Shared future
WHILE Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is correct to be concerned about the dearth of white recruits to the South African National Defence Force, she, the government she serves and all South Africans must honestly reflect on why this is the case.
The SANDF and the SAPS recruitment and career trajectory prospects reflect the South African story in the private and public sectors. Both institutions are perceived as hostile to the career growth prospects of those who are not black or women.
This perception is, however, not straightforward and demands more nuance than emotion.
The two organisations, like most of the South African employer establishment, have historically favoured white males over any other category of South Africans, including blacks and women.
It is therefore inevitable that when this historic correction is made, blacks and women are the primary beneficiaries.
Furthermore, the constitution recognises the necessity and legality of employment equity as a means of redressing hundreds of years of institutionalised unfair discrimination against blacks and women. The devil is always in the implementation of the equity laws in ways that, while discriminating in their nature, do so fairly in a manner that is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom, as required by the constitution.
To simply argue, as some do, that any race- or sex-based programme is in itself racist or sexist is to fundamentally misunderstand what racism and sexism is, particularly in the South African context.
That said, employment equity does not mean that whites, and white males in particular, have to be wished away.
More than being a crime against humanity, apartheid was an inefficient manager of human resources. It created mechanisms to make the talents of a significant group of South Africans unavailable to the public and private sector.
It would be foolish to seek to repeat this.
What South Africa, not just the army, needs now is leadership in the government and in the corporate workplace that recognises the present-day impact of the wrongs of the past, but is not entrapped by a failure to appreciate that the task at hand is one of building a future in which everyone, regardless of their colour or sex, feels they have a stake.