Moving beyond race

6 March 2011

From the Leader of the Democratic Alliance: Helen Zille

The enduring memory of the 2010 World Cup will not be the stadiums, the fan parks or even the football. It will be how all South Africans joined hands and got behind our team, Bafana Bafana. It was our country’s most unifying moment since Nelson Mandela wore Francois Pienaar’s number 6 jersey at the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

These moments are quantum leaps for racial reconciliation. They give us hope that the vision of a rainbow nation is not a mirage, but rooted in reality. They are to be cherished and, hopefully, repeated until they become the norm in our society.

But every so often things happen that take us a step backwards. In 2005, it was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, referring to white men as “baboons”. In 2008, it was the humiliation of black workers at the hands of four students from the Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State. Last year, it was Steve Hofmeyr’s racist generalisations about black South Africans.

Sometimes we manage to turn such threats into opportunities. The extraordinary forgiveness shown by the victims of the ‘Reitz Four’ this week is an example. At a reconciliatory meeting between the former students and university employees, one of the boys said to the women: “We are so sorry…we wish we could have talked much earlier.” One of the women replied: “You are still our children, and we love you.”

This moving account, told by Free State Vice-Chancellor Jonathan Jansen, demonstrates a unique South African character trait: the ability to seek forgiveness – and to forgive. Following the lead of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, such South Africans are the torchbearers for reconciliation and non-racialism in our society.

And the fact is that most South Africans reject racism in all its forms. They want to move forward towards a non-racial future that offers real opportunities to all, not remain trapped in a racially divided past.

This is the promise of our Constitution. It was not foisted on anyone. It was the product of long and sensible negotiations, and is the foundation on which we must achieve a better life for all.

It is deeply unfortunate that many politicians in the ruling party and the highest echelons of government continue to play the divide-and-rule politics of apartheid that undermine the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

Just like the National Party did under apartheid, with a “whites only” electorate, the ANC benefits from keeping South Africans divided along racial lines. By mobilising its followers on the basis of race, the ANC believes it can secure its majority “until Jesus comes”. The ANC’s approach is insulting and patronising to all South Africans, including the ANC’s own voters, most of whom believe in the Freedom Charter’s declaration that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it”. This phrase informs the letter and spirit of the Constitution and we strongly endorse it.

Recent events indicate that the ANC will again mobilise voters on the basis of race in the run-up to the May 18 election. It started with Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s playing of the race card in an attempt to shut down debate in Parliament a few weeks ago. He said:

If the matric results are bad, this is taken as a proof that this government of "darkies" is incapable. If the matric pass rate goes up, it means the results have been manipulated by these "darkies".

When Nzimande was challenged by DA MP Lindiwe Mazibuko he said that her opinion didn’t count because she did not “grow up in the townships.”

Last Sunday, it was former ANC spokesperson Kuli Roberts’ column in the Sunday World newspaper that drove a racial wedge. I won’t repeat her crude generalisations about coloured South African women. Suffice to say it was significant that, while most people condemned her racist rant, the ANC remained silent.

Most notorious of all has been government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi’s remarks that there is an “over-supply” of coloureds in the Western Cape and that there are too many Indians in management positions because they “bargained their way to the top.” These comments are despicable and have no place in a democratic South Africa. We reiterate our call for Manyi to step down with immediate effect.

This kind of racial head-counting and social engineering was the hallmark of apartheid under Hendrik Verwoerd. One of Verwoerd’s first proposals on assuming office was to restrict the “over-supply” of Jewish South Africans in business by imposing quotas within the white population. Taking apartheid to its logical conclusion, he said:

‘…as Jews presently enjoy a disproportionate share of the wholesale and retail trade, such a balanced distribution can be achieved only by refusing them further trading licences, until such a time... as English- and Afrikaans-speakers have gained a proportion which (as far as practicable) corresponds to their percentage of the white population’

This week in an open letter to Manyi, Trevor Manuel correctly pointed out the similarity between Manyi’s and Verwoerd’s racism. We welcome Manuel’s statement, but find it interesting that he has chosen this moment to find his voice on this matter. After all, quotas based on racial “proportionality” and race labelling has been an escalating trend in the post-Mandela era. And Manuel has been there every step of the way.

A colleague in the National Assembly, Donald Lee, reminded me of an exchange with Manuel on the issue of quotas back in 2005. Manuel wrote:

“You argue that [quotas are] racism and the equivalent of apartheid. I think that you are so wrong.”

So, six years ago Manuel endorsed racial head-counting as a legitimate practice, now he says it is akin to apartheid.

Even more telling is that last year Trevor Manuel, along with the rest of President Zuma’s Cabinet, agreed on the amendments to the Employment Equity Act which impose national demographic quotas on the provinces. This legislation is a result of a belief in government – championed by Jimmy Manyi when he was Director-General in the Department of Labour – that there is an “over-supply” of coloured employees in the Western Cape and Indian employees in KwaZulu-Natal. And so it aims to change that by imposing new racial quotas. It is calculated that, if this legislation is passed, the jobs of more than 1.3 million coloured and Indian workers will be at risk.

The fact is that Manuel endorsed Manyi’s racist legislation when it mattered. Why did he not speak up then?

Close observers of our politics know very well what is behind Manuel’s sudden change of heart. We know that he has been tasked with repairing the ANC’s image amongst coloured people in the Western Cape. And we know he is backing the new ANC provincial chairperson Marius Fransman. Luthuli House deployed Fransman to the Western Cape (despite his dubious past which is the subject of criminal investigations) in the misguided and patronising belief that he will be able to mobilise a majority vote because of his “race”.

Up until now, President Zuma has kept out of the fray. ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe has argued that it is an “internal ANC matter”. And so the questions remain: was Trevor Manuel’s intervention a carefully co-ordinated ANC strategy of “damage control” in the Western Cape? In “segmenting” its “voter market” is the ANC pretending to uphold non-racialism in some areas, as a smokescreen for allowing the Verwoerdian proponents of racial “representivity” to entrench themselves at the heart of the governing party? President Zuma’s response – if one is ever forthcoming – to this debacle will provide the answer.

During the upcoming election campaign, the ANC will tie itself up in knots over race because it has no other means to mobilise people. It is associated country-wide with delivery failure, so it only has the race-card left to play.

The greatest irony of this election is that the ANC will accuse the DA of mobilising people on the basis of race. But simple logic demonstrates that it cannot possibly be in the DA’s interests to entrench racial divisions. Neither is it in South Africa’s interests.

As a country we must seek to move beyond race. In the run-up to the local election, all parties must commit themselves to letting the issues become the issue. The central question of this election must be: which party delivers best for all?

We believe the DA’s track record where we govern provides the answer to that question. We have a growing support base of all people who truly believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We understand that you cannot redress the tragic legacy of the past by re-imposing apartheid racism.

Of course we cannot pretend the past did not happen. And we must acknowledge the deep scars and inequalities that persist to this day. Our role where we govern is to build a society that heals these wounds and offers real opportunities for every South African to live a life they value.