Many whites already support good causes
IN 1994 it was clear that the new government under Nelson Mandela would find itself financially constrained to repair the overwhelming disadvantage of the majority.
Several of my group of then well-established friends foresaw this – and were prepared to devote – a fair bit of our incomes to reparation. We expected to be called on to do so. However, no such request ever came.
The trade union supremo and Codesa negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa was set to become vice-president, but suddenly it was the former exile Thabo Mbeki.
The emphasis of government policy fundamentally changed and no such thing as an individual “apartheid tax” was ever mentioned again.
Only years later, when the economic gloss of the Mbeki administration was wearing off, was such a measure put forward by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, but by then it went unheeded.
A quarter of a century later, with an even greater mess and backlog left behind by the Mbeki-Zuma statecapture era, now President Ramaphosa invites his white compatriots to make a reconstruction contribution by way of showing their solidarity with the majority.
Especially in the year of Tata Madiba’s centenary celebrations.
The story of Xolani Luvuno comes to mind. A jobless amputee and drug addict, found sleeping under a bridge by a Mr Hein Venter, given a job, motivated to overcome his addiction and to train, resulting in him completing the Comrades on crutches in some 12 hours and receiving a completion medal.
Clearly, this is a rare and really impactful example of what we as whites can do if we try.
The huge investment of time and money in Xolani had spectacular results where it mattered.
Most of us may not be able to make such grand gestures, but surely can find some cause to which we commit a steady contribution.
This may not attract publicity, but will be a meaningful gesture nonetheless. Is it not written: “The Father who sees in secret will reward you openly?”
Roland Fisher (“President’s request impractical”, The Star letters, June 7) asks: “Is there a form we can fill in, or acknowledge in our tax form, perhaps individually put ads in the paper or use billboards?”
Many of my white compatriots and certainly since 1994 never really identified – or learnt to – with our darker-skinned people.
They see it all from the outside, them and us.
Even the DA, in principle a non-racial party with putatively increasing numbers of “black” members, sees this as good for the party’s future but not much more.
Certainly, dedicated members of the ANC are others who “their own” party can look after.
Many individuals, including my wife and I, already support some individuals and good causes.
Ramaphosa’s call for what could be termed a gesture of solidarity does motivate me to support one additional, more developmentoriented, endeavour. We do this in centennial memory of the father of a free South Africa. BALT VERHAGEN
Bramley, Joburg