White liberalism shouldn't forget

Sonwabo Ngcelwana
Academic Planning Unit

"The presence of colonial symbols on campus always revealed the culpability of white liberalism in the plundering and mass murder (of Afrikaners and blacks). This culpability numbed many white liberals to the pain and hurt of the 'other', and in later years white liberalism joined hands with Afrikaner nationalism to subjugate and commit the worst atrocities against the majority of people in South Africa.

"White liberals will not link the legacy of CJR to the massacre in Marikana and to the pervasive structural inequalities that characterise SA. To be frank, I do not give a damn about the fate of CJR's statue.

"As much as its presence is an affront to a lot of people, white liberalism should not be made to forget its avaricious appetite, which still perpetuates itself in the enormous wealth, privileges and opportunities that it still enjoys 21 years after democracy. My views on 'transformation' are too extreme to put on paper; suffice to say, dislodging power, privilege and opportunity by 'rational dialogue' has never borne any fruit."

Read more stories from the April 2015 edition.