Max du Preez: ANC's "Ethnic Chauvinism" Returns Coloureds to Second-Class Citizenship

by Amanda on Mar 3rd, 2011

Max du Preez, author of Pale Native, says that the South African government has revealed its own form of post-liberation discrimination.

Based on a “hierarchy of suffering”, coloureds and Indians are viewed as having a “second-class” citizenship by the ruling government, du Preez says, adding that this “ethnic chauvism” is often revealed in the words of ANC officials – like Jimmy Manyi, who declared that there is an “over-concentration” of coloureds in the Western Cape, which lead to a strongly-worded response to the ANC spokesman by Trevor Manuel.

Du Preez recalls the words of the former wife of ex-president FW de Klerk, who referred to coloured people as “uitskot-mense” (rejects), saying this mindset has prevailed in the post-apartheid era:

During the apartheid era, I was classified as a white male. I’m still pretty much regarded as one. One might actually say I’m a whitey in general and an Afrikaner in particular, although most Afrikaners would say I’m not a very good one. I therefore have no place writing on behalf of any population group, not even white Afrikaners.

But perhaps, with a bit of leniency from readers, I should be allowed to express an opinion about other population groups in this so-called rainbow nation and about how they are viewed and treated. The group in question used to have many names: Cape Coloured, Cape Malay, Griqua, Other Coloured, etc. Many nowadays prefer to be called So-called Coloureds. I personally like that, because, as all informed people must know, we are all “coloureds”, but not all So-called Coloureds.