MAKHUDU SEFARA | Theuns du Toit is a product of many things, not least the state

It’s not so much that Stellenbosch University student Theuns du Toit and racists such as him hate black people — the real problem is that supposedly influential black people suffer a level of self-hate that props up the racism.

The very ones who are condemning Du Toit, most notably our politicians, are somewhat responsible for his actions. 

In the wake of revelations that Du Toit peed on Babalo Ndwayana’s laptop and books — saying words to the effect: “It’s a white thing, boy” — his reprehensible actions have predictably elicited ad hominem opprobrium.

And it is easy, is it not, to simply issue condemnations against Du Toit? His actions were extreme and hurtful, and so he is game for platitudes and expletives. Reaction from more reflective types focused on what makes a student born after April 27 1994 become so verkrampte. Is it a case of racism nurtured in his family environment? Is this an Afrikaner boy who grew up on a farm and his idea of black people is limited to servants treated, as at the height of apartheid, as subhuman beings? Did he therefore suffer a system shock when he had to relate to Ndwayana and other black people as equals?

My issue with this is that it would make him a victim of his environment and that he’s just a poor guy who knows nothing but to be racist. This excuse removes his agency as a bright student who made it to university. He is, in my estimation, not a victim of nurture, however much of an influence this could have been. He did what he did because he knew the consequences wouldn’t be much more than the predictable condemnations, suspensions and a light sentence in court, if at all. If he were truly contrite, a proper apology would be out by now, regardless of pending court and university processes. 

My view is that young man Du Toit deliberately acted out his barbaric behaviour because he knows black life is not only cheap, but that even our political leaders show no respect for it. Our government has set a wrong example of how the poor and vulnerable, the very victims of apartheid, ought to be treated and prioritised in a democratic order. If our government respected black life it would make sure there was urgency in the elimination of the legacies of apartheid that gnaw away at the poor’s dignity. 

We live in a world where black children such as Michael Komape randomly face the risk of falling into a pit latrine. This is what a black government does to a black child — suffocates him with human waste. When a government treats poor black people as if they’re the scum of the earth, why are we surprised that a white boy feels emboldened to be racist? Who, in a country such as ours and almost 30 years into democracy, should still be using pit latrines? Each year the auditor-general tells us we squander R160bn of our R2-trillion annual budget on wasteful and irregular procurement. We shouldn’t feign our anger as if we usually insist on being treated with dignity when we know our leaders do the bare minimum to restore the dignity apartheid took away from black people.

Today, thanks to Du Toit, we are united in our condemnation when, in fact, the perpetuation of black poverty is enabled by a government that must be screamed at to stop spending R22m on a flag because it is tone deaf. The idea is not to enumerate examples of the disrespect by the state because they are many.

To be clear: I am not saying President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet colleagues literally made Du Toit pee on Ndwayana’s laptop and books. I am saying their inactions have created an environment that allows black people to be disrespected, to die in pit latrines, to receive the worst service (just why is there no water in the taps in Seshego, Polokwane, when the dams are full?).

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I am also not saying Du Toit’s family, schools and the university have no role in churning out bigoted children. By all means, all white families must look in the mirror and ask themselves if they’re teaching their children the right things or raising monsters such as Du Toit. Afrikaans schools and universities such as Stellenbosch must ask themselves why they continue to be at the centre of the country’s racist storms. They should ask themselves if they should be doing more to counter a climate that enables racism to germinate and, if so, what? It is not enough for Stellenbosch to simply say it acted swiftly against Du Toit. What is it doing to ensure Du Toit types don’t flourish on its campus?  The same applies to corporate SA, with a recent report showing the country’s banks have all but stopped pretending they embrace transformation. Ditto similar reports of employment practices in other sectors of the economy. Given our horrific history of apartheid, a government that respected black life would not be so hands off. 

In the end, we can choose to be worked up by Du Toit, to issue condemnations and other incantations. We can also choose to stage marches to show these racists there is no room for bigoted people in our beautiful rainbow nation. It will make us feel good as we retreat to our normal lives. This though is convenient and unhelpful. 

What will help the cause is when those with the means to restore the dignity of black people pummelled by apartheid don’t see their jobs as simply attending meetings and issuing statements, but meaningfully changing, for the better, the lives of poor people. 

We should never have to compare which is worse — a black child dying in poo because those who should care don’t or another black child having his laptop and books peed on. We must really be in a very dark place to have to say to our leaders that they must, in fact, lead. Racists will not respect black people for fear of being condemned. They ought to know the consequences are real. A failure to do this is to prop up racism. The black poor, suffocating in poo or having laptops peed on, have, sadly, been waiting for these self-hating leaders to lead. And still we wait.