UK: A BBC report: Racism alive in South Africa

Submitted by white down under:

The BBC's Mohammed Allie in Cape Town looks at whether racism is still thriving in South Africa, 14 years after the end of apartheid, as President Thabo Mbeki suggested in a speech to mark Freedom Day.

Earlier this month, the owner of a South African tourist resort refused to allow a film crew to shoot on his property because of a "whites only" policy.

Black and white voted together in historic elections in 1994

This came shortly after a racist video made by students at the Free State University and the alleged killing of four black people in an informal settlement by an 18 year old white man.

All of this seems to show that racism is still alive and well in South Africa.

Albertus Pretorious, who owns the Broedestroom Vakansie-Oord resort in North West Province, stood by his whites-only admission policy.

His action comes despite being fined R10 000 ($1,500) and ordered to change his policy three years ago by the Human Rights Commission.

He was fined then for evicting a white family who had brought two black children along with them to the resort.

The producers of Mr Bones 2, a sequel to South Africa's highest grossing movie, have since decided to move the location of their film shoot away from the venue, because of the owner's unrepentant attitude.

Mr Pretorious was defiant when a local newspaper enquired whether the whites-only policy was still in operation.

"Yes, it is," he answered, "I don't allow black people onto my property. I don't trust them and it's my own property, so I can decide myself who I allow."

Truth but not much reconciliation

When South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994 to officially mark the passing of the Apartheid era, many felt it also spelt the beginning of the end of discrimination in a country where classification by skin colour was still crucial to determining an individual's future.

Jody Kollapen, Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, describes South Africa's transition to democracy as "amazing" but says the reconciliation part of the process was emphasised at the expense of transformation.

White denial is the real problem

Christi van der Westhuizen, author

Kollapen believes while the Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the excesses of Apartheid, very little was asked of whites during the reconciliation and transformation processes.

Christi van der Westhuizen, author of "White Power and the Rise and Fall of the National Party," agrees that a refusal by whites to acknowledge the impact of Apartheid on black South Africans is largely responsible for the current racial tensions.

"White denial is for me the real problem because they refuse to acknowledge the effect of Apartheid and colonialism in denying black people opportunities," she says.

"Whites should look at how to use their resources and skills so they can address the imbalances of the past."

Van der Westhuizen says government policies like affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE), which she believes are necessary to redress the years of oppression of blacks, have further hardened white attitudes.

"You must bear in mind that white identity post-1994 has also taken on some notion of victimhood, because they feel they suffer under BEE and affirmative action.

Racial harmony is still a long way off

"There is a definite resentment among some members of the white community about having lost power. The Free State video and the shooting incident are just extreme manifestations of a continuing problem in our country," says van der Westhuizen.

Khanya Gwaza, a black first year student at the University of Cape Town believes racism is not a problem at the institution.

"We get along perfectly across the racial lines," he says, "one of my best mates is a white person so we do not really see colour as an issue."

But Simeon Linstein, a second year student, says he sees incidents of racism almost every day.

"I know for example that some white students mock black lecturers for their accent - they presume everyone should speak the way they do."

The apparent recent increase of incidents of racism is of huge concern to the Rainbow Nation.

But given that racial discrimination started in South Africa with the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in 1652, it is unrealistic to expect it to disappear just 14 years into the new democratic dawn.

Source Url: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7361258.stm

Posted By: JoAn
*AfricanCrisis Volunteer*

Date Posted: Friday 01-Aug-2008
Racial discrimination did NOT start in 1652. That's an outrageous lie. If it were true, the coloured population wouldn't exist the way it does today. My advice to all South Africans is to ignore these journalists and avoid speaking English when confronted by them. British journalists are not journalists at all. They're scavengers. When they ran out of ideas of dragging the late Princess Diana's name in the mud, they started digging up shit in other countries.

R8RCrazy

Date Posted: Monday 05-May-2008
Sadly we get the same crap over here a few high profile white on black or any minority crimes we get it rammed down our throats about how racist we are. And yet the police and members of parliment regularly hide the amount race related crime against us.

White English Guy
Walsall
England

Date Posted: Saturday 03-May-2008
There is a ton of racism in South Africa, it's legislated, and ingrained in our society now.

Whites are racist and the blacks are victims. NOT!

The blacks are the biggest racists in Creation.

One can but feel sorry for the poor idiots that are so PC-ish that they will destroy their own for that lot.

Michael
Sandton
South Africa

Date Posted: Saturday 03-May-2008
Yeah.

Right.

Why is -everything- -always- (and I do mean ALWAYS) the white guy's fault?

Why must the white man always be the one to "reconcile" and "transform" and "apologise"?

How come the blacks are always those that were "oppressed" and "brutalised" and they are ALWAYS the innocent saints? How come they must always be apologised TO?

How come one racist incident perpetrated by whites has been blown out of all proportion, but the thousands of blatantly racist MURDERS by blacks on innocent whites in SA scarely rate a blip on the media radar?

Afrikaans has a nice term "keelvol" (literally full up to your throat). Many whites have had it (and I mean REALLY had it) up to here with being told over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over how "evil" we are, how naturally racist we are, how vicious, pernicious, negative, xenophobic, rotten, cowardly, non-integratory, acquisitve, filthy, repulsive, backward, stupid, disloyal "Boerjapie" idiots we are.

Liberals and true racists beware. You can keep pushing whites, murdering and denigrating them for much longer than you would be able to do it with less civilised people. But at some point (ok, granted, it is a VERY VERY far way) you won't be able to push further. And the explosion that will follow will be completely beyond control and all reason.

Leave us ALONE. Leave our guns ALONE. Even we cowardly, rotten, filthy, moronic, backward, racist Afrikaner-White-Nazi, murdering Boerjapie-idiot, lowly whore-mothered-gutter-bastards have a point of no return. If you pass that you'll finally meet White Power, to which so-called "Black Power" is like a wooden match to a nuclear explosion.

Pushed into a corner, even a mouse will fight with its entire being for survival. And white people aren't mice. Keep pushing and rubbing our noses in what YOU think is our ingrained racism, almost one and a half decades after you got a TOTAL victory, with ALL you wanted anyway, and you won't like the resulting reaction. Depend on it.

Stefan Viljoen
Potchefstroom
South Africa

Date Posted: Saturday 03-May-2008
It is truly Amazing how these politically correct people from far away lands like Britain and their mass media can state that White racism is rife after mentioning four or five incidents and not even mention the genocide being carried out against us every day, more than 2950 + farmers murdered and tortured, a whole nation virtually beggared through communism and racism?
It boggles the mind and leaves me outraged, I am just glad that the people of those lands seem to be showing their displeasure at all this socialim/liberalism/communism and politically correct nonsense and are showing their mandate for a return of more conservative values via the ballot box.

Onthou Bloedrivier
Newcastle
SSSA

Date Posted: Friday 02-May-2008
ag my vok!!!

grrrrrrrrrrr....ill show you basterds some 'racism' when i show you some white on white (hero vs liberal shit) action!

Janolifant *AFC Volunteer*

Date Posted: Friday 02-May-2008
Eat sheet and die, LIBERAL

jo shmoe
jhb
RSA