Martin Niemöller said this regretfully after World War 2: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no-one left to speak for me.”
Our turn to avoid ever having to make similar admissions in future has arrived.
Taking advantage of a society blindsided by the disappearance of Jacob Zuma from public life, some thuggish political opportunists have turned on our compatriots of Indian origin.
Our Indian compatriots, comrades-in-arms with the black victims of apartheid during our darkest days, have suddenly become vile old racists.
The Indians have joined white people on the EFF’s list of enemies.While “cutting the throat of whiteness” is a potential punishment for being white, we await the collective punishment for the sins of the racist Indians.
The next collective victims of the EFF’s thuggish and bankrupt brand of politics seems clear to me: the coloureds will probably be made to pay for being preferred to Africans by apartheid.
Zuma’s departure from the political stage was always going to be troublesome for many in the opposition ranks.
Zuma had, since his ascension to the helm of the ANC and government, been the biggest campaign tool for the opposition. No imagination was necessary.No thinking whatsoever. Opposition parties only had to pretend they wanted the president out and the votes would surely follow.
In that period, the DA almost doubled its support base while the EFF’s street-smart electoral campaigning and dramatic and outright thuggish performances in parliament gained the support and attention of a public exasperated with government’s endemic corruption and arrogant abuse of power.
The nation was desperate for small victories against Zuma. Even if the defence of the constitution had to be led by Julius Malema, whose own thuggish ways follow a clear trail from his days as a high school pupil leading other little thugs who robbed poor hawkers in the streets of Johannesburg.
Ever the opportunist, Malema grabbed the opportunity and pretended he was the Messiah, even though he still has serious corruption charges hanging over his own head.
So thug fought thug inside the houses of parliament.
But like all good things, the opposition gift that was Zuma was always going to one day vanish into that monument to corruption that is his Nkandla residence, leaving behind a confused and intellectually bankrupt opposition.
The DA is eating itself alive while the EFF’s brand of politics has suddenly become redundant and out of place in a parliament sans Zuma and his own thugs in white shirts.
All intellectually bankrupt tyrants need victims to stay relevant. Adolf Hitler needed to annihilate the Jews while Idi Amin picked on the Indians in Uganda.
When the throat of whiteness has been cut, the Indians possibly dumped into the ocean named after them (whence they’d emerged) and the coloureds stripped of their humanity, the EFF’s insatiable appetite for further victims will still not be satisfied.
At that point, the black people in the room will be reduced to tribes.
Will the Zulus be accused of having strengthened Inkatha, to the detriment of other black tribal groupings?
Will the Xhosa be accused of having collaborated with apartheid by allowing a few traditional leaders to be guinea pigs in the experimental bantustan project by accepting the “independence” of the Transkei and Ciskei?..