Former politician and academic Dr. Mamphela Ramphele said it is now time for White South Africans to apologize for the wealth they had gathered. In a radio interview with Jacaranda FM, Ramphele, the founder of the Agang political party and widow of Steve Biko, said that whites should now admit that the race-based system of the past has favored and provided opportunities that other people never had and do not have.
Ramphele argues that 60-65% of the country’s prosperity is in the hands of 10% of the population and that 80% of that 10 % are whites. “We need to figure out how to change it.”
On the question of her own wealth of almost R55 million, her paralyzed response was: “I worked for 50 years. That R55 million is nothing compared to what your whites have!” The interviewer asked her if she received benefit from BEE, on which her response was:” What’s wrong with that? I have no guilt about it. White people must now apologize for the wealth they have collected.”
Dear Dr. Mamparra Rampsalig,
I’m a white man. I did not accumulate wealth. My one grandfather had a farm he bought with a loan from Land Bank when he was already in his forties. He started late for the reason that he was in jail because he had rebelled against British authority and colonial tribulation. I suspect he was a “Freedom Fighter.” So when the farm was sold, on a morning shortly after his 84th birthday, because he could no longer carry a bag of maize on his bike to feed his sheep. It’s right, 84 years old and still at work.
My other grandfather also had a farm. With two mortgages because of the droughts between 1983 to 1986. He was a sick man due to the water irrigation and the Frosty winter nights, guarding the livestock during a trek in the Depression Years. He started working at age 14 and worked until he collapsed in the field behind his bakkie’s steering wheel at 73 years old. That’s right, 73 and still hard at work. That farm was also sold to pay the mortgage fees.
I also receive a monthly salary, Doctor. White men do not get more government departmental appointments in my industry, so I also get a management salary without the benefits of government officials. And with that, I pay rent for a small house and such things as necessary and hope for the best. I work, Doctor. All wealth I inherited is the love of an Afrikaner family, the values of a civilized, Western people who will not burn people’s homes as an excuse to rob and rob as we have seen in recent days. Oh yes, and of course, my honored empire includes some old pieces of furniture and flower pots and stuff.
You ask me to apologize. Well, then I apologize. Then I apologize because both of those grandmothers taught me to be at the sheep’s pen in the mornings, in front of the black workmen and to go to the stable to work and then home. To make sure they always eat some food and are treated with human dignity and brought together to listen to the Gospel and when one of them dies, they are laid to rest in the same earth as the rest of us.
I apologize for the fact that, when we discovered the mineral wealth, agricultural capacity, industry, maritime, forestry and fisheries in this country, we dared to share it with you. I apologize for giving you everything on a platter 23 years ago and even willing to prejudice ourselves so that you can get the opportunity to work and develop and put yourself in a position of prosperity. I apologize that we thought we were doing the right thing by exposing the black man to the possibilities of civilization and prosperity.
But the biggest apology I ask is not on my behalf but on your behalf. I apologize for your people because you used those benefits to accumulate R55 million, while your own people have to live in squatter camps without even R55. I do not know if my apology can change anything to their fate, and unfortunately, as a white man, I’m no longer in a position to improve their fate. Because my people have apologized for 23 years because they did the same thing as you: worked for what they have. But now you say you do not feel guilty about it, but I have to apologize.
No, doctor Ramphele, my excuse above is a sarcastic reason because I owe you nothing. Least of all an apology.
Read the original article by Daniel Lötter in Afrikaans on Front Nasionaal SA – blad
South Africa Today – South Africa News
