Building a new society on the ruins of the old takes time and much more effort than we thought. It remains a project worth fighting for.
Building a new society on the ruins of the old takes time and much more effort than we thought. It remains a project worth fighting for and on which our lives depend, writes the News24 Editorial Team.
The festive season is supposed to be a period when we South Africans show goodwill to one another as we retire with family and friends to take stock of the year and recharge our batteries, preparing for 2023, which will no doubt be challenging.
And in this country, challenges from poor leadership, mismanagement and corruption abound. We certainly don’t need crude incidents of racism to further derail our democratic project.
So when video surfaced from a Free State resort outside Bloemfontein showing a ruthless attack by white adults on black youth, it felt like the final turning of the knife after a year in which South Africans were bombarded with bad news.
Loss of cargo, a bad economy, rising cost of living, corruption and bad governance have all combined to cast a shadow over Christmas and the new year.
But this should not distract us from what the Maselspoort incident was: a rude, violent and completely unjustifiable racist assault by white adults against black children.
The footage showing one adult choking a child in the water, and another, cigarette in hand, grabbing another by the hair, is a testament to the levels of disdain with which those individuals apparently view their compatriots. . It’s something from Bloemfontein from the 1970s, not 2022.
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CCTV footage that has surfaced since then clearly shows how the black children were prevented from entering the pool, and when they did, how all the white swimmers exited the pool. Can it be more cheeky? Could what we see in those videos be any more disgusting, backward and absolutely deplorable?
South Africans of all colors and creeds must condemn events in the Free State without reservation or condition. Blatant and crude incidents like this are unacceptable in a society that still grapples with issues of race and identity. Paternalism, patriarchy and the baasskap have no place here. Neither is the apparent justification of the incident by right-wing activists, presented without any evidence, and incredibly, reported as fact by some media outlets that did not bother to confirm the claims.
Building a new society on the ruins of the old takes time and much more effort than we thought. It remains a project worth fighting for and on which our lives depend.
Racists have no place here.
