Blacks have embraced reconciliation, whites have not: ANC
KwaZulu-Natal African National Congress (ANC) Chairperson Sihle Zikalala believes that while black South Africans have embraced reconciliation in a democratic country, whites continue to safeguard their privilege.
Zikalala was speaking at the Social Cohesion Conference in Durban on Thursday, which is being held following a spate of racially charged events in 2016.
The ANC lead said that black South Africans had accepted the “painful and harsh experiences of decades of exploitation by whites should be a matter of the past”.
“However, some among our white compatriots are still embedded to the stereotypes of white supremacy which was born out of the privileges of apartheid,” he said.
“When it comes to ownership, control and management of the South African economy, it is still in the hands of a few white males,” the SABC reported, adding that this enforced the narrative that those of other races “are condemned to selling cheap labour for maximisation of profit by the white controllers of our economy”.
Read: 15 reasons why the ANC racism bill is a bad idea ANC
Political Analyst at University of South Africa, Dr Somadoda Fikeni said that terms often used to describe the country’s togetherness including phrases like the ‘Rainbow Nation’ and ‘The Miracle of Transition’ stopped any further discussion of underlying pain and divisions in society.
Fikeni said that South Africa suffers from an acute deficit in honesty, where people pretend to be part of a rainbow nation during the working day, but show their true colours at home.
Zikalala said it was necessary to “attack” and “defeat” the narrative that being white was synonymous with civilisation and that being black meant being “backward”, African News Agency reported.
“There are many people of colour who have contributed to the civilisation of our society and their role should be put on the highest pedestal. No one will dare challenge a factual reality that South African freedom and democracy was brought about by black and African leadership under the auspices of the ANC.”
The ANC aims to implement new legislation aimed at combating racism and hate speech, and has set up a team to draw up a proposal for the new law.
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