Africa-Press – South-Africa. Building a new society on the ruins of the old is taking time, and a lot more effort than what we thought it would. It remains a project worth fighting for, and one on which our lives depend, writes the News24 editorial team.
The festive season is supposed to be a period in which South Africans show goodwill towards each other as we retire to family and friends to take stock of the year and recharge our batteries, readying ourselves for 2023 which will undoubtedly be challenging.
And in this country, challenges abound, brought about by poor leadership, mismanagement, and corruption. We certainly don’t need crass incidents of racism to derail our democratic project further.
So, when a video emerged from a Free State resort just outside of Bloemfontein showing a vicious attack by white adults on black youths it felt like the final twist of the knife after a year in which South Africans were bombarded by bad news.
Load shedding, a poor economy, the soaring cost of living, corruption and poor governance have all combined to cast a pall over Christmas and the new year.
But this should not distract us from what the Maselspoort incident was: a boorish, violent, and completely unjustifiable racist assault by white adults on black children.
The footage showing an adult choking a child in the water, and another – with cigarette in hand – grabbing another by his hair, is testament to the levels of disdain those individuals seemingly regard their compatriots with. It is something out of 1970s Bloemfontein, not 2022.
Closed-circuit television footage that has since emerged clearly shows how the black children were blocked from entering the swimming pool, and when they did, how all the white swimmers climbed out of the pool. Can it be any more blatant? Can what we see in those videos be more revolting, backward, and utterly deplorable?
South Africans of every colour and creed should condemn events in the Free State unreservedly and unconditionally. Blatant and crude incidents like this are unacceptable in a society still grappling with issues of race and identity. Paternalism, patriarchy and baasskap has no place here. Neither is the apparent justification for the incident by right-wing activists, forwarded without any evidence – and incredibly, reported on as fact by some news outlets who didn’t bother to confirm the claims.
Building a new society on the ruins of the old is taking time, and a lot more effort than what we thought it would. It remains a project worth fighting for, and one on which our lives depend.
Racists have no place here.
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