Dear Mr President, criticism is a patriotic act: iLIVE

South African President Jacob Zuma arrives to give his State of the Nation address at the opening session of parliament in Cape Town, February 12, 2015. The opening of South Africa's parliament descended into chaos on Thursday as security officers fought with far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) lawmakers after they disrupted President Jacob Zuma's speech. REUTERS/Nic Bothma/Pool (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: POLITICS)
Image by: POOL / REUTERS

My President confuses me.

On the 14th of April 2015, President Jacob Zuma of the Republic of South Africa said during his speech at the inaugural ceremony of the new Sefako Magatho Health Sciences University, previously the Medical University of South Africa: “If you serve the country and you are patriotic‚ you will do a lot. Patriotic South Africans will stand up and do what he or she sees is not being done‚ (rather) than to criticise what is not being done. That's patriotism.”

But if Patriotism is defined as to allow oneself to be conditioned in a manner that is in support of your government’s actions and decisions, and in this case, if my president’s only action thus far regarding the attacks by South Africans citizens on foreign nationals currently spreading through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, has been to release media statements with mute points and instructions to: “remove foreigners from scenes of violence and to provide them with temporary shelter,” while allowing government officials to soften “this so-called xenophobia” with phrases such as “Afrophobia” that is “ideologically driven” and even his own son, Edward Zuma, to further incite and fuel the situation on ground with a call to all South Africans to stop “unnecessarily accommodating” foreign nationals; then is President Zuma not perhaps confusing the word Patriotism with Jingoism, which is after all an extreme form of Nationalism or simply put; Xenophobia.

I am aware that the above statement does put me at risk of being classed as one of the Unpatriotic Critics the President has warned everyone about.

But I refuse to believe that my wish to express myself along with millions of other voting, singing, cheering, proud citizens, therefore exercising our right to the Freedom of Expression as it is written in the Constitution of South Africa, does not make me, according to my own President; a citizen of South Africa, a patriotic South African or a son of Africa who lives and strives for the spirit of Ubuntu every day no matter where I live in the world as my elders had taught and inspired me to do.

And not to, as it also written in the very same law of that right, that it: “does not extend to-propaganda for war; incitement of imminent violence; or advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not accusing President Zuma or the government of being guilty of the latter.

I am merely stating that no man, woman or child should live in fear of being cast out of society by a government for expressing his or her concern by critiquing a government’s action or lack thereof. In fact, governments should rather encourage it as it would not only open more honest, clear and transparent channels of communication between a country’s citizens and its leaders, but also enhance or broaden the debate.

Which brings me to my point; Dear President Zuma, please step away from the podiums, cameras and public speeches and listen to the women of Africa.

Walk among those who are suffering, whether a piece of paper says they have the right to your audience or not, and plead with those on our streets; your, my, our fellow South Africans to stop the violence and to do the same.

Listen to the women from Ethiopia, Malawi, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and the thousands of others living in our country who have travelled from across the continent and the rest of the world in search of their place in our Democracy; now all fearing for their children’s lives, desperately trying to protect them without giving a thought for their own, comforting their cries, for they too have lost a father or a brother.

Listen to the aid groups, the doctors and nurses, the women’s leagues and volunteers; all reiterating Weziwe Thusi’s call to: “our people to extend a hand of friendship to our foreign nationals who are fellow human beings”.

Trish Erasmus, head of the Lawyers for Human Rights programme in South Africa: "We need a more coherent and decisive response from the government. It's clear the government hasn't learnt from its mistakes from 2008."

Dr Mamphela Ramphele, back in 2013: “The most serious flaw in our foreign policy stances is our failure to consistently align our policies with the human rights principles of our Constitution.”

And Albertina Sisulu in 1987: “Women are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression. The rent boycott that is happening in Soweto now is alive because of the women. It is the women who are on the street committees educating the people to stand up and protect each other.”

Even former President Thabo Mbeki, who during a speech in which he apologised for the South African government’s failure to act during the xenophobic riots of 2008, said: “It is from this Mother of Hope (referring to the foundations of which the ANC had been built) that we have drawn the nourishment that has defined and taught us who and what we want to be, a Mother of Hope who must fight through all time to remain the Mother of Hope she has been for many generations.”

Kofi Annan: “There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players.”

Charles Malik: "The fastest way to change society is to mobilise the women of the world."

Nelson Mandela: “Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression…Our endeavours must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child.”

I believe this applies not only to situation currently in South Africa but to any human being, whether he or she has a legal document or not.

Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo!
(You strike a woman, you strike a rock!)