joe’s full version of letter

Hi Guys

 

We have just returned from Jeppe Police Station in town where approx 2000 refugees are crammed into the backyard.  This is just one of many stations swamped.  Our two neighbouring stations, Cleveland and Primrose have even more people.

 

Thank you for the incredible response in terms of donations and volunteers.

You have once again proved that people just want to know how they can help to make a difference and get involved. 

 

Seeing as Government has not responded on ground level with any plan to resolve this crisis, it is up to volunteers and donators to feed these people. The police who are already stretched beyond their limits are doing their utmost to care for these people in terms of toilets, food and blankets. They are overworked and with no end in sight, the situation can only worsen.

It just started raining.. That is going to be a big problem for all these people who are outside in this cold weather.

 

For the few of you upset by this initiative, I apologise if one of these mails slips through to you. On that point, when we arrived at the police station on Wednesday a child had just passed away. That child did not choose to be there.

 

There are babies, children, pregnant woman, illegal immigrants, legal immigrants and criminals all bunched together, they are all being treated the same.  We are not there to pick sides or say who is who.  The fact of the matter is that there are surely those who were attacked for good reason, but blind hate has been poured over many, many innocent and legal foreigners as well.

 

The circumstances around the xenophobic attacks are so complex, that anyone trying to pin it down to one thing is being presumptuous.  The fear, frustration and hate that broke out into violence like this can be traced back to many factors. People are unsafe, unemployed and leaderless. 

 

We are not there because we feel that illegal immigrants should be allowed in this country. We are not there because we have a political angle on this or because we don’t feel that foreign syndicates are a problem.  Our reason for getting involved is purely because we came together on Monday night and as a band decided that seeing a man being burnt alive in our city is not acceptable.

No matter who he is. 

 

We don’t have the time to discuss this with people who say that many people are murdered, why jump at helping the foreigners?

My only answer to that is that I personally have removed myself from what is going on in this country for long enough. For long enough have I avoided the news because “it’s always bad” We have become so detached from our reality that it took the photograph of a man burning alive to make an impression on me.   So if it takes the attacks on foreigners in this way to ignite us into action, so be it.

 

This forces us to define our position. To look at ourselves and decide where we fit in and what needs to be done, what is holding us back, if anything, and state our course of action.

 

So here goes:

I will no longer be side lined because I am white. I couldn’t even vote when my people decided in a referendum that they wanted this country to be free. Why should I stand back when that was the first time, that a people in control, opened the door to fellow citizens without open war? Is that not something to be proud of? I claim that as my heritage. Not the nonsense white-guilt crap forced down my neck at every opportunity. Let me say it so we can move on. I had nothing to do with Apartheid. Now let me take my place in my burning country.

 

Mr. Mbeki and many of the people that are supposed to be running this free country of ours have proven time and time again that they do not care. Mr. Mbeki does not respect his comrades’ lives’ enough to even take AIDS seriously. The biggest killer of our people.

What kind of person can, in this day and age, say that HIV does not cause AIDS? And what kind of people can listen to such NONSENSE and just accept it? 

 

Every single SA family has been affected by crime, but all we hear from our leadership is that it’s not that bad. And if you don’t like it, you can leave.

But I am not going anywhere. This country has been drenched with the blood and sweat of my forefathers since the 1600′s. I am more African than Americans are American. But we are all made to feel like we must stay quiet and just take it.  

 

Many skilled people that could have been used to uplift our people have been pushed aside because they are white.

 

Have you asked anyone in a squatter camp whether they care if an umlungu is fixing the power? You can be sure that people will rather have electricity on a cold winter’s night, than be comforted by the notion that Eskom is “transformed” into incapacity.

The nepotism and fraud destroying our country is the fuel for a culture of entitlement and self-enrichment.  The people that were supposed to replace white management and lead us into the future, have largely failed, because of greed, self interest and the notion that the work was done the moment the positions were filled by black people. But those positions come with responsibilities.

Even in Apartheid South Africa, it was not just their responsibility to be white. If you were in a position of power you had to perform.

 

Of all the scenarios that could have played out with the change of power in SA, affirmative action is by far not the worst. I agree that it is only fair. BUT.

Putting somebody in a job that they cannot do is not transformation. It is destruction.

Keeping them in those jobs once they have proven that they cannot do it is treason. It affects us all.

 

The balance we want in this country will only be achieved when colour is no longer the deciding factor. Skill has to be. Because it is the right skills, in the right places, that will build this nation.  

We have to put our pride in our pockets. This cuts both ways.

It will mean that government will have to admit that affirmative action, the way it has been implemented, has failed and review their position. It will also mean that whites who are called back into positions where they are desperately needed, will have to avoid the temptation to overcharge for doing so. We have to be bigger than that.

 

 Ubuntu? Why is the responsibility for Ubuntu just shifted onto the shoulders of the poorest of our people? How can government expect the unemployed to take in the immigrants, while they gorge on the resources of this country in their palaces?

They leave the borders open and expect the poor to absorb people who have no finger prints or ways of being traced in the event of a crime.

 

 The fat cats are lining their pockets and setting us up against each other so we don’t notice. The current government learnt a lot from the old National Party. They have learnt how to divide the Rainbow Nation of Mandela and Tutu along racial and ethnical lines.

They divide and rule, ensuring that they will not be held accountable for their excesses.

 

Nobody takes responsibility; in fact no one ever admits that there is a problem in the first place.  

The biggest challenges of our generation  are being handled the way an ostrich handles danger. Head in the sand. Like we are all fools. Maybe we are.

 

It would be laughable if it wasn’t genocide by inaction.

 

If our leaders hold our lives in this little regard, why are we surprised that people that have no legal right to be here can be massacred like this? 

 

Life means nothing in South Africa. 

 

We have to stand by and see how our friends and family members are killed, our women raped, on a daily basis. And Government reacts in that trusted old way of denying there is a problem.

 

Just like now. They send in the military against our people because South African’s are tired of being victimized in their own locations by people that the government just let through the borders. Even as I am writing this, Zimbabweans are crossing the border into SA. Willing to take their chance with these attacks rather than starve on the empty lies of Mr. Mugabe’s “fight for freedom”

 

This is a turning point for us. History will record our actions.

It is time for us to realise and say to each other that evil is in the minority. Between our corrupt officials and our burgeoning crime syndicates, good people feel isolated and afraid. We need to wake up.

No man can remain seated when his wife and children are in danger. We need to start feeling every lost life as though they are our own wives, our own children. We are so battered and bruised and cut off, that we don’t realise that we are in this together and that the people responsible, whether by their actions or their inaction, are not strong enough to stand against us all.

 

We must stand up against our own murderers, rapists and thieves. We are all waiting for someone else to do it. Almost 15 years into our democracy, I think it’s safe to say it won’t happen if we don’t do it.

But we can’t become the animals we hate. We have to do it the right way. We have to get involved in the running of our country. The time for pulling up our shoulders and saying “what can I do anyway” is over. If you are not helping, you are making things worse. Start reaching out to people. If you hear of someone attacked in your area, go to them, don’t look the other way. Talk to your local police, find out about your local Community Police Forum. If there is one thing I have seen this week, it is police men and women who go beyond the call of duty. Good people who care.  They need our help.  Stop blaming other people when you do nothing. Get to know your neighbours at work and at home.

 

The response of people that want to help has been overwhelming. We will use RAOK as a rally point for initiatives and resources. We will make and take suggestions and do what we can where we can.

 We have to start somewhere. We have to start sometime.

We have to snap back to reality. Get out of our Playstation, DSTV, Facebook lives that only amount to us trying to escape boredom.

There is more to life.

 

PS

We started moving the first Mozambicans last night in cooperation with the Mozambican Consulate General in Johannesburg. Please keep everyone on the ground in your thoughts and prayers. 

 

We will send out updates on needs as they arise. Currently there is a desperate need for:

 

Purity

Water

Toilet Paper

Nan 3

Blankets

Black bags

Cups and paper plates

 

Please do not call us, we don’t have the capacity to take all the calls coming in. Mail us at Istell@niemand.co.za if you want to volunteer or donate.

 

Thank you

Joe