We can blow the whistle on racism and prejudice, but it will take all our efforts
Racism has once again reared its ugly head, this time in the SuperSport studio during the incident involving Naas Botha, Nick Mallett and Ashwin Willemse. The facts are still scanty; nevertheless, the incident was not taken lightly by South Africa. There has been widespread condemnation.
This follows another racial spat that took place in Johannesburg last month, where the K-word was used in an under-21 match between Roodepoort and Wanderers rugby clubs.
The sentencing of Vicki Momberg by the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in March — she was jailed for two years — should have sent a clear message to the nation that racism will no longer be tolerated in South Africa and that perpetrators of racist actions will face stiffer jail sentences. Racism is unacceptable in a postapartheid South Africa.
The preamble of the constitution sets the tone for a nonracial and nonsexist country. It recognises the injustices of our past as well as our diversity as a people, our shared heritage. It also reminds us that South Africa belongs to all who live in it and thus urges us to respect one another as well as those who laid down their lives for the freedom we enjoy today.
While we celebrate our much-loved and respected constitution, a question that lingers is: are we as citizens more united in our diversity now than we were 24 years ago?
Given the increasing instances of racism in recent months, it is clear that we are still struggling with this issue.
It is important that society in general begins to tackle racism with more urgency. Addressing racism needs a multistakeholder approach — the government, academia, civil society and private sector need to work together to address this scourge in a concerted manner that builds healing and reconciliation.
Overt racism goes against the values of this great nation, undermines the constitution of the republic and reverses the gains of our hard-won democracy.
Undeniably, racism cannot be tackled by only sections of society alone. Civil society and academia need to complement the efforts of the government and judiciary in tackling it. These sectors can play a leading role by offering antiracism education at all levels in communities, promoting awareness that our diversity is not a curse but a sacred phenomenon. It is time to increase our efforts in tackling the racist mentality that is deeply embedded in our society.
This is important for nation-building, a process whereby members of a society with diverse origins, histories, languages, cultures and religions come together within the boundaries of a sovereign state with a unified constitutional and legal dispensation to foster unity and promote a conscious sense of being proudly South African, committed to the country and open to the continent and the world.
Nation-building in the context of South Africa cannot be a perpetuation of hierarchies of the past based on imposed divisions and rooted in prejudice, discrimination and exclusion.
It calls for a rethinking, in South African terms, of what democracy and tolerance mean in terms of lived experiences, where every citizen promotes peaceful co-existence in the spaces they inhabit and communities they live in.
This is a clarion call for all citizens to rise and challenge every form of prejudice in our society. We all have a responsibility to build our nation based on our constitutional values.
Our diverse cultures, languages and religions should not be impediments to national unity, given the statutory equality accorded to all citizens by the constitution.
The values entrenched in the constitution and its preamble, and expanded upon in the Bill of Rights, are useful resources that provide a framework for our co-existence. Everyone needs to know them and understand how they facilitate the process of co-creating a nation in which every citizen matters irrespective of race, class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion and any other societal divides.
This means building people’s capabilities through ongoing citizen-centred civic education from the grassroots way up to institutions of higher learning, in both the public and private sectors. We must not allow race and other forms of prejudice to continue to divide us.
Moreover, we must not think any prejudice is unconquerable. All forms of prejudice can be defeated. We all belong to this country and need to play our roles as active citizens promoting the values in our constitution and holding each other accountable for our actions.
This way, we will reclaim the legacy for which our founding fathers and mothers fought.
Kariuki is the programmes director of the nonprofit Democracy Development Programme. He writes in his personal capacity