocal about land matters and the genocide.
Chief Frederick, alongside OvaHerero Chief Vekuii Rukoro, was a plaintiff in a matter filed in a U.S. court seeking reparations from Germany and demanding the inclusion of the affected communities in official genocide talks.
He was 85 years old and leaves behind 17 children and his wife, Anna.
(NAMPA)
The Nama clan chief, widely respected by many in the south of Namibia and beyond for his firm leadership and humility, died at the Keetmanshoop State Hospital Friday afternoon.
Governor of the //Kharas Region, Lucia Basson, confirmed the passing of Frederick, telling Nampa Friday evening that the chief died at 16h50.
Basson, who spent the afternoon at the hospital before and after Frederick’s death, said he was surrounded by many of his family members.
“I was with his family at the hospital, his room was full,” she said.
Frederick died after a long illness.
“He has been sickly since 2014, but he was a strong man, his heart and mind was strong and many times, we forgot that he was unwell,” Basson said.
She described Frederick as a unifier and peacemaker.
“He just wanted the whole Nama clans to be united and to live in peace. From what I was told, he called all his children and sat with them on Sunday, telling them to remain together and to live in peace with one another,” the governor said.
Frederick’s death is a huge loss in many ways, she said, more so as he was a great historian.
“Oupab [Grandpa] was good for us all and he knew everything about Nama history and our country’s history.”
Frederick often highlighted the plight of the southern people and was vocal about land matters and the genocide.
Chief Frederick, alongside OvaHerero Chief Vekuii Rukoro, was a plaintiff in a matter filed in a U.S. court seeking reparations from Germany and demanding the inclusion of the affected communities in official genocide talks.
He was 85 years old and leaves behind 17 children and his wife, Anna.
(NAMPA)
I met Chief David Frederick every time I passed Bathanie on my way to Windhoek or Swakopmund. I first visited him some 15 years ago. His Traditional Authority office, a five minute walk from the Schmelen house was where he first sat me down and said: let me give you a history lesson about what happened to my people. I was taken aback by the detail of what I heard and by his incredible recall. It was one of the most impressive encounters I ever had. He told the story of the oppressed and vanquished from the side of those it German might was done to. This was not book knowledge or an outsiders interpretation. He was not angry or emotional. His call for an apology and reparations crisply clear.
I asked where I could read about it - from his perspective. He told me a book was in the making. Because, he said, the young generation will not remember everything the way it was. I later read the diaries of members of the Geman Schutztruppe, partly to see if they verified dates, places and battles Chief David mentioned. And yes, his recall was amazingly accurate. The letters by one von Schauroth particularly interested me. He wrote to his father in Berlin, complaining that he never got th promotion he was after. It affords an insight of someone who is unhappy with his officers. In his letters to his father he refers to the Nama opponent as "honourable" on several occasions. Why? He says, because they properly declared war on us. They came by horse with a white flag and a letter to state they were now at war with Germany. And elsewhere he repeats this respect for the Nama. German troops suffered a succession of defeats by the nimble Nama guerilla fighters, von Schauroth expresses great respect ofr their treatment of the German troops they killed. He says, they returned to the place of battle after a victory to bury the fallen Germans. And he adds: And they always ensured the man with the highest rank got the best grave.
Chief David Frederick is the direct descendent from these freedom fighters. They are still not afforded the recognition they deserve. And Germany is still dragging its heals, refusing to do what is right. To make this point, read below recent article:
https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697
https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697
May he be remembered as a proud man whose quest for justice has yet to be fulfilled.
I asked where I could read about it - from his perspective. He told me a book was in the making. Because, he said, the young generation will not remember everything the way it was. I later read the diaries of members of the Geman Schutztruppe, partly to see if they verified dates, places and battles Chief David mentioned. And yes, his recall was amazingly accurate. The letters by one von Schauroth particularly interested me. He wrote to his father in Berlin, complaining that he never got th promotion he was after. It affords an insight of someone who is unhappy with his officers. In his letters to his father he refers to the Nama opponent as "honourable" on several occasions. Why? He says, because they properly declared war on us. They came by horse with a white flag and a letter to state they were now at war with Germany. And elsewhere he repeats this respect for the Nama. German troops suffered a succession of defeats by the nimble Nama guerilla fighters, von Schauroth expresses great respect ofr their treatment of the German troops they killed. He says, they returned to the place of battle after a victory to bury the fallen Germans. And he adds: And they always ensured the man with the highest rank got the best grave.
Chief David Frederick is the direct descendent from these freedom fighters. They are still not afforded the recognition they deserve. And Germany is still dragging its heals, refusing to do what is right. To make this point, read below recent article:
https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697
https://theconversation.com/genocide-negotiations-between-germany-and-namibia-hit-stumbling-blocks-89697
May he be remembered as a proud man whose quest for justice has yet to be fulfilled.
Harvesting water from our roof in 4x1000 litre drums
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The 2018 Water rises in Cape Town. We now have four of these 1000 litre tanks around the house, to harvest every drop of rain from our roof. Each down-pipe from the roof is connected to a tank. We manage all our domestic needs and watering the garden from here. The only time we use municipal water is to shower (2 minutes max) and for cooking purposes. To wash dishes we heat water collected from outside, as can be seen on this picture.
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Newsletter 35, January 2018
Dear friends and relations,
It gives me pleasure to send you my latest Newsletter, number 35. This is also available on my website www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. There are several items on the cover page of the website not included in the below attachment, the reason being, to keep below attachment to a manageable size.
Newsletter 35 covers:
- Views on the newly elected ANC leader.
- My contact with Jacob Zuma in exile and thereafter.
- The identification of the father of our Khoi ancestor Zara Schmelen on a colonial drawing.
- An small effort to improve the access conditions at the Schmelen House in Bethanie.
- Bringing closure to a family rift concerning over the sale of the diary of Missionary Kleinschmidt.
- Eberhard Kleinschmidt in a poem says: The wrong committed against the Nama and Herero people, is a wrong committed against our family. His woe is to the German government.
Additionally on the website:
- After 124 years another family bridges the racial divide in Namibia.
- ‘Der Stimme der Genade Gehör schenken - Zur Rolle der Rheinischen Missiongesellschaft bei der Errichtung von Konzentrationslagern in Namibia 1905 -1907'. - Hans-Martin Milk. Announcement of a new book.
- ‘Between the Worlds. German Missionaries and the Transition from Mission to Bantu Education in South Africa’ - Linda Chisholm. Announcement of a new book.
- Photos when scattering the ashes of my sister Heidi in the Namib in November 2017.
- Photos of a toast to my mother - she is now commemorated on a gravestone in Swakopmund - November 2017.
- Photo’s of the trip and visit by cousin Otto and Manda Uirab to Cape Town.
As always, please write and engage me in conversation.
Best wishes for the year ahead!
Yours,
Horst.
It gives me pleasure to send you my latest Newsletter, number 35. This is also available on my website www.horstkleinschmidt.co.za. There are several items on the cover page of the website not included in the below attachment, the reason being, to keep below attachment to a manageable size.
Newsletter 35 covers:
- Views on the newly elected ANC leader.
- My contact with Jacob Zuma in exile and thereafter.
- The identification of the father of our Khoi ancestor Zara Schmelen on a colonial drawing.
- An small effort to improve the access conditions at the Schmelen House in Bethanie.
- Bringing closure to a family rift concerning over the sale of the diary of Missionary Kleinschmidt.
- Eberhard Kleinschmidt in a poem says: The wrong committed against the Nama and Herero people, is a wrong committed against our family. His woe is to the German government.
Additionally on the website:
- After 124 years another family bridges the racial divide in Namibia.
- ‘Der Stimme der Genade Gehör schenken - Zur Rolle der Rheinischen Missiongesellschaft bei der Errichtung von Konzentrationslagern in Namibia 1905 -1907'. - Hans-Martin Milk. Announcement of a new book.
- ‘Between the Worlds. German Missionaries and the Transition from Mission to Bantu Education in South Africa’ - Linda Chisholm. Announcement of a new book.
- Photos when scattering the ashes of my sister Heidi in the Namib in November 2017.
- Photos of a toast to my mother - she is now commemorated on a gravestone in Swakopmund - November 2017.
- Photo’s of the trip and visit by cousin Otto and Manda Uirab to Cape Town.
As always, please write and engage me in conversation.
Best wishes for the year ahead!
Yours,
Horst.
Errata: I state in my Newsletter that Jacob Zuma entered South Africa as part of the underground operation Vula. I have been corrected. He did not enter South Africa. I am told that otherwise my analyses of that time is correct.
Errata: My presentation to Cabinet at Tuinhuis was not in 1995, but in 2005. Above post and the one under Newsletters has been corrected.
Errata: My presentation to Cabinet at Tuinhuis was not in 1995, but in 2005. Above post and the one under Newsletters has been corrected.
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Another Namibian family celebrate unity across the racial divide
Hans-Martin Milk:
Der Stimme der Gnade Gehör schenken
Zur Rolle der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft
bei der Errichtung von Konzentrationslagern
in Namibia – 1905 bis 1907
[Berliner Beiträge zur Missionsgeschichte 20. Berlin: Wichern-Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-88981-430-2
(36 Seiten)]
>> zur Besprechung
Friend and fellow activist Ben Khumalo-Seegelken brought this to my attention.
Der Stimme der Gnade Gehör schenken
Zur Rolle der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft
bei der Errichtung von Konzentrationslagern
in Namibia – 1905 bis 1907
[Berliner Beiträge zur Missionsgeschichte 20. Berlin: Wichern-Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-88981-430-2
(36 Seiten)]
>> zur Besprechung
Friend and fellow activist Ben Khumalo-Seegelken brought this to my attention.
Linda Chisholm: BETWEEN THE WORLDS. German Missionaries and the Transition from Mission to Bantu Education in South Africa
South Africa’s educational history is to this day informed by networks of people and ideas, crossing geographic and racial boundaries.
The colonial legacy has inevitably involved cultural mixing and hybridization – with, paradoxically, parallel pleas for purity. Chisholm explores how these ideas found expression in colliding and coalescing worlds, one African, the other European, caught between mission and apartheid-education.… continue here / qhubeka lapha
Kind regards
Ben Khumalo-Seegelken
http://www.benkhumalo-seegelken.de/
Christine thriving, at the Blue Planet studio
We had a re-launch of Anita Marshall's book at our home in late 2017. It is self published. Its title is Soul Rebel, a moving story of her childhood as a victim of forced removals leading to political engagement and military training. Honesty and courage are one hallmark of her writing. From left to right: Christine Crowley, Nkosi Maswati, Melanie Steyn, HK, Di Oliver, Ruth Gerhard, Anita Marshall (in white top), Pete Smith (his wife Jane was taking the photo, Rachel Williams, Dieter Gerhard and Tshepo Moletsane.
René Lescoute reported on in Newsletter 34. A follow-up article.
The story of René Lescoute was covered in my Newsletter 33 (below). Since then an article on his life appeared and can be read on
https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/courageous-capetonian-stood-up-to-nazis-11493802
https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/courageous-capetonian-stood-up-to-nazis-11493802
Newsletter 34. October 2017
| They said my g-g-g grandmother did not exist. |
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List of Enemies of the apartheid state.
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Auf Deutsch zu lesen: Unter der Spalte 'Zarah and Hinrich Schmelen 200th Anniversary', gibt es jetzt drei Deutsche Beiträge zu dem Familientreffen im September 2014. Einer erscheint in dem Österreichischen Magazin INDABA, in der 85/15 Ausgabe (http://www.sadocc.at), die zwei anderen erscheinen in 'In die Welt - Für die Welt', in der 1/2015 und 2/2015 Ausgabe (http://www.vemission.org)
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