Non-Racialism in South Africa: Status and Prospects

Abstract

This article, based on findings from 18 focus groups staged across South Africa in mid-2011, provides an overview of the key themes that emerged from the discussion—many of which receive more detailed treatment in later papers in this edition, others of which deserve close attention and further analysis even if not covered here. (The full set of transcripts is freely available at http://www.gcro.ac.za/project/non-racialism-ahmed-kathrada-foundation). It appears that non-racialism, which lacks a specific meaning, also lacks any status as a political project—it has been de-linked from the political arena, where taking control of ‘the commanding heights of the economy’ is a priority facing government. Non-racialism has been left as a social project for citizens to work out for themselves.

Notes

When asked about the claim to representivity at a seminar at the University of the Witwatersrand, Samantha Vice—many of whose arguments I agree with—pointed to her own whiteness, and that of her friends, as giving her some kind of claim to representivity, while Eusebius McKaiser repeated his notion that ‘everybody knows’ how whites behave and that no measurement was required.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Everatt

Executive Director, Gauteng City-Region Observatory, a partnership of the University of Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, and Gauteng Provincial Government, South Africa.