Pretoria - A prominent white South African moderate said on Wednesday the government effort to empower blacks through affirmative action reflected a racial mindset similar to that of apartheid and was doomed to fail.
"If you make yourself hostage to a racist past you can plan on a racist future," said Frederik van Zyl Slabbert said at a trade union forum in Pretoria.
Slabbert, who led the liberal Progressive Federal Party in the 1980s and was one of the first Afrikaners to talk with the outlawed African National Congress, said society could be transformed only if the government rejected race as a driving force in policy.
Now a political analyst and author, he was speaking at the unveiling of a report by the white-dominated Solidarity trade union, which warned that the ANC-led government had created a new system of racial classification with laws like the Black Economic Empowerment Act.
Aim to redress huge imbalances
That programme seeks to give blacks more clout in the economy, including the key banking and agriculture sectors.
The ANC has pledged to speed up land reform to increase black farm ownership.
The government says the laws are aimed at redressing huge imbalances left by South Africa's centuries of white domination.
Twelve years after the end of apartheid, much of the 80% black majority are still in dire poverty.
Slabbert said black empowerment, as it is structured, favoured rich blacks and predicted the effort would be brought down by corruption and legal challenges.
"Just as apartheid came to a downfall because of... the race classification act, this act will go under," he said.
He urged the government to use socio-economic status rather than race as its yardstick when addressing inequalities.
De Klerk stoked controversy
The ANC, under intense pressure to deliver on its promises of a better life for millions of impoverished blacks, sees opposition to black empowerment as an attempt by whites to retain old privileges.
Earlier this year, South Africa's last white president FW de Klerk stoked controversy when he said blacks should recognise the sacrifices made by whites to establish an all-race democracy and the courage they showed in ceding power.
De Klerk was responding to comments by anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, who had said white South Africans did not fully appreciate the sacrifices made by black victims in forgiving past wrongs.