Sunday Tribune

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

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa