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'Rainbow nation' alienating whites | |||||||||||
Eleven years ago, the run-up to the 1994 election in South Africa was violent and frightening, and people talked darkly about the civil war that was brewing.
On the day that happened, half a million people celebrated in the streets of the capital, then known as Pretoria. When we checked with the police that evening, they told us that not a single crime had been committed in the city all day long.
It was, I think, the best story I have covered in my 40 years as a journalist. And now? The outside world believes that South Africa was all sorted out in 1994, and the story had a happy ending. But of course life is not like that. On 30 May Schabir Shaik, the financial adviser to the Vice-President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, was convicted of using a loan of nearly $550,000 (£300,000) to influence an arms contract.
The South African press demanded Mr Zuma's resignation, but on Friday he announced: "My conscience is clear, because I have not committed any crime." It is assumed he will keep his job as vice-president. Mr Zuma is a Zulu, and has strong support among the strong Zulu contingent within the ruling ANC and the unions.
Political stability
President Thabo Mbeki needs to keep the ANC together. Alienating the Zulu population by sacking Mr Zuma will not help to do that. It is the kind of trade-off politicians have to make: in this case, ensuring the political stability of the country instead of facing up to the threat of high-level corruption. President Mbeki has had to make a great many trade-offs like this since he took over from Nelson Mandela. Because South Africa lacked the resources to cope with the terrible onslaught of Aids, he played down the threat and questioned its link with HIV. Despite the catastrophe President Robert Mugabe has brought down on the people of Zimbabwe by wrecking its agriculture and undermining the rule of law, Mr Mbeki has consistently failed to condemn him.
He knows there are politicians within the ANC who would like to do the same in South Africa, and he believes the best way to counter them is to remain quiet. He is constantly attacked for all this in the South African press, which is still predominantly white. Because he is thin-skinned, his response has often been to suggest that his critics are unreconstructed racists: including some whose anti-apartheid credentials are impeccable.
Back in 1994, the whites of South Africa, and particularly the Afrikaners, thought they had a deal: if they gave up political power, their position would be guaranteed. Nelson Mandela went out of his way to court the Afrikaners. He spoke excellent Afrikaans, and had several close Afrikaner friends and advisers. Thabo Mbeki comes from a different generation, and a different background. Most of his life was spent in exile, much of it in Britain. In the ANC, he is often seen as a remote outsider. He knows it does him no harm whatever to criticize the unreconstructed attitudes of many whites. Little things as well as more important ones grate on the white community. White South Africans hoped the capital would keep its old name, Pretoria. But under the ANC it has been renamed Tshwane. Only a district of the capital retains the name "Pretoria". Black empowerment, which is essential if the country is to prosper, means that whites are losing their jobs throughout the economy. Crime seems as bad as ever, yet the government sometimes gives the impression it is just a white myth.
Whites leaving
More and more whites are leaving South Africa; some temporarily, some for good. The South African High Commission in London thinks there may be 1.4m South Africans in Britain. Although it is essential to bring black people into the economy in large numbers, South Africa is in danger of losing the talents of its whites, who often feel it is no longer their country.
The apartheid system was just as cruel and stupid as its critics maintained, and simply handing over political power was not enough to wash away the after-effects. Plenty of whites understand this. Recently a leading Afrikaans academic, Professor Willie Esterhuyse of Stellenbosch University declared: "The majority of Afrikaners and their opinion makers are still suffering from a historical 'black-out' as far as white racism and destructive perceptions of black people are concerned. The second and third generation after 1990 will hopefully be different." He is right. Most young white South Africans, and particularly Afrikaans-speaking ones, seem fully committed to living in a society where the colour of people's skin is of no importance whatever. They are proud of their country, and want to make it better. Most of those who are now living in Britain or other countries are determined to go home as soon as they can. But this will not happen if the ANC reverses all its principles and regards South Africa as essentially a black people's country, where everyone else lives on sufferance.
If you would like to comment on John Simpson's article, please send us your views using the form below. Your comments:
Luqman Ahmad, Toronto, Canada Thank you John for outlining some of the concerns white South African have
and often are unable to articulate, certainly not in the eloquent and balanced
manner that you do. As a young white South African ex-pat with no ill feeling
towards any of my fellow South Africans, it is very frustrating when my concerns
and opinions are brushed off as unimportant or as some form of unreconstructed
racism. I would like to return to my country and help construct a just society,
but there must be a glimmer of hope that those in the ANC who wish to see the
"white problem" solved, never reach the seat of power. Indeed, John Simpson has exactly caught the spirit. Pity now it is too late
and there is "reverse apartheid" against Whites and it won't be long before
South Africa resembles its neighbour, Zimbabwe. I am a tad curious about the motive behind this article. What is happening
now in SA is as a result of years of oppression, degradation and sheer
selfishness. I have no sympathy for the Whites that have benefited from the
previous system and when things changed they took the soft option i.e. running
away abroad and doing menial jobs like security guards, bartenders etc. They
should return to SA and take a constructive part and leading role in rebuilding
the country. I am a white South African, who came to the UK because there isn't a future
for me in South Africa. I love my home country and the people, but unfortunately
the country has no place for me. People are not judged by their skills or
education, but by the colour of their skins. It is nearly impossible for me to
make a living there, in the country that I love. I wish to return to someday,
when all the races can learn to live together, and we are all truly
equal.
Steven Mudi, Harare, Zimbabwe It's funny how it takes an outsider to articulate what us beleaguered whites
are experiencing. One thing though, it seems the Pretoria issue is not yet
final. Why can't they leave the history of the country alone? Next they will be
pulling down the fabulous statues of Queen Victoria in Durban and Port
Elizabeth. | |||||||||||
Most young white South Africans seem fully committed to living in a
society where the colour of people's skin is of no importance whatever 