South Africa’s Other Whites: Voices for Change PDF
Preview South Africa’s Other Whites: Voices for Change
SOUTH AFRICA'S OTHER WHITES Also by Robert Seott laster SOUTH AFRICA IN NAMIBIA: The Botha Strategy SOUTHERN AFRICA IN CONFLICI' THE DEFENCE OF WHITE POWER: South African Foreign Policy Under Pressure THE 1988 PEACE ACCORDS AND TUE FUTURE OF SOUTH-WESTERN AFRICA THE SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY REASSESSES ITS PRIORITIES WAR AND DIPLOMACY: The Botha Years South Africa's Other Whites Voices for Change Robert Scott Jaster Board Member, Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Affairs and Resident Expert, Arizona Honors Academy, Northern Arizona University and Shirley Kew J aster Member, Maine State Board o[B ar Examiners and Maine State Chair, AAUW Edllcational FOllndation Foreword by Ambassador William B. Edmondson Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-22458-6 ISBN 978-1-349-22456-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22456-2 © Robert Scott Jaster and Shirley Kew Jaster 1993 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1993 All rights reserved. For infonnation, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, S1. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the Uni ted States of America in 1993 ISBN 978-0-312-08947-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jaster, Robert S. Voices for change: South Africa's other whites-/ Robert Scott Jaster and Shirley Kew Jaster. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-312-08947-4 1. Whites-South Africa-Biography. 2. Civil rights workers -South Africa-Biography. I. Jaster, Shirley Kew, 1925- . 11. TitIe. DT1768.W55J37 1993 968.06'092'2--dc20 [B] 92-25572 CIP In its original Greek sense the word 'historia' meant an inquiry ... But to have an inquiry whether into the construction of a legend or the execution of a crime, is surely to require the telling of stories. And so the asking of questions and the relating of narratives need not, I think, be mutually exclusive forrns of historical representation. Simon Schama, Dead Certainties: (Unwarranted Speculations) (Knopf, 1991) To all those South Africans, black and white, who continue to work for a just society. Contents Foreword: Ambassador William B. Edmondson ix lntroduction xii PART I INSTILLING DEMOCRATIC VALUES 'Always on the Fringe' Wynand C. Malan, Member 0/ Parliament (1977-90) 3 2 Moving into No-man's Land Dr. Alex Boraine, Executive Director, IDASA 16 PART 11 DEMILITA RIZING THE SOCIETY 3 Confronting the Military Laurie Nathan, National Organizer, ECC 31 4 The Education of a Young Objector Saul Batzoftn, ex-trooper 41 PART III BLUNTING THE SYSTEM'S IMPACT 5 Healing Apartheid's Children Prof Andrew Dawes, Department 0/ Psychology, Cape Town University 53 6 The Silent Protesters Mary Burton, past National President, Black Sash 64 7 'We're All Damaged' Mrs. Angela du Plessis, School 0/ Social Work, Witwatersrand University 75 PART IV TEACHING WAYS TO PEACE 8 'Peace is a Group Effort' Staff members, Quaker Peace Centre 85 9 'I Tend to Intervene' Dr. Hendrik van der Merwe, Director, Centre tor lntergroup Studies 93 VII viii Contents 10 A Militant Peacernaker Rommel Roberts, Peace Worker 102 PART V EMPOWERING BLACKS 11 Tum-around at the Perm Robert Tucker, Managing Director, SA Permanent Building Society 117 12 'So Much to be Done' [rene Menell, National Chairman, READ 125 13 The Place of Lost Grasses Creina Alcock, Mdukatshani 134 Foreword This is a book about an important element of conscience within South Afri ca's minority white population. As the authors make clear, the vignettes they present are not the whole story, but constitute a sampier that illustrates the diversity of individuals who, in a variety of ways, have fought against the evils of the apartheid system and then, increasingly, against the system itself. . Some readers will ask, 'Why focus on these whites, when it is the preponderant black majority that will shape the future?' The answer is that while South Africa's population clock indeed ticks on, there are factors other than numbers that influence the pace and direction of change. One of these is the growing realization among whites not only that apartheid failed, but that its premises as weH as its effects were moraHy wrong. Another is the growing acceptance among significant numbers of both blacks and whites that sufficient common interests exist to make negotiated change possible and clearly preferable to violent conflict. I believe that the kinds of people whose stories are told here have contributed to these developments as weH as having been influenced by them. In early 1988, during a conversation I had in Lusaka with Thabo Mbeki and some of his coHeagues from the African National Congress, I was impressed at the degree to which they seemed to appreciate the fact that there were many whites in South Africa who were prepared to accept fundamental change in the political system, ~cluding changes in its economic and social aspects. Mbeki and other ANC leaders had talked with leading South African whites a few months earlier at meetings organized in Dakar by one of the organizations described by the authors. In addition to any effects these talks may have had, it seemed clear that the ANC leadership, through its own direct contacts in South Africa, was developing a more accurate measure of the wide range of white attitudes than one might infer from some of the ANC's political statements. Thus, despite continued declarations regarding the importance of armed struggle, there were hints that the more peaceful path of political debate and negotiation was not regarded as totaHy impracticable. The existence of white voices for change surely must have added to the more differentiated perception of white attitudes that in turn made negotiation seem viable. Another way in which these voices for change are important is that they serve as examples and pollinators of a more open, democratic society. In ix
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