Let’s help all poor people, regardless of race

FORMER KZN MEC Ravi Pillay wrote an interesting article, “Reflecting on 30 years of democracy”, the POST, March 27 – 31.

We should not use race (BEE) as a condition for assistance to the poor and the underprivileged. In the Freedom Charter or the South African Constitution, there is no reference to race. I lived in exile with many ANC stalwarts and the late Oliver Tambo would have rejected any reference to race for socio-economic assistance to the underprivileged.

So let’s help all the poor people of all races.

The majority of Indians were brought to South Africa to work in the sugar plantations and some in the coal mines of northern KZN like Newcastle and Glencoe.

Mostly Gujeratis, a few Punjabis and Goans were brought to East Africa by the British to build the railway lines to the Port of Dar es Salaam.

The railways were built by the British to transport cotton from East Africa to the textile factories in England. After the completion of the railways, the Indian workers were asked to stay. They established shops along the railway line. Then they expanded their businesses to the whole of East Africa.

When I was lecturing in America, Irish Americans told me that they were also brought to America by the British to work as indentured workers – mostly as supervisors in the cotton fields. Ireland, like India, was a colony of the British during that period.

We should stop using Western civilisation as the only standard of measurement to judge human achievement. The numerals the whole world uses are from India. Europeans used to use Roman numerals, eg XX, XV. In 1200 AD, they adopted Indian numerals. (See Cambridge University Professor Bertrand Russell’s book History of Western Philosophy).

It is a pity children in South African schools have little or no access to literature and books other than European.

DR SEARS APPALSAMY

The Netherlands