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<font size=3><b><i>On Anniversary of Mandela’s Release<br>
</i>South Africans are still struggling for their liberation<br>
</b> <br>
Twenty years ago, February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of his
prison cell and four years later, a huge majority elected him President.
Now after 16 years of ANC rule, the majority of South Africans are worse
off than they were under the white minority regime. While petty apartheid
is over and a handful of ANC officials and their cronies have become
millionaires, more than 50% of the people live below poverty.<br>
<br>
Consider these facts:<br>
- South Africa has
been called the “economic powerhouse of Africa” and has enormous wealth,
but now has the world’s largest gap between rich and poor.<br>
- South Africa is
the world’s largest producer of platinum, gold and chromium while South
Africa is home to the world’s largest slum.<br>
- The ANC
government made a deal to pay the debt incurred by the minority white
regimesome $11 billion dedicated to paying for its own past
oppression.<br>
- 65% of young
adults are unemployed, 2/3 of adults have no high school diploma and only
8.4% have some higher education.<br>
- Increasingly,
South African police confront hungry demonstrators who are demanding
jobs, houses, running water and electricity with tear gas, rubber bullets
and baton charges.<br>
<br>
Yet, Mandela and the ANC are still celebrated for liberating the masses
of Black South Africans. In Johannesburg, the country’s only “Apartheid
Museum” perpetuates the myth that Mandela’s release from prison ushered
in South Africa’s era of “peace, equality, reconciliation and diversity”.
Despite protests and legal battles by veterans of the Black Consciousness
Movement, the ANC government authorized a consortium headed by the Gold
Reef City Casino to build and run the Museum. Two white brothers, Abraham
and Solomon Krokwho made their fortunes in gambling and selling skin
lightening creams to Black South African womenhave succeeded in
expropriating and sanitizing the history of apartheid and the struggle
against it.<br>
<br>
Now, Mike Stainbank, a historian and member of the Black
Consciousness Movement who originated and first registered a plan for the
Apartheid Museum, is challenging Gold Reef City Casino and the Krok
Brothers in Court. He and many other veterans of the Soweto Uprising
insist that South Africa’s history should not be told by the very men who
were part of the apartheid machine. In the tradition of Steven Bikowho
demanded the right of Black people to speak for themselves, Stainbank
insists that South Africa’s history must be told by Black people.<br>
<br>
<i>By Arlene Eisen who spent two months in Soweto last year<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000080">
<a href="mailto:arlenesreport@yahoo.com">arlenesreport@yahoo.com</a>
<br><br>
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To write letters of support or for more information, contact Stainbank at
<a href="http://www.stainbank.co.za/">http://www.stainbank.co.za/</a>
or email apartheidmuseum@stainbank.co.za<br>
Tel. (011) 807 2042, Fax (011) 807 0766, Private Bag X63, RIVONIA
2128<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
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