South Africa: Racism from all sides condemned

September 8th, 2009

 

 

Johannesburg (South Africa) — White racism and "narrow African chauvinism" are the biggest threats to achieving a genuine nonracial society, and must be defeated if nation building in SA is to succeed, says Buti Manamela, secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL).

Manamela is the latest political figure to enter the fray on the "national question" following a bruising public spat within the ruling tripartite alliance about the alleged dominance of "minorities" in the government's key economic cluster ministries.

In the African National Congress's (ANC's) online newsletter on Friday, Manamela categorises the "twin threats" of white racism and narrow African chauvinism, saying both have always manifested in the super- structural institutions of our society.

"It would be suicidal to deny the continued presence of racism in our society, but even more dangerous for the attainment of national unity and nation-formation is the denial of narrow African chauvinism."

Manamela describes narrow African chauvinism as a "tendency" which seeks a narrow definition of a nation constituted only through language, race and culture.

Youth movements such as the YCL cannot and should not hold on to this concept of a future society, especially as their role is to seek out a path that is more inclusive.

While racism remains a fraught issue and needs to be tackled head on, it cannot be separated from class contradictions in SA, he says.

"Our role as youth formations is to lead all young people, irrespective of their culture, without patronising them into constituting quotas or seeking to attain parity. It is a challenge also for us to win over, and not to hate, young white South Africans in our universities to appreciate our objectives of a national democratic society as a way of ' liberating (them) from white supremacist ideology'.

"We also have the task of winning over the Indian youth in KwaZulu- Natal on the same objective. We need to accept them into our fold without questioning their credentials or scaring them off with limited, narrow and elitist 'black paranoia'," he says.

While President Jacob Zuma has cautioned against reopening the debate on race and the national question , senior politicians have continued to trade insults over how the question should be handled, as well as the substantive issues facing the ANC and its allies, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, on the leadership regarding the matter.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema last week tried to paper over the cracks within the ANC-led alliance after Manamela took umbrage with him accusing "fake working class leaders" in the alliance of trying to muzzle debate and dictate the terrain on which this issue had to be dealt with. The ANC is on record that it does not see the appointment of the affected ministers as "minorities" and views Malema's argument as contrary to its principle of nonracialism.

 

source.Business Day (South Africa)