Sivuyile Mangxamba
24 January 2002
Cape Town — IF anything hints at a big change in class relations in South Africa, it is the latest song to enter the unions' repertoire of protest.
"Amabhulu amnyama asenzel' iwari!" (Black boers are cause for concern) leaves no room for doubt of black workers' concerns, and it is making a lot of black managers uncomfortable as conflict grows between former anti-apartheid comrades.
The song is likely to be heard at the end of the month, should the negotiations between the 12 public sector unions and government on the restructuring of the civil service fail and public servants go on strike.
In protest demonstrations throughout last year, the song seemed to bother black senior government officials in general but Harry Dladla, Portnet human resources manager, took real offence.
An rather apprehensive Dladla was overheard expressing himself on the matter in a way that made it plain how hard it was for him to reconcile himself with the meaning of the song.
"Aisshh! They call us black boers now," exclaimed Dladla to colleagues with an anguished look that suggested a feeling of estrangement just minutes after he and other Portnet managers had received a memorandum containing the demands of the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), the majority union at the harbour.
In fact, Dladla had every reason to be distressed about the song.
After all, he is the branch chairman of the African National Congress in Milnerton, and only heaven knows how many demonstrations and boycotts he himself led in the course of the struggle against apartheid.
But, on the day in question early last month, he found himself on the "other" side when at least 1 000 employees at Portnet - now the National Ports Authority of South Africa - marched to his door to voice their discontent with his policies.
In some recent demonstrations, the mood has been deceptively relaxed.
Some in the management team often swayed nostalgically to the rhythm of the toyi-toyi.
But the mood changed the instant the former revolutionaries heard the damning refrain: "Amabhulu amnyama asenzel' iwari!".
It is quite clear that the new masters are discomforted by the song, or rather by the realisation that in their new role, they are now called "black boers".
It must be hard to for any corporate leader to find a balance between making sensible business decisions on one hand and matching the interests of a poor working class that expects a lot from him.
It is not uncommon to hear marchers shouting: "Don't forget that it is us who put you there."
This is clearly a reference to the role of the liberation struggle in clearing the way for black professionals and managers to take up senior posts once held exclusively by whites.
A particularly ironic reflection of the new mood was the booing of Lucky Montana, who is the director of parliamentary services in the Ministry of Public Enterprises, by thousands of Cosatu supporters during an anti-privatisation march outside parliament a few months ago.
People who know Montana well say he is also a member of the South African Communist Party, which supported the protest against the selling of state assets.
Accepting the memorandum, Montana infuriated Cosatu supporters when he said the federation had been part of the decision to privatise state assets.
At the time, the workers started interrupting Montana's speech by chanting "amabhulu amnyama asenzel' iwari!" Chants increased in volume when he said: "It is government's view that the protest action could not be described as being worth the sacrifice to the economy, to workers' wages and to the country's ability to efficiently host the World Racism Conference."
At a theoretical level, these tensions could signal the advent of a sweeping change in politics, and the emergence of class politics, that is taking everybody by surprise.
But the emergence of class politics as opposed to race politics should be expected, considering that affirmative action is in place precisely to get people of colour into senior management positions.
In another development, the co-operation of the ANC and the New National Party could be yet a step towards having an ANC which is essentially a nationalist middle class movement without a class base.
If that happens, the SACP and Cosatu would have to reconsider their relevance within the alliance and possibly start contemplating forming a workers' party.
The difficulty of coming to terms with being referred to as "black boer" lies with denial and to a certain extent the guilt that was earlier experienced by the black upper middle class which was shy of being seen as black bourgeoisie.
In the 1980s, to be referred to as a black bourgeois was perceived as a "swearword" and "un-revolutionary", and it took some time before this middle class could pursue accumulation of wealth without feeling guilty about it.
And now, there has been an tendency among the newly appointed black managers to expect the unions to be less militant and give them a chance, while on the other hand trade unions expected the new bosses to treat their demands with empathy.
Well, it seems now that everybody has accepted that the struggle continues: managers must be managers and unionists must be the dedicated representatives of the workers.
No favours.
Perhaps the lesson is: Comrades, tigers do not cry.
This is surely the transformation we all wanted.
Managers should get on with the job of managing without feeling guilty about who they are.
And that means accepting both the privileges, and the responsibilities.
So next time do not be surprised when the 1.8 million-strong trade union federation Cosatu marches to parliament and hands over a memorandum of demands and starts singing: "Amabhulu amnyama asenzel' iwari!"
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