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André Slade: When Reason Fails

Recently, reports about a man named André Slade have been sprawled all over the news. Why? Racism, of course. Seems to be the year of the bigot, here in South Africa.

I am very sceptical when I read about racism in the news, especially when the African National Congress (ANC) has made a recent mistake or blunder – it seems not only as if our society labels actions or words as racist much more easily than it should, but that the ANC and its supporters use racism as an excuse not to focus on the mistakes of the ruling party. “Tshwane is burning! – Oh, no, wait. Look at this RACIST preschool gathering instead!”

So when I first heard about Slade, my thoughts on the matter started at “Not this nonsense again…”. Then I listened to an interview with Mr Slade and I started paying attention – I was livid! As it turns out this time (unlike the preschool uproar over a photo out of context), we have an actual racist in the news!

Slade announced that black people and government officials would no longer be allowed at his guest house, the Sodwana Bay Guest House in KwaZulu-Natal. When asked about it, Mr Slade claimed that black people are not humans – that they are servants and that, according to the Bible, “we” (white people, presumably – or perhaps madmen like him?) are not allowed to mix with servants (Slade's bigoted name for other races, apparently).

Slade, it turns out, is the same racist who called the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Mmusi Maimane, a “beast” and a “little bastard”. Clearly his attitude was no spur of the moment thing.

Mr Slade makes a lot of... interesting... statements, including that he is “of royal blood” because he is white. According to him, because white people have crowns (this is more commonly known as a “hair whorl”, which is a patch of hair growing in the opposite direction as the rest of the hair), and black people don’t, white people are royalty and black people are meant to serve them. I would like to point out to Mr Slade (and any other similarly mistaken people) that, although it is more difficult to identify in black people’s hair, because the hair tends to be very curly, black people do, in fact, also have hair whorls.

Mr Slade claims that he is “the king of the earth”, because “his name is Joshua”. This is, I assume, a reference to the Bible, but I would like to point out that the original Christians were Jewish, not “white”, and that Joshua is a Jewish name, not Dutch (as Jan van Riebeeck was). Joshua also means “God is salvation”. Apart from that, the name Joshua is from a leader of the Israelites, who lead them to conquer Canaan, but he was not a king. So, as far as I can see into the mind of a madman, Mr Slade associates the name Joshua with ruling of the planet simply because Joshua lead the Israelites after the death of Moses.

Mr Slade believes that blacks are not human, not homo sapiens. He believes black people are animals, according to his own words. He has no evidence to support his fanciful claims, and at best he resorts to proclaiming the allegedly unchallengeable, yet baseless and unproven, truths he holds dear. Occasionally he quotes, or misquotes, the Bible in an attempt to provide some shred of credibility for his warped views.

This man is, clearly, a very illogical individual, who misquotes the Bible to suit his own means. Most Christian organisations distance themselves from him, and the rest have ignored him and his mad words. And no wonder! Christianity teaches about love, tolerance and peace; and condemns hatred. Christ's teachings, to anyone who has read the New Testament of the Bible, promote peace, community and forgiveness. Jesus makes it very, very clear that prejudice is no reason to exclude anyone from the Church as brothers and sisters, equal children of God.

As for Mr Slade’s partner, Katherine: she claims that white people are smarter than black people – white people can, according to her, fix phones. When it was pointed out that there are plenty of black people that can fix phones as well, she scoffed and did not reply (admittedly, the interviewers were in a rush to end the interview at that point).

By now, the guest house has been closed down, with no reasons stated.

According to the KwaZulu-Natal economic development and tourism MEC, Sihle Zikalala, Slade is not only guilty of racism in his practice, but Slade’s business is not registered anywhere in KwaZulu-Natal and Zikalala claims that the land on which the guest house was built is leased from the tribal authority. I admit that I am a little sceptical of these claims.

The South African Human Rights Commission are investigating Mr Slade and his business, but I suggest that my readers watch this video by Renaldo Gouws, entitled “No Blacks Allowed…”, and listen to some of the interviews with Slade if they want first-hand experience of what it looks and sounds like when bigoted views displace someone's sanity.

I cannot describe to my readers how appalled I am by this. This man is an example - like Ntokozo Qwabe - illustrating why South African racial relations have experienced so many setbacks in the difficult process of reconciliation. Qwabe, an informed and educated man, has chosen to hate white people and defends his view and corresponding actions by claiming that “white people have stolen land from black people” - which supposedly excuses his prejudice. Slade, on the other hand, attempts to defend his hate of black people with Christianity. Both are sickening, and disappointing.

I want to believe, however, that individuals like Slade and Qwabe are vastly in the minority and that South Africans as a whole truly want to live together peacefully and move forward; not as blacks and whites, but as South Africans – as human beings. Please, please help prove me right on this, if you care for South Africa at all.

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