HEADLINE:   SA race relations

PUBLICATION: Mercury    

PAGE NUMBER: 8

AUTHOR:     Zubeida Jaffer

DATE:       2000-09-06 12:57:25

Plea for white action to end racism

One single gesture could change South African race relations forever

zubeida jaffer

ANTJIE Krog, poet and journalist, made an impassioned plea for white action at the racism conference last week. She said there was a need for a single gesture which would forever change relations between black and white. 

She asked what the gesture was that would unburden us all and release us into a new relationship. "Black and white need to look at a specific moment to say: We said we were sorry." 

With this in mind, she proposed that whites, possibly under the guidance of their churches, use December 16, which is Reconciliation Day, to make "an essential, visible and highly public gesture". 

"It could be an ecumenical church service in every town, thus saying, 'Here we are'; we could all sign a pledge to donate money towards reparation - there must be many possibilities, the core being visibility and reparation," she said. 

"But we must have one moment, a precise point in the history of whites in South Africa, of which we can say: From this point onwards the debate about black and white in this country has changed forever and for good." 

Often solutions to seemingly complex problems lie in simple actions which shift the course of history. 

Prof Jakes Gerwel, former director-general to Mr Nelson Mandela, in his opening remarks to the conference said the history of South African racism was shaped by "fateful moments". Key fateful moments, such as the formation of the Union, the imposition of the Land Acts and intensified state repression in the past decades of apartheid rule.

Each time, he said, these "fateful moments" lent greater structural and institutional support to the white population's sense of superiority and right to rule and dominate. 

"The cruelty and the disregard for the value of black life runs like a thread through these events in our history," he said. 

But there were other "fateful moments", such as the adoption of the Freedom Charter and the start of Codesa that shaped race relations in a different way and direction. 

These led to moments in the life of a fledgling nation which few of us will forget - the day when Mr Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison, when black and white cast their votes side by side, equally, for the first time, when a fully democratic constitution came into being. 

Human Rights Commission chairman Barney Pityana was exaggerating when he claimed epoch-making status for the racism conference, but the events of the past week are of the kind that contain the possibility of leading to a "fateful moment". 

It was a week which started with the release of Gugu Radebe from captivity in Liberia. Then the release of Monique and Callie Strydom - a feat for the government. Relief swept through the country when they all arrived home safely. 

At the same time came the racism conference, which was faced with considerable reserve by some, but nevertheless gripped the 1 500 delegates who continued to fill the hall into day four, as black and white spoke with little restraint. 

"Stop suggesting we (whites) are the only obstacle to transformation," said Ms Krog. "Stop simply blaming us. Give us work to do."

With these positive experiences came the negative. Louis Trichardt store manager Thelma Strydom and employee Julia Munyai painted a 14-year-old girl whom they accused of stealing. They removed her blouse and smeared white paint over her chest, back, arms and head. 

Mr Mosoko Rampuru died after being dragged behind a bakkie for more than 5km. 

These incidents require tough action and will not magically disappear with a gesture of the kind that Ms Krog is suggesting. But her plea for collective white action does force a discussion on the mechanics of how to bring closure to a terrible past. The dilemma is where the impetus for this will come from within the white community.

Speaker after speaker at the conference pointed out that to tackle the scourge of racism required both black and white action. The readiness for blacks to act is self-evident. They are affected most. But whites, too, are affected - but who will lead them to act? 

Ms Krog had personally hoped that Mr F W de Klerk would have risen to the challenge of a fundamental gesture of reconciliation - "like (former German chancellor) Willy Brandt, to lay a wreath somewhere, kneel and ask forgiveness on behalf of all of us for the victims". 

This never happened, leaving a void in the national dialogue of guilt and responsibility, she said. She quipped: "There is Tutu, there is Mandela, but where oh where is the white prince of reconciliation? 

"And indeed where is he - and, of course, it can only be a he," she said to ripples of laughter. 

She has little hope that the impetus will come from white organised politics, and turns, instead, to civil society - the churches, cultural and economic structures - to lead. Individual action is also not what she proposes. 

"White individuals can try on their own at a variety of occasions but it seems to me there is an immense need among black people to see this translated into a strong, visual gesture which will forever have an impact on our discourse of race." 

The conference declared December 16 the Day of Racial Reconciliation. As with so many other national events, the organisation of this cannot again be left to flow from the bosom of the black community. 

Ms Krog's plea for white action comes at the right time. If this moment is lost, it will indeed be fateful.