The South African flag projected onto the facade of the Union Buildings. Picture: GCIS. South Africans must confront an uncomfortable truth: we remain a deeply polarised society, shaped by divergent world views that stem from history, identity, and political socialisation.
Apartheid’s institutionalised separation, deliberately excluding the black majority from political power and economic control and while black South Africans secured political power, they remain largely excluded from the economic levers, even today. Its legacy continues to inform how different communities interpret present realities. For victims of apartheid, forgetting the pain of dispossession and exclusion is neither simple nor fair.
Many still attribute their lack of progress to structural inequalities rooted in that system. This generational defiance often manifests in children resisting parental attempts to transmit outdated political socialisation, a phenomenon evident across racial divides. While such rejection signals change, it also underscores how abnormal our social fabric remains.
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Parents on both sides are wrong to transmit divisive attitudes to their children, instead of allowing them to build an integrated future on their own terms. It’s too late for us, as parents, to change, but we mustn’t spoil their future with our past baggage. Forgiveness may be possible, but forgetting is not. As the Soul Brothers once sang, Umenziwa akakhohlwa kodwa umenzi uyakhohlwa(the victim never forgets, while the perpetrator does).
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