ONE who generalises, generally lies. That gem, I picked up from thought leader on diversity, Sbo Vilakazi. He is an animated and engaging speaker who also does high-impact community work at the Valley Trust in KwaZulu-Natal’s Valley of a Thousand Hills.
Young South Africans like Vilakazi energise and invigorate both mind and action - empowering and advancing our society.
That forward-looking spirit is key to the project of uniting our people and building our country.
He is not without peer. Two young advocates regularly catch my eye, too.
Zandile Qono-Reddy chairs the board of the Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre at UKZN and is determined to weld a nation out of a wounded past.
The other is Prevan Vedan, whose township legal practice is a beacon of hope for those with limited means or nothing.
Then there is the youthful Thando Nkosi, an IT specialist whose heart was in buying sanitary towels for her sisters long before it became a fashionable government programme.
Even eight-year-old Amy Corder has staked her claim in our new dawn by making winter care bags for children at local crèches who have less than she has.
Of course, millions more South Africans quietly fit the profile of what Sowetan editor Aggrey Klaaste called community builders. Their work is not generalisations to advance selfish interests. Their work is a daily grind on the ground, working to make a difference. Their work must be encouraged and supported.
Those we must stand toe-to-toe with are those who generalise to the point of wanton destruction. Take the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu and Julius Malema, who for some bizarre reason feel hopelessly threatened by South Africans of Indian origin.
The motivation might not be so bizarre if one recalls that their initial target, Treasury deputy director-general and freedom fighter Ismail Momoniat, was one of the people at the forefront of corruption busting in Limpopo.
No prizes for guessing whose interests that hurt. Race-baiting is the refuge of the scoundrel.
That is not to deny that there are deep fault lines in all our communities which must be directly confronted, condemned and punished
A vicious young woman, Alochna Moodley, caused deep hurt and nationwide revulsion by using vile racist language in an SMS.
Her parents must be called out to explain her poor breeding. In that same basket is Travor Mbuyazi, who threatened journalist Ferial Haffejee with a bullet for her anti-racist stance.
Shivambu, Malema, Moodley, Mbuyazi and their fellow travellers must not be allowed to get away with criminal conduct.
Fighting racism must also not serve as a cover for those who themselves might quietly harbour racist fantasies or display micro-aggressions in their interaction with people different from themselves.
Freedom-loving South Africans must fight racists on the streets and in the courts.
The EFF leaders’ belligerent rhetoric is a short step to fascism. Martin Niemoller’s calling out the cowardice of German intellectuals during the Nazi rise to power comes to mind: “First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.”
One commentator on social media was perceptive enough to point out that Malema would soon turn Africans on each other.
He must be stopped in his tracks. Stand your ground against racism wherever you encounter it. Speak up. To tolerate racism is to share in the crime.