Admit to white privilege before you ‘join’ black struggle

The recent protests in the US have unearthed a dark and evil truth, one that we as black South Africans have always lived with — an undeniable fact that we have tried to explain countless times to our privileged counterparts, at dinner tables, in sport bars and even in university halls.

Yet every time we try to unearth this dark truth we are met with the “alternative truths” of “all lives matter”, farm killings and a blatant denial of white privilege.

Addressing these truths is not at all an attack on our fellow white citizens, but the simple seeking of an acknowledgement of the truth: that the current system is highly unjust towards black people.

I am happy to see that an enormous number of our privileged citizens have come out in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM). But I cannot help but wonder, what took them so long? This is not a new issue. The Rhodes Must Fall movement addressed it as far back as 2015. Did it really have to take George Floyd being murdered on camera for us to realise this truth?

I have noticed the black blank posts streaming in on social media platforms, almost as if it’s a fashion statement to post about BLM, rather than a call to action. I have been shocked to see friends, classmates and colleagues who are against the acknowledgement of white privilege post quickly in support of BLM.

For me these two issues go hand in hand: you cannot support BLM without acknowledging the fact that white privilege, racial inequality and racism still exist in our post-democratic country.

Let’s start by challenging that racist family member or friend at the dinner table, let’s start by acknowledging the inequality and injustice between black and white South Africans.

Only then can we start to address the socioeconomic structural issues.

Luthando Kolwapi, London School of Economics

ANC-led state an unsafe investment

Whatever the ANC government has touched has culminated in decimation or dysfunction. The examples are numerous and notorious.

So, when I read, “ANC leaders who have been pushing for the state to have greater control over the economy have been emboldened by the two-month lockdown,” in “ANC looks at post-crisis economy” (May 31), I was astonished.

One of the instances where the government can create jobs is in the tourism sector, by opening up visa regulations. On the other hand, its intended interference with public and private pensions has once again reared its head, as reported in “Pensions may fund recovery” (Business Times, May 31).

Given the government’s track record, most South Africans would not agree to their pensions being used by the state to fund a recovery.

Firstly, corruption in the government has not ceased, nor have any miscreants been brought to book.

Secondly, cadre deployment has wreaked havoc and destroyed virtually all entities, including municipalities.

Thirdly, private people investing their hard-earned money look at achieving optimum returns with little or no risk.

People like Enoch Godongwana, head of the ANC’s economic transformation committee, have said, in the usual ANC gobbledygook: “We should have mining companies whose primary listing is SA and therefore whose home base is SA in order for them to be mining champions.”

Like so many in the ANC, Godongwana misses the point. If mining companies employ people and pay their taxes, why does their primary listing need to be in SA?

What is required are people who are properly qualified to make decisions based on sound economic principles, and who understand the consequences of the decisions made, regardless of ideology.

We cannot afford the deficiencies of an inadequately qualified government as we approach the post-Covid era.

Nathan Cheiman, Northcliff

A blast from the past

Dear Khutso Thamaga, I know that being “our man” in Brussels may be somewhat depressing, what with the highlight of that city being a manneken urinating in public, “From Brussels, it looks like you’re too hard on Cyril” (Letters, May 31).

And it is part of your remit to show our country in a positive light — but jumping on journalists shows just how bored you are. The reader is there to be entertained and the journos in question, Barney Mthombothi and Peter Bruce, are just that, entertainers. The ANC chiefs to whom they refer are sitting ducks for the collective invective.

But, cometh the time, cometh the article. On the same page as a reasonable facsimile of Bruce’s fizzog we are also treated to a stroll down Memory Lane: Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma railing against tobacco in “From the Sunday Times 25 Years Ago”. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose — “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.

The Sunday Times has survived with outstanding editors and owners — OK, some not so much — and the gents and ladies at the ST are to be congratulated for putting your letter and Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s old comments on the same page.

ST, keep doing what you are doing, your readers demand that.

Brian Hough, Kensington

Missed Musk’s big moment

It was extremely disappointing that there was no media coverage of the launch of Elon Musk’s space shuttle. Being a South African, having attended Bryanston High School and Pretoria Boys’ High, he is an inspiration to all of us.

Penny McClimens, Noordhoek

Write to PO Box 1742, Saxonwold 2132; SMS 33662; e-mail: tellus@sundaytimes.co.za; Fax: 011 280 5150 All mail should be accompanied by a street address and daytime telephone number. The Editor reserves the right to cut letters