Embrace spirit of democracy
SOME office employees bring their own coffee mugs to work because they do not want to drink from those in the common kitchen used by all staff.
Many domestic workers are allocated separate cutlery and crockery – often chipped and discoloured – to eat stale or leftover food outside the house. They are also forbidden from using the family bathroom.
Do you smell a racist rat here?
As we approach the 24th birthday of democracy, low levels of trust, inequality and social injustices between South Africans remain a reality despite attempts to heal scars left by apartheid.
On a daily basis, reports of racism are publicised in the media or trolled on social media.
Racist ranter Vicky Momberg is battling to overturn her conviction on four counts of crimen injuria, and an effective two-year jail sentence, for hurling racial insults at a black policeman.
Racist realtor Penny Sparrow, who was fined R150 000 for describing blacks as “monkeys”, is in hiding. Drunk judge Nkola Motata, who hurled racist comments at onlookers after he crashed his Jaguar into a wall‚ faces impeachment.
Indians have also been singled out for racist vitriol. The community is still nursing the wounds caused by AmaNdiya, the song written by Mbongeni Ngema which described Indians as oppressive, humiliating and exploitative.
Former sports minister Fikile Mbalula once likened the University of KwaZuluNatal to Mumbai, saying black students were left on the periphery while those of Indian descent swelled the ranks.
The Mazibuye African Forum’s Phumlani Mfeka has made it clear that Indians are not “indigenous” to South Africa, which belongs to its “indigenous African people”.
More recently, EFF leader Julius Malema attacked Indians, accusing them of racism, exploiting their African workers and monopolising the KZN economy.
Last week, Imperial Holdings chief executive Mark Lamberti finally fell on his sword, resigning after the fallout from a March ruling by the South Gauteng High Court that he had impaired the dignity of employee Adila Chowan when he publicly derided her as an “employment equity employee”.
It is true that apartheid created a racist hierarchy of ethnic group privileges, with blacks at the lowest level, whites at the highest and Indians somewhere in between.
Those race groups that were once superior now feel the pain of retributive equality. But this calls for redress through social cohesion – not racist attacks.
Hurtful comments only fuel further hatred. The inherent dignity and equality of every individual is the foundation of human rights. There is no place for barbaric apartheid.
South Africa enjoyed freedom on April 27, 1994. But are we really free?
Racist laws have been consigned to the scrap heap. There is a common voters’ roll. There is freedom of association.
People are free to accept opportunities and do pretty much as they wish in democratic South Africa. However, Indians will still claim they are discriminated against, especially in the jobs sector.
Cosatu has made it clear Indians must not be given jobs at the expense of Africans. It wants a hierarchy of historically disadvantaged persons to be established to ensure the beneficiaries of employment are firstly Africans, and then others.
The 158-year passage of Indians in South Africa has not been without its fair share of trials, tribulations and tears. Many Indians contributed in no small measure to the struggle for a democratic new order. They went to prison and some even lost their lives so that their children could enjoy a brighter future.
All through the exceptional journey, from servitude to passive resistance to democracy, Indians regarded themselves as part of the struggling masses. They made common cause with Africans and fought a united fight for a non-racial society.
Yet there remains the stereotype that all Indians had it easy and are well-to-do, even though there are many poverty-stricken families in Chatsworth and Phoenix. However, at the same time there can be no denying that Indians enjoyed a better deal than Africans under apartheid rule.
The argument may be tendered that Indians enjoyed a higher standard of living only because they worked hard and built their own schools so that their children could get better jobs. This is only partly true.
It is also true that Indians were favoured more than Africans by apartheid’s white rulers. They enjoyed better public amenities in their residential areas. They were given preference for jobs in the private and public sectors.
Indians, like Coloureds, were accorded some semblance of self-governing status in the 1980s when their leaders sat alongside the white government through the tricameral system.
Indians were not forcibly dispossessed of their land. That is why they go uncomfortably silent when land redistribution is mentioned.
There can be no denying that post-1994, “race” thinking in a supposedly “non-racial” society continues to exist.
The ANC, which proclaims that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, preserves racial hierarchies through its affirmative action policy.
Indians call South Africa home – but are still stigmatised because their forefathers arrived in Africa from India.
However, Indians and other minority groups must not feel disillusioned when they are “othered”. They must celebrate Freedom Day by embracing Africanism without abandoning their traditional values. They must turn out in their thousands at Freedom Day events.
While the coming of democracy may have had less of an impact for Indians, it was a major game changer for the African masses. There is a long way to go before social ills are totally eradicated, but at least there has been progress in the provision of housing, education, health facilities, water, sanitation and electricity for the majority. Everybody should celebrate these wins.
Now is the time for Indians to forge even stronger social, economic and political links with their African brethren.
Indians should take the lead in pushing for the national identity that defines us as South Africans. They must wholly embrace South Africanness as the best way to play a meaningful role in a maturing democracy. The community must put its shoulder to the wheel and fight to ensure the freedoms enshrined in our constitution.
This fight should not be in the name of Indians alone; it should be waged in the name of all South Africans, particularly our brothers and sisters of African descent who are still mired in poverty and inequality.
We do not care to ask who used the plates and glasses when we dine at restaurants. We do not question who else slept on the beds when we book into hotels. So why avoid using the coffee mugs in the company canteen? We cannot be free until we free our minds. We must get rid of bigotry and prejudices. We must remove race from our vocabulary. We must mentally scale every dividing wall.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by the abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.”
Thus, the expunging of apartheid laws from the statute books in itself cannot eliminate racial tensions and inequalities.
Only by valuing cultures, embracing our differences and respecting the dignity of every human being, can we hope to make this a country where everyone succeeds. After all, there is only one human race.
■ Yogin Devan is a media consultant and social commentator.