Negotiated political settlement sacrificed the liberation of Africans for power

EBRAHIM Essa's letter: "Thankful apartheid ended when it did" (The Mercury January 19th, 2026), raises several issues that cannot go unchallenged.

- SATHI NAIDOO

The suggestion that the historically discriminated should “thank our lucky stars” that “racial discrimination was ejected from our cistern”, reflects a deeply dismissive view of South Africa's lived realities.

It has long been obvious to some, and is even clearer to many now, that the genuine liberation of the poor (read largely African) was sacrificed on the altar of the negotiated political settlement brokered by big investors and powerful business groups (“White monopoly capital”) underpinned by political manipulations, crass opportunism, political naivety or (generously) a genuine lack of perspicaciousness.

The historically poor and marginalised have largely remained so.

Over 30 years since the removal of apartheid, SA is one of the most unequal countries in the world, as evident in the Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality.