Reckless whitewash

SIR — Kelly-Jo Bluen’s third column in Business Day (Most white reaction shows myopic focus on narrow interests, December 14) again shows her to be antagonistic to rational and insightful analysis. Her “facts” are emotional, presumptuous generalisations, and her political convictions are “white guilt”-ridden, left-leaning, self-hating and patronising.

Bluen says white reaction to Zuma’s firing of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was just that of explicit racism, apartheid apologists and “curated dog-whistle racism that often characterises white narratives about black governance”. Some whites are indeed die-hard apartheid apologists, but to tar most whites with the same brush is reckless and in poor taste.

Almost everyone on radio, in newspapers and in private expressed utter dismay at what Zuma had done. He caused bond yields to remove about R60bn from the value of pension funds, affecting the retirement funding of millions of South Africans, mostly black; and the market capitalisation of the equity markets fell by about R170bn.

Maize must be imported due to severe drought. Prices will rise because of the rand’s collapse. We will pay much more for petrol than we should despite oil being less than $40 per barrel. The cost of transport of people and goods will increase. These are not remotely narrow interests.

Replacing the erudite and articulate John Kane-Berman with Bluen is like replacing Nene with Desmond van Rooyen. Sara Gon, research fellow, Institute of Race Relations