Happy days in South End

I REFER to the letter by Fawzia, “Whites still think SA is theirs” (The Herald, April 27).

Fawzia, your encounter with this white person whom you slate as being racist led you to state that it represents the attitude of all whites. Then I disagree with you.

These racists represent but a minority of us whites, I can assure you.

I grew up in the old South End of the 1940s where I had friendships with people of all colours. We knew nothing of racism in those days and we enjoyed the homes of one another, drinking coffee out of mugs made of jam tins with wire handles.

The spirit of the old South End, I can never forget to this day. South End belonged to all of us.

Alas, this was to be brought to an end by the National Party government, with the bulldozing of this area for development of new homes (for whites only) from about 1950 onwards.

I was but at the tender age of 14 when the previous regime came to power. Old friends and their families were shunted to other areas of PE, never to be seen again, as I moved to Johannesburg.

This event and many others were to make me vow never to support or vote for the system that was to follow.

At the ripe old age of 83, I have travelled the journey of South Africa, this country I live in not by choice but by the decision of my forefathers to inhabit this land.

Some of the finest people I have met were black and brown folk and, yes, under difficult circumstances we made a difference.

In 1994 I joined the ANC of Nelson Mandela in support of the new South Africa and still hold my membership card, awaiting another Nelson Mandela to steer the country out of the present mess it is in, with criminality the order of the day.

So, yes, Fawzia, I know my place and it’s a place where I hope to be one day soon, a place where we are all equal, a place where there is no racism, no murder, no looting, no corruption, no abuse of children and the elderly, no worshipping of politicians and their ilk. It’s called Heaven, and I hope to meet you there one day. God bless.

This letter is written by an old and sickly man who cares about South Africa and all its people.

FOND MEMORIES: The South End Museum reflects a bygone era of South End prior to and during the implementation of the Group Areas Act in 1950, which led to the destruction of the ‘old’ South End