It is day 19 of the lockdown in South Africa. Our government declared a state of disaster which came into effect on 27 March 2020. To enforce the lockdown, a number of regulations were brought into play to support the call to ‘stay at home’. These included the very unpopular ban of alcohol and tobacco sales during the lockdown. This state of disaster reminded of my own ‘disaster’ in 2005.
Our minister of police, Minister Bheki Cele has led the ban against alcohol with so much vigor and passion. I have truly enjoyed his demonstrated absolute commitment and resolution, against many pleas to relax the ban. There have been liquor stores that were broken into, vandalized and looted, as a demonstration of resilience against this ban. However, the minister has remained adamant that there will be no alcohol sold during this time. The strong hand of leadership perhaps.
I found myself reminiscent of the time when I was campaigning for votes that would secure me a spot in the Student Representation Council (SRC) in 2005 at the Stellenbosch University (SU). I was completing the second year of my degree. I was in the worship team at church. Now that I think of it, I probably went to audition because my roommate could sing. I was there simply to make a joyful noise to the Lord. It was still service.
I served in the executive committees of the ANCYL, the Black Students Association (BSA), and was a member of the newly established South African Student Congress (SASCO) in SU. I remember sitting in the food area in the Neelsie, at a table that had become our meeting spot. We affectionately named it the ‘ freedom table’ as the comrades. I remember us finalizing SASCO’s constitution so that SASCO would be registered, and recognized as one of the student forums in SU. In conclusion, I was one of those students who were mostly at the library for a meeting in one of the meeting rooms.
Earlier that year, I had been chosen as one of the students to go on a student leaders’ diversity tour to a number of universities across the United States of America. The group consisted of a wonderful group of student activists, thought leaders and change agents led by the dynamic Professor Edna Van Harte. We returned home from the States with our invisible superhero capes, ready to change not only SU, but the world. We represented different races, genders, all types of boxes you can think of. We were not only representing them, but we were going to make a difference.
As the third quarter began, the SRC campaigns commerced. I do not quiet recall who nomited me to run, however it sparked something inside of me. Another platform to effect change. The superwoman in me rose to the challenge. Nervous and scared out of my wits, I surged on. There had only been ONE African woman in that student body before me. ONE! I was terrified to give the campaign my best shot and fail. It was so much bigger than just me!
At the time when I ran for SRC, the university had 5% black students. That was the overall black student population across all four compusses. There was the main campus in Stellenbosch, the medical campus in Tygerburg, the Military Academy in Saldanah, as well as the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute. As an African female student, who’s Afrikaans speaking ability was laughable at most, I hoped opening my mouth and doing a general, very basic greeting ‘in die taal’ would warm up people’s hearts and they would give me an ear. I also knew I had to get most of that 5% black students to go to the voting polls and vote for change.
Initially I reckoned I had a great advantage, I was already serving in the executive committees of the two biggest student forums which that student population belonged to. I was very wrong. The comrades took a decision that no black student should run for SRC. They would not forward nor support any candidate to run. The strategy was not to be represented in the SRC, as a form of protest and defiance. A position that I strongly disagreed with, but I respected it nonetheless. It made very little sense to me. Up until then, there had been no representation from these forums that I knew of in the biggest student body, with the largest budget to drive student programs. The defiance would only reinforce the status quo, and further alienate black students and their needs. I did not see how we could effect change from the outside. Fortunately, I had been nominated to run as an independent candidate. My campaign strategy just had to be smart.
It was that trying to be smart, that produced my Bheki Cele moment of disaster. The Military Academy accounted for most of the 5% black student population. I knew I had to work hard to get them to cast their vote for change. I was so busy focussing on my strategy that I failed to study the student culture at the Military Academy. When we went to campaign in Saldanah, during my campaign speech, I too DENOUNCED the use of alcohol. Up until that moment, my speech was going well. I could see in the student captain’s face that I had messed up big time. Why did I even go there, I wondered. I could kick myself.
After that colossal mishap, I had to rely on the student captain and his student leaders in that campus to save the day. They did not disappoint. With all our combined efforts, two months later I was wearing my SRC blazer and sworn into office. However, what a colossal mishap it was, to tell our training military what they should and should not do in their spare time! This was no laughing matter. How could the girl coming from the Winelands tell other students to not drink. It is a joke I cannot live down even today, whenever I meet my comrades who were at the Military Academy that year.
Almost a decade later, I had established a wine distribution company. My company distributed wines to small and big businesses such as the Cape Town International Convertion Centre and South African Airways. I had dreams of owning the entire business of wine value chain from planting the vines, harvesting, grafting, wine making, bottling, labeling, sales, marketing, and distribution. The same girl from the Winelands had woken up to the opportunity and profitability of the liquor industry. I had woken up to the realization that all things should be done in moderation. I understood that all things are permissible, however not all things are beneficial.
Stay at home and be safe.