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Having spent a few weeks recenty in Onrus, near Hermanus, I was really surprised to see how this one has reared it's ugly head again. What was very noticeable that there were a lot of new people that had moved into the area, the majority appeared to be from Johannesburg/Pretoria which made watching the Super 14 rugby quite interesting.
What shocked me about many of these people was the blatant racist remarks they felt quite at liberty to make, one twenty something telling my English friend that due to his strong Afrikaner farming upbringing, he could never and would never treat a black man as his equal. He went on to describe his dog as a well trained killing machine. On another occasion I listened to a group discussing the plans that the blacks are busy putting in place in order to eradicate all whites from South Africa. (As the one person said, I will not go easily and will make sure that I take a few with me). Those were just two examples of many such remarks that were made over the course of the two weeks.
I guess that a lot of this has it's roots in the the fact that much of the crime is commited by blacks. Also having an effect is the fact that the job market is biased in such a way that a white male South African has very little chance of getting a job, certainly in the public sector. There is also the fear and uncertainty of the future, in particular with what direction the political scene is going to go.
But this racism isn't at all one sided, with initiatives such as the black journalists forum, which excluded white journalists whilst meeting with Zuma, the ANC leader. Then there is the racism between tribes such as the Zulus v Xhosas.
Generally all very concerning, till I spent a weeked at the Waterfront, where there was a type of battle of the concerts between a number of high schools. There they were, black/white/coloured/asian schoolchildren standing side by side, fighting for a common cause. They put on all types of varying displays, classical/African/Rap/rock etc. etc. . They approached this with a rereshing enthusiasm and no obvious culture clashes.
Thats when I realised that the future of South Africa lies in those childrens hands, and if they could maintain that spirit of togetherness then there is a lot of hope still there for the future.
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