Poverty is a Design

Many will be shocked to hear such words and after they read this, I will probably be accused of being a racist, but who is not, really?

I maintain that there was a time when the African South African was not poor. When he knew what his children would eat on this night. When there could not be a hungry person in the community while others had food. There was a period in time when African South Africans found peace when their deeds impacted on the next person with great compassion and aid. That period seems far now.

And then, came a capitalist European whose descendant would become the European South African. This crop of the new South Africans redefined the role of communities for Black People. Because they were capital-driven, all they sought was to gain economic glory, not that there's anything wrong with that, but all this would be done at the peril of the indigenous occupant of the land for which they had worked and upon which their history was embedded.
So the new South Africans begin with their systemic and systematic design of colonialism, which was largely designed to loot the economies of those countries who defined wealth not by gold but by the far-reaching community aid programmes. An example of such would have been to gather the community for a week's work in the farms, the resulting crop would be shared among those who took part and even those who did not.
It was the mine fields, the farms, and before you knew it, a whole new system of banks and money evolved and new governance systems were imposed upon the African South African by the freshly-welcomed European South African. They imposed restrictions, they dictated employment terms and employment. They, over a long period of time and with European aid, systematically dissected our governance systems and codes, to :"align South Africa" with the world. They ran Banks and governments, and as their systems evolved, a new, brutal and inhumane South African was born. Through this new South African, the ideas of oppression of Black African South Africans by their White South African counterparts was given birth.
Notwithstanding the preceding centuries of the same treatment, since the arrival of the European South African, the current South African was as brutal, but his expertise in dividing, ruling and robbing the African South African of all the profit from the mines, from the farms, cattle, from all the hard work put in, proved to be the deciding edge in relation to who is poor and who is rich today.

1994 came and as Biko had predicted; the mere change of face in those in governance has not changed the condition in which the Black South African, deprived and robbed by his White South African brother, finds himself in. Biko said there would be those few Black people who would be coming through the capitalist system to a bourgeoisie standard of a life, so there would not be any change in conditions of the majority of Black South Africans, whose efforts of trying to contribute effectively to the advancement of his nation are being frustrated by centuries-old design to deliberately exclude him from the affairs of his native land.

The new government comes to us with ideas of how we can move forward as a country amid poverty and hunger faced by many in our ranks (our ranks means OURS-the poor) yet it there are no redress and take-back programmes that would see the playing grounds leveled.  Our governors failed to employ the same strategies as our oppressors when they sought to build a news South Africa. They deliberately turned a blind eye to the calls of many that strategic economic sectors MUST be taken from the former oppressor. These include land, mines, and all of other assets of the nation stolen. This, they defend by saying "but some of these people worked for what they have", clearly ignoring the historic fact that before the former oppressor had all that he now has, all belonged to the African South African.

Essentially, whatever deal that was agreed upon in Kempton Park when they were devising the new South African dispensation, interests and ideas of the oppressor and his camp were preserved and promoted in the new constitution, so as to further downpress the Black people of this land in line with the agendas of the European wishes. Today, people are up in arms on the streets crying their lungs out for change. Yeah, change will happen, but not for the better, or at least not for the many Black people.

I am not trying to be a racist African South African here, but I am merely stating that only Black people are the poorest, and it will remain like this for a long while so long as those who negotiated with the oppressor remain in power. They will always look out for the interests of their masters. And then there is crime. Governing individuals deploy more cops to "curb the scourge" but to what end? They are merely covering up their own asses. In the South African historic context of White dominance of Black people, crime, like racism, is a result of White oppression and deprivation of Black of that which rightfully belongs o the Black people.

If the colonialist and Afrikaner did not have the gall to rob the Indigenous peoples of that which was theirs by virtue of their birth here, we would not have as many poor Black people, in fact I think it is the coloniser who would have fled because he would be poor. But because no redress and no radical change in the operations of the country from a colonial system of enriching a few, Black people are still poor and if you speak like I do in this blog, you are labelled a racist.

I must say that in the time when racism has no colour, when racism is born anew, if I am labelled a racist here, I gladly accept. I will not stand by and watch Black people oppressing, abusing, downpressing, exploiting Black people, so they can amuse their fatass masters from a thousand miles away.

Poverty is designed to kill the Black South African.

Let's chat about it.