SA racial conflict escalates
“We were expected to destroy one another and ourselves collectively in the worst racial conflagration. Instead, we as a people chose the path of negotiation, compromise and peaceful settlement. Instead of hatred and revenge we chose reconciliation and nationbuilding.” (Nelson Mandela, Conversations with Myself.)
And now in the year 2018, can we truthfully say we have ascribed to Mandela’s vision?
Racial conflict is worse than ever. The underlying hatred between the races permeates everything.
More so, as many decision makers hide their personal inadequacies and their inferiority (and superiority) complexes under the racial scapegoat.
A typical example is the Patricia de Lille fiasco in Cape Town where councillors are resigning from the DA, declaring they have been victimised by whites.
And look at the mockery we have made of the English language.
The K-word, the A-word, the B-word, the C, M, F, N, P, etc words are taboo in SA.
One has to be so vigilant at all times, in case an ordinary phrase is construed as “hate speech”, adding to the strain of communicating across racial lines!
The constitution guarantees the people of SA equality before the law and freedom from discrimination.
It proscribes both discrimination by the government and by private persons.
However, it also allows for affirmative action to be taken to redress past, unfair discrimination.
Therefore, rightly or wrongly, one can argue the very basis for racial discrimination is laid down and entrenched in our constitution.
For how long must this “affirmative action” continue?
Is it “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation?” (Bible, Exodus 20:5).
The reality is a white child born since 1994, in a supposedly racially free dispensation, cannot buy a farm, aspire to be president or head a parastatal, is restricted in representing his or her country in sport, is constrained in opportunities to study for a medical or veterinary degree, and so forth.
This is akin to the estates of great-grandchildren being sequestrated for a fraud committed by their great-grandfather! Is this morally correct?
While it may be equitable to “act” against apartheidborn people, is it reasonable to subject children born since the country’s emancipation to be responsible for the “sins of their fathers”?
At least the EFF is honest about its hatred of white people as Julius Malema’s blunt accusations indicate, “We will not call for the slaughter of whites, at least for now”.
The ANC is subtler, desperately trying to show a nonracial face to the world at large, to showcase a progressive country to attract foreign investment.
The Sunday Times of October 29 reports President Cyril Ramaphosa stating at the investment seminar in Sandton, in referring to the much-maligned cliché, “white monopoly capital”, that it must “end today”, to huge applause.
However, the reality is: whites are being discriminated against.
One realises and understands the simmering need to right the injustices of the past, but two wrongs do not make a right!
Discrimination is evil, no matter how one tries to justify it.
If this ANC government had taken the empowerment process seriously instead of corrupting and looting the country to the brink of insolvency, there would have been no need for the present furore.
The trillions looted would have gone a long way to correcting the land question, for example!
The ANC will be well advised to heed the words of George Santayana, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”!
The answer to the race relations conundrum in SA is convoluted and complex, to say the least.
One can only pray for sanity to prevail and that there is sufficient collective goodwill among all of us to brave the years ahead!
Talbot Cox Port Elizabeth