An Overdue Initiative

Through the Looking Glass
However, it was not long after arriving at the Conference Centre in Century City that I had this uncomfortable feeling, like Alice in Wonderland, that I had fallen through The Looking Glass and was at some kind of Mad Hatters Tea Party! It was not just the opulent catering overflowing the tables. The speakers seemed to have misread the Memo. Unless my ears were deceiving me, speaker after speaker seemed to be promoting racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance!

Inexplicable Omissions and Outrageous Generalisations
Not only were they not dealing with the thousands of farmers murdered in South Africa, but they were making the most outrageous generalisations and racist statements, such as:

“All whites are racist!”

“We have to invade those sectors where whites are still in charge!”

“All whites must be re-educated!”

“The honeymoon period of democracy has come to an end!”

“Equality is not enough! This is not a single issue revolution!”

“No more reconciliation!”

“The white culture must fall!”

“Racial superiority is expressed through sports!”

“Rugby is everything to the Afrikaners. If you want to hurt the Afrikaner, you must crush their rugby. We must insist that at least 50% of all their rugby teams are black.”

“Afrikaans is not a language for education. It has no place in universities.”

“We need to deconstruct the systemic racism by eradicating whiteness.”

“We have had 21 years of carrots – now we need the sticks! They must feel the pressure to compel them to hand over all their resources!”

“The biggest failure of the TRC was it failed to address sports!”

“We cannot allow the constitution to get in the way of redistributing all wealth and removing whites from all positons of authority and land ownership.”

“Christianity is Racist!”
One speaker, Congress of South Africans Trade Unions (COSATU), Tony Ehrenreich, declared that “racism is inculcated in every doctrine of Christianity!”

“God is the Ultimate Racist!”
Nikhiel Deeplal, National Chairperson for Students for Law and Social Justice, declared that he used to believe in God until he saw all the inequality and realised that God is the ultimate racist! Therefore he had given up on religion, because of inequality.

Defining the Terms
I turned to the Draft document for Public Consultation of the National Action Plan and read the Definitions at the beginning of this glossy DOJ publication. Yes, there it was: “Hate crimes: acts motivated by bias based on the identity (with reference to race, religion, national origin…) of a victim are forms of bias motivated violence… hate crimes are message crimes that send a message of fear to an entire community… hate crimes, particularly when they do not meet an adequate response from the state, violate fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination can lead to social unrest.”

“Discrimination: imposes burdens, obligations or disadvantages on, or withholds benefits from, opportunities or advantages from any person, on one or more of the prohibited grounds.”

“Institutionalised Racism: any kind of system of inequality based on race…”

Blatant Racism in the Name of Combatting Racism
Yet, I was hearing speakers clearly advocate, what to me seemed to be, racist hate speech, institutionalised intolerance and systematic discrimination against whites in general and Afrikaners in particular.

Atheist Agenda
The absolutely mindless, out-of-touch with reality, Marxist, atheist hatred for Christianity from some of the speakers was staggering.

Double Standards
I looked back at the Definitions at the beginning of the document and, sure enough, bias against any religion or conscience constituted “hate speech.” Yet here were a steady stream of speakers stereotyping all whites, Christians and males in the most hostile and prejudicial language! There was evidently a blatant double standards and blindness to their own hatred, racism and malicious agenda.

The Record of History
The fact is that only Biblical Christianity offers a rational basis for opposing racism and for pursuing justice. Equality before the Law is a Biblical principle (Numbers 15:15). It is a fact of history that the teachings and example of Jesus Christ inspired the invention of hospitals, the nursing profession, history’s greatest charitable movements, the abolition of the slave trade and much more. The teachings of Jesus Christ to love your neighbour, to do unto others as you want them to do unto you, the Good Samaritan, and so much more, has inspired the greatest acts of charity, compassion and mercy ever seen in history. Whereas, Atheism and Marxism have a devastating legacy of death and destruction.

A Marxist Agenda
Yet, here we were seeing, and hearing, radical Marxists hijacking this consultation to promote racism, hate speech, intolerance and Marxist revolutionary objectives. Communists have been taught that they must create conflict, class warfare, race warfare, whatever is necessary, to break down existing structures and provide fertile ground for revolution and the restructuring of all life around the communist party – leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat. In his Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx wrote: “the theory of the communists may be summed up in a single sentence: abolition of private property. You reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend!”

Violence is the Midwife for Marxist Revolution
Karl Marx also declared: “Without violence, nothing is ever accomplished in history.”

Certainly that sentiment was expressed by several speakers.

War Against God
Karl Marx also wrote: “The abolition of religion is a requisite.”

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx wrote: “Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality.”

Hatred of God and Atheism are Essential
Marx’s quote: “Our enemy is God! Hatred of God is the beginning of wisdom!” was echoed in the SLSJ representatives’ comments. Vladimir Lenin declared: “Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of communism. We must hate. Hatred is the basis of communism.” That quote would not have been out of place in this so-called consultation to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. It was evident that atheists were using this event as a pretext to advance anti-Christ arguments. The GayGB Pink Inquisition was also evident in demonising males and Christian families.

A Voice of Reason
One of the few voices of sanity was that of Peter Munns, President of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Christian Coalition. As far as I could tell, Peter Munns was the only Christian representative, or businessman, given an opportunity to speak at this consultation. They limited him to 7 minutes. Dr. Munns said what needed to be said: “We need help, hope and healing. There is no future in the past. We need to learn from the past, including recognising what others have contributed to this country. Since 1652 the Dutch, 1688, the French, from the 1820s, the British, brought advanced agriculture which ended famines, medicines which dramatically increased life expectancy, built infrastructure which has benefited everyone and developed South Africa into the most advanced economy in Africa.”

You Cannot Fight Racism with Racism
Peter Munns pointed out that you cannot fight racism with racism. He also pointed out what Einstein observed: insanity is continuing to do the same things and expecting a different outcome. “You cannot have a different result from making the same mistakes over again!” We need to face the fact that South Africa is right at the bottom of the list with Columbia and Mexico in the out-of-control and unacceptable corruption, crime, drug, rape, and murder rates in the country. The questions before us are: “What went wrong? How do we address the challenges?” “How do we go forward and solve these problems?”

Are We Trying to Follow Zimbabwe?
During question time, Mr Munns had the opportunity to bring up the farm murders and the example of Rwanda and warn that the revolutionary path of hatred is going to lead to something like the Rwandan holocaust and the national suicide that we have witnessed North of our border in Zimbabwe. There was evident hostility to these opinions.

Sowing Seeds of Biblical Sanity
However, many delegates took him up on his offer of documentation afterwards. A box of Christian Action magazines dealing with Xenophobia, Magna Carta, A Christian Response to Protests, JOY! Magazines and Biblical Principles for Africa books were distributed to delegates after the Panel Discussion.

We Do Have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights
Another voice of sanity that was a relief to hear from was Mr Mpumelelo Mkhabela, Chairperson of South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). Mr Mkhabela reminded the conference that there was no need to try to re-invent the wheel. All of the concerns being raised had been raised for more than two decades. We already have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which adequately address all of these matters. We should stop trying to pretend that we have just discovered a solution to a new problem. There was no need, he said, for any law to try to compel the press to adhere to non-racism, etc. The press long ago, even before the Bill of Rights, had voluntarily enforced their code of conduct which entrenched all of these principles and more.

Exposing Racism is Not Endorsing It
He also pointed out that exposing racism is not endorsing racism, and people should stop trying to shoot the messenger by blaming the press for reporting on unpleasant matters. It is the duty of the press to report on reality, not to try and paint things the way we would like them to be.

Distractions from the Failure of the ANC Government
Evidently many preferred the distractions from the failure of government for blaming the white minority as scapegoats. Rampant corruption, skyrocketing crime and violence, power failures, inflation, lack of service delivery in townships and suburbs testify to the failure of the ANC government to deliver on their duties and promises. Attacking national monuments does not solve problems – but it does distract voters.

Rejecting Civilisation
One speaker, Nikhiel Deeplal ranted on about “Why are whites allowed to be on university faculties? Why are students of law required to study British, Roman and Dutch law? Why not just study Traditional Jurisprudence? Why do we require professors and judges to have years of experience? What is wrong with making professors of 25 year olds?” he asked, but did not give an opportunity for anyone to answer. One wondered what traditional jurisprudence he was referring to, as Shaka and Dingaan were not particularly known for the rule of law or democracy.

Mfecane Massacres
Tens-of-thousands were bludgeoned or impaled on the mere word of the king and 156 tribes exterminated in the genocidal Mfecane, which killed over three million people in the early 1800s. What traditional jurisprudence is this man talking about? Who would actually want to live under such an arbitrary rule of dictators and witchdoctors? Have we not learnt from the disastrous rules of Idi Amin of Uganda, Samora Machel of Mozambique, Patrice Lumumba of Congo and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe?

“All Males Are the Enemy”
Gillian Schutte, the Co-Founder of Media for Justice, ranted and raved against “whiteness” and all whites being racist and the need for all whites to be “re-educated”. She also railed against “patriarchy” and made clear that it was “not just white males” that they were against, but “black patriarchy” is also the enemy. Several spoke about the need for the second phase of “the Revolution”.

“We Are Victims and Nothing is Our Fault!”
Evidently many of the speakers at this consultation saw themselves as victims. Even after 21 years of ANC rule they were not willing to take responsibility for anything wrong in the country. Anything wrong is the fault of whites and “apartheid”. Very convenient, but hardly constructive in improving the situation.

The Revolution is the Solution!
According to several of the speakers, the solution is Socialism, Communist Revolution, confiscation, and radical feminist, GayGB Pink Inquisition, “deconstructing systemic racism”, “eradicating whiteness” and advancing “traditional jurisprudence!” Inevitably from all this will flow socialist utopia and we will then all live happily ever after, just like in Zimbabwe, Cuba, the Soviet Union and North Korea.

Stifling Discussion and Supressing Disagreement
Sadly, the programme was chronically behind time and the promised participating opportunity during the Panel Discussion never really happened. As everything was more than 2 hours behind time, after each member of the Panel had given their speech, with varying levels of adhering to the time limit, the Chairman then severely limited opportunities for questions from the floor and effectively stifled real discussion on these issues. In my experience that is quite typical of when Marxists orchestrate what they call consultationsto rubber stamp their already printed Agenda and accept Draft documents.

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption…” 2 Peter 2:19

Dr. Peter Hammond
Africa Christian Action
PO Box 23632
Claremont
7735Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: 021-689 4481
E-mail: info@christianaction.org.za
Web: www.christianaction.org.za/
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