1. Dali, I read your article on the “Indian Question in South Africa”. It is quite an involved subject which needs thorough engagement. It’s not my core business, so I am not going to write on it. However, I offer this thread as my response and public record. @AdvDali_Mpofu
2 I agree with you on the “Black people in general and African people in particular”, this is premise from which your article is based. However, this is not at issue in the debate, at least not for me. So, I’ll focus on the issues that are relevant to me.
2. At issue were specific comments made by @FloydShivambu. I listened to the PMG Live recording several times. It is my position that Shivambu was anti Indian, racist, divisive and demagoguery. Demagogues do not invent issues, they cast them in populist ways, as Floyd did.
3. You write about “race relations” btwn South Africans of Indian descent & Africans. Again, this was not the subject of debate. I tweeted about this in previous years. But, I have fundamental disagreement @FloydShivambu, @Julius_S_Malema & you.
4. Now let me address the Gandhi issue. Firstly, Desai and Vahed are not the only people who have written about Gandhi in South Africa. @VashJag is one of the leading scholars on Ghandi. It is strange that you don’t cite her.
5. @VashJag would be the first person to emphasise that her work is not beyond questioning and debate. So, I am not valorising her. I am pointing out important work which has depth and complexity. Many other scholars, historians and activists have worked on position on Ghandi.
6. By all accounts, Gandhi was racist, classist and held strong beliefs in support of caste system & etc. He belonged to the Brahmin caste. He changed. My point? The notion of “Ghandism” in reference to South Africans of Indian descent is deeply problematic.
6. My position on Ghandi is informed by work of scholars who took a long time coming to grips with his politics, philosophies, contradictions & continuous evolution. Young Ghandi looked to Imperial Britain on some issues. Who didn’t? He changed as @Ram_Guha & others show.
6. Anyone who truly wants to understand the “Indian Question in South Africa”, I recommend looking at social history, too. Amongst people who’ve written on this is Aziz Hassim. His novel “the lotus people” is very rich, complex & enlightening. There are others, playwrights etc.
7. Camalita Naicker has written a well researched article on “Indian” history and identity in Africa. Corrrectly, she goes far back to the 14th and 15th century trade. As it happened in other interactions, there were cultural exchanges and religious influences.
8. We do not have to agree on this and many other issues, Dali. Hopefully, robust engagement on the actual issues on the table as well as the underlying historical, structural and contemporary issues will help us understand the complexity of history and our times.
9. We need sober & honest engagement. This requires sensitivity & a delicate balance (which is not the same as ‘tip toeing’, but a sign of political maturity) Why? In this country & world, we’ve seen progroms and genocides. Leadership requires awareness of this bloody history.
10. I am intrigued that you see me as part of a ‘mob’. I try to take independent positions. I am not given to ‘dogma’ and ‘group think’. However, I accept that this is how you view me and those you have cited. There’s nothing I can do about that. Ndiyiphose ngasemva.
11. In my tweets, I raised EFF’s positions on Tom Moyane & VBS. You do not address this in your polemic. I ask because this is at the core of my discomfort with EFF’s positions in parliament & Committees. Surely, South Africans deserve to know your party’s stance & reasons.
12. NB. I have never supported Zuma. As far back as 2006, I stated publicly Zuma should not be the President of this country. So, how EFF locates itself in his absence is not my pre-occupation. My interest is to study cultures of political parties & comment truthfully on that.
13. It’s fascinating to see that in your article, you don’t address some of the ‘myths’. You speak around them but not directly. Eg. SARS. That’s a huge allegation. Yet, nowhere do you state ‘this untrue’? You don’t offer us the same conviction you have about Ramaphosa. Why?
14. EFF has every right to disagree with Momoniat. Others do, too. But this was not the issue. The issue was reference to his “Indianness” and the assumption that he bulldozes his way at National Treasury because of what you refer to as “superiority complex of minorities”?
14. I take to heart, your words that we must speak truth and not claim otherwise. So, here is my truth, Dali, it is informed by a fundamental & often isolating feminist belief. “The process is as important as results”. So, undemocratic processes cannot yield democratic practices.
15. Further, my truth is informed by a strong ethic with which I was raised. Speak your truth & stand your ground. So said, parents who at times were not comfortable with the very principle they were teaching me. They could see, rightly so, that sometimes, the cost is too high.
16. So, just like you state on behalf of EFF collective (we) - I too, will continue to speak my truth as I understand it. I don’t claim it’s universal. I walk alongside & lean on others but I walk alone, always. I don’t do mobs.
17. Standing with others but being alone,is the first lesson we must learn if we are to remain true to our principles. No real human connection and solidarity can be formed if we do not bring our principles,truth &true selves to the table. It’s not always comfortable but it’s NB.
18. Thanks for the assurance that EFF is not attempting to silence anyone. Just to be clear, you all couldn’t silence me, even if you wanted to. I claimed my right to be me a long time ago. That’s how I survived apartheid brutal detentions & much more.
19. I assume that reassurance applies to #Momoniat, too. In any case, EFF won’t shut him down, even if it wanted to. Truth be told, at the moment you come across like a pack of angry lions baying for his blood. Step back, regroup & rethink.
20. It’s a long thread and much of it is not pleasant. What can I say? Somethings must be said. Be well, Dali. Nomboniso
