While redress is essential in South Africa, we should never forget the value of ‘looking after’ the interests of the minority. As former President Nelson Mandela said, “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.”
Today, I would like to say, “It is not the plans we make for the majority that define us, but our efforts in building an inclusive society where both the majority and minority are free to access opportunities South Africa has to offer.”
The truth is South Africans are scarred by the effects of Apartheid. While the obvious illustration of this is not only how the system has set black people back, white people also suffered.
A good friend of mine shared his father’s story with me. He said, “The apartheid government poisoned the minds of young white men, they taught them to hate the black man.”
In his story, he touches on how young 19-year-old men were swiftly taken and their minds shaped to hate a black man; this according to him left many scars on that generation.
Today when we talk about apartheid we only mention the one side of the coin, the suffering of black people, we do not consider addressing the issue of how white people were taught to hate. Learning from the words of Mandela when he said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Today’s reality is that black people have learned to hate. They want to gain back the years lost during apartheid. As harsh as it may sound, truth is, years lost can never be regained – while we can seek to find compensation for what is lost, we need to focus more on the future.
South Africa’s challenge is not necessarily how we are going to compensate what is lost, but how we need to move forward. Let us take a moment and think about where we want to be without complicating our vision with the past.
Politicians are good at preaching unity and progression; however, leaders are great at mobilising people to advance. Politicians take race into consideration, while leaders only look at the bigger picture; they define people as South African, not black or white.
This column is not written out of the love of politics, but out of the love for people and the future of South Africa.
A challenge to you is, take time out today, think about the kind of South Africa you want to live in, and make it your mission to live in your ideal country.
