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By Zintle Mahlati 
December 16, 2020
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa says that race relations in the country remain fragile.
The president used his Reconciliation Day speech to paint a grim picture of the challenging year the country has faced with the Covid-19 pandemic and the negative impact it has had on the economy.
Ramaphosa spoke on Wednesday during the Government’s commemoration of Reconciliation Day.
He said the country has also faced a challenging year with racial tensions and incidents that have emerged with different events.
The president cited incidents of racial tension in Senekal in the Free State, where white farmers clashed with EFF supporters. He also cited the incident at Brackenfell High School in the Western Cape, where white locals were seen attacking EFF supporters after the party protested a matrix dance event in which only white students participated.
He said that these incidents demonstrated that the country’s efforts towards reconciliation were far from perfect. He said true reconciliation will not be possible until issues such as inequality and poverty are addressed.
“As long as we do not overcome poverty, reconciliation will remain out of reach,” Ramaphosa said during a virtual event.
He said that the circumstances in which people lived could not be ignored and that social cohesion was not enough and that real change was needed.
The president said that for reconciliation to become a reality, problems of inequality must be addressed in all areas of society, such as workspaces and public spaces.
“We must ask ourselves what we can do in our lives. We all have a responsibility to achieve economic transformation,” Rampahosa said.
“True reconciliation will not be possible unless we address the many ills of our society. We cannot build a truly caring society as long as the majority of the country lives in conditions of poverty, inequality and deprivation, while a minority exists in comforts and privileges.
“We cannot move forward with the meaningful reconciliation process if the policies of economic transformation, affirmative action and land reform are resisted,” Ramaphosa said.
The president said that companies should support reparation policies in an effort to end inequality and poverty. He said there should be no resistance to economic redress policies such as the economic empowerment of blacks.
He said that the labor sector should also address workers’ rights and that farm organizations should support land reform policies, which is a crucial part of reconciliation.
Political Bureau
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