Truth, Lies and Propaganda by Lucinda E Clarke

Author:Lucinda E Clarke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography/media/television/radio/writing career/humor/propaganda
Publisher: Umhlanga Press
Published: 2016-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

11 NATION BUILDING

There is a lot of suspicion about new ideas, and I was called in to a company called Cashbuild to help change mindsets amongst their staff. Cashbuild was a huge concern, selling building materials throughout the country, from wheelbarrows, to bricks, cement, tools, corrugated sheeting and so on. In order to protect their employees they had introduced a pension scheme, where they kept back two Rand a week (less than a dollar), to which they added four Rand and invested it for their employees, so when they either left the company or retired they would have a lump sum.

There were near-riots outside their warehouses and head office when the employees discovered they were being short changed. As far as they were concerned, the fat cat managers at Cashbuild were keeping the money for themselves and stealing it from the poor workers.

So the top brass decided to make a video to explain in simple language exactly how the scheme worked, and that is where I came in. I’m not sure what effect the final product had, but my early training in teaching a concept step by step, certainly came in useful, and Cashbuild is still alive and profitable today.

Later that year, I met another man who impressed me deeply. I went in to meet the editor of the Sowetan Newspaper in downtown Johannesburg. I know many of the people I mixed with socially avoided this area like the plague, and spent their leisure time in the game parks and the northern suburbs, but whether it was because my work out on shoot had taken me to most parts of the cities, or foolhardiness, or just plain ignorance, I didn’t think twice when I drove in to the city.

Aggrey Klaaste was dressed impeccably in a dark suit and rose to welcome me into his office. He ordered coffee and then explained some background to the programme he wanted to make. He told me about his passion for the concept he introduced called ‘Nation Building’. He asked if I had seen the bumper stickers. Yes, I had, but not thought to ask what it was all about.

“I am going to America soon,” he continued, “and I want to take a video with me to show people what ‘Nation Building’ is all about. I, for one, am ashamed to be black.”

Inwardly I groaned. I hoped he wasn’t going to complain about the evils of apartheid. I wanted to plead ignorance and explain that I had no part in it, and I didn’t agree with it either - being relatively new in South Africa I didn’t even have the right to vote. But his next words took me totally by surprise.

“Do you know what percentage of the prison population in America is black?” he asked me.

“Uh, no, I have no idea.”

“80%. And what percentage of drug takers is black?”

“Uh, no, no I don’t.”

“75%.”

“Um,” I was not sure how to respond.

“And the figures for blacks unemployed in America are around 78%.”

I had no idea

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