Durban – Institutions that allow white privilege have to be changed because white privilege gives birth to racism.

This was according to the African National Congress’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman, Sihle Zikalala, speaking at the eThekwini social cohesion conference on Thursday to a packed hall.

Zikalala said South Africans should abolish and transform institutions created in order to condemn Africans as an inferior race.

He said South Africans had to ask critical questions about the destiny of our society. “How far have we gone to ensure that racism is a matter of the past? What has happened to the agenda of a rainbow nation that was being born? Are we succeeding in instilling the best values of Ubuntu among the people?”

Zikalala said that if the answer to all of these questions was yes, then it would be true to say that “our desired society” was “under construction”.

“However, the recent wave of racial sentiment undermines that expectation. The reality is that those who were oppressors and their descendants have failed to sincerely convey a message of forgiveness to those whom the injustice was meted against.

“Contrary, those who were oppressed and whose generations and descendants continue to be constrained by the legacy of oppression have extended a hand of friendship intended for unity of our country,” he said.

Zikalala said that African people, and blacks in general, had accepted that South Africa belonged to all who live in it. He said they had accepted that the “painful and harsh experiences of decades of exploitation by whites should be a matter of the past”.

“However, some among our white compatriots are still embedded to the stereotypes of white supremacy which was born out of the privileges of apartheid,” he said.

“When it comes to ownership, control and management of the South African economy, it is still in the hands of a few white males,” he said, adding that this enforced the narrative that those of other races “are condemned to selling cheap labour for maximisation of profit by the white controllers of our economy”.

Zikalala said that diversifying and de-racialising the economy was a matter of urgency and that this should include land “so that more and more people of other races penetrate the ownership, control and management of the economy”.

He said it was necessary to “attack” and “defeat” the narrative that being white was synonymous with civilisation and that being black meant being “backward”.

“There are many people of colour who have contributed to the civilisation of our society and their role should be put on the highest pedestal. No one will dare challenge a factual reality that South African freedom and democracy was brought about by black and African leadership under the auspices of the ANC.”

Zikalala said that South Africa was a rainbow nation “born out of different people from different cultural orientation with the overarching principle of unity in diversity”.

“We should appreciate and promote different cultures as equal and parallel pillars of one nation. This should be promoted as part of social cohesion and the fight against racism or any form of exclusion.”

He said that although society was afflicted with social ills in all sectors, culture and religion had a role to play in “building the best human values in a society”.

“The state, through law enforcement agencies, should do their part in fighting crime and social ills, but the role of the community coordinated through cultural and religious activities should be an anchor for instilling the values of Ubuntu,” he said.

It was the responsibility of all South Africans “to build our country in a way that resonates with the hopes and aspirations of our people who have endured injustices for over three hundred years,” he said.

“But this society will only be realised if we all work together with a shared determination, not only to despise injustices and material racism, but also actively fight to end it.”

African News Agency