The Task…..The Challenge

Never before had a nation released itself from the shackles of a government of racial oppression, supremacy and separation to embrace the ideal of a democratic state in such a peaceful and apparently sustainable manner.

Ten years later the “miracle” that is the “New South Africa” is celebrating its first decade of democracy. The singularly divided people that emigrated to the “New South Africa” with Nelson Mandela is slowly evolving into an organic whole, its numbers swelled by citizens from neighbouring African countries and abroad, its collective heart warmed by the misty-eyed sense of belonging instilled by the Proudly South African Campaign, by three World Cups - Rugby in 1995, Cricket in 2003 and the prospect of the World Cup Soccer in 2010, and its collective mind touched by the notion of an African Renaissance. The circumstances of the daily lives of all South Africans have been transformed by new legislation, innovative educational theory and the shared sense of human possibility called ubuntu.

Yet the face of our nation continues to be scarred by the deprivation of opportunities, skills and resources created by the policies of apartheid. Ten years after democracy, South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world. Almost half of the population of 45 million calculated by the 2001 census is classified as poor. Three-quarters of South Africa’s poor live in rural households with inadequate housing, water supply, sanitation and waste disposal services. Unemployment figures hover at unacceptable levels of around 40%, and the incidence of violent crime, sexual assault and domestic violence reflect an underlying reality of deep dissatisfaction and widespread personal disempowerment.

The Truth and Reconciliation Committee set the precedent and valiantly sought to weave together the social fabric of a nation that Thabo Mbeki continued to describe in 1998 as a “country of two nations”. “Transformation and reconciliation” were the goal of all those who commenced nation-building in 1994, but the deep anguish caused by decades of discrimination, inequality and the legislated inhumane treatment of millions has created enormous obstacles to the psychic health of the individuals who are required to build this new nation – both blacks and whites. As Nelson Mandela said, “ we are all victims of apartheid.”

Apartheid has been removed from the law-books, but not yet from the hearts and the minds of all the men, women and children who live in post-apartheid South Africa. Speakers at national and provincial events that celebrate nationhood and democracy notice with despair the absence of white South Africans amongst the celebrants. Charges of racism surface again and again, as do reports of horrific crimes and murderous rage, and young white South Africans are too burdened by the changed and challenging circumstances of affirmative action to have much sympathy with the “previously disadvantaged” that Black Economic Empowerment legislation aims to benefit.

We still strain under the burdens of the mediocre decisions humans have made in the past. The levels of crime, senseless violence, unemployment, disease and compromised immunity in South Africa today are undeniably linked to the amounts of human energy that have been wasted by centuries of racism, slavery and apartheid.

We are invited to live as blacks and whites “united in our diversity,” yet we South Africans remain seriously unreconciled. Do we continue to see diversity as a threat or as a cost? Do we still behave out of fear of one another? Am I superior to you or are you my superior now? Are we separate beings of separate races or is ubuntu a reality for us all? Is the world we live in finite or is there abundance – do we understand and feel the welcome of the white flag at an African wedding? Is the New South Africa a friendly place?

Our heritage is our African culture – it understands diversity and togetherness and abundance – but so do rural, small-town white people, too. Dare we recall the legendary hospitality of the Afrikaners, or have our memories been tinged by the bitterness of recalling less hospitable encounters? 

We live close to Nature and Nature has so much to teach us about living together in orderly harmony, using power only when it is absolutely necessary. The insights of New Science, New Economics and New Spirituality confirm what old cultures always knew and what Nature continuously practices, aware of and enthralled by the inter-connectivity of all life-forms.

As humans we have become aware that our strategies for survival on earth are seriously flawed. We have to begin to do things differently, soon.  As South Africans and Africans we are painfully aware that we have lost time and incurred awful cost. The future health, growth and political and economic stability of our country will be linked to our ability to dedicate all our human resources – our vibrant age-old African energy – to these challenges. As humans we need to re-discover our ability to live, live fully, in the warmth of the African sun, not just exist.

What can we do, together, to enhance, to reveal, to maximize the human energy in Africa? Through reconciliation – true reconciliation – saying a heartfelt “sorry,” making sure we truly understand how we went wrong and why, so that it never happens again, in any form or guise; making real generous reparation, even if our sins were of omission only. By truly making an effort, each in our unique way, to ensure that the New South Africa leads the world in dealing with racism and discrimination of all kinds by deep reconciliation, creating a democracy, a free open society, that is capable of unlocking even the embedded shackles of fearful human minds.

What we teach best is a deeper understanding of the reasons we behave as we do – why apartheid ever happened and why it still lives, and why it could happen again, in reverse perhaps. What we have shared with over 8000 people of Africa are new pictures of humanity. Not the pictures of Darwin and Newton, Descartes and Hobbes, the pictures of power and war, of superiority and scarcity, but the pictures of old cultures and of Nature, of New Science and of New Economics, of a new human spirit, perhaps even of a New Spirituality.

What can we do together?
 
POSSIBLE NETWORKING PARTNERS

Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation
Contact person: Chris Arends
Centre for Conflict Resolution
Contact person:
Institute for the Healing of Memories
Contact Person:
Institute of Race Relations
Contact Person:
Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
Contact Person: Fanie du Toit
fanie@grove.uct.ac.za
People concerned about Afrikaner/White Contribution:
Lesley Clarke & Colleen Smith, White Consciousness
Ampie Muller, proponent of idea that Afrikaners owe an unpaid  debt to society
Antjie Krog, author of Country of My Scull & In a Different Tongue
Max du Preez , journalist, author of Pale Native
Van Zyl Slabbert
Tossie van Tonder, performance artist
Institute for Diversity and Multi-Cultural Studies
Contact Person: Melissa Steyn
Willlie Esterhuyse
Dirk du Toit, Deputy Minister of Agriculture

Possible funders:
Open Society/George Soros
Ford Foundation

Afrikaner Business Organisations, Cultural organisations
Afrikaner Signatories of Thabo Mbeki letter