South Africa, a country that ended apartheid, continues to use racial categorization for monitoring economic changes and is still causing controversy. A charge of fraud against teacher Glen Snyman for ticking the "African" box on his application form in 2017 has highlighted the country's ongoing problem with racial classification. The Population Registration Act, which was introduced in 1950, was the cornerstone of the apartheid policy that legalized discrimination. Although repealed in 1991 as the country moved towards democratic governance in 1994, racial classification remains a significant issue in the country.
Many in the country, including Glen Snyman, who founded People Against Racial Classification (Parc) in 2010, believe using categories has no place in a democratic South Africa. He suggests that the government should use a poverty measure to replace racial classification to give those in need a much-needed leg-up. The government and private sector should deliver to all South Africans equally and not discriminate on identity.
Ryland Fisher, a former newspaper editor who initiated the One City Many Cultures project in 1999 while at the Cape Times, agrees, stating that adopting class as the marker for redress will inevitably benefit more black people. He believes that if redress is based on class, a black person who has lived a life of privilege won't qualify for economic opportunities via the government's affirmative action policies.
During the 1970s, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa was gaining momentum, with many disenfranchised individuals, including African, coloured, and Indian, identifying as black in solidarity. The South African Democratic Teachers Union supports this approach, stating that many people have made a conscious decision not to identify with the racial classification prescribed by the apartheid regime. Some people embrace ethnic classifications such as coloured, Khoisan, African, Xhosa, Zulu, white, Camissa African, Korana African, Griqua, European, and Afrikaner.
Zodwa Ntuli, South Africa's Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Commissioner, argues that while racial classification is an anomaly in a country trying to move away from its race-based past, regulators and government can only measure progress through statistics based on the old categories. The impact of apartheid discrimination against Africans, Indians, and coloured people was so pervasive that white people continued to dominate the economy in terms of ownership and decision-making power. However, she stresses that no one in South Africa is permitted to use the racial or gender classification for purposes of excluding any citizen from enjoying the rights in the country - that would be illegal.
Kganki Matabane, head of the Black Business Council, says that it is still too soon to ditch the old categories and that the economy reflects the country's demographics. He believes that the only way to deal with problems is by addressing them based on race, rather than looking at class.
However, in some cases, the continued use of racial classification to monitor change has led to the hardening of the categories. In the Western Cape, there is a long-standing feeling among some that the democratic government has ignored their needs. In 2018, a group of activists who identify as coloured started a pressure group called the Gatvol ("fed up") Capetonian movement in Cape Town. Mr Fisher, a former newspaper editor, blames the African National Congress (ANC) government for the sharpening of racial differences, arguing that the majority in the Western Cape has decided to raise their voices and assert their right to identify as coloured. Dr Saths Cooper, a clinical psychologist who was an associate of Steve Biko during his student days in the 1970s, argues that the dominance of racial identity has prevented the forging of a pervasive identity.
This piece is republished from BBC. Click here to read the original article.
