Wow!South Africa has come a long way. We are a democratic state, with everyone equal regardless of race and culture. Most South Africans have high hopes and big dreams for the country. But working for a community newspaper(The Rep) has opened my eyes to an appauling incident. There's a part in the paper where we do vox pox, with local and national politics being the main focal point. In a vox pox we are expected to get views and opinions from a diverse group of people, from different races and cultures. Throughout this process of getting people's opinions and views, I've noticed that white people don't give a damn about what is happening with our government and politics. Two weeks back we did a vox pox on the issue of former Eastern Cape premier Nosimo Bhalindlela being removed of office. We took to the town hoping to get people voicing out. The first White person that we(me and Athenkosi,Rhodes university journalism student) approached was shocked that we were representing a newspaper. She said "I thought I was being mugged". That was the most degrading thing anyone has ever said to me. from there she didn't even want to comment on the issue, which I didn't have a problem with, but was shocked by her judgement on us. I was shocked to hear that I look like a mugger. I see myself as a decent looking young woman ( even though I don't walk around with pencil skirts and stilletos) and I can say the same about Athi. I asked the lady why she thought so but she just loughed it off and said "never mind". Why wouldn't I mind? What is it in me that looks like a criminal? then the old cliche` comes about: Is it because I'm BLACK?but anyway the point of this post was on the lack of knowledge of what is happening in our government and politics in white people in Queenstown. So we went on with the program, spoke to few people got their opinions. For the sake of diversity, we tried different races. The two white people we aproached didn't even know who Bhalindlela is. The other said all these( I don't know who he was refering to) people don't know how to run a country. He suggested there should be a 'clean up', starting from state president. I asked myself why would he want all of them cleaned out if he doesn't know what their positions and duties are. From noticing that none of the white people knew who Bhalindlela is, just for interest sake, I aproach some more people for my own understanding and research. Only one participant knew Bhalindle, but she said she thought she was still the department of the education minister. Even though Bhalindlela left that position a while ago, I considered this to have been a positive responce. Two boys from the town's boys high thought Mandela was still president. That was the funniest of all the responces. I mean come on!Mandela still president?!That was classic.

( I know you're asking yourself why I targeted white people, but there aren't many races in this town, there's black and white people and a few Indian shop owners)

Well I don't know who is to blame for this lack of knowledge. Is it us the media? Is it ingnorance from white people?