LETTER: Restorative madness is making SA a wasteland

The second attempt by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) at shortlisting worthy candidates for the Constitutional Court confirms what we plebs have known for a long  time. When it comes to the SA state and corporate appointments, a black skin will always trump all else.

But can one blame the JSC for dismissing judge David Unterhalter’s candidacy? While our constitution blathers on about SA being non-discriminatory, it then allows discrimination to right historical wrongs. In effect, it says there can be good discrimination. That sophistry threw our country straight back into the racial swamp from which we all hoped it would emerge after 1994.

Nevertheless, most initially went along with this theory of restorative justice until it became abundantly clear that far from it making SA into a vibrant and progressive society, it was fast becoming a wasteland.

There is hardly a day when I don’t hear of sons and daughters, unwanted locally, who now dominate the Australian banking industry or who have been appointed to the board of an American multinational. There is even one who is determined to privatise space travel.

That they and countless others are reinvesting their fortunes and creating employment in foreign countries is largely due to the mess we made around what is misguidedly known as BEE.

The JSC’s treatment of Unterhalter is akin to repeating the mistake and expecting a different result. Surely 25 years of restorative madness is enough to pay for previous crimes? But no, our political elite would rather destroy SA completely than have the courage to admit their terrible mistake.

James Cunningham 
Camps Bay

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