As we prepare for the national dialogue, we have to be ready to face uncomfortable truths if we must achieve our goal to restore order, dignity and prosperity to our country.
History has thrown at us a complicated situation of a rare multiracialism and multiple ethnicities. As a result, we experience a wide range of conflicts because of our many differences, diversity in all aspects of our lives.
We have four major classifications – black, white, Indian and coloured and SA belongs to all of us. We know no other country and have no choice but to learn to live peacefully together, respecting one another. We are from a dark past, but the past has taught us one unforgettable lesson: many battles have been fought over centuries, but there have been no winners.
Vengeance for the injustices of the past has yielded no fruit; it turns out that oppression of the weak by the powerful is human nature. The majority of the previously oppressed masses, “our people” by the colonialists and apartheid, are surviving under even more pronounced oppression under black governments, where the rich become richer while the poor become destitute.
The transformation agenda, while it was meant to change the lives of people for the better, has chased shadows. The sooner it is abandoned, the better, so that we can start reconstruction, rebuilding our country and our lives together as a united nation, starting with the national dialogue. – Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand