Getting all South Africans to agree on how to tackle affirmative action and build a non-racial society was one of the bigger challenges facing the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
In his weekly newsletter, published on his party’s ANC Today website, Mbeki said he had argued for more than a decade for a balanced and integrated approach towards the related and interdependent objectives of genuine reconciliation and fundamental social transformation.
”Objectively, this is a difficult task,” he admitted.
Part of the difficulty stemmed from South Africa’s still divided society not agreeing on the interdependence between genuine national reconciliation and fundamental social transformation.
”The demon lies in the fact that … the historical beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid, who constitute a national minority, aspire both for genuine national reconciliation and minimal change with regard to their inherited and … privileged socio-political economic position.
”It also lies in the corollary fact that … the historical victims of colonialism and apartheid, the national majority, aspire both for genuine national reconciliation and the fundamental alteration of their inherited and … underprivileged socio-political economic position.”
Mbeki said the problem was ”we cannot get everyone to sing from the same hymn sheet on the important question of how to build a non-racial South Africa, and the role of affirmative action in this regard”.
Continuous examination and critical review of this problem was important because the medium- and long-term stability of the country depended on visibly and meaningfully moving towards a non-racial society.
Mbeki cited figures from the latest Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) report. Among other things, the 2006/07 report shows white people occupy about 75% of top management-level posts in South Africa, while black people fill just over 22% of the positions in this group.
”These figures represent the actuality of our national situation, namely, the persistence of the racial imbalances in terms of the management of the critically important sector of the economy.
”This confirms what every honest South African knows — that whatever the reason, and despite the fact of our own Employment Equity Act and other interventions, understandably, we have not succeeded in our 13 years of democratic rule to eradicate the 350-year-long legacy of colonialism and apartheid, as we could not.
”The question that arises, as addressed in the CEE report, is: What else should we do to accelerate our progress in this regard, relative to what we have achieved in the last 13 years?” Mbeki asked.
South Africa faced a challenge ”vigorously to address the racial and gender imbalances in the distribution of wealth, income and opportunity all of us inherited from centuries of colonialism and apartheid”.
The issue of employment equity was critical in this regard.
”This includes the challenge of skills development to enable our country to meet its human capital requirements with properly qualified people on an equitable racial and gender basis.
”This challenge faces both the public and the private sectors. It also confronts both black and white South Africans.
”It constitutes a shared imperative without whose accomplishment the former beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid cannot achieve their hopes for national reconciliation, and without whose realisation the historical victims of colonialism and apartheid cannot attain their dream of national reconciliation,” he said. — Sapa