Bury these blatant acts of racism

THE article in last week’s Sunday Tribune titled “Race row erupts among KZN funeral operators” is as irksome as it is worrisome.

The National Funeral Practitioners’ Association of SA (Nafupa SA), a splinter group of funeral parlour operators, has taken it upon itself to rewrite our constitution and lawbook by making highly racist, inflammatory and grossly unconstitutional calls aimed at preventing white and Indianowned funeral parlours from conducting business in so-called black areas.

Lest such a call take hold, the authorities must stop this.

Our constitution guarantees freedom of association and the right to choose such association. Free enterprise must not be allowed to be waylaid by what is evidently blatant racism. In an open market system, any act or omission that precludes or contravenes the constitutional right of a citizen by virtue of his or her race and/or ability to trade freely must never be tolerated or accepted.

Those members of Nafupa SA who feel threatened by “other” competitors need to examine their own business conduct, and should they be failing to attract business for themselves then they need to introspect, realign and develop business and marketing strategies to improve their offering – minus the race card and their bellicose conduct.

It is extremely disconcerting at this fragile stage of our democratic development that we have people still hankering along racial lines in the name of “transformation”. As I am to understand, there are no areas that are classified along racial lines since the adoption of our national constitution. There may be a predominance of a particular race living in an area due to our historical past, but this cannot become a determinant for precluding free enterprise of any citizen if they so choose.

If such behaviour is allowed, then we open the floodgates for other unscrupulous and racist businessmen to follow suit, and a precedent of this nature diminishes any hope of a socially cohesive society that we are so desperately seeking.

My advice to Nafupa SA is that its illiberal attempt to trump the constitutional rights of others must cease immediately, and it should go back to the drawing board and become equally competitive and not use the race card to achieve its internecine ends. South Africa can least afford to accede to such racist demands.

NARENDH GANESH Durban North

This matter was resolved at a joint meeting of stakeholders earlier this week. – Editor