Chilling with Jody Kollapen at the Winter School

by Buhlebuyeza Mbonambi (FJP reporter)

If somebody like Jody Kollapen (pictured), chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), can go to Gareth Cliff’s 5fm show and not feel out of place, then you know that he really is the right person to chair the SAHRC. 

I had the honour to hear Kollapen speak on “Equal Human rights for all – Still a viable proposition?” at the Winter School. And oh boy, was the room packed with old people. (I shall not say the race groups because it will be unscrupulous of me). I knew that I was in for a ride.  

Kollapen started with a joke about how we see human rights these days –  which is to “bring human rights” to Iraq and set up a “place where we politely ask detainees information” (euphemism for torture) in Guantanamo Bay. These are all things that are done by the United States, who always claim to uphold human rights at any cost.   

60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But have we really lived up to this declaration?  

Its message that we must recognise the equal worth of every citizen doesn’t seem to have been heeded lately. On one side we have Robert Mugabe – and his wife, Grace – terrorising the people of Zimbabwe; we have the Americans invading other countries because they reportedly have “weapons of mass destruction” and then we have Julius Malema saying that he will “kill for Zuma”. Now that makes us really respect the declaration. 

Human rights are often treated like a commodities (think political campaigns) and the people don’t believe that the constitution works. “People have told me that they long for the day the constitution works for them, because it hasn’t,” said Kollapen.  “It has worked for me and I want it to work for you too.”  

And have we advanced in building up world peace and recognising basic human rights? Kollapen believes we actually have, pointing out that countries have set up treaties, charters and declarations protecting citizens.  Well this is in principle. And in reality? Eish, no. Not really.  

I was shocked to find out that in an hour, 200 children die of malnutrition every day. Two hundred? I asked myself how on earth that was possible.  

“Two hundred malnourished children dying a day is the same as the effect of 3 tsunamis a month,” he said.  

Now that is just hectic. What is the world going to do about the lack of basic food in the world?

“An Indian man once said that if he dies, he’d want to come back as a cow in America,” said Kollapen. It seems that Americans spend $3 a day on a cow, but are unwilling to pay the same amount of money to help out charity organisations.

Is South Africa different?

Are we actually abiding by the constitution? The anti-apartheid struggle was for human rights and they were achieved in the end, but the question is, are we actually living by them? Kollapen believes that the constitution is the “ideal” world in which society lives in.

There’s talk about the right to education and health, but rural schools cannot give the same level of education as the former Model-C schools. And don’t even get me started on the lack of proper health facilities and care in our country.

Could the fact that we haven’t internalised the values in the constitution in our hearts, mean that we don’t respect each others’ rights? Could things be like they were before 1994? So did Nelson Mandela and his comrades actually fight for nothing if it only takes one thing to set us off against each other? We actually have an obligation; yes an obligation, to fulfil the vision of Mandela. We are not an equal society and let’s face it, there’s little chance of us ever being equal in South Africa. If a hungry man steals a loaf of bread and gets time in jail, but Sir Mark Thatcher gets a plea-bargain, how on earth are we equal?  So now what are we going to do to change this situation?

Many people (and I agree with them) blame the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for the lack of transformation. It did not allow normal people to talk about how they felt and all we knew was that the army, police and politicians were the bad people. According to Kollapen, we “were given ample space to watch from afar.” And this has led to this high level of resistance we have in South Africa (name changes, land reforms etc) and we never engage with each other. The only thing we do is criticise endlessly.

Is it too late to say sorry? No it actually is not. My word, if we could all just put the past behind us by saying the hardest word (sorry), there would be some peace in the world. It’s sad that white South Africans fear the future because they are afraid they will lose something, while black South Africans look forward to it because they stand to gain.

One point that an audience member raised is that white people were given an opportunity by Mugabe to give something to the black inhabitants of Zimbabwe and that he actually offered an olive branch to them, but they didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Now this comment made another lady retort that black people don’t take the initiative on anything. A war of words would have resulted if they weren’t tactfully stopped – and that is the problem. Why does everything have to be about colour? See, even I have referred to colour.

Kollapen told us a joke about his daughter who had had a squabble with a classmate. When he asked her the colour of this classmate, his daughter replied, “It doesn’t matter what colour she is, just know that she’s a bad girl.” 

Pics: Buhlebuyeza Mbonambi