LETTER: Black leadership is what matters to black lives
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As members of a multiracial nation with a racist history, most South Africans should recognise the national importance of continuously and determinedly fostering racial harmony among our citizens. Racism in any form will destroy the prospects of our citizens living in peace and prosperity with one another.
If the slogans, exhibitionism and support of and for the Black Lives Matter movement in our country are intended to positively and peacefully promote such a state of racial harmony, they should be applauded and supported. If, however, they are used as a platform to express continued outrage and seek revenge for colonialism, apartheid or more recent forms of racial injustice, they will have the opposite effect and unnecessarily increase racial tension.
Contrary to the narrative of some, the fact is that our executive, legislature and judiciary, our Chapter Nine institutions, our economy with its state-owned enterprises, organised business and labour and many of our commercial, manufacturing and financial entities, our societal establishments and nongovernmental organisations, sporting bodies and teams, and our media, educational, arts and cultural environments, are dominated and being led by black individuals.
SA’s survival and wellbeing is becoming largely dependent on the extent to which Black Leadership Matters. Black lives will matter, as will the lives of all South Africans, but they will all be directly affected by the values, competencies, integrity and courage of our country’s black leadership, and the nation’s urgent focus should be on the right sort of leadership, black and white, where it matters most.
David Gant
Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
If the slogans, exhibitionism and support of and for the Black Lives Matter movement in our country are intended to positively and peacefully promote such a state of racial harmony, they should be applauded and supported. If, however, they are used as a platform to express continued outrage and seek revenge for colonialism, apartheid or more recent forms of racial injustice, they will have the opposite effect and unnecessarily increase racial tension.
Contrary to the narrative of some, the fact is that our executive, legislature and judiciary, our Chapter Nine institutions, our economy with its state-owned enterprises, organised business and labour and many of our commercial, manufacturing and financial entities, our societal establishments and nongovernmental organisations, sporting bodies and teams, and our media, educational, arts and cultural environments, are dominated and being led by black individuals.
SA’s survival and wellbeing is becoming largely dependent on the extent to which Black Leadership Matters. Black lives will matter, as will the lives of all South Africans, but they will all be directly affected by the values, competencies, integrity and courage of our country’s black leadership, and the nation’s urgent focus should be on the right sort of leadership, black and white, where it matters most.
David Gant
Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
