Race relations slide after democracy

The fact that more than half a million white South Africans have left the country in the past 25 years should surprise no-one.

Emigration is a fact of life, both in South Africa and around the world, as people move to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

Although that figure represents about 22 000 people per year, the other numbers in the latest Stats SA reporting on demographics in our country paint a broader picture of how the white community is shrinking, not only in terms of absolute numbers, but also in terms of its proportion of society.

In the past 25 years – a generation – whites have gone from making up just under 10% of the population to just more than 7% currently.

It is also true that, while many whites are dismayed about crime, black economic empowerment and political powerlessness, the biggest exodus of them occurred in the lead up to, and after, the 1994 elections, which brought democracy to South Africa.

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Many of those who left then had fears about living under a black government – fears which are undergoing something of a revival lately in the wake of the tub-thumping being done in Washington by groups like AfriForum.

Even as the Stats SA report was released this week, ANC Youth League President Collen Malatji was asking why there are no whites in the ANC organisation for younger people.

Given that much of the ANC’s rhetoric concerns alleged bad deeds of whites and apartheid, that should not surprise you, comrade Collen.

Yet, with the diminishing size of the white community, do parties like the ANC even need to continue to pretend that they are nonracial?

And as right-wing groups attract more whites with their victimhood gospel, it looks as though the races will only drift further apart in the future.

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