There has recently been a huge and somewhat understandable outcry over the subject of struggle anthems and their place in the new South Africa.

This storm has been created largely by ANCYL President Julius Malema singing “dubula ibhunu” at a gathering with students. Farming and right-wing organisations were quick to jump on Malema’s back to demand an apology and move to have singing of such sings banned.

This whole mess reminds me of a debate that rears its head in rugby every so often. That being the waving of the old South African national flag.

The critics of such an act always point to the fact that it shows a rejection of the new South Africa and that those who do are harking back to a time of racial oppression and in the process are spitting in the faces of those who fought and gave their lives to deliver SA from darkness. Supporters say it is a part of South Africa and is inextricably intertwined with the growth and support of rugby amongst especially Afrikaans speaking South Africans.

There were moves to ban the old flag but fortunately sanity prevailed. The biggest argument against banning the old flag was the very sober view that a ban would only serve to “martyr” the flag and what it represented. When you have a minority that feels marginalised (rightly or not) such heavy handed punitive measures will only ever serve to harden their resolve and sense of injustice.

Likewise with the struggle anthems. For a lot of people they represent a time when South Africans of different races put aside their racial, social and cultural differences to unite against a greater injustice. It was a time of great suffering but above all of that, great hope. Fifteen years into a post apartheid governance era, that hope seems betrayed for most. For some their lives have not changed at all, crime is rampant and the leaders they looked up to seem to have deserted them

Add to that a perceived hardening of racial intolerance (though not yet at the level of apartheid SA) and one can see how struggle songs continue to have such a special place in the hearts of many. Banning the singing of such songs will only serve to further alienate those who feel left behind by the new SA. It will only serve to make the vast majority of black people, those jokers at Cope aside, feel that their history is further marginalised and that they struggle is viewed as an uncomfortable truth. That is not the road SA wants to take. No political party wants to alienate the black majority. Except maybe those that are not even trying to appeal to them.

The fact is, Julius Malema is not the struggle, he barely even has any struggle credentials. Putting a veil on struggle history on account of his actions is an insult to the struggle and its real heroes. Malema’s use of struggle songs appears to have no real basis or motive beyond cheap politicking. He has cunningly found a chord that resonates with the disenfranchised masses. It is the cheapest and nastiest form of politicking.

That is what we should take umbrage with. That is the enemy we must fight. Linking a fat man singing off key at a campus to a farm murder phenomenon as old as crime in this country is no different to what he himself is doing. It is cheap and reactionary.

Fanning the flames of paranoia and prejudice. And making Julius seem more important than he actually is.

When Bok van Blerk sang of General Koos de la Rey it was he says as homage to his culture and history. When that welling of emotion is appropriated by racist elements as their rallying call it is nothing short of churlish and short sighted to reduce that history to a mere instrument of racial intolerance. That is why de la Rey should not and could not ever have been banned. That is why the old SA flag is not illegal. Our collective history is bigger than individuals who seek to bend it to their narrow interests. We must not be swayed away from that view.

Instead of making martyrs out of the lowest common denominator, lets seek to engage and talk with one another. We’ve had us vs. them and “swart gevaar” before, and we all know how that turned out.