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132 | denis beckett<br />
Nomavenda and I took a trade unionist, Phandelani Nefolovodvhwe,<br />
to lunch at the worst restaurant I ever visited.<br />
NomaV selected it on the grounds that nobody was about to<br />
worry about anybody’s complexion, down the bottom end of<br />
commissioner Street. classier places, you couldn’t be sure.<br />
This one was anyway too dark to see anyone’s complexion. Nor<br />
what you were eating, which was probably beneficial to peace<br />
of mind. I got stuck with a bill to make the Three Ships look<br />
modest, but being there was worth it for Nef’s insistence that<br />
liberation wouldn’t be liberation unless I ended up losing.<br />
We went through dozens of ways that I was supposed to lose<br />
my enjoyment of life – material, mental, psychological, the lot.<br />
I agreed that unbearable possibilities might – might – happen<br />
if there was a simplistic swap from a white tyranny to a black<br />
tyranny, but none were on the cards if freedom meant actual<br />
power in the actual hands of ordinary people. Nef said that<br />
ordinary people would definitely vote for courses that hurt me;<br />
he should know, he spoke for the people.<br />
I said I knew that when the microphones were off he moaned<br />
like mad that the people were apathetic. He was shocked and<br />
said how did I know that, like I’d been reading his mail. I said<br />
all liberationists do that.<br />
Nef started to get a bit huff-and-puff but NomaV, who never<br />
agreed with a syllable of my politics but was fair-minded to the<br />
end, swung to my side. She hammered Nef to admit that Mr<br />
average could get as angry with the comrades who mess up<br />
this life to change the system as with the system that messed<br />
up his life in the first place, and most times he’s not angry with<br />
either.<br />
Nef took refuge in the sad story that after liberation people<br />
would have re-education to clear their oppressed heads before<br />
they voted. I don’t know how seriously he meant this but it<br />
killed debate.<br />
To me it’s absolute that anybody votes any way they want<br />
for any reason they like. If it’s anchored well enough we could<br />
all be lunatic; it’d still work out. You don’t need to ask people
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