No reason for celebration

Twenty-six years since the dawn of our democracy, we shouldn’t be talking about the need for reconciliation – instead, we should have reconciled or, at least, started the process.

But the truth is reconciliation is not happening in this country. Instead, the efforts to bring blacks and whites and even blacks and blacks together have been replaced by extreme polarisation.

Gone are the days of the “rainbow nation” that Desmond Tutu envisioned. Even Nelson Mandela’s project of nation-building was put on the back burner and Thabo Mbeki’s African Renaissance has been forgotten.

In their places, we have seen more fiery rhetoric and increased anger among our political leaders and society in general while anti-African xenophobia is on the rise.

However, there is a glimmer of hope. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren see things differently and do not want to listen
to our stories of the apartheid past. They are building their own South Africa.

They play together at school, visit one other on weekends and show respect for one another and without doubt will inter-marry and live in peace and enjoy true reconciliation.

We as adults only meet at work and pretend to be friends, but look at each other with hatred and contempt outside that environment. Black and white adults are rarely true friends.

When it comes to foreigners, they experienced their fair share of our hatred. Foreigners were burned alive, stabbed to death in broad daylight or tied to the back of police vans and dragged until they died.

It’s no fable that some of them, along with some South Africans, are criminals participating in human trafficking, cash heists, theft of copper cables and other goods.

There is abundant evidence to show that many occupy jobs that should be done by locals at retail stores, garages, car washes, used car dealerships and the hospitality sector. Others even obtain RDP houses corruptly.

But who is to blame? Must we point fingers at the foreigners, or our government? Ours is a government which cannot govern.

Our immigration system is a shambles, with no policy to settle the issue. The borders are left open and it’s a free-for-all. This is exacerbated by corrupt officials who continue to take bribes to let criminal do as they please.

There is no real control from authorities. The employers and farmers are not innocent.

Many of them, especially in retail stores, farms, hotels and some restaurants, hire foreign nationals only and avoid South Africans.

They prefer foreigners because they provide cheap labour. They accuse locals of demanding unreasonable wages, joining unions and embarking on toying-toying, which is their right.

This breeds envy among locals, resulting in xenophobic attacks. But proper immigration laws and policing would have taken care of this.

National reconciliation remains a pipe dream for as long as those who run this country have no policies, or at least the manpower to enforce them.

The fiery statements and hate speeches and racist acts need to come to an end if we are to achieve genuine harmony and have a reason to celebrate Reconciliation Day.