Business Day: Worrying utterances

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=8343

Worrying utterances

Crispin Hemson
Published: 2009/10/08 06:25:32 AM
The Kennedy Road issue in Durban has serious implications for the way SA
handles its informal settlements (Kennedy Road truth being hidden,
October 7).

I attended the stakeholders’ meeting called by the provincial
government. The tone of MEC Willies Mchunu’s address was very different
from that of earlier statements, to his credit. However, there were some
disquieting comments from officials and people who claim to be part of
the African National Congress.

The one was a call to ban the imfene dance as it is seen as linked to
witchcraft “in our culture”. The imfene is a Pondo dance that is not at
all problematic in that culture. Search for it on the internet and you
will see a group of dancers performing it in the hall where the same
meeting was held.

The subtext of such comments is that informal settlements in eThekwini
are for Zulus only. The other obvious cause for concern was the frequent
reference to “criminals who oppose development”. The nature of the
criminality was never identified beyond the opposition to the policy to
eradicate informal settlements.

Such language feeds into and justifies violence and ethnic division.
People did not see the significance of xenophobia until it was too late
to stop the violence. We need a full and credible inquiry that
identifies the causes and perpetrators of this violence.

Crispin Hemson

Acting director, International Centre of Nonviolence (ICON) — Durban