It’s time middle-class blacks owned up to not loving their people and setting this nation up for failure.
I cannot imagine how those who do not love their own people can serve this nation. Hard as I try, I find that there are very few instances where the middle-class blacks demonstrate a love for the people.
And yet it is the ordinary people of this country who have sacrificed everything for them to exist and enjoy the fruits of liberation.
I can understand those who argue that middle-class blacks had to overcome and transcend poverty, degrading conditions and dehumanising experiences to get to where they are.
But it would be difficult and dangerous for anyone to deny that the working class has been used as a doormat to dizzying success and achievement.
I have not seen or heard of a middle class that so hates and ill-treats the very people who have made everything possible for them.
Why? Who has given or taught our black middle class these un-African values?
If you have been to a wedding, funeral, birthday, graduation or any other significant cultural event, you will probably notice how the poor working classes are treated like slaves.
This is nothing but self-hate.
At the risk of generalising, middle-class blacks treat their fellow blacks with indignity and disrespect because they have learnt not to value African lives.
That is why they do not even offer them a tip when they serve them until dawn at functions and restaurants.
And yet the middle class is truly blessed, if you think about.
They get invited to functions where they indulge in freebies. They do not pay for their transport, drinks, food, venues, music and what have you.
Of course, they will have servants to tend to their whims and fancies because everything at a wedding or funeral is paid for.
But when the waiter is done, they will not bother to give them a cent as a token of appreciation.
This is very un-African. It is not enough — after free booze and food — to tell a waiter that “you will be paid at the end of your service. You must just do your job … which is to serve me”.
For us to create a “caring society?”, the black middle class must lead by example.
There is a certain kind of loving kindness that they must show towards their own who are condemned to be servants and waiters.
Perhaps the transformation of this nation will only begin to happen when blacks love themselves.
We must now demand that they love the poor, unemployed and working class as themselves.
It seems absurd that people who indulge in money that should be benefiting the poor have the audacity to treat them with contempt and hate.
Many of those who constitute the black middle class today are not creative entrepreneurs who have invented anything. Instead, they are mostly politically-connected people who thrive and flourish on government tenders and contracts.
This is the money that should be going to the poor.
It is time that the poor demanded love and attention.
Let the middle class eat cake but pay for it by spreading love.
We have to begin to monitor and evaluate the self-conduct of people that we know have benefited from the struggles of poor people.
Without being prescriptive, they have to behave in a manner that makes it easier to spread love and inculcate a culture of respect to fellow human beings irrespective of their station in life.
We cannot wait for the government to level the playing field before the poor and unemployed are treated like human beings.
Love is the best reward that anyone can offer the poor.
And because we know that love alone will not be enough, it is for this reason that the black middle class and other rich people must pay up, now.
After all, money is what makes the world go around.
Sandile Memela, Thought Leader
I cannot imagine how those who do not love their own people can serve this nation. Hard as I try, I find that there are very few instances where the middle-class blacks demonstrate a love for the people.
And yet it is the ordinary people of this country who have sacrificed everything for them to exist and enjoy the fruits of liberation.
I can understand those who argue that middle-class blacks had to overcome and transcend poverty, degrading conditions and dehumanising experiences to get to where they are.
But it would be difficult and dangerous for anyone to deny that the working class has been used as a doormat to dizzying success and achievement.
I have not seen or heard of a middle class that so hates and ill-treats the very people who have made everything possible for them.
Why? Who has given or taught our black middle class these un-African values?
If you have been to a wedding, funeral, birthday, graduation or any other significant cultural event, you will probably notice how the poor working classes are treated like slaves.
This is nothing but self-hate.
At the risk of generalising, middle-class blacks treat their fellow blacks with indignity and disrespect because they have learnt not to value African lives.
That is why they do not even offer them a tip when they serve them until dawn at functions and restaurants.
And yet the middle class is truly blessed, if you think about.
They get invited to functions where they indulge in freebies. They do not pay for their transport, drinks, food, venues, music and what have you.
Of course, they will have servants to tend to their whims and fancies because everything at a wedding or funeral is paid for.
But when the waiter is done, they will not bother to give them a cent as a token of appreciation.
This is very un-African. It is not enough — after free booze and food — to tell a waiter that “you will be paid at the end of your service. You must just do your job … which is to serve me”.
For us to create a “caring society?”, the black middle class must lead by example.
There is a certain kind of loving kindness that they must show towards their own who are condemned to be servants and waiters.
Perhaps the transformation of this nation will only begin to happen when blacks love themselves.
We must now demand that they love the poor, unemployed and working class as themselves.
It seems absurd that people who indulge in money that should be benefiting the poor have the audacity to treat them with contempt and hate.
Many of those who constitute the black middle class today are not creative entrepreneurs who have invented anything. Instead, they are mostly politically-connected people who thrive and flourish on government tenders and contracts.
This is the money that should be going to the poor.
It is time that the poor demanded love and attention.
Let the middle class eat cake but pay for it by spreading love.
We have to begin to monitor and evaluate the self-conduct of people that we know have benefited from the struggles of poor people.
Without being prescriptive, they have to behave in a manner that makes it easier to spread love and inculcate a culture of respect to fellow human beings irrespective of their station in life.
We cannot wait for the government to level the playing field before the poor and unemployed are treated like human beings.
Love is the best reward that anyone can offer the poor.
And because we know that love alone will not be enough, it is for this reason that the black middle class and other rich people must pay up, now.
After all, money is what makes the world go around.
Sandile Memela, Thought Leader
Nota do José = O tema deste texto é o comportamento insensível da classe média negra na África do Sul. Alguma semelhança com Moçambique?
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