Playing race card is red herring

It is interesting, but not surprising, that Antoinette Sithole – sister of June 1976 icon Hector Pieterson – believes one of the saddest aspects of those society-changing anti-apartheid protests is that Afrikaans is still taught to black people in South Africa.

Pieterson was shot dead by police in the student protests regarded as a watershed moment in the struggle.

Youth unemployment

Ironically, with youth unemployment here arguably the highest in the world, an ability to converse in Afrikaans might make a young person more employable.

And therein is the crux of what has happened since those heady days of 1976.

There was no real revolution. Political power may have been handed to black people, but many are not financially free.

With all the political capital at its disposal, the ANC failed to transform this country. Its cadres instead looted it into African basket-case status.

Blaming our woes solely on racism, which is still rife, is a red herring.

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