VERASHNI PILLAY: SA has stopped talking about racial reconciliation, just when we need it the most
Reconciliation has fallen out of fashion, conservatives are sick of the outrage and ‘woke’ South Africans equate it with non-racialism
Twenty-four years on and the country is finally talking quite seriously about restitution. But in the same breath we seem to be done with reconciliation, racially at least. Fellow columnists at this publication, Tony Leon and Gareth van Onselen, have detailed their objections to EFF leader Julius Malema’s racially loaded comments of late — towards various race groups — and summarised the most offensive of these. I have engaged the EFF and Malema on his racially loaded comments previously — on white people and those of Indian descent. This time, however, I am more concerned about how these recent comments, and reaction to them, are reflective of a broader trend in our society: the more serious our discussions about restitution, in particular land, the more ridiculous that 1994 Nelson Mandela-esque ideal of racial reconciliation is made to be. But the two go hand in hand. Racial reconciliation, as a concept, seems to be wholly out of fashion. Conservatives are sick of the outrage and ...
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