South Africa and race

The clashing rainbow colours

Without Nelson Mandela’s healing hand, racial divisions get uglier

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Readers' comments




Hey Rasmus

Let me help you out with that -, Those are just two senior ruling party figures - it carries on.

Ask blacks from other African states who had to run for their lives to avoid robbery and violent murder at the hands of xenophobic township mobs what they think about the incidence of black xenophobia in South Africa.

Just because you have not met them, or have not realised you have met them, it does not mean there are no racist blacks in South Africa.

This idea that whites are the only racists in South Africa is a lie that serves the purposes of those who would continue to peddle hate and racism as part of an increasingly virulent black nationalist program.

The truth is that everyone has to make an effort to get beyond the historical racial prejudices of the society, and build a unified national identity. If South Africans fail to achieve this, if South Africa gives in to a process of recrimination and does not take the chance to reinvent itself in the vision that was dreamt of in the establishing of the Constitution, if it hands its Republic over to a Stalinist single party autocracy (as you seem to think it should), then the immediate future will be bleak indeed.

It is time to focus on the purpose of the struggle, which was to win a democratic constitutional republic so that government would be answerable to all the people - it was not to create the kingdom of South Africa with the ANC enjoying a divine right to rule, nor was it to perpetuate race based discriminatory agendas.


@ Columbo007 - why I'm actually posting this response is beyond me. Perhaps I have a passion for understanding the development of nations (I used to work with development agencies and perhaps still can't kick the habit of interest).

South Africa is of special intrigue to me (among other nations) and through my reading on the revolution in SA I came across an issue that I believe would be an argument against your statement, "It is time to focus on the purpose of the struggle, which was to win a democratic constitutional republic so that government would be answerable to all the people...."

From what I understand, the focus of "the struggle" had no real democratic aspirations which would include concepts such as minority rights. "The struggle" was focused on majority rule. The term 'democracy' was only used for its political acceptance. In the eyes of the black revolutionaries, Apartheid South Africa was placed into the same category as the colonized states, it had to be overcome and power had to go to a black ruling class. In fact, the governance aspirations by the ANC (and other leading black movements) were inspired the Communist Cubans. For the Cubans Communism was and ideal and a response to the "western system" that supported dictators, colonizers, bad capitalists and apartheid. But Communism offered something more, through the guise of nationalization (and redistribution of wealth) it offered un-challenged power to a ruling class.

The impacts of Communism should not be under estimated, in the mid 1970's their were more people on earth living under communist rule and dictatorships than there were people living under free democracy.

Communism has never been installed by the people actively voting to entrench the system of communism. No country has actually voted to ban opposition parties and install a single party governance structure with supreme unchallengeable power. (As a side note in our recent Canadian elections the Canadian Communist Party and the Marxist Leninist party got onto the ballot sheet. I believe the CCP got 40 votes nationwide and MLP got 1 vote). Communism or totalitarianism has always been installed by force. This in my mind has actually been the real aim of "the struggle". Looking at other countries who also went through a "struggle", the concept of liberation and empowerment of the people has been very secondary in practice. Take Mozambique as an example, how has the life of a peasant villager changed since decolonization?

The ANC and its allies actually had an active program to undermine the democratic negotiation and force an overthrow of the apartheid government. This plan was called Operation Vula.

Operation Vula was orchestrated by a faction within the ANC who did not like the way Nelson Mandela was negotiating a true democratic dispensation. Operation Vula was uncovered by the intelligence agency within the De Klerk government and it almost undermined the entire negotiation process. It placed Nelson Mandela in a very uncomfortable position and even backfired badly as Nelson had to give up more negotiation room to make up for the lack of confidence as a result.

Operation Vula was lead by Joe Slovo but who are the other Vula people? The list is not fully disclosed, but I do believe it includes Zuma. In essence, the people who subscribed to operation Vula truly believed in totalitarianism and black rule not democracy.

SA has a truly impressive constitution with an entrenched right to freedom of speech. It is the brilliance of the constitution that has kept the 'totalitarianists' at bay. But the constitution is under constant attack, one should not be fooled by the motives of the current administration.

As this Economist article has shown, the ANC's main leadership does not subscribe to the concept of a mature and balanced democracy. They aim for totalitarianism and they are willing to throw salt in the racism wound. The irony is that they are willing to call Helen Zille (who placed her life on the line to stop the racist policy of Apartheid) a racist. It is normal for politicians to brand and criticize their opposition but given the history of SA, this is simply irresponsible.


I have said it before and I will say it again. The tipping point in South Africa will be the death of Nelson Mandela.
I do know that white South Africans with marketable qualifications e.g. doctors are applying overseas in large numbers. Even my daughter's South African au pair in Colorado was urged by her parents to stay in the US and she is from a poor Boer family.


There is no reason to believe that South Africa will not end up as Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Kenya, etc., etc.

1. Declining quality of political leadership
2. Official policies favouring a black empowerment leading to abuse and creation of black oligarchies.
3. Increasing political extremism
4. Lawlessness
5. Enclavization of minority whites and coloured races
6. Belief by the ruling party that it has a divine right to rule.

All this is depressingly familiar. The cycle has been repeated any number of times begining with Ghana in the sixties.

To all those idealists who believe that SA is "different" I say you
are deluding yourselves. The only reason the situation is not worse is because of the considerable infrastructure in place which remains to be destroyed.

Truly cry the beloved country


The real problem is money. The 'clashing' between races is because Whites, Asians and Coloureds tend to be richer than Blacks. Poorer people are always envious of richer ones.

White and Asians are leaving ZA as they perceive that they or their children will be disadvantaged against for jobs and will not prosper because of it. Hence a reason that so many White and Asian South Africans are found in Australia, Canada, UK and etc.

The departure of the top percentiles (actual or potential) actually disadvantages Black and Coloureds employability more than positive discrimination can add jobs.

If the government changed its 'Black empowerment' strategy from petty revenge against White people to one that support business (of any color) then I believe that Black empowerment will come naturally.


Black politicians? Playing the racism card? Unheard of! Black African politicians demonizing whites? First time ever!

In 10 years SA will be another Zimbabwe, mark my word...


It sounds strange to me, because, as a white person travelling in South Africa, I have yet to meet a black racist. White racists still abound, but at least these days the main victims of their racism are themselves.

If I were a (white) South African, I would join the ANC for its historical role in the liberation from Apartheid (which was evil to all blacks and pretty nasty to decent whites as well), and then fight for it to maintain its colour blind principles. That would be much better for racial harmony than voting for Zille.


Hey Colombo007.

Given how Apartheid was basically blacks being dispossessed of all rights and dignity by whites, South African blacks could be forgiven for harbouring some resentment towards whites in general, but this is not the vibe I (as a white) get from South African blacks at all! Never ever have I even come across pro-segregation views among black South Africans, and mixed friendships and marriages are totally accepted, if still rather uncommon.

By contrast, I notice so many all-white environments in South Africa, which is thought-provoking given that whites are only some 10% of the population. I have seen an all-white wedding with 500 guests, not a single one of them black! And this is quite normal in South Africa. I'm not saying that South African whites are generally ill-natured racists, but many of them do have serious "issues", I dare say, with embracing the rainbow nation.

Meanwhile, although I disagree politically with Julius Malema, why always assume his motives are racial? This appears to me like whites being too thin-skinned. Blacks can be too thin-skinned too, of course, but let us not forget the context of very recent history, please! Our support of the ANC should only last as long as the ANC remains democratic. You are way too harsh to call the ANC reign a "kingdom".

Finally, yes, it's interesting you should bring up the xenophobia against fellow black Africans, because one kind of racism I have encountered among some blacks, which I find deeply disturbing, is blacks being racists against blacks! Brothers, please, be confident about who you are and what you can achieve, and sisters, please, don't use those skin-whitening products, you definitely don't need them, in fact, they make you spooky like Michael Jackson! :-)


this article is a load of rubbish, the reporter does not have a grasp of my country's politics with regards to race, viewing everything through it, ironically this is not how my countries politics are run and shows the inability of the reporter to step away from her european backround. things here are less black and white


@ Tman101 - I recommend you watch the movie "Invictus" it is based on the true account of events leading to the Springboks winning the world cup. In the movie you get to see that Nelson Mandela was indeed a type of spiritual leader of the ANC. His actions in protecting Afrikaaner culture resulted in him sacrificing his relationship with his, then, wife and his children. He over-ruled various ANC leaders to foster a respect for the Afrikaaner culture and the Sprinbok symbolism. Since Nelson, we have not seen an ANC leader make a sacrifice to protect minority rights, in fact so far we have only seen the opposite.

Your statement, "In the election of 1999 the DA election slogan was “Fight Blacks” is very troubling. From my research that is not only an absolute fallacy, but the term "Fight Blacks" seems more a concept of myth by the lunatic fringe.

I have seen these kinds of myth statements in Uganda, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan to name a few. These kinds of myth statements are unfortunately spread first as rumour but are then repeated enough times that they unfortunately catch on with the masses. These kinds of irresponsible statements have been very damaging and at times have undermined any bona fide efforts to implement true democracy.

I hope South Africa's freedom of speech laws will allow for me people to bring these kinds of statements out into the open and discredit them. As an example, this very economist article has highlighted some irresponsible statements by Zuma himself. I hope with this international attention and discussion on his irresponsibility as a leader, he may tame down a little.

Sometimes it takes an international spot light for a leader to reconsider his actions.


Anyone would think that politicians in the rest of the world never say anything stupid during election campaigns. The DA has grown it's support after every election since 1994 precisely because more and more people of all races are rejecting the racial policies of the ANC. This can only be a good thing for the future of democracy in SA and as Mrs Thatcher once said - they're just getting frit!


@ Plen. I think you make an excellent point. It has been hypothesized, I believe with some merit, that the ANC only negotiated for such a democratic constitution at the CODESA (end of aparthied) negotiations because they did not actually believe the National Party would relinquish power. Hence they were seeking to weaken the hegemony of the state so as to improve their own ability to continue dismantling its aparatus. Had they truly believed they would soon be in power, judging by their behaviour since obtaining power in respect of democratic tenets (judicial independence, press freedom, minority rights, parliamentary process etc), it is very doubtful that they would have negotiated such a strong democracy into the constitution. I agree with you, in terms of DNA, they are a Stalinist organisation with no concept of or inclination towards true liberal democratic principle.

All that said, the ANC does not define the struggle, although they managed to capture the flag at its conclusion. The struggle was about freedom, and one party Stalinist states, as you rightly point out, have never been chosen by a free people. When people made sacrifices and assumed risk in the battle against aparthied, it was not with the object of substituting one kind of oppression for another.

Hence I retain my point that the struggle objectives were to obtain freedom and government by all the people and for all the people.

And please continue commenting. Your contributions are enlightening.


@ Tman101 - how many black players are on the Springbok or Cricket team is not the point. You should consider how many whites there are on the SA National soccer team. The point is that Nelson Mandela made a great personal sacrifice in order to raise a respect for the Afrikaaner culture. As I said, he did this at the detriment of his own relationship with his wife and children, who appear to have held a resent towards whites in general.

Interesting statement you have, "white farmers are still inflating prices of land, the “willing seller and willing buyer mechanism” has been abused..." According to the laws of economics, if you raise the demand for a product (such as land) the price lifts too. The farmers are doing exactly what would be expected from any seller anywhere in the world. But you appear to see SA as a unique scenario and you see abuse. Any economist would have predicted the exact situation. As an example, we (in Ontario) are in the process of buying farm land to build a new highway. The government procurement system has given a sudden increase in demand and raised the prices of land(as in SA). At the 5km mark we have already reached $1billion in land purchase. Given that the entire SA government budget is about $30billion, your farm land is still cheap.

Perhaps your next statement is the most telling, " take two to tango, we cannot blame one side if the other side is unwillingly to transform and move on! Why only black people must always extend an olive branch while white people are sitting in their comfort zones?...."

You appear to take a position that "we are not extending an olive branch until they extend and olive branch too". You obviously do not appreciate what it is that Nelson Mandela actually achieved. The ability to give without expecting a return is the not only noble but also the way to build a nation. This is one of the key lessons in our (Canadian) history and how our English speaking forefathers achieved peace with the French settlers.

You have also taken on an opinion that whites have not made much of a sacrifice for improved race relations. It is unfortunate that you don't give much credence to the recent history when 2 thirds of whites voted for a reform system that they knew would end apartheid and their privileged way of life. You speak of white people sitting in a comfort zone when SA has the highest crime rate in the world (having recently surpassed Colombia).

It is true that white people have vastly more wealth than black people, but wealth is not the only thing that decides a "comfort zone". I think you need to accept that white people have a natural educational advantage over black people (this may well be one of the legacies of Apartheid) and that it will take more than one generation before you see an equality in education between the races. Only after the equality in education, will you then see an equality in wealth. As a simple concept: wealth comes from value add, vallue in turn comes from education. I am afraid that the black culture has still a weak emphasis on education, meaning this situation may well be prolonged further.

The issue you raised is, ".... Why only black people must always extend an olive branch...." The average black person and the average white person are at the end of the day, average people and their interaction whether good or bad will decide how they live with each other given their different socio-economic situation. There is no need to "extend an olive branch" just simply treat the other person how you would like them to treat you (even if they are treating you badly). To use one of our cultural concepts, "over run them with kindness and eventually they will be kind back to you."

The key issue of this article and topic is not about average people but rather about governance. Why should the ANC government extend an olive branch to its minority groups? the answer is simple - because the ANC is the government. To treat any group of people with disrespect, will make the ANC the same as the Apartheid government.

Again, if you can't understand that fundamental difference, then you can't understand why the Nobel prize committee (and the world) have such high respect for Nelson Mandela.

Philani Lubanyana490

Dr N R Mandela is a product of the ANC; when he was still active he was never bigger than the ANC. He didn’t have his ideas but ANC ideas. He was no the spiritual leader of the ANC but a servant leader of the people. He was not saint but a hero like many leaders of the ANC. So to say “Without Nelson Mandela’s healing hand, racial divisions get uglier” is a fallacy. Dr N M Mandela was taken back to court just after 1994 by people who formed DA (“the new non racial party”), the old wounds were reopened by people who formed the DA (the new non racial party). In the election of 1999 the DA election slogan was “Fight Blacks” does that meant DA regarded itself as vulnerable after the masses took power in 1994 so in needed to stop swart gevaar (black danger)? I am sure the DA (the new non racial party) can answer that. Philani Lubanyana@Durban. South Africa

Philani Lubanyana490

@ Plen Thank for your recommendation, but I’ve already watch that movie. Yes it is great movie but it can’t be a tonic for national reconciliation and nation building! After 1995 Springbok Victory Dr Mandela was taken to court by SAFRU (South African Football Rugby Union)! In 1995 only Chester Williams was a black player in Springbok squad but we black people supported “The BokKe” 100%, we did not question it. In Cricket Makhaya Ntini is the only black player who was given a chance to represent SA at the highest level and he performed excellently. I don’t want to go to Olympic teams! In commerce 63% of top and middle managers are in the hands of white males and white females are the greatest beneficiaries of Employment Equity Laws (Employment Equity Commission Report)! The land question is still the thorny issue in South Africa, white farmers are still inflating prices of land, the “willing seller and willing buyer mechanism” has been abused, black farm workers are still being evacuated from farms even today, why? We must also mention that farm owners are being killed, why? You have said “Since Nelson, we have not seen an ANC leader make a sacrifice to protect minority rights, in fact so far we have only seen the opposite” it take two to tango, we cannot blame one side if the other side is unwillingly to transform and move on! Why only black people must always extend an olive branch while white people are sitting in their comfort zones? South Africa belongs to all of us both black and white. Let me quote Dr Mbeki, “After 45 years of division into two states with competing social systems, the German leaders and people understood that, truly to become one country and one people, they too, like ourselves, would have to address the central questions of national unity and reconciliation. This was despite the fact that here we speak of a people who share the same language, colour and culture. The seriousness with which the German people treated that process of the promotion of German national unity and reconciliation is reflected, among other things, by the extraordinary volume of resources which the richer, developed West Germany transferred to the poorer and relatively underdeveloped East. During the first five years of unification after 1990, $586,5 billion of public funds were transferred from West Germany to East Germany to underwrite Germany's project of national unity and reconciliation. This exceeded East Germany tax revenues for the same period by a factor of 4.5.1.Further to illustrate the enormity of this effort, these transfers amount to 70 times the size of the national budget which this House is currently debating. To help finance this extraordinary expenditure, a 7,5 per cent surcharge on individual income tax was imposed in 1991 and extended in 1995 for an unspecified period of time. Correctly and interestingly, this was designated a "solidarity" tax. It might also be of interest to note that despite the huge flow of German public and private funds into the East, at the end of this first five year period, per capita income in the East still amounted to 74 per cent of income in the Western part of the country” Dr Thabo Mbeki. Philani Lubanyana@Durban.South Africa


My congratulations to the Economist. This article seems to be 'expiate' the previous article related to this topic. And I do like the correction that Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa.

As a short note to Economist - I do value it when you guys do this 'update thing' and I do value the Economist as the best read on international affairs and economics.


@ plen, what is it about you yankees, who put everything in binary, black/white white/black, it doesn't really work like that here. it is far more nuanced


@ Tman101 - I thought I would also give yo a few more thoughts to ponder.

You made an interesting analogy to the unification of West and East Germany with some facts an figures on the investment by West Germany into East Germany implying that something similar should happen in SA between whites and blacks.

Have you considered that the white population with its greater wealth are also the biggest tax payers? In fact the overwhelming majority of black people do not pay income tax (primarily because they earn to little to pay tax). Yet the government budget to run the country comes from tax revenues. In other words, in SA the white people are already financing the development of infrastructure and social programs that benefit the poor. Granted the scale of investment is nothing like that of West Germany, but then again SA's entire economy is about the size of the city of Toronto.

My understanding of when I was in SA, is that white people appear to be okay with their tax money being used to fund infrastructure and social programs for the majority black poor. However white South Africans appear to be very resentful when their tax money is being used to fund luxury SUVs and luxury housing for politicians. Not only is it a waste of the tax money but it is also inhibiting the development of the poor which you have highlighted as being important.

This topic fits beautifully with the topic of this article where the DA are offering better governance that will improve the plight of the poor, equalize wealth faster and also satisfy the white that their tax money is being wisely used.

I should also point out that in Canada and any member of parliament seen driving a luxury car (particularly a luxury German car) will be subject to an automatic investigation and subject themselves to criticism that will guarantee non-re-election.



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