South Africa's new apartheid
From Mr J.L. Rushburne Sir: So the ANC government in South Africa is hosting a world conference on combating racism ('White is right', 25 August). The hypocrisy of this project, in the light of its own actions, is breathtaking.
Since it assumed office, the ANC has directed its efforts towards ousting whites, mainly executives, from the public services, from municipalities and from public utilities — in other words, from every sphere under its direct control. But this is not racism, of course. The ANC prefers to call it 'affirmative action' or 'black empowerment'.
The latest example is the announced intention to remove some 500 senior and middle managers from the Port Elizabeth municipality, in the Eastern Cape, and replace them with blacks. This proposal, to be resisted as being against the constitution, would cost some R750 million. It has been announced at the very time when the aforesaid municipality is owed over R600 million in rates which it cannot, and will not, collect from black areas. The latter, encouraged by the culture of non-payment promoted by the ANC as a means of resisting the apartheid regime, simply will not pay.
The remedy, from the standpoint of the ANC, is simple. Squeeze the European ratepayers even harder. There has been one rates hike after another in Port Elizabeth, while in the George-Knysna area rates have been increased threefold in the last two years.
J.L. Rushbume
Hove, East Sussex
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