Merit ends racial quotas division

PROFESSOR Dasarath Chetty’s consideration of the issue of racial quotas is a sad commentary on the extent to which the narrative has strayed from and contradicts the constitution (the POST, March 19-23).

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Nowhere in the Con- stitution is there any refer- ence to racial quotas.

Section 1(b) of Chapter 1 states unambiguously that “non-racialism is a founding value”.

Section 9 (3) outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability and religion. The preamble exhorts the building of a “united” country.

The contradictions of those precepts are glaringly obvious in the existence of 142 legal and regulatory references to race on how we are governed.

They and BEE make a mockery of the Consti- tution’s commitment to non-racialism.

Of course, the standard response in justifying race- based legislation is that it is necessary for “transformation” and to level the playing fields. But where is the logic in applying racial measures to counter a racial dispensation that existed in the first place?