Just in from Pretoria …
PRETORIA – The implementation of affirmative action came under fire yesterday.
The plight of white South Africans feeling the pressure of affirmative action was taken up yesterday by a seemingly unlikely benefactor in the form of the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Signing an accord with labour union Solidarity on non-discriminatory affirmative action, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the absolute exclusion of whites from appointment and promotion opportunities should be avoided.
He expressed distress about white school achievers being denied bursaries on account of their skin colour, and said race should never become a determining factor in retrenchment.
“A country which allows this type of behaviour is not what I have fought for during 50 years of liberation struggle,” Buthelezi said. “I have known all my life what it is like to be treated as a second-rate citizen… merely on account of the pigmentation of my skin, and I would not wish the same destiny on any other fellow South African.”
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Buthelezi criticised those who chose to ignore the unintended consequences of affirmative action. “There are people who are willing to close their eyes to the problems arising from our policies, because what they see would force them to say things which are politically incorrect.”
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Reacting to Buthelezi ‘s statement,UDM Eastern Cape provincial secretary Mabandla Gogo said the colour of a man’s skin should not be a determining factor to get a job.
He said that affirmative action was enjoyed by ANC individuals and was not for all the people of South Africa.
Gogo said since 1994 affirmative action had been a project to benefit ANC members. “It’s an employment agency – that’s why the provinces are in chaos.”
“non-discriminatory affirmative action”?
Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
OK, all you conservatives. Write up an explanation of what you would have done—if anything—after the repeal of the various white-preferential laws once in force in South Africa to remediate or make whole the blacks.