South African Conversations sample articles

8
southafrican CONVERSATiONS
sample content
Charisse Kenion
initiatives and other support
services available to them.
They are unable to participate in
the formal economy for a variety of
reasons, such as lack of education,
lack of skills, transportation,
money, confidence, know-how
and, simply, lack of precedent.
Ill health, disability and old age
may also prevent them from active
participation.
They are frustrated, sceptical and
wary because of what they perceive
as unfulfilled development promises
made by the government.
They believe that the government
doesn’t care about them.
They are illiterate, semi-literate or
literate, and mostly uneducated.
They have little disposable income
and few prospects.
Many are without hope.
The takers
People who have become wealthy
by questionable means. They are
more concerned with what they
can take from the system than
what they can give to it. There is
little regard for ethics or culture.
They behave ostentatiously and
often spend exorbitant amounts of
money on booze and bling. Making
money seems to be a game of how
best to cheat the system, not of
hard work and integrity.
Old-school historically
advantaged people
Mostly White South Africans who
believe, deep down, that the ending
of apartheid was a mistake.
They used to blame the victims of
poverty for lack of incentive, lack of
willpower, laziness, stupidity and all
the stereotypes that are attached
to people who are marginalised
– until their own joined the ranks
of the poor. Now they blame the
government.
They see no connection between
crime and the fact that economic
inequality is higher in South Africa
than anywhere else in the world.
They believe in their intrinsic
intellectual superiority and they look
down on other races. They believe
that they earned what they have
because of their hard work and
contributions to the world.
They rarely consider the enormous
benefit and advantage bestowed
upon them and their families by
the years of white affirmative action
during apartheid.
They have access to quality
employment, health care, services,
information and opportunities.
Their jobs are protected by a circle
of their own: like-minded family,
friends and colleagues.
They live lives of privilege and
entitlement. They have stereotypical
ideas of what Black people are like
and expect Blacks who want to
associate with them to conform to
their norms of behaviour, dress,
speech and culture.
They would find it inconceivable
to visit a township, let alone an
informal settlement and believe,
on some level, that people who live
in poverty deserve what they get,
because of their inability to rise
above their circumstances.
They see no connection between
the policies of the past and Black
poverty now. They want Black
people to ‘move on’ because
apartheid is over, after all.
They see no connection between
the low and discriminatory wages
they pay the people who support
them in maintaining their lifestyle,
and the difficulties those people
experience in rising above their
circumstances.
They are negatively critical of the
government and regard many of its
policies as unfair, ill-advised assaults
on their way of life.
They and their children are negative
about prospects in South Africa and
invariably believe that the situation
is hopeless. Leaving the country is
perpetually an option.
Liberal historically
advantaged people
White South Africans who believe
that apartheid was an iniquity that
marred our economic development,
scarred a lot of people, divided a
nation, and left us with horrible
problems.