The statement by the chairperson of the ANC’s Subcommittee on Social Transformation and Minister of Tourism, Ms. Lindiwe Sisulu, that schools may only be registered if they have the exact same number of black and white learners demonstrates to what extent the ANC has lost touch with reality.
In a country where more than 80% of the population is black and less than 9% is white, schools cannot have a 50/50 representation – unless the intent is to allow certain schools to be predominantly black, while no school is allowed to be predominantly white.
It undermines the claim that transformation’s main aim is equality.
Various newspapers and electronic news platforms reported on Sisulu’s statement made during a media conference on Tuesday 26 July 2022.
In a recent media statement, Sisulu also refers to the incomplete process of transformation that commenced with the Freedom Charter and was furthered by the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
It also touches on housing, gender-based violence and a basic income grant. It, furthermore, questions whether maintaining race-based identity markers is sustainable, and whether it creates new anomalies. But it offers nothing on education.
The first and obvious question raised by the Minister’s 50/50 statement is the mathematics behind it. It, however, also raises other political questions that are much more important.
According to news reports, transformation in Sisulu’s view means that everyone in South Africa must come together as one culture (or “nation” according to Network 24’s report “Sisulu sê ANC sal na verhouding van swart en wit in skole kyk”).
What language will this “nation” speak? Will all the children have to undergo the same initiation rites? What she is describing is sheer imperialism, one of the most oppressive forms of transformation in all of history.
Sisulu has provided momentum to the statement made by the ANC’s chairperson in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, that the main aim of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (generally referred to as the BELA Bill) is to put an end to Afrikaans schools. And that is why the FF Plus is running a “Stop Lesufi” campaign.
The FF Plus sees South Africa as a community of communities. In such a wider community, it is of the utmost importance that each community’s culture must be cherished instead of being oppressed; and built up instead of being torn down.
Sisulu’s statement once again shows that South Africa must make use of its opportunity at the polls in 2024 to get rid of the ANC. After all, there can be no improvement without change.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Dr. Wynand Boshoff on FF Plus
