South Africa today
Sir: For sheer bilge, Andrew Kenny's ritual relating of the woes of white South Africans (The black and white degree show', 12 July) achieves a new low in black- bashing, even for him.
He gives the impression that black South Africans generally are incompetent and whites the opposite, and emigrating. He fails to note the enormous involvement of astute blacks at senior levels in govern- ment, local authorities, the professions, academe, business, the arts — in fact, every aspect of South African life. Nor does he notice the flood of highly qualified blacks re-entering South Africa as limited num- bers of whites take their skills elsewhere.
The truth is that, after the awful period of racial and social alienation (which Mr Kenny tends to cherish with nostalgia, I think), whites and blacks are finding one another increasingly close, despite the vast gap in liv- ing standards. South Africa is fielding the full team, as never before, in almost every endeavour of national life and this is evident in the national collaborative effort to secure the Olympic Games for Cape Town which means for all Africa — in 2004.
Mr Kenny's views are well-known in your columns, and The Spectator should surely cast around for a counterbalance to his frustrated scribblings. This time it is univer- sities that attract his reckless attention.
He even refers sneeringly to blacks as `large extended families in the townships' living off university bursary money. This is in the tradition of the worst English atti- tudes towards the Irish in the last century. And just look at them now — with Ireland's envied economy in the leading ranks of the European Union.
There is little point in answering Mr Kenny in detail on the university question. There are any number of relevant South African university figures who can do this. So, from me, just this: his statement that at the University of Cape Town in the mid- 1980s 'only speakers who obeyed the [ANC socialist] party line were allowed on cam- pus' is simply untrue. There were, admit- tedly, controversies over Chief Buthelezi and Conor Cruise O'Brien, but that in no way justifies his wild generalisation. And there was a war on, just in case Mr Kenny did not notice.
Curiously, he attacks 'affirmative action' (which should properly be termed correc- tive action), and yet finds merit in the engi- neering academic support programme at UCT — as if this highly commendable effort were an island in South African aca- demic life. Because of the disgraceful lega- cy of the past, black standards of education have lagged badly, and steps are being taken over a wide front to bring those blacks who need it up to speed through such programmes.
South Africa is making it, despite the Andrew Kennys. Watch this space.
Kader Asmal
Minister of Water Affairs & Forestry, South African Government, Private Bag X9052, Cape Town, South Africa
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