Call to return to ANC’s founding principles

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for the restoration of the ANC’S non-racial character is a call to return to our founding principles.

Those with the great profiles, accolades and influence as role models should follow suit, echo and advocate the example set by Ramaphosa, and through actions, deeds and our political agenda contribute towards shaping the thinking pattern of our communities, in particular those citizens in traditionally white and Afrikaans-speaking communities.

No one person can deny that white people were privileged prior to 1994 or that many privileged people gained their riches at the expense of oppression, genocide, exploitation and alienation of blacks.

There were land grabs, marginalisation and slavery almost to the extent of extinction of the Khoi-San people.

There was a time when civil war seemed inevitable and racial war unavoidable, but level-headed leaders stepped up and asked for cool heads, reconciliation, peace talks and navigating a path to democracy.

These talks were guided and motivated by the preamble of the Freedom Charter.

There is no reason for any South African to fear or feel threatened in his or her place of birth.

Our former president, Nelson Mandela, once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People learned to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Ramaphosa’s concern about the deteriorating race relations in the country is justified and I echo his notion that this is also a great opportunity for the ANC to regain its non-racial character.

All South Africans should feel at home in the country and feel that they have a role to play, to ensure a better life for all and a prosperous (one) nation.

To heal and restore confidence, at times we have to acknowledge truth, that there were the privileged and the disadvantaged, and that there was an oppressor and an oppressed. In 1994, we were invited to step into the embrace of forgiveness and participation in a new dispensation.

Our leaders opted for peace and implementing a free and prosperous South Africa where all who live in it share in its wealth, irrespective of colour or creed.

The ideal whereby a population is divided into separate and distinct racial groups is totally anti-ANC, and can never be allowed to reign in our society ever again.

We should all echo Ramaphosa’s reassurance call that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white.

Christian Martin ANC, MPL, Bhisho