There will have to come a point when South Africans stop being black, white, Indian and Coloured and are merely South Africans, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday.
”When will we cease to be Africans, coloureds, Indians and whites and merely South Africans? This is the question we must ask ourselves,” said Lekota while briefing the parliament’s portfolio committee on defence.
He said last year two white pilots flew him to an inter-continental defence meeting.
”When I arrived there I was asked: ‘Where are the people of your country.’ ‘Why are you still being flown by these whites’. It was not a question I was expecting.”
”I thought about it and I told them that unlike in their country there are more than 10-million people of pure European stock in our country. They are South African, not settlers from Europe.”
He said more and more the question of representativity was raising this issue of identity.
”We are going to have to look at this and say there are no Indians here, Indians are in India … they are South African. And these people called coloureds where are they from… they are probably more South African than anybody. It is becoming very difficult this mathematics,” he said.
It was not always easy to adhere to the ”mathematical requirement” set out by Parliament on how the race groups should be represented in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), he said.
It was difficult to attract young white people into the defence force when there where better opportunities for them in the business world.
”Africans do not have these opportunities so they come to the defence force. I still have to meet the percentage quota of whites but what can I do? I cannot pass a law, I cannot compel them to join the defence force.”
He said this was not an issue related only to the SANDF but it was relevant to the entire nation.
”We have to reflect on when all South Africans will be considered as South African. When we nominate a soccer team to play in Brazil it should be the best players not because one is light skinned or dark skinned. It’s a difficult thing transformation.”
”I have to open this debate. How long can we go on with this thing. Some time in the future this is a question that our nation will have to face.” – Sapa