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Amid the Penny Sparrows and the campus violence, racial peace seems like a quaint relic. But it turns out SA still believes, writes Ferial Haffajee
YES...
Last week, I commissioned a report: Are we on the edge of a race war?
Spooked by the white students who laid into black counterparts on a rugby field at the University of Free State – the site of a globally watched experiment in racial reconciliation – it felt as though all of that which Nelson Mandela had put together was being torn asunder.
It turns out this is not true. A representative survey of average South Africans countrywide by the Institute of Race Relations shows that things are not as “black and white” as they may appear in this fractious year, which started with estate agent Penny Sparrow calling black people monkeys and which, by last week, had escalated into racial clashes on two campuses and high tension at others.
The institute found, in its survey titled Reasons for Hope, that “the views of the overwhelming majority of people are very different from the vitriol so evident in the race debate this year. Far from being hostile towards one another, most South Africans, black and white, occupy a pragmatic middle ground on race relations.”
It also found that, while race was a major talking point across social and mass media, most people were much more concerned by unemployment, crime, housing and service delivery. In fact, race and xenophobia poll ninth of our top 10 concerns. A majority (59.7%) of black South Africans believe race relations have improved – a much lower number of coloured, Asian and white compatriots believe the same.
Nine in 10 South Africans say the race of their children’s teachers is not an issue for them – the institute says this is an important barometer.
Whites polled 10 percentage points lower than the average on not caring about the race of a teacher, as long as they were good. Most encouragingly, 78% of people surveyed said they had experienced no racism.
This survey confirms a pattern you can see in other polls too: that South Africans are firmly meritocratic, with eight in 10 people surveyed believing the best person should get the job, regardless of race.
Seven in 10 participants, however, agree with the rider that the best person should get the job, but previously disadvantaged people should get special training if required.
South Africa’s heightened race talk has accompanied a slowing economy and massive stress on jobs.
A convincing majority of people surveyed agreed that better education and more jobs would steadily erode the differences among races. And with this comes a strong sense of mutuality – we are in it together.
As much as 85% of the 2 245 people surveyed agreed with the view that “the different races need each other for progress and there should be full opportunity for people of all colours”.
BUT...
The survey’s in a first iteration, so perhaps it will be remedied before its publication this year, but I found the presentation of race and merit as opposing factors disingenuous – it is a common refrain, and should not be, for it threads into our society the assumption that black candidates are never meritorious, which is absurd.
Annual surveys by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation have found that South Africans are mixing less and that attitudes to economic transformation have hardened among white and Indian communities.
This survey was also undertaken before the race ructions and heightened consciousness of 2016. Still, I found it an injection of hope in troubled times.
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