Indians also felt pain of apartheid

YOU can prove anything with statistics today, especially when the conclusions drawn from them are vague, ambiguous and lack proper context. Take the example of a recent Standard Bank report that the Indian community had seen the fastest growth in per capita income in recent years and subsequent comment by an economist that Indian people enjoyed a relative advantage because they were “less oppressed” during apartheid.

Such an argument is misguided, mischievous and racially divisive, as little, if any, attempt was made to contexualise the statistics in the report or to view them against the backdrop of our country’s recent history.

Why the Indian community was singled out for special focus is a question that cries out for honest answers.

When one looks at the national picture, it’s quite clear that whites continue to remain at the top of the heap in the earnings pile. Research shows that white families earn on average six times more than black families earn.

There are also other important factors to consider, like the phenomenal growth of the country’s black middle class which has more than doubled in eight years, increasing from 1.7 million in 2004 to an estimated 4.2 million in 2012.

Nobody is arguing with the fact that apartheid was implemented unevenly, with black people suffering by far the greatest hardship and oppression.

The architects of apartheid had planned it that way – to divide and rule the people they oppressed.

But that certainly does not mean that Indian people did not feel the pain and indignity of being treated as secondclass citizens in the land of their birth, nor were they spared the humiliation of blatant racial discrimination and the misery of forced removals from their homes.

Like other communities in South Africa, Indian people are not a homogenous group – there are both rich and poor Indians, just as there are rich and poor members of the black community.

If some have made significant progress under democracy, it is generally as a result of their aspirational approach, their entrepreneurial spirit and strong commitment to raising education and skills levels.

What was perhaps most distressing about this whole episode was the preposterous attempt by economist Dawie Roodt to compare the earning power of Indians in SA to Indians in India. Does this mean he will soon be looking seriously at contrasting the earning power of local Afrikaners with those of Dutch people in the Netherlands?

If we wish to promote meaningful ways of achieving economic growth, alleviating poverty and promoting equal opportunity among all South Africans, let’s distance ourselves from this persistent obsession with race.

Let’s build a future South Africa together.