Ending insecurity, mistrust starts with narrowing inequality

THE vast majority of South Africans are not extremists, racists, xenophobes or cultural separatists.

- BRETT HERRON

THE values in the Constitution are a package deal. You cannot protect minority and BELA, NHI and EWC propose, without dragging the country back into its past, says the writer. | ITUMELENG ENGLISH Independent Newspapers

(ITUMELENG ENGLISH Independent Newspapers)

They are not Coloured or Zulu or Afrikaner nationalists, nor Black or White supremacists. They understand that extreme poverty is unsustainable, and that the government should have done far better over the past 30 years to build a fairer, more united nation.

But they don’t want White people stripped of assets and marched into the sea. Nor do they want Black people to continue suffering the indignities imposed under colonialism and apartheid.

What they need is a renewed belief that the society described in our Constitution, rooted in equality, justice and shared purpose, embodied by Mandela, remains possible. That there will come a time when all South Africans have a place at the table and are no longer crushed by a State’ defined by dysfunction and corruption.

They want to be released from the grip of the past and its daily consequences for millions.

How do we get there? Do we burn the house down so it can be rebuilt from the ashes, or do we use what we have, pivot, and move forward?