Positive attitudes and conduct needed to build bridges and solve the country’s problems, writes George Devenish.
Duban - Thursday was the 40th anniversary of the Soweto tragedy and violent unrest of 1976, involving schoolchildren protesting against the use of Afrikaans in their schools as a medium of instruction.
The apartheid regime dealt ruthlessly with any dissent in the form of peaceful process, as it did with the pass protesters at Sharpeville in 1960.
The brutality of the killings in Sharpeville and Soweto have left us with an inordinately painful and lasting legacy. We need recognition of moral liability by the perpetrators, forgiveness by the victims resulting in genuine reconciliation, as was demonstrated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
However, as a nation, we are, as a result of our traumatic and tragic past, still in need of profound healing. In this regard we need to be mercilessly frank.
We need to honestly confront our past and ensure that we, as a nation, are committed to and continue with a process of healing, which has started with the inception of democracy in 1994.
Merely blaming the apartheid regime and its agents or the descendants of the oppressors of 1976, and merely sympathising with the victims or descendants of the Sharpeville and Soweto massacres respectively will be insufficient to bring about the healing our land and its people require so inordinately.
By meaningful conduct and correct attitudes we need to be reaching out to one another, across the divides of race, culture and politics. This is required by all the role-players. South Africa in general is blighted by great economic inequality, in terms of which about 19 million blacks live in poverty, whereas, whites in general do not.
The latter and other minorities have the skills and resources to contribute to the rehabilitation of African people.
This is being done at present, but it needs to be accelerated to contribute to a more sustained and lasting process of healing.
This applies not only to what whites can do, but also what other resourced communities, including middle class blacks, coloureds and Indians are able to do.
This will contribute to the building of bridges and is a task for those involved in government and political parties but particularly civil society, such as religious and faith-based organisations as well as individuals.
A profound change in attitude is also essential for the process of healing. Although in the more than 20 years of our democracy significant progress has been made, inter alia, in relation to the provision of social grants, the provision of housing, water, electricity and sanitation, sensitivity to present needs and suffering of the disadvantaged is required.
There is far too much grumbling by privileged individuals in our communities about crime and related problems, formidable as these problems indeed are. We need to be looking for and recognising the many good things occurring in our country.
If people merely grumble they become part of the problem. If on the other hand, they actively contribute by their positive attitudes and conduct to solving problems, they begin to build bridges and thereby they become part of the solution. This is, it is submitted, what is required for healing.
What is desperately needed are attitudes and conduct that reflect a maturity of thought and deed as well as a sensitivity to the present deprivations of those who are struggling because of poverty, homelessness and unemployment.
Our democracy is more than 21 years old, and we as a nation have therefore come of age. We need as a nation and as communities to reflect attitudes of maturity and human empathy for the disadvantaged in our country.
South Africa and its people have infinite potential. If well-resourced communities and individuals make a determined, concerted and focused effort to contribute to the development of those people and communities who are in poverty and are deprived in relation to skills and opportunities, in a meaningful way the process of healing can be accelerated.
This could be done by means of programmes, inter alia, to address poverty, create employment, develop skills and provide education. In so doing they will make a powerful statement, that those who suffered and made the supreme sacrifice at Sharpeville and Soweto, did not do so in vain.
This is a singular challenge that faces us as a people and by which realisation we can become a winning nation. We need to rise to the occasion.
* Devenish is Emeritus Professor at UKZN and assisted in drafting the Interim Constitution in 1993.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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