Exploring avenues towards social cohesion

HEEDING President Jacob Zuma’s call for social cohesion, the eThekwini Municipality held a workshop in Durban last Thursday and Friday to address the issue and find local solutions.

The workshop was in preparation for a national social cohesion summit to be held in Cape Town in July, during which a national strategy for developing a cohesive South African society would be released.

eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo said last week that the summit was driven by recent incidents of racial intolerance, but according to Sandile Memela from the Department of Arts and Culture, Brett Murray’s controversial The Spear painting was not the main reason for the summit.

“This was a coincidence,” he said. “But I think that painting could not have come at a better time, because it got South Africans talking.”

City head of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said social cohesion needed to transform society in relation to poverty reduction, racism, gender discrimination, access to education and healthcare, and job opportunities.

“Our country is still racially divided – rugby is mainly for whites, while soccer is mainly for black people. Indians prefer cricket, and when India plays SA, they support India,” he said. “If this continues, the structure of apartheid will be left intact and racism will remain with us.”

SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee representative, Mimi Mthethwa, said sport played a big role in bringing about social cohesion.

“Whenever there is an event, we are able to bring people of all walks of life together,” she said.

“During the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the whole world could see that South African people could come together. This was seen again during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.”

Mthethwa agreed that there were certain “race codes” that belonged to certain sports, but said that sport, if used in the right way, could break those barriers.

In preparation for the national summit, local government also needs to recognise its role in contributing to social cohesion. This is according to Councillor Thembeka Mchunu, who said local government, business, community groups, churches and individuals had an important role to play.

“Municipalities should run sports development programmes and ensure equal distribution of sports and recreation facilities,” she said.