20 March 2000
On Human Rights Day 2000 the ANC calls on all South Africans to continue and intensify the struggle against racism. The deracialisation of South Africa is the most fitting tribute we can pay to the people who died in Sharpeville on 21 March 1960 as they marched to protest racist legislation.
Across the world, the last century has been characterised by racism and the struggle against it. In South Africa, this racism was institutionalised and enforced by a minority regime.
From the early 1900s categories of jobs were reserved for whites at the expense of black people. In the 1930s, African people were removed from the voters' roll in the Cape. In the 1940s, the National Party came to power and introduced apartheid. Through the 1950s, one piece of racist legislation was followed by another.
Apartheid was not just about the political disenfranchisment of the people, but created a society where every aspect of people's lives was racially defined: from the political sphere, to the economy, to culture and the social sphere.
From its birth in 1912, the ANC has fought a struggle to rid this country of racism, of the constructed superiority of white people over African, Coloured and Indian people. That struggle has been a long and bitter fight for the equality of all humanity.
Forty years after the Sharpeville Massacre we mark Human Rights Day in a democratic country. We celebrate how far we have come in our fight against inhumanity and racism, and look forward to the challenge of finally removing the 'problem of the colour-line'.
In 1994, the fight against racism bore fruit in the form of the first democratic election in the country. The formal attainment of democracy was a critical step in the battle to eradicate racism. But it was only a beginning.
Since 1994, we have produced a new constitution which protects our people from racism. Apartheid legislation has been replaced by progressive legislation that seeks to advance the interests of all South Africans irrespective of race.
Yet racism continues in all spheres of South African life. The conditions of farmworkers on many farms and continued racism and sexism on the shopfloor will testify to the enormous challenges that lie ahead.
The ownership of productive wealth in the country remains in the hands of a few. There remain few black matriculants who are pursuing their final year with science subjects, a legacy of Bantu education.
While laws and the Constitution are critical for enabling the creation of a society free of racial prejudice, the challenge for all of us is to work together to ensure that these laws find expression in our everyday lives.
Workers need to organise together, as workers, regardless of race against continued exploitation of their class. Women need to work together, regardless of race, to fight against sexism and violence against women. Young people must embrace a common programme that ensures that their futures are secure and they have the opportunities that their parents and grandparents fought for. Business people must work towards the empowerment of all in our country to ensure that ownership in the economy is deracialised.
The ANC encourages those in opinion-making positions to constantly ask the question: how do we promote the advancement of deracialisation in everything that we do?
We make all these calls with the understanding that racism will not end on its own; but rather that it requires the concerted effort of all South Africans, in a day to day fight for change. And we must all understand that our fight against racism cannot be won without a fundamental change in the material conditions of the majority of people in the country.
While poverty and crime, joblessness and violence continue to ravage our communities, it is difficult to envisage racial equality.
Towards the end of the year, South Africans will vote in local government elections. For the first time in our history traditionally black and white neighbourhoods will be joined together in common municipalities. For the first time, local issues that affect different communities will be represented in one locality. It is critical that all South Africans participate in ensuring that these municipalities are able to transform the conditions of people on the ground.
Another important event that will take place later this year is an International Conference on Racism, where we'll be able to share our challenges with the rest of the world.
It is the everyday interaction that South Africans have with one another, our respect and care for each other that will make us rise up beyond racism.
As we build a world that resolves the problem of the colour-line, let us borrow from the perspective of the ANC's late President Oliver Tambo, who said at a conference against racism, apartheid and colonialism in 1980, that 'we should continue to march together, conquering one victory after another. The future belongs to all of us'.
Issued by the ANC Secretary General’s Office,
PO Box 61884
Marshalltown
2107