Apartheid’s shadow still looms over South Africa’s fragile unity

Let’s look at the Donald Trump versus Cyril Ramaphosa stand off from another perspective.

I have come to the conclusion that the idea of the rainbow nation is indeed a fake dream that was sold to us. But the marketing was so impressive that we forgot to take off the rose-tinted glasses.

One side was so quick to want their transgressions to be forgotten. The idea was so desperate to be part of a society that had rejected it for so long that they claim to have forgiven long before they had made peace with what they had endured.

This, 35 years after the release of Nelson Mandela.

It may sound pessimistic to say the least, but the reoccurrence of the “not the race card again” rhetoric is evidence that the population still has a sensitivity when it comes to being attacked – be it verbally, physically, emotionally or even professionally by a person of another colour.

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It is not a victim mentality, but it is an effort to understand the basis of the attack so that we can defend ourselves appropriately.

Not all black people will be asked that question, but that is because the apartheid hangover affects us all in different ways.

We may be twins and we may drink the exact amount of alcohol, but how we wake up the next morning will be different because the individual and their experiences are unique.

And now, the song of the year, in February at least, is that the Afrikaner of AfriForum membership is the victim facing the bloodbath and needs foreign intervention to stay alive. This in the shadow of celebrating a massive anniversary of a victory for SA.

South Africa has a great divide, that which has been cosmetically covered in a slogan of hope.

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Are we saying that the hope we desperately held onto for our entire age of democracy, was a farce? Are we as a nation so ill-fitting that parallel lives and an absence of cohesive living are the order of the day?

Is there no hope for the rainbow that is meant to succeed the storms of a colour-specific past? Is South Africa devoid completely of any glimmer of hope?

Hear me well. I agree we cannot pull the apartheid card until kingdom come; at some point we need to move on. But we must afford those who are scarred by the era of racial segregation the opportunity to heal.

Their sensitivity may not be understood by all and sundry, but neither can their suffering from the forever lingering effects of apartheid.