‘We will not allow white people to be demonised’ – Solidarity
Trade union Solidarity has launched a campaign to highlight what it believes is selective racism in South Africa.
The campaign will run over the next three months, culminating in the submission of a collective complaint to numerous forums, including the International Human Rights Commission, “about the selective way in which racism is being dealt with”.
Solidarity said it intends to publish a report on the double standards that apply when dealing with racism, and will host a conference on this topic.
The trade union has asked that all forms of racism in South Africa be judged by the same yardstick.
Solidarity said that at the end of the campaign, the complaint will be presented to Parliament, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission (UNCHR), as well as to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CERD).
“The complaint will show that, as far as racism is concerned, different standards apply to different groups and that politicians and government officials are the main instigators of selective racism,” Solidarity chief executive Dr Dirk Hermann said.
According to Hermann, South Africans have had enough of the double standards applied with regard to race in South Africa, especially politicians and people in positions of authority who incite racial tensions.
“Because of selective racism, forms of racism perpetrated by white people against black people receive disproportionate coverage. By way of illustration, take Penny Sparrow, an ordinary member of the public who was not in a position of authority.
“She was vilified time and again for unacceptable remarks she made about black South Africans – while the remarks made by Levuyo Menziwa, an EFF student leader, that he wanted to kill ‘f**en whites’ with a bazooka or an AK47 have long since been forgotten,” Hermann said.
“Solidarity achieved great success last year at the session with the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and we are poised to resume the case and to make our voice and the voices of many South Africans heard again at an international forum later this year,” the chief executive said.
What is selective racism in South Africa?
Solidarity said it has conducted a search on social media for racist remarks against white people. “We were shocked by the extent and violent nature of these remarks,” it said.
It noted that Andile Mngxitama of the Black First Land First movement said that black people cannot be racist. The trade union cited Mngxitama as saying: “If we don’t accept the principle that blacks can’t be racist and criminalise racism without accepting that fact, then you are going to end up locking up black people … and that is my biggest fear.”
“If the idea that only white people are racists is promoted, it will simply provoke greater racism and anger on both sides,” Solidarity warned.
Solidarity said that while South Africans rightly denounced the Coffin Duo, the EFF waived a poster reading: “Kill Whites”.
“Only a week prior to this incident, Julius Malema said white people should be slaughtered, but just not yet. According to him, Afrikaner men should ‘know your place’. This was reported in newspapers, but there was no public outcry. This is selective racism,” the trade union said.
“We have had enough of selective racism and we are not going to keep quiet any longer. ‘ – and exposed as a minority,” Hermann said.
Read: SA Human Rights Commission tackles racism on social media
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