South Africa's president Ramaphosa calls for racial reconciliation
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday defended his decision to appoint a white male to head the country’s troubled power utility which is billions of dollars in debt.
Andre de Ruyter's appointment as the new CEO of Eskom drew criticism last week from some unions, lobby groups and opposition parties.
Ramaphosa said his government remains committed to the principles of non-racialism and transformation and he called on South Africans to embrace the true spirit of non-racialism, without abandoning the need for redress for those historically excluded by past discrimination.
He emphasised that white men should not be excluded from leadership roles in the country, although there must be a commitment to appoint more black men and women into management in both the public and private sectors.
He said his meeting with the leadership of the Black Business Council last week had seen “issues of transformation discussed”, no doubt a reference to the Eskom leadership debate.
“I took the opportunity to inform them about government’s commitment to transformation and non-racialism. Of all the achievements since the advent of democracy in 1994, perhaps our most important is our sustained and unwavering commitment to transformation and non-racialism,” he said.
Ramaphosa said there appears to be a reluctance to accept that “Africans, whites, Indians and coloureds all have an equal right to a seat at the table of our society”.
He said the country should not allow itself to be “led down this dark path”. “We have witnessed elsewhere in the world the consequences of narrow forms of nationalism based on race or ethnicity. It is not the society we want for ourselves or our children.”
The President called on South Africans to embrace each other as equals, and look beyond their preconceptions of someone merely by looking at their skin colour.
“In the words of Martin Luther King Jnr: ‘We must learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or perish together as fools,’” he added.
-0- PANA CU/MA 25Nov2019
