LETTER: Brutal shebeen killings the price of transformation

The brutal, mindless killings at shebeens and in the streets of Alexandra are the price we are paying for the ANC’s imposition of transformation. This is not to say that racial transformation was wrong — just that it has a cost.

Let’s look at transformation dispassionately. Because good education and entrées to economic activity were reserved for whites before 1994, whites monopolised skills and top positions. Clearly the ANC as a liberation party could not perpetuate this, and most whites in positions controlled by the state were simply replaced by blacks.

But as the new incumbents lacked skills and experience — through no fault of their own — SA has paid an enormous price in economic growth foregone, inevitably resulting in about 10-million unemployed.

But our politicians never costed their policies. After all, everything any  politician promises is free. But in the real world, nothing is free. There were always going to be huge costs attached to instant transformation.

Transformation was inevitable and necessary. But we ate our cake; we no longer have it. Instead, we have millions unemployed. Young people without a future. Young killers without hope.

As much as transformation was essential, it came at a colossal cost in life and livelihoods. It has now served its purpose.

We must now bake a new, bigger cake. Cast down the bitter chalice of forced racial redress! Reverse the unfathomable cost in growth foregone. Invite all to the economic table, of whatever colour or nationality.

Black hegemony is safely entrenched. Black skills are maturing. We are now free to leave behind the painful experiences that were necessary to break white hegemony. 

We can now live the constitution: SA belongs to all who live in it, white and black. Truly, a New Dawn is breaking.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.