School ‘slave auction’ puts racism back in the spotlight in South Africa

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) — Decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa is once again confronting the deep-seated racial wounds of its past, as a shocking incident at a Cape Town high school, where black students were mockingly auctioned off in a cage, sparked nationwide outrage and highlighted the persistence of racism in the country.

The viral video, recorded at Pinelands High School, shows a group of mixed-race eighth-grade students bidding for their caged Black classmates. This has since caused outrage in a country still healing from the wounds of its bitter apartheid past.

The racist apartheid system, which lasted for nearly half a century in South Africa, saw Black Africans and other people of color facing race-based laws that limited their movement, employment, and place of residence, among other rights and freedoms.

Several anti-apartheid movements, led by the African National Congress (ANC), fought against the racist white minority regime and eventually defeated it three decades ago.

Thirty years later, incidents of racism are still reported in some schools, universities, and communities, condemned by the government, civil rights groups and members of the public. Action against perpetrators is usually taken in accordance with the country’s anti-racism legislation.

- Recurring incidents

Neeshan Balton, executive director of an anti-racism group called the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, told Anadolu that incidents of racism at schools are a source of concern, but not ubiquitous across the country.

“I think sometimes, the mere fact that we have a couple of incidents gets blown completely out of proportion to the point that people assume it’s happening across the length and breadth of all of our schools,” Balton said.

While many schools are working to deal with racism and foster better relations between students of different races, this often is not covered by the media, he said. “Those rarely get to make the news.”

Despite these efforts, though, racism remains a major issue in South Africa.

“South Africa is very much like the rest of the world, still grappling with this issue. Keep in mind that countries like the US, that have had their independence for decades or centuries, are still grappling with the same issues. All across Europe, countries are grappling with the same issues,” he said in a telephone interview.

Balton said no country in the world with a population of different races is likely to be spared the issue of racism. However, he added, South Africa has made some progress in fighting this through legislation and institutions.

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, formed in 2008 to continue the legacy of the late anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada and his generation, conducts numerous anti-racism campaigns.

“We are currently working with the South African Human Rights Commission on designing community service for those found guilty by the commission of committing acts of racism or using racist language towards another South African,” Balton said. The foundation is also working with the country’s Department of Justice to roll out a national action plan to combat racism, he said.

The foundation’s youth-oriented activities include an anti-racism essay writing competition, with thousands of young people participating every year. It also holds an anti-racism week on March 14-21, culminating in the International Day for the Elimination of Racism.

- Inequality

According to commentator Hassan Logart, the idea that the legal reforms of three decades ago will be enough to address lingering racist sentiments is also at fault.

“A big part of the problem is that we think making legal legislative changes 30 years ago is enough to bring about change. It is not true because racism reproduces itself in micro-spheres—in the home, churches, mosques, and different places,” said Logart, who is also an official of the People’s Media Consortium, an advocacy group focused on the rights of local communities.

Logart told Anadolu that sensitization against racism must start in the family and private interactions between people.

“There is no systematic education about racism that supplements the idea of the redress we need to have. There must be greater redress, and there must be a greater understanding of what apartheid was and how it divides us,” he said.

Logart argued that inequality was the foundation of apartheid and that while South Africa has addressed some issues, racism remains a key factor where high levels of inequality prevail.

In 2022, a World Bank report described South Africa as the “most unequal" country in the world, with race playing a determining factor.

The report said that despite three decades after the end of white-minority rule, 10% of South Africa’s white population still holds 80.6% of the financial assets in the country.

Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, agrees that inequality is still a major problem in the country and must be addressed through better economic policies.

Sebei told Anadolu that the plight of the Black working class needs to be addressed to stop making them the face of poverty, unemployment, crime, disease, and ignorance.

He underlined the need for families to teach children that they are all equal, irrespective of race, to prevent others from thinking they are superior.

Writing in his weekly column on the presidency website on May 23, 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was troubling that incidents of racism were occurring at schools and places of higher learning, where many of the people involved were born after the end of apartheid.

Ramaphosa was reacting to an incident in which a white male student from Stellenbosch University degraded and humiliated a Black student, urinating on his belongings after breaking into his dorm room.

“While the incident at the University of Stellenbosch may seem like an aberration — an appalling act that has been roundly condemned — the truth is that racism is still a feature of everyday life in South Africa. The sooner we recognize that reality, the sooner we can change it,” he wrote.