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At the start, I must express my personal opinion that there was nothing racist in the messages tweeted by Zelda La Grange.
Zelda was merely expressing her disappointment at the current socio-political and socio-economic malaise South Africa, as a nation, is currently experiencing. Her comment regarding whites not feeling welcome may be interpreted as being symptomatic of embedded notions of white superiority in that whites expect preferential treatment and should be made to feel welcome.
I do not believe that was her intention. I cannot comment for her but I believe her intention was to highlight the destructive trend of racial division, polarisation and alienation that our President has initiated with his juvenile and irresponsible comments. This trend is totally contrary to the legacy of Madiba which I am sure Zelda has an interest in protecting having worked closely with him for so many years.
As for me, I am categorised as white but I don’t need to feel welcome in my home. I was born in South Africa as were my Father and Grandfather. I belong here whether our President likes it or not and irrespective of the historical circumstances making that a reality. I believe in democracy and that the will of the majority should prevail. I do not feel my skin colour makes me superior in any way. I am married to a wonderful, so called “Coloured” woman with whom I share much in common.
I believe in the philosophy of “live and let live” and Ubuntu in its true form i.e. I am a person through other people (humanity) and therefore respect for others, irrespective of colour or creed, is of paramount importance.
I believe apartheid was a destructive and inhumane system. Devaluation of the human soul was the real crime of apartheid. It has been ended through much pain, hardship and sacrifice. It is no more. All people in South Africa are now relatively free to live their lives and pursue their dreams without the constraints and oppression of the apartheid system. All of us should celebrate this new dispensation and we should not allow the current failure of leadership and governance to detract from the positives of our democracy.
Many whites are fearful of losing their identities and culture. We need to revoke our identities as white or black people and take on more generic human identities to enable us to live, work and co-exist in peace and harmony more constructively and effectively with others around us in a multicultural and pluralistic society. I believe this is possible without discarding our specific individual cultures which should remain our birth right. In Mozambique it is offensive to categorise a person by colour. All people in Mozambique are categorised simply as people and so it should be in South Africa.
We need to get to the point where skin colour is irrelevant and find value in the human soul. Every human soul is precious.
For the sake of nation building and for the benefit of all, we need to protect and carry Madiba’s legacy forward. In closing, I quote from his profound wisdom;
“Nobody is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or religion. People 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”
“If I did not forgive for the past, I would still be in prison”
“We did not fight to end one system of racism to replace it with another system of racism”
As a nation, we owe it to Madiba to make racism something of the past.
