Racial Inequality In South Africa Blamed On Apartheid As Opposition Leader Says Racial Unity Like A Marriage Soured
As racial scandals like Penny Sparrow and Chris Hart break, and South Africa struggles economically under an African National Congress run government, racial inequality in South Africa has once again become an issue. After weeks of mudslinging on both social media and in the newspapers among South Africans, Democratic Alliance Leader Mmusi Maimane is calling for South Africans to find each other again.
The Telegraph UK reported that Maimane said that the racial relationship in South Africa has soured among South Africans and compared his country’s post apartheid relationship to that of a marriage. Once in a honeymoon phase, he said that phase of the “marriage” was over, and the relationship had soured. Now, it was leading to the historic mistrust of the various groups involved.
Maimane said that the laws signed into law by Nelson Mandela in 1996 to address racial inequality should not be abandoned just because of comments by people like Penny Sparrow.
“We vowed to respect each other. We vowed to grow old together. We vowed to stick together, through thick and thin, in sickness and in health. At first, our relationship flourished. We celebrated each other’s successes as if they were our own. When tragedy struck, we mourned together. But when the honeymoon ended, we found that we hardly knew one other. Now, after two decades, we sometimes struggle to recall what we saw in each other in the first place. It feels as though we are drifting apart.”
He stated that it was time for South Africans to stop acting like they were still standing around the barbeque in the 1970s and making the kind of casual comments like Sparrow’s that he suggested were made every day. A target of such comments by blacks towards him that suggested he has done well because he is married to a white woman, he said it added insult to injury and prolonged the racial inequality.
South Africa leader #Zuma says no true reconciliation without tackling racial inequality https://t.co/V3oJxTVhaO pic.twitter.com/F1V5n2UQU3
— ? SOMER ? (@Raayan5t) January 27, 2016
As previously reported in the Inquisitr, racial inequality against whites continues to be ignored in the wake of the Penny Arrow scandal. Farm murders against primarily white farmers have continued to rise for the fifth straight year in a row as an African National Congress controlled government continues to ignore the problem. White genocide continues to be ignored, as at least 70,000 whites have been murdered since apartheid ended in 1994, and white South Africans have been barred from the job market since 2013. No one charged President Jacob Zuma with the crime of racism when he sang “Kill the Boer” in 2013.
The Sowetan Live reported that parliament plans to review all post-apartheid laws to determine the effect these laws have had on transforming communities. Parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete said that a panel was being formed to look at these laws and change them if necessary to focus on the interests of the developing agenda.
Persistent racial inequality and racism a risk to South Africa’s economic growth https://t.co/RjAeN3SykX pic.twitter.com/gTYY9vL7gd
— Jay (@JayGibbs_) January 14, 2016
Panel members will include former Auditor General Terrence Nombembe, Judge Navi Pillay‚ former cabinet minister Brigette Mabandla, and banker Paul Harris. The focus of the panel will include examining such issues as unemployment, poverty, and economic and racial inequality. Other issues to be addressed include land reform, social cohesion, and nation building, and the panel has 12 months to complete the review.
Although the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final volume in 2003, and over 1,500 pardons were issued related to acts of brutality that were said to have been committed under apartheid, racial inequality continues to be a problem in South Africa because so many South Africans refuse to move forward and forgive and heal the past. Resentment on both sides is keeping this beautiful country trapped in a cycle of racism that is keeping it from moving forward.
[Photo by Pixabay]
