Striving for an integrated SA

TWENTYyears ago, Nelson Mandela set us on a new path to racial equality, reconciliation and national unity. In 2010, during the World Cup, we reached the pinnacle of togetherness. We seemed ready to reflect to ourselves and to the world a common national identity which we were immensely proud of.

Since then, however, racism has repeatedly reared its ugly head.

The intemperate response to the Brett Murray painting, the unwarranted personal attack on the editor of the City Press and the nature of the protest outside the art gallery started to lead the country astray.

Other incidents were equally galling because they occurred at our universities that were intellectually meant to lead the charge to a new, exciting and united South Africa.

However, the unbecoming conduct of students at the University of the Free State, the unconscionable attack on a homeless man by the Waterkloof Four, the unwarranted aggression of a resident against a domestic worker walking past his home in a Cape Town suburb and the provocative incident at a Stellenbosch eatery, have all shown how national reconciliation is being eroded daily. Incidents like these, and many others, are taking us away from the path Nelson Mandela wanted us to follow.

Racial laagers are not beneficial to the cause of reconciliation. All of us need to find one another as fellow South Africans. All of us need to make a Herculean effort to embrace our South Africanness and to glory in the symbols of our new democracy.

Racist language and adherence to outmoded symbols are taboo and must remain so.

We need to project our thoughts forward and understand the immense value of our cosmopolitanism and diversity. We constitute a microcosm of the world.

This gives us great advantages in dealing with the whole world. We should use this to our benefit and therefore reach out to one another as never before.

Let this impulse for togetherness swamp everything else so that we dispel all doubts as to where we all stand on the question of a common national identity and a transformed society where true equality and respect prevail.

Transformation is for all of us to be fully involved in. Our past must only show where we had come from. It must not intrude into the present, to the detriment of where we need to go as a united and reconciled people.

We seek a positive future through positive and constructive behaviour.

We urge every citizen to join all efforts and initiatives in our country to achieve a fully integrated society where racial lines are blurred and national unity is made manifest. That is how we will seize the future and that is how we will really honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela. MOSIUOA LEKOTA Cope leader