ANC ‘is presiding over language of race division’

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa has moved in the “wrong direction” by returning to the language of racial division under the ruling African National Congress, fiery anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak was quoted as saying.

“That was a fork in the road and we took the wrong direction,” Boesak said while addressing trade unionists in Cape Town on Saturday, according to the Sunday Independent newspaper. “We have deliberately allowed the ANC to bring back the language of racial categorisation.In the 1990s, all of a sudden we were told again, you are Africans, you are coloured, you are Indians, you are white,” the cleric was quoted as saying.A member of the mixed-race coloured community, Boesak was a former ANC heavyweight who fell from grace after he was convicted for theft of foreign donor funds intended for the poor in 1999 and subsequently jailed.His comments reflect growing unease in the coloured community, whose people were treated as “second-class” citizens under apartheid.But many now feel resentful towards perceived African or black dominance in the ANC which has embraced black economic empowerment and affirmative action as key policies to address apartheid wrongs.”We brought back the language of racial division and we need to say …that was fundamentally wrong,” he said.- Nampa-Reuters”We have deliberately allowed the ANC to bring back the language of racial categorisation.In the 1990s, all of a sudden we were told again, you are Africans, you are coloured, you are Indians, you are white,” the cleric was quoted as saying.A member of the mixed-race coloured community, Boesak was a former ANC heavyweight who fell from grace after he was convicted for theft of foreign donor funds intended for the poor in 1999 and subsequently jailed.His comments reflect growing unease in the coloured community, whose people were treated as “second-class” citizens under apartheid.But many now feel resentful towards perceived African or black dominance in the ANC which has embraced black economic empowerment and affirmative action as key policies to address apartheid wrongs.”We brought back the language of racial division and we need to say …that was fundamentally wrong,” he said.- Nampa-Reuters