I like the way he writes.
Straight forward without being cra**, and he gets his point across well.
yeah thats what attracted me to the piece initially. Co z the whole piece is rather long. But he writes so well that u want to keep on reading.
Rainbow refugees and racism
By Imran Garda "Racist" - that was the South African government's response to Canada's controversial decision to grant refugee status to Brandon Huntley, a 31-year-old white South African, who claimed he was being persecuted in his home country because of his race.
Given the Rainbow Nation's peaceful transition from several decades of apartheid to democratic black majority rule - the ruling has attracted controversy in both local and international circles.
So, have the tables really been turned? Are white South Africans - nine per cent of the population and the country's former rulers - now suffering discrimination and racism?
Huntley says that not only was he unable to find a job because of his colour, he also claims he was in grave danger because of being white.
The now ruling ANC was once staunchly left-leaning and often labeled as outright "communist" by the apartheid government.
The ANC's proposed economic policy included redistributing the country's resources, once freedom was eventually attained – as is evident from the liberation movement's Freedom Charter.
The Freedom Charter, adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, on June 26, 1955, states: "The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South African's, shall be restored to the people.
"The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.
"All other industry and trade shall be controlled to a**ist the wellbeing of the people."
Bloodbath fears
However, little is known outside of South Africa of what has been termed the "historic compromise".
Negotiated when the apartheid government was in its dying days, high-profile ANC leaders, including Thabo Mbeki, a former president , agreed to the "historic compromise" which saw the ANC sacrifice some of the key demands stipulated in the Freedom Charter in exchange for political freedom.
Black South Africans are still significantly poorer than their white counterparts [EPA]
The demand for nationalisation was abandoned. The banks were to be left alone, including the gold and diamond giants. The new ANC government even took on the international debt accrued under the previous apartheid regime.
Nelson Mandela, democratic South Africa's first president and probably one of the greatest moral authorities of our age, was adamant that had this "historic compromise" not been made, South Africa would have been plunged into a bloodbath.
But 15 years on, with those promises to the majority still unfulfilled, many argue that a bloodbath did take place, albeit in a slower, more painful way, because of the compromise.
Recent worker protests and clashes with police have taken place in the big cities, as well as in other smaller towns like Siyathemba and Meyerton.
Construction and mine workers have taken strike action. The working cla** core of electricity giant Eskom has threatened to bring the company to a standstill if they do not raise wages.
