Social cohesion shies away from racism

Last week Saturday I attended a Social Cohesion Dialogue at Chief Mogale Hall in Kagiso.

The former member of the now defunct National Party, Leon Wessels, also attended. So did the DA Ward 9 Councillor De Waal Venter.

Wessels made an invaluable contribution to the dialogue. What I liked the most was that he was honest about the past and present situations in our country. He concurred that apartheid was a crime against humanity and that racism is still alive and well, a fact that many whites deny [sic].

For instance, Venter said racism only existed in our minds. In other words, the demon of racism is a figment of our imagination. The DA councillor was being honest with himself and the rest of us. In his world, racism doesn’t exist. Where does he live?

It is an open secret that many whites don’t feel comfortable talking openly about racism. They prefer that the matter be swept under the carpet. But unfortunately, racism is stubborn and it keeps rearing its ugly head.

Interestingly, during the dialogue racism kept cropping up. The facilitator tried to suppress the issue, because it was overshadowing other issues on the programme, but failed. This is a confirmation that racism remains a burning issue in this country. And it needs to be confronted head on.

I subscribe to the school of thought that social cohesion doesn’t address racism, which is the reason why this country was – and still is – divided along racial lines. It seems as if the attempt is to make us forget about racism and move on as if nothing has happened. If this is true, then that’s not the best way to deal with the evil of racism.

I’ve previously engaged the Chief Director of Social Cohesion, Sandile Memela who was invited but didn’t make it to the dialogue, on the above matter. We don’t agree that social cohesion doesn’t address racism head-on.

Does the nation really know what social cohesion is all about? My sense is that many people, particularly blacks, don’t know about it. And I also doubt that there is a buy-in into it by the nation. I even doubt that it will achieve its objective.

I hope I’m wrong.

* De Waal Venter responds:

Mr Mange misunderstood what I said. His remarks do not reflect what I expressed in the meeting. I did not say that “the demon of racism is a figment of our imagination”. And I certainly did not say that “racism doesn’t exist” in my world.

Mr Mange makes the following statement and I totally agree with him on that view: “… racism remains a burning issue in this country. And it needs to be confronted head-on”.

The question that I posed was: What is racism? … and I answered as follows: racism is not noticing differences in various cultures. Differences are natural and beneficial. (Note that I used the word “cultures” and not “races”. The word “race” is fraught with possible misinterpretation). Racism is when one sees the differences in another culture as a sign of inferiority.

I added that we need racial cohesion in South Africa in order to build a nation. I referred to what the facilitator, Thabo said: we all live in one place, South Africa. We have to find ways and means to live together peacefully and productively.