[This may be short, but I reckon its the best piece of writing I’ve ever seen from Dan Roodt. I take my hat off to him. The original piece was in Afrikaans, but thanks to Julie who translated it for us. I did post the original accusations by the ANC b*tch from the World Bank in english some days ago.

It appears her main qualification for entry into high level politics was the fact that she slept with Steve Biko.

I must tell you that Dan’s take on Steve Biko interests me. I also wondered if Biko wasn’t really a propaganda invention. How is it that “black consciousness” is such a hallowed subject? Surely it means Biko was just a black RACIST in reality hey? I think Dan has a point there.

Anyway, Dan socks it to this ANC b*tch who wants to blame violence and crime on us whites.

Note too: Dan points out once more, as I have many times on AfricanCrisis that Indians were never losers like the blacks and that Indians achieved, even under Apartheid.

The “cupped hand salute” is no doubt a mention of the Black Africans forever walking around with their begging bowls on the world stage.

I love Dan’s mention of Dr Verword and PW Botha doing more for blacks than black leaders do for their own kind. EXACTLY! Jan]

WHO IMPOVERISHED THE REST OF AFRICA, MAMPHELE?
The African culture of blame is still standing strongly in South Africa. Just recently the previous official of the World Bank, Mamphele Ramphele, made a declaration to the University of Cape Town that œpeople under apartheid were deliberately impoverished, and if we don™t tackle it, we must not be surprised when there is anger and brutality on our streets.

http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2035231,00.html

Ramphele™s statement contains two elements: an acceptance (apartheid deliberately impoverished people) and a threat (if there is no redistribution of wealth, or œcompensation, there will be violence). Her statement can also be read as an explanation for the anarchy and violence that has been rife in the country since 1994, and which places South Africa at the top of Interpol™s list for murder and rape.
Ramphele™s œstature, if one can call it that, rests on the fact that she was the lover of the murdered Steve Biko. Biko was a Black nationalist and some of his interviews with the BBC can be found on the internet. During these he reveals himself as a typical Afrocentrist whose ideas are not far removed from those of Robert Mugabe. For someone whose œgreat intellect has been praised to high heaven, it is surprising that he could not express himself properly in English. Perhaps he spoke better Xhosa.

However, Ramphele™s œexpert opinion about apartheid will not withstand the test of cold logic.

Firstly, why would the previous NP regime want to œdeliberately impoverish the country? Was it in order to collect less in taxation, draw more international criticism, or just because they were somewhat crazy?

When we look at the previous policy and statements of the previous regime from the time of Verwoerd, it is clear how the country always regarded Black development as a high priority. Apparently more money was spent towards Black development, whether in the previous homelands, or in the urban areas than the total amount spent in all the UN™s development agencies on the Third World since 1945.

It is probably true that Black South Africans on average are poorer than Whites. However, their level of skills, training, entrepreneurship, etc, is lower than that of Whites, as well as that of the Indians. The latter were also regarded as being œvictims of apartheid, that they should receive racial priority before that of whites. Yet the Indians in five of the nine provinces of South Africa are on average wealthier that Whites!!

No government in history, except that of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who enjoys much admiration among South Africa™s Black elite, has ever attempted to impoverish its population “ least of all the previous White governments in this country.

While Blacks are poorer than Whites or Indians for obvious reasons, South African Blacks, however, are far, far wealthier than their peers in the rest of Africa. Something like 38 countries south of the Sahara receive aid and support in some way or another, whether it be food assistance, development assistance or whatever. According to the World Bank the average GNP per head in Africa south of the Sahara was exactly $577.10 in 2002. In comparison, South Africa boasts with a GNP of $3630 per head “ thus six times more than that of the average African country!

Should one accept Ramphele™s absurd hypothetical argument, she should be able to answer the question: who then œdeliberately impoverished the people elsewhere in Africa? Was it the African governments that were out to create as much poverty as possible, like Mugabe has done, for the past forty years?

Apparently the answer is more complicated than that. Just as African leaders did not try to deliberately impoverish their countries, a previous cabinet committee did not decide to try to stem economic growth and prosperity in South Africa. Or does that represent the latest Black consciousness theory that Blacks represent better rulers than Whites? For if we accept Ramphele™s opinion that people in Africa do not have wealth and prosperity, but pursue poverty, we have to agree that Black governments elsewhere on the continent succeeded far better with their $577 per head than Verwoerd and P.W. Botha ever did.

However, let us try to be less ridiculous and conduct a serious political and economical debate. Africa (and its poor) can only benefit by it, provided people like Ramphele “ who, through her experience at the World Bank “ should know better and rather come forward with logical facts and arguments for a change.

The plea for compensation because of apartheid is modeled on the now hollow-ridden claim for compensation because of slavery that was brought up during the UN World Conference on Racism in 2001. The world recognized and rejected it for what it was “ just another variation of the cupped-hand salute that Africa is so well-known for.