Zweli Mkhize: "Dialogues about race needed"

The keynote speaker at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) at a dialogue organised by the DUT’s International Centre of Non-violence on Thursday evening, Mkhize said it was important to reflect on racism because the reason for the anti-apartheid struggle was to deal with oppression and discrimination based on class, gender, nationality and colour.

The dialogue’s topic was “Fresh thinking, fresh action”.

Addressing about 80 people, Mkhize noted how during the apartheid struggle, the overall message was that “all people needed to unite, the oppressed had to work together”.

Referring to the Freedom Charter, he said the charter “tried to define South Africa in the absence of Apartheid; [this meant] equality, mutual acceptance and a Human Rights Charter”.

“If we want a non-racial South Africa then we cannot accept us being defined by race – we must accept people as human beings, regardless of anything,” he said.

Mkhize said that even though laws had changed, the socio-economic landscape was still defined by legacies of discrimination. “This legacy means we still have poverty. This legacy defines levels of education and income.”

He highlighted how part of fighting racism was the psychological emancipation of the oppressed and the oppressor.

“How do you emancipate those who were brought up feeling they are superior?” he asked.

He said student movements around the country were emancipating themselves by demanding the removal of apartheid and colonial-era statues. “We must encourage symbols that inspire our equality,” he said.

University of KwaZulu-Natal Director of the Critical Research on Race and Identity, Professor Rozena Maart, said that white superiority did not disappear “just because we ask it to”.

Maart emphasised the importance of understanding the psychological, deep-seated attitudes toward race. “We can legislate for and against anything but we can’t legislate attitude,” she said.

She said when it came to race, “understanding white privilege means you have a responsibility to unlearn the superiority you were taught under Apartheid”.

Sensitivity to these issues, Mkhize said, was being eroded, and that freedom of expression had limits. He remarked how “even in judgments of [legal cases] there may still be racial undertones.

“How do we eradicate racism without eradicating poverty and inequality? Living in the same suburb does not make us equal,” he said.

Mkhize said the key to eradicating racism was through dialogue.

“We must talk,” he said. “No one is going to come with a formula to make it work…Eradicating racism is an on going responsibility and it must start with [the individual]. We must include non-racism and non-sexism into the youngest minds.”