Racism Stops With Me

EQUALITY is the first right listed in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa. The next right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights is human dignity. On this Human Rights Day we would do well to reflect on these two rights.

Recently, some in society have trampled on these rights with racist behaviour. It has been necessary to remind ourselves that our struggle for nonracialism came at a great cost to many.

Struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada has come out strongly against recent incidents of racial intolerance.

His foundation has been part of an anti-racism campaign – with Independent Media, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Seta – that calls on citizens to say: “Racism Stops With Me”.

Kathrada devoted his life to eradicating racism and forging a South Africa free of discrimination.

Today marks the culmination of Anti-Racism Week, supported by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

In a recent opinion piece published ahead of Anti-Racism Week, Kathrada wrote: “Combating racism is not the job of one organisation, a few people or government alone. It is incumbent upon all individuals and institutions. It is not only about securing one’s own rights, but about entrenching the collective dignity of our people.

“Racism squanders human potential. For us to prosper, we all have to deal with this problem, now.”

H