South Africa's long journey to reconciliation is not over yet

Not everyone in South Africa has encountered racism, but as the country that likes to call itself the “rainbow nation” is embarking on a national conversation, reappearance of racism is forcing it to confront its apartheid past.

It is hardly surprising that in some cases blacks and whites are blaming each other, given the country’s history. Racist name-calling has re-emerged, and white farmers are still occasionally murdered on their properties. This is an indication of the widespread resentment over the enduring unequal distribution of wealth and national assets.

The reasons for what appears to be a rise in racism and racist incidents in South Africa, are complex and deep-rooted. Many observers say the government is failing to address fundamental human rights and economic problems, leading to frustrations that are released with racist overtones.

Yuri Ramkissoon and Shanelle van der Berg, officials at the South African Human Rights Commission, wrote recently  that the country “has failed to address the systemic causes of poverty and inequality, which occur along fault lines including race, gender and disability, and that ultimately cause or exacerbate racism”.

The report added that South Africa “remains the most unequal country in the world. White-headed households earn about four times the income of black-headed households”.

Whites own about 70 per cent of South Africa’s agricultural land. The land issue remains a contentious one among South Africans. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said it will expropriate land without compensation to correct historical land imbalances. Black empowerment groups want whites to share the country’s wealth equally with previously marginalised black, Indian and mixed-race communities, and to have equal opportunities in all sectors of the economy.

The 2011 census showed the population as 76 per cent black; 9 per cent white; 9.1 per cent coloured or mixed race; 2.5 per cent Asian; and others making up 0.5 per cent.

In 1948, the National Party representing white minority interests introduced the system of apartheid that separated people along racial lines. The policy allowed for racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-whites. As a consequence, racial tensions define South Africa’s history, before the end of apartheid in 1994 brought democracy and a multi-racial ANC government led by Nelson Mandela. It was never going to be an easy task for the black-led government to overcome the historical antagonism between the races. Now, 25 years later, racism has become a chief concern.

Last year Vicki Momberg, who is white, became the first person in South Africa to be imprisoned for racism, after she was found to have verbally abused a black police officer, using a word that is almost synonymous with the apartheid era no fewer than 48 times, after she experienced a smash-grab incident. She served four months of her two-year sentence and was freed after being pardoned by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Momberg is suing the government, prosecution and police for “unlawful arrest and detention,” seeking compensation of more than half a million US dollars. Her case is not isolated — in recent years, several people have been fined by courts for racism and also ordered to apologise and compensate the victims.

Ramaphosa, in his message to mark the national day of reconciliation in December, said racism incidents are few in South Africa. “Racism and bigotry no longer define our nation. Where they do occur, they are isolated,” he said. “Where there have been manifestations of intolerance, we have been able to unite behind the values of tolerance and respect for diversity that define our Bill of Rights. Yet, we still have much further to go.”

Some black people accuse the minority white population of failing to accept the new order of black majority rule. White Afrikaner people have been accused of running small military camps training white youths in weapons use and self-defence techniques, in case they are attacked by black people. Whites accuse the black majority government of failing to fix the country’s economy, tame high crime, reduce unemployment, and deal with corruption.

The opposition leader of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, has been calling for black empowerment and land expropriation without compensation. He does not mince his words when he comments about “privileged white South Africans”. 

“There is nothing special about white people. We are all equal, we are all equal human beings,” said Malema, who the EFF calls its “Commander-In-Chief”. “We don’t care about white feelings. We don’t hate white people, we just love black people. They (whites) have made us suffer for a very long time. We cannot be harassed in our own country during apartheid and be harassed in our own country during a democratic dispensation by a nonsense Afrikaner community. It must come to an end,” Malema said.

By contrast, President Ramaphosa drew attention to a reconciliation barometer survey of 2019, published by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation. It found that “a vast majority of South Africans agree that our country still needs reconciliation”. Just over a half of respondents, it said, “believe that South Africa has made progress with reconciliation since 1994”.

However, the survey also said most South Africans agree that reconciliation is “impossible as long as corruption continues, political parties sow division, those who were affected by apartheid continue to be poor, gender-based violence remains, we continue to use racial categories to measure transformation, and racism in our society remains unaddressed”.