Share

Opinion piece: Letter to a broken nation

Just like any media storm, the one of SA’s statute furore has come to pass, making way for the latest destructive tumult – xenophobia. However, we should never forget the storms that have come to pass, because they leave destruction in their wake and reparation is needed. Charl Botha has written a noteworthy piece on the falling of the Rhodes statue and proffers advice to a broken nation. – Tracey Ruff

By Charl Botha

Making a multicultural nation work is a little bit like making curry. For the result to be livable or edible as the case may be requires the parts to work together in such a way that no single constituent overwhelms the effect of the other. Imagine a curry stew where the stew is curry with stew instead of stew with curry. This may be delightful if you are from the Indian subcontinent, but any other sub continent, continent, or island, will have double trouble with such a dish if you know what I mean. In the same way, in a multicultural nation where one culture dominates the discourse, this may lead to a nation exhibiting the best of this culture, but also the worst. I am defining culture broadly as the core beliefs, values, and practices shared by a group of people who may or may not be of the same ethnicity.

Statues represent the past in the present; they convey the legacy and memory of the person or the idea that they represent in a material form. In the sense that my fellow countrymen feel that they are burdened by the memory of the past in the form of colonialism or apartheid and therefore need to remove these symbols, I can understand their dismantling fervor. As a concerned citizen of this beautiful rainbow nation I have to ask the dismantlers to consider the following:

When are we going to start “building” a better nation instead of zealously dismantling the old? Is the answer that by removing the old we will have room for a better tomorrow? Then my response is that we should be removing whatever the old is as quickly and effectively as possible as it seems to me the old is fast choking the very possibility of the new in South Africa.

There is a much more fundamental problem with initiating a process of removing the old so that we may get on with the new. In many ways, the old has made the new possible. In other words, we would not be here and the people that we are, ready for a possibly brighter future, were it not for the conditions and dynamics of the past. Take a simple example; it is easy to say that we should remove all the statues representing white colonial history and then propose furthermore that all stains of colonialism should be removed from our present. This process of removing the elements of colonial history from our present, if done in a logically consistent way, will tear the rainbow nation apart faster than the inspirational legacy of Mandela who largely made it possible in the first place.

For if we are really with a capital “R” going to be removing the elements of the past stained by colonialism, then we should start with the very thing making this letter understandable to most of my countrymen, English. We should stop communicating in English for it is the language of the colonizer. We should stop being Christians, which apparently 80% of our nation is, for it is the religion of the colonizer. I think the last point is already moot for if we were really largely Christian we should arguably be following the ways of the only true Christian, and believe me when I tell you that we are far from acting according to His example…

The bottom line is that we urgently need to find common ground in the present while recognizing that some elements of our checkered past need to be maintained and cherished. Breaking down is easy. Respectfully compromising for the greater good and the future flourishing of our rainbow nation is much harder and sadly seems to be the road we are not planning on taking.

Charl Botha is the Portfolio Manager of an investment partnership. He has passed levels 1,2 and 3 of his CFA qualification and is currently completing his MA in philosophy.

* For more in-depth business news, visit biznews.com or simply sign up for the daily newsletter.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
18.88
+0.3%
Rand - Pound
23.85
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders