OPEN LETTER TO THE ORGANISERS OF BLACK MONDAY

Dear Daniel Briers and Talita Basson

I take this rare opportunity to write this personal letter to you as fellow South Africans, to
commend you for having organized and raised the issue of farm killings which concern all of
us. I commend you because what was implicit in your action is your love for your country,
South Africa. Your commitment to the new South Africa was palpable and commendable.

The struggle against apartheid and injustice was never a struggle of black people against
white people.It is in this context that throughout the history of the liberation struggle
against apartheid, many white compatriots served in the commanding heights of the ANC
and its military wing, Umkhonto Wesizwe, because they wanted a just, democratic and
better future for their children.

At the dawn of our democracy, President Mandela, delivering his inaugural State of the
Nation Address in May 1994 said, The time will come when our nation will honour the
memory of all the sons, the daughters, the mothers, the fathers, the youth and the children
who, by their thoughts and deeds, gave us the right to assert with pride that we are South
Africans, that we are Africans and that we are citizens of the world. The certainties that
come with age tell me that among these we shall find an Afrikaner woman who transcended
a particular experience and became a South African, an African and a citizen of the world.
Her name is Ingrid Jonker. She was both a poet and a South African. She was both an
Afrikaner and an African. She was both an artist and a human being. In the midst of despair,
she celebrated hope. Confronted with death, she asserted the beauty of life. In the dark days
when all seemed hopeless in our country, when many refused to hear her resonant voice, she
took her own life. To her and others like her, we owe a debt to life itself. To her and others
like her, we owe a commitment to the poor, the oppressed, the wretched and the despised
And so we must, constrained by and yet regardless of the accumulated effect of our
historical burdens, seize the time to define for ourselves what we want to make of our
shared destiny.

President Mandelas words echoed what OR Tambo said 14 years earlier, an articulation of
ANC policy and unequivocal embrace of all South Africas citizens as equal under the law
across the racial divide. Ours is to rally a nation behind a common vision and collectively
eradicate the ills that continue to keep us apart. The demon of racism has no place in our
society and we must use every legal instrument at our disposal to bury it, once and for all, in
all its manifestation.

Daniel and Talita, we may come from divergent political persuasions, but I am proudly of a
liberation movement whose ideological disposition has always been premised on a principle
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. This ideology was formalised
in the Freedom Charter, adopted in 1955 in Kliptown, and has since been a grounding
platform for all policy positions of the ANC and all progressive forces that rallied under its
banner. Throughout our liberation struggle history, white compatriots fought in the
trenches side by side with fellow blacks and equally share the credit in the liberation of
South Africa. When delivering the January 8th statement in 1980, which also marked the
25th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, OR Tambo said, We said we want freedom for all
our people as equals, brothers and sisters in one united and democratic South Africa This
was a bold characterization of our struggle against apartheid, which forms the umbilical
cord that binds all of us as South Africans. Our painful and shared history which knows no
racial boundaries should be the basis for us to reject the demon of racism in all its
manifestations and embrace our common responsibility to build a nation-state truly at
peace with itself.

An eminent group of 52 white Afrikaners who, led by Dr Frederik van ZylSlabbert met the
ANC in exile in 1987. Their desire and quest was to be part of a solution to usher in a
democratic, non-racial and prosperous South Africa. Whilst the colour of their skin ensured
that they were beneficiaries of white privilege, they nevertheless had more faith and trust in
the leadership of the ANC to bring about the winds of change and build a non-racial South
Africa. In a similar move, JP de Langer, who was a leader of the Broederbondand Vice
Chancellor of the Rand Afrikaans Universiteit (RAU), met with ANC leaders in New York in
1986. His too, was a quest for a political solution towards the creation of a non-racial
society.

I have no doubt that you are genuine in your efforts to fight the scourge of farm killings
despite the spoilers who hijacked the event for their narrow interests.

At the height of apartheid repression, young, gallant white South Africans were forced to
join the army. Many resisted the conscription and formed the End Conscription Campaign,
a bold campaign led by white compatriots who refused to fuel the engines of apartheid
repression. The brutality visited upon these white compatriots who defied apartheid laws by
the state was vicious, as they were seen as traitors who chose to fight alongside their black
compatriots against their own. In 1988 the ECC became the first white organization to be
banned by the apartheid state. Our history is littered with many stories of bravery
demonstrated by our white compatriots against racial oppression, which includes the heroic
role of organisations like the Black Sash and many others.

Talita, I invite you and all young white Afrikaners to embrace this history which is symbolic
of our common destiny, and never allow yourselves to be used as cannon fodder by those
who want to undermine the heroic efforts of those generations of Afrikaners who stood up
against apartheid tyranny. All young white Afrikaners may be agitated by a genuine
concern, which affects all of us, of rampant crime and farm killings. It is for this reason that
we should find each other across the racial divide and acknowledge our collective
responsibility to build safer communities in the farms. There have been horrendous stories
of brutal killings of both farmers and farm workers, from Mark Scott-Crossley who fed his
farm worker to the lions to BokkiePotgieter found hacked in his bakkie in Vryheid or
JoubertConradie killed on his farm in Klapmuts, Stellenbosch. There can be no justification
for these killings regardless of the race of the victims.

President Mandelas call to forge a nation driven by a collective desire to build a society
where future generations live in peace and harmony free of crime must spur all of us into
action. We have a collective duty to build a society where a girl child is able to walk the
streets at all hours without fear of being raped or murdered. The difficulties confronting us
a nation, are but fleeting challenges, which should not detract us from this national
responsibility.

A genuine concern of farm killings that spurred you to organize the demonstration was
overshadowed by what became racial polarization and blatant display of bigotry. The public
display of the apartheid flag invokes painful memories to the black majority and has no
place in our democratic society. Its display as a symbol of nationhood should be rejected by
both black and white compatriots with the contempt it deserves.

In our 23 years of democracy, we opted for a path of reconciliation and peace towards
nation-building, over hatred and retribution. While countries like German banned any
public display of Nazi iconography, we chose to allow apartheid iconography to remain part
of our public discourse. This is despite the fact that the scars of apartheid brutality remain
fresh in our collective psyche,the need for future generations to learnof our nations painful
past is far greater and to ensure that future generation never repeat what came to pass.

This is a deeply personal invitation to both of you, Daniel and Talita and many of those who
share your convictions, to join us in this journey towards building a truly non-racial society,
alongside many other South African who have embraced this quest. In acknowledging the
invaluable role played by many white Afrikaners, who fought against apartheid and laid
down their lives so we can all be free, we must work together and forge lasting unity among
our people and build a country we can all be proud of in their honour.

Daniel and Talita, crime knows no racial boundaries. It is a cancer that requires a collective
effort by all South Africans to uproot and bring the criminals to book. You have taken the
tentative steps by saying enough is enough, let us now build a non-racial front in waging war
on crime and only then will we succeed.

Nooi my volgendekeerassebliefvir pap envleis.

Die uwe

Zizi Goodenough Kodwa

ANC Spokesperson