Racism issue needs to be cooled down

There’s no denying that debating the issue of racism in South Africa is pertinent – crucial in fact.

In the interest of nation building and reconciliation, any and all initiatives to defuse simmering racial tensions must be embraced.

Following President Jacob Zuma’s call for the country to work together to eradicate racism during his State of the Nation Address, the issue headlined Parliament’s agenda on Tuesday.

But instead of restoring calm around this sensitive topic as one would expect from supposedly rational thinkers, the politicians achieved the exact opposite – fanning the flames of division with inflammatory rhetoric to score party political points.

This is disappointing.

Even with local government elections looming, one would think our leaders would resist using racism – a critical topic vital to the harmonious future of the South African populace – as a cheap vote catching trick.

When so-called reasonable men (and women) in a country’s National Assembly resort to fuelling racism with emotive mud-slinging, what kind of example do they think they set for ordinary people at grassroots level where, in the final analysis, social cohesion will stand or fall?

What was particularly annoying on Tuesday were the Parliamentary pontificators who solemnly uttered politically correct phrases such as ‘uniting for a non-racial society’, ‘reject racism and racists in our midst’ or ‘continuing sensible dialogue’ – and then did a good job of undoing it all by hurling insults at each other.

‘Please, these white rats are insulting me’ and ‘Rabid racists like Mr Mulder and the defenders of racism…’ were some of reported comments.

South Africans deserve much more mature discourse than this if we ever hope to bridge the divide.

In an ideal world a moratorium should be placed on politicians discussing racism, rather allowing level-headed countrymen to cool down the temperatures before progress can be made.

Behind racial tensions in other spheres of society, such as the turmoil at university campuses, are politically-driven agents and agendas.

They should be taken out of the equation.

Recently released survey findings of the Institute of Race Relations actually summed up the situation perfectly.

The survey found that 85% of South Africans agree that different race groups need each other.

This seems to suggest that the man in the street is far better equipped to deal with the issue.