LETTER: Sisulu’s push for racial equality

Lindiwe Sisulu’s vituperative attack on the constitution and the judiciary aside, her thesis — that it’s the job of these institutions to achieve social justice — does resonate.

For over a century there have been two conflicting schools of thought regarding the role of the state. Initiated by Karl Marx, the socialist school maintains that all people must be equal: “To each according to his needs.” Inarguably, human needs are the same. This school —  actually communism, but called socialism to seem more acceptable — has failed. The only truly socialist country is North Korea.

The other school is called capitalism. This school is now dominant, even in China. The reason capitalism dominates is that it delivers the goods. It recognises that humans are not equally endowed, and that they are highly competitive. Innovation and growth flow from, yes, “ruthless” competition.  This is just a fact of la condition humaine (man’s fate).

What Sisulu means by social justice is racial equality. Clearly, whites and other minorities are much richer (and hence, in one way more powerful) than black people. This is not surprising given centuries of discrimination going back to slavery. But what Sisulu demands is astonishing — that the constitution and the judiciary can, and must, alter this. Indeed, that they should have done so over the past 25 years.

The sad reality is that raising the life quality of black people to the level of the minorities will take generations and requires far greater emphasis on education. This would also require the scrapping of BEE, and the emergence of a competent, responsible state.

Of course, there is a quick way of reaching equality: drive out minorities. After all, there is now near perfect racial equality in Zimbabwe, where only a trace element of whites remain. One hopes Sisulu is not asking for this form of “social justice”.

Willem Cronje 
Cape Town

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