For winning a case in which the Labour Court has ruled that the employment equity plans of the South African Police Force are unconstitutional for being no more, no less a system of racial quotas.
However just about the same issue is awaiting adjudication by our Constitutional Court in the case of the Coloured Correctional Services Officer.
SOLIDARITY First appellant
PJ DAVIDS Second appellant
CF FEBRUARY Third appellant
AJ JONKERS Fourth appellant
LJ FORTUIN Fifth appellant
GM BAARTMAN Sixth appellant
DS MERKEUR Seventh appellant
TS ABRAHAMS Eighth appellant
DR JORDAAN Ninth appellant
JJ KOTZE Tenth appellant
DMA WEHR Eleventh appellant
and
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES First respondent
MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES Second respondent
NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL
SERVICES
Third respondent
MINISTER OF LABOUR Fourth respondent
However just about the same issue is awaiting adjudication by our Constitutional Court in the case of the Coloured Correctional Services Officer.
SOLIDARITY First appellant
PJ DAVIDS Second appellant
CF FEBRUARY Third appellant
AJ JONKERS Fourth appellant
LJ FORTUIN Fifth appellant
GM BAARTMAN Sixth appellant
DS MERKEUR Seventh appellant
TS ABRAHAMS Eighth appellant
DR JORDAAN Ninth appellant
JJ KOTZE Tenth appellant
DMA WEHR Eleventh appellant
and
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES First respondent
MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES Second respondent
NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL
SERVICES
Third respondent
MINISTER OF LABOUR Fourth respondent
Our Constitutional Court will have to decide the same issue as regards these applicants regarding the employment equity plan of the Department of Correctional Services.
At the heart of this case is the proposition by the ANC government that humans from other regions can migrate to a region in which resident humans were/are dominant and be placed in position of dominance over the resident humans simply because the incoming migrants are the majority in South Africa.
The region is the Western Cape of South Africa. The resident group are the Coloureds. The incoming migrants are the “so called Blacks”.
I purposefully use the expression “so called Blacks” because black is a colour. It is not human. It is not a race or ethnic group. It is an adjective, not a noun.
It is simply a label/brand name that was imported from the USA, where it had been invented during what is known as the Jim Crowe era, in order to oppress all mixed race folk that had just “one drop” of African blood in their veins. So it was imported into South Africa for the same purpose of oppression. Regrettably the label has been embraced and embedded. The 10 major tribes of South Africa have amalgamated under the “black” label/brand so as to ensure exclusion of and dominance over any other race/ethnic grouping.
Whenever humans amalgamate under a label or brand name the objective is prejudicial to other humans, excluded by the label/brand. The worst example is that of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi label/brand. Whether it be boys at school, or prisoners, or Al Capon and company, once humans amalgamate under a brand name they are into gangsterism, as much as this was not the primary intention. However the road to hell is indeed often paved with good intentions.
At the heart of this case is the proposition by the ANC government that humans from other regions can migrate to a region in which resident humans were/are dominant and be placed in position of dominance over the resident humans simply because the incoming migrants are the majority in South Africa.
The region is the Western Cape of South Africa. The resident group are the Coloureds. The incoming migrants are the “so called Blacks”.
I purposefully use the expression “so called Blacks” because black is a colour. It is not human. It is not a race or ethnic group. It is an adjective, not a noun.
It is simply a label/brand name that was imported from the USA, where it had been invented during what is known as the Jim Crowe era, in order to oppress all mixed race folk that had just “one drop” of African blood in their veins. So it was imported into South Africa for the same purpose of oppression. Regrettably the label has been embraced and embedded. The 10 major tribes of South Africa have amalgamated under the “black” label/brand so as to ensure exclusion of and dominance over any other race/ethnic grouping.
Whenever humans amalgamate under a label or brand name the objective is prejudicial to other humans, excluded by the label/brand. The worst example is that of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi label/brand. Whether it be boys at school, or prisoners, or Al Capon and company, once humans amalgamate under a brand name they are into gangsterism, as much as this was not the primary intention. However the road to hell is indeed often paved with good intentions.
So government’s stance was/is that any so called Black is entitled to travel to the Western Cape and be placed in a position of work place dominance over resident Coloureds even if that person might have originated from a tribe that was numerically inferior standing on its own.
In terms of this reasoning the Applicants were discriminated against and denied promotion despite meritorious service and being recommended for promotion by selection panels … because they are Coloured … because they are not black … and even though the Employment Equity Act actually defines Coloureds as also being “black”.
So here, at a stroke, we see the crass hypocrisy in the insistence that Coloured folk should now be redefined as “black”.
In Australia the “problem “of Coloured folk was to be sorted by breeding the blackness out of them under what has become known as the Stolen Generation. In South Africa it is imagined that it is much simpler to just force them to change to “black”.
In terms of this reasoning the Applicants were discriminated against and denied promotion despite meritorious service and being recommended for promotion by selection panels … because they are Coloured … because they are not black … and even though the Employment Equity Act actually defines Coloureds as also being “black”.
So here, at a stroke, we see the crass hypocrisy in the insistence that Coloured folk should now be redefined as “black”.
In Australia the “problem “of Coloured folk was to be sorted by breeding the blackness out of them under what has become known as the Stolen Generation. In South Africa it is imagined that it is much simpler to just force them to change to “black”.
I had the enormous privilege to meet with the Applicants. It was a meeting that humbled me and filled me with incredible sadness. It offended my sense of justice at its very foundations that humans could be subjected to what was no more, no less “cruel, unhuman and degrading” treatment in the land of their birth. At that stage they had actually already been before two (2) Superior Courts, being the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court and had won both cases but given no remedy. Hence the appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The justification by the ANC government for this cruel nonsense was/is that “so called Blacks” suffered more than Coloureds historically.
Nothing could be more nonsensical given the reality that Coloureds are the direct descendants of the KhoiSan who have suffered genocide and their suffering goes right back to the Van Riebeeck era. So, as a grouping, they have had to also contend with genocide of their kith and kin from day one. The suffering of the tribal groups that are now “black” started about 100 – 150 years later.
Nothing could be more nonsensical given the reality that Coloureds are the direct descendants of the KhoiSan who have suffered genocide and their suffering goes right back to the Van Riebeeck era. So, as a grouping, they have had to also contend with genocide of their kith and kin from day one. The suffering of the tribal groups that are now “black” started about 100 – 150 years later.
If government wins this case the consequences will include the imperative that all employers ensure Black dominance in the work place in the Western Cape. This will induce, precipitate black migration into that region and Coloured migration out, just as Jimmy Manyi once demanded. They will lose their traditional home. They will lose their ancestral homeland. They will lose their spiritual homeland.
This “Black colonialism” will ensure the group displacement of the Coloured people as much as this is impermissible in terms of United Nations protocols.
To my mind what is vomitus about all this is that humans have to endure such diabolical discrimination in their own land and have had to spend years in heart breaking limbo waiting for the Courts to come to their rescue.
This “Black colonialism” will ensure the group displacement of the Coloured people as much as this is impermissible in terms of United Nations protocols.
To my mind what is vomitus about all this is that humans have to endure such diabolical discrimination in their own land and have had to spend years in heart breaking limbo waiting for the Courts to come to their rescue.
This is a very bad indictment against our government.
It is also an indictment against the Democratic Alliance and its new leader, Mmusi Maimane, who stand by and watch … and watch … and watch … and watch … offering NO support and assistance whatsoever, even though these victims are part of their constituency.
Mmusi Maimane is never going to be caught dead appearing to be doing ANYTHING against this pernicious form of “Black nationalism”.
His pious posturing on racism is being shown up for the hypocrisy that it is.
It is also an indictment against the Democratic Alliance and its new leader, Mmusi Maimane, who stand by and watch … and watch … and watch … and watch … offering NO support and assistance whatsoever, even though these victims are part of their constituency.
Mmusi Maimane is never going to be caught dead appearing to be doing ANYTHING against this pernicious form of “Black nationalism”.
His pious posturing on racism is being shown up for the hypocrisy that it is.
Please join me in praying that our Constitutional Court does not shirk its grave responsibility to uphold human rights and protect a minority from oppression by the majority.
