Spate of attacks has stoked concerns about growth of white racism
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: said recently it felt like the dark days of apartheid had returned. Photograph: Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images
A growing number of overt public displays of racism have prompted a bout of national introspection in South Africa around the level of progress made in achieving a non-racist society since apartheid ended.
Highlighted in different media and by political parties, the racially motivated incidents over the past year led Archbishop Desmond Tutu to say that he felt like the dark days of apartheid had returned.
“In recent weeks, in Cape Town, we have heard about white men beating up black domestic workers and urinating from a balcony on to black passersby. It’s as if we’re in a time warp and have returned to the past,” he said on the 30th anniversary of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which is viewed as a “white” party by many black South Africans despite its multiracial make-up, felt so disturbed by recent incidents that it issued a statement detailing and condemning the acts that had come to light.
One reported incident involved a gang of bikers who attacked a black petrol pump attendant in Witbank in Mpumalanga in early December after he asked them to move to a different fuel pump.
Another told how in March two black women left a bar in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal to fetch a friend. When they returned, they were blocked from entering by a group of white men who told them it was “not a bar for blacks”. When they protested all three were assaulted by the men.
Right-wing leaders
DA leader Hellen Zille blamed the “sudden surge of racist incidents” on complacency by white South Africans who were not racist. She also held responsible the emergence of new “right-wing leaders” in the form of Afrikaans pop singer Steve Hofmeyr and literary critic Dan Roodt who have replaced the paramilitary types of old, such as Eugene Terre’Blanche of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement.
Hofmeyr, a popular figure who has repeatedly stirred up racial tensions with his utterances, tweeted in October: “Sorry to offend but in my books blacks were the architects of Apartheid. Go figure.”
The tweet hit the headlines when satirical puppet Chester Missing waged a social media campaign against Hofmeyr, asking his sponsors why they supported a racist. The confrontation ended up in court when Hofmeyr sought a protection order against the puppet master Conrad Kock.
The case was dismissed, with the magistrate saying Hofmeyr was, in effect, “seeking an order to advance views that lend themselves to racism and advance the imposition of the apartheid regime”.
Survey
A recent survey by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation suggests the DA’s concerns on racism are well-placed, as it reveals that a large section of white society is unprepared to accept the oppressive and criminal nature of apartheid.
Only 53 per cent of white South Africans agreed that apartheid was a crime against humanity, versus about 80 per cent of black, 77 per cent of Indians and 70 per cent of coloured South Africans.
Findings in the annual Barometer report, which used a representative sample of South Africa’s races, also show that whites were half as likely as blacks to agree with fixing the injustices of the past.
Writing in BusinessDay newspaper after the report’s release author Kim Wale said that annual results over time indicated South Africans were becoming disillusioned with the idea of a united South African identity.
“This is a challenge for reconciliation and requires a committed effort to creating an inclusive identity,” he said.
So why are some members of the white population struggling to feel part of society and expressing their dissatisfaction through racial attacks?
Many disgruntled whites believe they are second class citizens in South Africa because of their government’s implementation of a range of black economic empowerment polices. The state maintains the policies are designed to uplift black people disadvantaged by apartheid, but many whites say they only serve to exclude them from participating in economic activities and enrich the new black elite.
In addition, the high levels of violent crime in areas where it did not regularly occur during apartheid is creating a sense of insecurity among whites. Attacks against white farmers have led some Afrikaners to believe a genocide is being perpetrated against them.
In November the Afrikaner party, Freedom Front Plus, made a presentation to the UN outlining its case in this regard and asking the organisation to investigate its claims.
The police stopped compiling farm murder statistics in their own category in 2009, but the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU) revealed in September that since 1990, 1,734 murders had occurred on farms out of 3,341 attacks. Most murder victims were the farm owners or their partners, according to the TAU, which says farmers are far more likely to be killed than ordinary citizens.
Unemployment
South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) spokesperson Mienke Mari Steytler told The Irish Times that while the increase in race-based attacks was shocking, statistics compiled by the organisation run contrary to the views held by many in the white communities in relation to unemployment.
While many of these people feel excluded economically, the institute’s figures show that the ratio of unemployment for whites is fewer than one in 10, while for blacks it is seven in 10.
In terms of attacks on white farmers Steytler said: “Even though farmers are more vulnerable, we still hold that the attacks are not racially motivated but are rather a consequence of general lawlessness and impunity in South Africa.”
She concluded that while white insecurities likely played a role in the recentrace-based attacks, the SAIRR believed “the root cause of all instability in South Africa – both politically and economically – is due to weak policies in education, the labour market and empowerment,” rather than a significant inter-race problem.
Findings in the annual Barometer report, which used a representative sample of South Africa’s races, also show that whites were half as likely as blacks to agree with fixing the injustices of the past.
Writing in BusinessDay newspaper after the report’s release author Kim Wale said that annual results over time indicated South Africans were becoming disillusioned with the idea of a united South African identity.
“This is a challenge for reconciliation and requires a committed effort to creating an inclusive identity,” he said.
So why are some members of the white population struggling to feel part of society and expressing their dissatisfaction through racial attacks?
Many disgruntled whites believe they are second class citizens in South Africa because of their government’s implementation of a range of black economic empowerment polices. The state maintains the policies are designed to uplift black people disadvantaged by apartheid, but many whites say they only serve to exclude them from participating in economic activities and enrich the new black elite.
In addition, the high levels of violent crime in areas where it did not regularly occur during apartheid is creating a sense of insecurity among whites. Attacks against white farmers have led some Afrikaners to believe a genocide is being perpetrated against them.
In November the Afrikaner party, Freedom Front Plus, made a presentation to the UN outlining its case in this regard and asking the organisation to investigate its claims.
The police stopped compiling farm murder statistics in their own category in 2009, but the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU) revealed in September that since 1990, 1,734 murders had occurred on farms out of 3,341 attacks. Most murder victims were the farm owners or their partners, according to the TAU, which says farmers are far more likely to be killed than ordinary citizens.
Unemployment
South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) spokesperson Mienke Mari Steytler told The Irish Times that while the increase in race-based attacks was shocking, statistics compiled by the organisation run contrary to the views held by many in the white communities in relation to unemployment.
While many of these people feel excluded economically, the institute’s figures show that the ratio of unemployment for whites is fewer than one in 10, while for blacks it is seven in 10.
In terms of attacks on white farmers Steytler said: “Even though farmers are more vulnerable, we still hold that the attacks are not racially motivated but are rather a consequence of general lawlessness and impunity in South Africa.”
She concluded that while white insecurities likely played a role in the recentrace-based attacks, the SAIRR believed “the root cause of all instability in South Africa – both politically and economically – is due to weak policies in education, the labour market and empowerment,” rather than a significant inter-race problem.
FRENCH VERSION
Archevêque Desmond Tutu: a déclaré récemment que c’étaitcomme si les jours sombres de l’apartheid avaient retourné.Photographie : Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images
Un nombre croissant de manifestes démonstrations publiques deracisme ont incité un combat d’introspection nationale en Afriquedu sud autour du niveau de progrès accomplis dans la réalisationd’une société non raciste depuis la fin de l’apartheid.
Mis en évidence dans différents milieux et de partis politiques, lesincidents racistes l’an dernier a conduit à l’archevêque DesmondTutu pour dire qu’il se sentait comme les jours sombres del’apartheid avaient retourné.
“Ces dernières semaines, à Cape Town, nous avons entendu parlerdes hommes blancs battre des travailleurs domestiques noirs eturiner depuis un balcon sur les passants noirs. C’est comme sinous sommes dans une chaîne de temps et sont rentrés dans lepassé, » dit-il sur le 30e anniversaire de recevoir le prix Nobel de la paix.
Le principal parti d’opposition Alliance démocratique (DA) parti,qui est considéré comme un parti « blanc » par de nombreux Sud-Africains noirs malgré son maquillage multiracial, se sentaittellement perturbée par des incidents récents qu’il a publié unedéclaration détaillant et en condamnant les actes qui ont étérévélés.
On a signalé incident impliquait un gang de motards qui ont attaqué un standard de pompe à essence noire à Witbank àMpumalanga début décembre après qu’il leur a demandé depasser à une pompe à essence différentes.
Un autre a dit comment, en mars, deux noirs femmes quittées unbar à Richards Bay, dans le KwaZulu-Natal pour aller chercher unami. À leur retour, ils ont été bloqués d’entrer par un grouped’hommes blancs qui leur a dit que c’était « pas un bar pour lesnoirs ». Lorsqu’ils protestent tous les trois ont été attaqués par leshommes.
Dirigeants de droite
DA chef Hellen Zille blâmé le « augmentation subite des incidentsracistes » sur la complaisance de sud-africains blancs qui n’étaientpas racistes. Elle a également tenu pour responsable l’émergencede nouveaux « leaders de droite » sous la forme d’Afrikaanschanteur Steve Hofmeyr et critique littéraire Dan Roodt, qui ontremplacé les types paramilitaires d’autrefois, comme EugeneTerre’Blanche du mouvement de résistance Afrikaner.
Le tweet a défrayé la chronique lorsque les marionnettessatiriques Chester disparus ont mené une campagne de médiassociaux contre Hofmeyr, demandant à ses sponsors pourquoi ils ont soutenu un raciste. La confrontation a fini au tribunal lorsqueHofmeyr a demandé une ordonnance de protection contre lemaître de marionnettes Conrad Kock.
L’affaire a été classée, avec le magistrat disant que Hofmeyr était,en effet, « demandant une ordonnance vues d’avance qui seprêtent au racisme et à faire progresser l’imposition du régime del’apartheid ».
Sondage
Un récent sondage de l’Institut pour la Justice et la réconciliationsuggère de que préoccupations de la DA sur le racisme sont bien placées, comme il le révèle qu’une grande partie de la sociétéblanche n’est pas préparée à accepter la nature oppressive etcriminelle de l’apartheid.
