Whites need not apologise for apartheid

I can’t say the precise moment it hit me, but I do know that it was on Friday morning while I was listening to SAfm anchor Jeremy Maggs interview a panel on the issue of racism at the University of Free State.

That’s when it became loud and clear to me that the wise guys on the panel were insightful, fact-based and enlightened in their approach to what WEB DuBois defined: “The problem of the 20th century is race”.

Maybe the callers who blamed Nelson Mandela for promoting the “myth” of reconciliation in the early 1990s are right. The problem of racism has been swept under the carpet in South Africa.

Or maybe, those who say so are ungrateful people who do not appreciate the silver platter of peace and economic stability that he has given us since 1994. For the first time in 350 years, there has been no war in this country ever since the advent of a democratic government on April 27.

Or maybe they are right to generalise that the whole country is on fire with racism. But what has heated us up? One isolated incident that took place in one little conservative campus. Or maybe they are right that all whites are racists. I am not sure about that. In fact, it can’t be true.

But the more I listened to the wise guys on the SAfm panel, the more I was swayed that perhaps these men know what they are talking about. What they said is worth thinking about.

I mean no disrespect to those who feel that Nelson Mandela and the ANC government has bent backwards to please whites. I have heard them accuse the government of not pushing hard on transformation but putting too much emphasis on reconciliation at the expense of black expectations.

In between the intellectual and political wrangle of addressing white fears and black expectations, it was clear that, of course, the former has been elevated to the number one priority.

To make matters worse, it is true that government attempts — through black economic empowerment, affirmative action, land reform, housing and education, for instance — have always been shot down by oppositional white people. For some strange reason, some white people tend to think that redressing the historical imbalances and apartheid legacy will result in the lowering of standards. They think that they are giving too much to black entitlement.

In fact, some white people insist that for us to change this country, we must carry on like the ANC government is a Bantustan that does as the baas says. We must pretend that it is business as usual. Nobody must rock the status quo, especially the equilibrium of white complacency.

But, of course, this ignores black expectations. This is where the problem lies.

The fundamental view of the SAfm panel is that — despite what has happened in the past 350 years — white people need not apologise for apartheid!

Of course, this view is enough to drive a lot of black people crazy, especially when you realise that some apartheid agents are getting fat salaries and pensions while their black victims — the few who were lucky, that is — had to make do with a mere R25 000 or absolutely nothing from a black government.

Is that the worth of black people who suffered and died in the name of the struggle, they ask. It’s a highly emotional issue, of course.

But that is not how the wise guys on the panel see the issue.

The panel were not necessarily in agreement on the definition or understanding of apology.

The human rights one wanted us to take the Australian route where there is collective white mea culpa for the sins of apartheid. But what will that achieve? Adriaan Vlok tried that for trying to kill Frank Chikane. Instead, he was ridiculed by leading white commentators who insisted that they were neither responsible for apartheid crimes nor benefited from white racism.

The big-thinking wiseguy said whites do not need to apologise. Instead, they must acknowledge the sin of apartheid. It is the inheritance from their fathers. That is all. He went on to say that this acknowledgement will make a huge difference because it will mark a significant step in which we can work together as South Africans to find solutions to the legacy of apartheid. It is only when we reach that point that we can then hold hands and work towards solving our own problems as South Africans who want to rid our country of the sins of the past.

On this matter, I agree with the wise guys: Whites do not need to apologise for apartheid. It will not achieve much.

What we must accept and recognise is that apartheid has created deep hurt among both black and white people in this country. It has damaged the national psyche. Thus we must work together as brothers and sisters to eradicate this problem from our society.

Yes, white people do not need to apologise for apartheid. At least, not to me. Just accept and acknowledge that we have an apartheid-created problem which we must solve together. It is a 20th century problem which does not belong to this day and age.

The biggest challenge for all of us is, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, “is either we live as brothers and sisters in this country that belongs to all the people who live in it. Or perish as fools.”

I think there is no middle road.

You do not have to trust me on this one. I am only speaking from an up-close-and-personal listening session.

So, what is going to happen to me and my predictable and monotonous attitude of “blame the white people for everything?”

Well, I am going to try very hard to make racism the last reason I give for any sort of white behaviour towards blacks. Racism is not the only reason why white people do things to black people. Or why so-called coloured or Indian people do similar things to black people.

If I am correct, the little white boys at the University of Free State did say it was a “Leon Schuster movie gone wrong.” But, of course, nobody wants to listen to that view point. They are white so they must be condemned as representing all white racists.

The wise guys on SAfm have somewhat changed my life this morning.

It is not generally expected of any radical and militant black man to be seen as a white apologist. But I am not a spokesperson for black people. Neither am I a black nationalist.

But I do want to say, again, that white people need not apologise for aparthied, at least to me.

Instead, they must do something to rid this country of all the problems that are a result of 350 years of apartheid. It is a white mess created by their ancestors and they continue to benefit from it.

But this legacy of apartheid is, now, our problem. We have been condemned by history to work together as the people who belong to this “beautiful country that no man can enjoy” (Alan Paton).

Of course, there are still people who think that it is the desire of black people to drive white people into the sea. That is not true. It was political misguidance to attribute such a view to Robert Sobukwe, for instance, the founding father of Pan Africanist Congress, here. How could he? How dare he, when his best friend was a white man called Benjamin Pogrund who even wrote his biography, How Can a man Die Better?

Instead, whites are diving into the sea out of their own volition. They are heading to Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, America and Europe. But they do not need to leave when they can live here.

This country needs their presence to deal with the problem of racism.

South Africa belongs to all people who live in it. We have to make it work for the sake of our children and, above all, to make Madiba proud.

In fact, it is the best gift we can offer to a man of his stature. He deserves it.

In spite of the poisonous atmosphere that has been engended by a handful of students at University of the Free State, we should be glad that this is not a pervasive situation in all our universities.

It is a very late Friday afternoon. I would not be doing this, except that the wise guys on the SAfm panel this morning really hit me with something.

If you did not listen to the programme this morning, I would ask you to buy the interview for yourself.

Well, what was the wise guys’ solution, if any?

The problem with us is that we talk too much and are rarely solution-oriented.

Luckily, the wise guys are men of action Firstly, they said, white people must acknowledge the sins of apartheid and its legacy. Secondly, we must seriously consider launching a black and white coalition to, specifically, eradicate racism. It would seem there is money for everything in this country — Aids, unemployment, soccer, rugby, etc — except for fighting racism.

It is a good beginning which makes me extremely optimistic.

If you have followed my writings, especially on racism, you may think I am being funny. Maybe I am. But this is no time for jokes.

Can I go have a drink or watch a movie, now?

Mahatma Gandhi whispers from the grave: let us all “be agents of the change we want to see”.