South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Thami Mseleku, has said that the Government of National Unity that was formed in South Africa was necessary at this point in the history of South Africa because racial polarisation was beginning to emerge again in the country.
The High Commissioner said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday where he addressed the misgivings and protests by many South Africans who had said that the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), had regressed by forming a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (Party), a party which is said to be a presumably racist white party.
Explaining the need for a Government of National Unity in South Africa in this period, Mseleku went down history lane in reflection on the need to form South Africa’s first government of National Unity as he said, “We sat around the table with people who had actually killed us, who had maimed us, who had detained us, who had put our leaders in jail for 27 years. And when our President, President Mandela, came in there, the ANC had always said that it was for negotiations.
“You don’t negotiate with your friends, you negotiate with your enemies. And therefore, the negotiations led to what was called the Government of National Unity, the first one that we had then, where we, both in our administration and in the political sphere, actually had to work with people who had actually- some of them had tortured our people, some had killed them. That was the decision we took in order to ensure we have a peaceful country that is stable.
“We have reached a stage again in our history where this racial polarisation is actually beginning to emerge. If you look at the trends of the voting, our white compatriots have voted in their numbers, 73% of them, for what may be termed white parties, whereas if you look at the other side, the majority of the black South Africans have not voted for white parties, they have voted for what may be termed black parties. Now, we can’t have a situation where we are supposed to develop a non-racial society but we still actually have the racial lines and we draw lines on racial grounds.
“This is why our President and the ANC has chosen to say, we need to unite our Nation regardless of what we think of each other, we need to actually send a message that we are still one nation- whether we are white, black, yellow or what, we live in South Africa, and it is our home- all of us, and therefore, we may find ways to actually live with each other. We may differ in how we see the future, how we see the policy. But at the end of the day, we mustn’t actually fall into this white-black kind of politics because it can lead to serious disasters for the future of our country.”
The high commissioner then spoke on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s newly appointed cabinet, alleviating the fears of any imbalance in government, especially by those who believe that the DA will bring about such imbalance, saying, “Let’s look at this cabinet very carefully. On the one hand, you have the democratic alliance that, as you say, may not be very pleased with any attempt to have land reform. On the other hand, you have the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, a former liberation movement whose focus mainly is on land restitution, restoring the land to what it calls its original owners.
“If you look at the two ministries that actually deal mainly with land, the agriculture ministry is actually headed by the DA leader, Mr. John Steenhuisen, and the land ministry is actually headed by the PNC president. So, you can see that there’s always going to be a balance in act and engagement. What’s important and has been agreed upon is that this kind of situation will have to lead to a consensus development so that people can have an approach that is agreed upon. No single party can come and say I’m pushing my policy and you’re pushing yours. This is a government of National Unity.”
Responding to Nigerians who believed that the presumably racist DA in government will make it harder for Nigerians who are already struggling to gain access into South Africa, Mseleku said, “Nigerians are not struggling to visit South Africa as a result of some of the illegal activities of a few Africans, perhaps including Nigerians. Not at all. Many Nigerians that still go to South Africa, we deal with the Visa Issuance in our offices almost every other day with applications reaching 200, 400 almost per every week. There’s never been a big challenge for problems with Visa because of what is termed Xenophobia.
“The challenge is said to deal with administrative issues. And so, from a policy point of view, the fact that the ministry is headed by a DA person does not change the policy of the government, which actually prioritises the African continent. Our foreign policy puts the African continent first before any other area of the world in terms of our relations. But also, our foreign policy is linked to our own trajectory in terms of tourism, and we put Africans and South Africans first in relation to our development of our tourism trajectory. So, that is not going to change, and all you might have to see is like it was happening before, our minister of Home Affairs, just the one who has left, was actually trying to improve the situation in terms of making the administration of visa and passport and every other thing quicker and more efficient.
“So, it may actually just be a continuance of just making sure the administrative capacities are actually improved, not policy as such. We won’t have a kind of attitude to that, it’s different as you have. Because as I said, on the one hand, we may have a DA minister, but these are cabinet decisions, a collective decision led by our President who is very emphatic on these matters.”
Mseleku was then asked if he sees a hope for South Africa’s future with the recently established government of National Unity, to which he responded, “Definitely, the approach that has been taken by our government to form a government of National Unity is actually to bring hope to the people of South Africa, and therefore, I see a possibility of the unexplored waters that will actually bring a little bit of stability into the country and possible economic growth and prosperity. Because if you went the different way, you would have found that you are actually polarising the South African public or the South African constituency. So yes, I see serious hope in the future.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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