DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA IS EXPERIENCED DIFFERENTLY BY WHITES AND BLACKS

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In his disappointing State of the Union Address on 8 February 2024 at the temporary Parliament in the City Hall of Cape Town, the President went to great lengths to point out the consequences of apartheid. For the 90 minutes, the president referred 9 times to the plight of black people – not once to white people or other minorities.

He then sketched the life of a young black girl. Tintswalo who was born at the dawn of freedom in 1994 and compares her struggle to her parents during apartheid and the wonderful opportunities she was able to experience because the ANC as the first democratic government was able to give things to her. This included, education and meals, safety, housing, water and electricity, health care, grants and NSFAS tuition fees so that she could qualify herself after school and black economic empowerment so that she could get a job, have children and so everyone lived happily ever after in the socialist paradise.

Tintswalo is indeed a very privileged person because the president has created a fictitious person in a fictitious society in a state that is highly functional in a fictitious environment.

But there is also the other side of the socialist coin that the president ignores. How someone who is intentionally excluded and marginalized experiences South Africa. Tintswalo is the imaginary beneficiary of the president’s imagination and the president described the life of Tintswalo through extremely rosy lenses. Let’s tell the story of Pieter.

Pieter is the son of parents who both worked for the civil service in Pretoria. Just like Tintswalo, Pieter was born in a democratic country after 1994. Pieter grew up in a society governed by a constitution rooted in equality, the rule of law, and the inherent dignity of every citizen. Just as Tintswalo had to experience it. Pieter thought he would also experience equality and non-racialism.

Pieter was able to complete his school years in a relatively middle class neighborhood and faithfully paid school fees to his parents who worked hard to fund facilities and teachers at the school. Pieter’s parents were stalwarts and also often helped during athletics and other sports events to bake pancakes to supplement school funds.

However, Pieter’s father, who followed a career in the civil service, soon lost his job because through cadre deployment, the ANC’s beneficiaries were appointed everywhere in the civil service. Fortunately, he quickly landed on his feet because he was able to keep the pot boiling through utility work. However, when Pieter wanted to go to university he had to find out that the available scholarships were earmarked for black learners. Loans were taken out and Pieter was able to enroll at the university. However, all his classes were in English as it became the default language of instruction. Fortunately, Pieter’s cognitive formative years were in an Afrikaans school.

At the time, Pieter’s mother also lost her job with the army where she had an administrative position. The commander was not happy with the white people under his command. It came at a bad time because shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had to receive treatment in a state hospital as they could no longer afford private medical care. With the sky-high crime, Pieter’s father’s bakkie was stolen one afternoon at a place where he did utility work. Suddenly they became dependent on others and also had to look for alternative accommodation. Like so many others, a squatter camp was their front land.

Pieter had the hope that after university he could get a good job and take care of his parents. However, this was not his destiny. After receiving his degree, Pieter started sending out his CV to various large companies. Each time he had to stop before the conditions in the advertisement for positions for which he applied, because only previously disadvantaged people could apply. Affirmative action and black economic empowerment began setting targets for black-only hiring.

At university, Pieter started playing cricket for his local team and later became quite a strong contender for a place in a provincial team. It would certainly have put him in the spotlight to progress further in a possible sports career, but strict quotas were applied in the sports numbers game where merit is not always a requirement, but skin color is.

Finally, Pieter was able to get an inferior position. However, promotion was not granted to him. His white skin counts against him. From his limited salary he was able to buy a house and his parents were able to move in with him and his wife. However, life did not get any easier. In time, he realized that he was paying a double tax. He had to get private security because crime continued to rise in his neighborhood. He could send his child to a public school near them but the formerly Afrikaans school has become anglicized and sports facilities no longer exist. Neither does maintenance. They had to drive further to get their child into a school

Jan Bosman
source:https://www.pretoriafm.co.za/demokrasie-in-suid-afrika-word-verskillend-ervaar-deur-wit-en-swart/

Natalie