Emulate our success rather than envy us

IT’S utter nonsense that Indians benefited from apartheid.

The misguided responses by Professor Bonke Dumisa and Dawie Roodt to the Standard Bank report, which showed the Indian population had seen the fastest growth in per capita income in recent years, will only serve to stir up interracial tension while most South Africans are working towards social cohesion.

It is shocking that Dumisa is quoted as saying that after 1994 the “Indian population was more advantaged than other races”.

Surely he knows that since 1994 our children have been sidelined for admissions to tertiary education institutions because of the quota system and that Indians across the board are being discriminated against on the basis of affirmative action.

Research will also confirm the reality that thousands of Indians live in abject poverty.

It would appear Roodt has a problem with Indians having “relatively few kids and old people” and our “qualifications having sky-rocketed”.

I would like to inform people like him that educational qualifications were not handed out to Indians by the apartheid government or any other government.

Indians worked hard, made personal sacrifices and persevered in our quest to improve our lives.

Insults

We endured severe hardship under the apartheid government, from forced removals to insults to our dignity as human beings.

We were able to overcome our plight as so called “secondclass citizens” by prioritising education as the key to economic and social upliftment.

When no schools were provided for Indians, our forefathers contributed funds from their meagre earnings to build state-aided schools.

Indians should be commended for the progress that we have made in spite of the hardships we faced and still face.

People like Roodt and Dumisa should seek to encourage people to emulate the way Indians have achieved success rather than advocate that Indians be further sidelined.

By saying that “even though we were all oppressed, we were not equally oppressed”, Dumisa is acknowledging the oppression that Indians faced.

Indians had no control over the form or level of oppression that was meted out to them under apartheid or even now under a democratic dispensation.

It makes me wonder why Indians are now begrudged their success even after facing such oppression.

This issue must be confronted openly and in an objective manner with a view to emulating Indians for the benefit of all South Africans. LES GOVENDER

Chatsworth