Introduction
Racism is still prevalent in the New South Africa, hampering the daily life of millions of black South Africans. President Mandela has inherited a society built on inequality, with very different possibilities of access to jobs, houses, health and wealth. Since April 27th 1994, South Africa is called the 'Rainbow Nation', focusing attention on all different colours
of society which, together, are moving towards the same democratic future.
This concept is the professed ideal, but has it any bearing on reality? Many South Africans, especially white liberals, have embraced this ideal, as a way to close the book of apartheid. They argue that since everybody is now equal, colour has become irrelevant. Corrective action, whereby black South Africans are being 'favoured' for jobs, is seen as a form of racism, because it is based on skin colour and that is 'not done' in the
New South Africa.
The fact that up till very recently, whites have been given jobs, education, houses only because of their skin colour, is considered as not relevant for the present. History cannot simply be wished away. A society has to accept responsibility for its consequences and learn to live with it.
Both articles, presented in this NiZA Cahier, will go into this topic from different perspectives. The first article is based on a speech, presented by MAMPHELA RAMPHELE at the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague in October 1996. Ramphele is vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town. She has
been part of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and she discusses the relevance of this movement in the history and present of South Africa.
The effects of racism on psychological level has been a major tenet of the BCM, which was founded in 1971 with Steve Biko as president. The BCM worked towards building a psychology of self-reliance among black South Africans. Ramphele argues that this movement introduced a new analysis on power relations between black and white in South Africa, which went further than the other liberation movements had done so far. The BCM did not accept the white liberal view, that blacks had to be 'helped'. To fight the psychological consequences of apartheid and to stress the importance of self-confidence in determining your own future, is still relevant in the present South Africa.
South Africans are struggling to come to terms with their past. They are partly doing this through a regulated process, being the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Installed in 1995, the Commission has the task to set into motion a process of reconciliation, by organising public hearings where South Africans can tell what happened to them during the Apartheid era. This is meant to be the start of a healing process.
Unfortunately, being based on a political compromise, the Commission doesn't have the necessary tools to construct a new societal consensus on which the New South Africa can be built. This consensus needs at least an acknowledgement of all wrongdoing in the past from those who were responsible. Furthermore it needs a reallocation of resources to all South Africans and a willingness from all sides to contribute in creating a real equality between the people in South Africa.
This view is being presented in the second article of this cahier. It is also based on a speech, delivered by the South African journalist JON QWELANE, at the South African Embassy in The Hague in November 1996 and on his contribution to a debate about reconciliation in the Dutch debating centre De Balie in Amsterdam. He criticises the process of reconciliation and looks into the reality of the so-called 'Rainbow Nation'.
The basis of any reconciliation must be justice for the victims. Qwelane argues that justice is the first that has been sacrificed. There is a tendency in South Africa to limit the right to ask questions about the past to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This inhibits the openness essential for a society with such a violent past. South Africa needs to find a means between the reconciliation process and justice.
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