A Personal View – March 2014

An act that I witnessed during this morning’s 21km run through Sunnyside, the Hillbrow of Pretoria, made me contemplate what the state of racial integration amongst South Africa’s children really is.

I am convinced that a child is born colour-blind, not in the literal sense of being unable to distinguish the various colours of the rainbow, but rather how they are able to interact with children of other races without concerns about their race, religion or class.

All of these three concepts are viewpoints & societal expectations imprinted on impressionable minds by their parents. From their teenage years, it might also be their peers which have an influence but their formative views are certainly created by their parents as role-models.

While these views are not immutable, in most cases they form the life-long views of their children. This phenomena is even more pronounced as far as religion is concerned. Which parent is sufficiently broad minded that they will allow their children to be exposed to all religions as is shown in the movie The Life of Pi. In reality the religion of the parent will become the religion adopted by their children.

Let us get back to this morning run.

Here I observed two white boys under 10 years old beckon to a black neighbour’s child to come & chat to them. They then assisted him as he climbed over the oversize wall. Considering that Pretoria is predominately Afrikaans speaking, the chances are excellent that the two white boys were Afrikaans speaking.

If this had been 25 years ago, the objective of the two white boys would have been to donder up the black kid. The convivial interaction in broken Afrikaans belied that assumption. They were clearly two boys wanting to speak to their friend who just happened to be black unlike them.

I found the whole spectacle quite touching. It was an everyday scene enacted in all innocence without ulterior motives at play.

My own kids seem to display a relaxed & friendly attitude to people of different colours. In my son’s case, his girlfriend’s parents actually brought up a black boy in their house as his mother was destitute. His name is Thebo [not Thabo]. Whenever they have gone out, Thebo would also be there to accompany them.

When Thebo’s mother died some two years ago, my son & his girlfriend decided to attend the funeral. Of course they were accommodated in the most luxurious accommodation available in QwaQwa, a 75 m2 RDP house. At the funeral, the local Induna made a salient comment when he named Gavin as a true friend of Thebo; his raison d’etre; Thebo had nothing to offer a rich person like Gavin yet they came all the way from Egoli to attend his mother’s funeral.

Similarly with my daughter. She has made a firm friend in Mbali, a BComm graduate from Kwa-Zulu Natal. Despite no longer working together, they will regularly go out to supper together.

Furthermore my nephew Mark has married an Indian woman, Sapna. Their children intermingle with the rest of their cousins with social ease & without a care in the world.

This bodes well for South Africa’s future.

The kids will blaze the trail for the recalcitrant parents.

Now we just need to get the politicians not to exacerbate racial tensions by continually playing the race card.