Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - October 24, 2004
Instead of responding to a question about the role of rape in the spread of HIV/Aids, he accused the new Democratic Alliance MP who posed it, Ryan Coetzee, of dangerously pretending that racism had died in 1994.
This has been a regular and largely appropriate theme of the President's writings and speeches throughout the past decade of democracy, but as his anger rises, he is slipping into hyperbole that appears to impute the ugly ideas he decries to white people as a class.
He described racists as those who "accuse us, the black people of South Africa, Africa and the world, of being, by virtue of our Africanness and skin colour, lazy, liars, foul-smelling, diseased, corrupt, violent, amoral, sexually depraved, animalistic, savage - and rapists".
For a man who claims membership of the African intelligentsia, that is a crass representation of the challenge we face as a nation seeking redemption after a history of unspeakable bigotry.
Worse was the quotation, which he repeated in full at the end of his answer, from an article written by an African-American about the perception in the US of African-Americans as "rampant sexual beasts unable to control our urges, unable to keep our legs crossed, unable to keep it in our pants".
This was unpresidential language which demeaned the debate about racism to an extent that left many listeners embarrassed, not for the racists, but for the President, who had been provoked by a junior MP into making this unseemly outburst.
White South Africa has, as Mbeki charges, sought to put the issue of racism out of sight and out of mind. He is right that whites have refused to confront the remnants of the ideology that allowed them to claim the right to rule for so long.
In this myopia lies one of the greatest threats to South Africa's long-term success.
Like HIV/Aids, about which the President was asked but refused to speak, it needs to be forced into the open, acknowledged, analysed and eradicated.
Mbeki is right to keep exposing this cancer publicly until whites begin to talk about it in much the same way that society demands open discussion about Aids.
But the nature of the racism that threatens South Africa is more subtle than the vile prejudice the President describes. If his characterisation fits any of our countrymen, they are so few as to be socially and statistically insignificant.
The President should lead the nation into debate about racism and not polarise the issue with unpresidential venom.
041024
ST041019
Copyright © 2004 - The Sunday Times. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Sunday Times Permissions Desk.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bridgestone/Firestone Charitable Trust, Elton John AIDS Foundation UK, the National Library of Medicine, AIDS Walk of Orange County, and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .