Nowhere in the constitution is there any reference to racial quotas. Section 1(b) of Chapter 1 states unambiguously that “non-racialism is a founding value.”  Section 9, (3) outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability, religion. The Preamble exhorts the building of a “united” country.

The contradictions of those precepts are glaringly obvious in the existence of 142 legal and regulatory references to race on how we are governed. They and BEE make a mockery of the constitution’s commitment to non-racialism.

Of course, the standard response in justifying race-based legislation is that it is necessary for “transformation” and to level the playing fields. But where is the logic in applying racial measures to counter a racial dispensation that existed in the first place?

Further distorting the constitution’s commitment to non-racialism is woke theory called equity. This is a social engineering tool which seeks to populate posts based on representivity. It shuns merit while standardising mediocrity.

It favours allocating posts to those who otherwise would not qualify. It discounts the barriers of competence that would otherwise prevent a person from qualifying for a position. Equity disregards the Peter Principle in elevating people to positions beyond their competence. Thus, it discriminates against those who deserve elevation in terms of merit.

Racial quotas, cadre deployment and now equity are responsible for the costly shambles that prevails widely in what passes for government. As Professor Chetty states, “one cannot deny that calling a government department for assistance of any kind has become a nightmare for ordinary citizens.”

Sadly, the fruits of racial quotas have manifested themselves starkly on the cricket field. Cricket South Africa (CSA) imposes a strict quota based on colour – not merit. A minimum of six players in a team must be non-white and of those three must be black.

Thanks to the CSA, baasskap is now more rigidly entrenched than was ever the case under apartheid. This was blatantly evident in its recent treatment of the Warriors team. Despite thrashing the Dolphins team and earning five points, the CSA stripped the Warriors of their victory and their five points because they fielded only two black players and had too many coloureds in the side. Moreover, the Warriors were fined R500,000 and now face relegation to the second division.

Once respected opponents in the cricket world, thanks to obsession with racial quotas South Africa is now a minnow in international cricket. The sport pages have become tainted with political ideology. The significance of the appeal in the 1970s to “keep politics out of sport” has been ignored.

The answer to the question posed in the heading to Professor Chetty’s article whether racial quotas were a source of division should be obvious. Nonetheless, this unfortunate situation could be changed if the term “non-racialism” in section 1 (b) of the constitution was replaced by the word “merit.” That is the cure for racial division which will build a united country.

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If Nixon or Trump had referred to Democrats as “extremists” and “domestic terrorists” who “do not share our beliefs in democracy,” as Biden has twice branded Trump supporters (September 2022 and 2023), the mainstream media would have been apoplectic. Yet, Biden’s indictment of half the US population has been accepted by the mainstream media as a legitimate narrative.

In terms of its Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now trains citizens to identify “radical” conservatives who may be pro-life, anti-Covid vaccines or deniers of the January 6 “insurrection.” Like the Stasi police of East Germany, who surveilled the general public, the DHS now fingers those who openly deny official narratives (World Net Daily, May 12)

The Democrat regime in Washington State has denied parents their right to decide whether their children may undergo “gender-affirming” treatment. Without parental consent, the state may take children to a “behavioural health service” shelter. (World Net Daily, August 18). In the USSR no parental consent was required for children aged nine and under to join the indoctrination movement called the Little Octobrists.

As evidence obtained by the Congress has shown, the Biden regime colludes with Big Tech in the censorship of social media views challenging official narratives. Besides violating the first amendment, those actions are no different from how the Kremlin controlled its major news media, Izvestiya and Pravda, during the USSR years.

Democrat Robert F Kennedy Jr was a victim of that censorship when his comments on Covid vaccines during an interview on ABC television on April 29 were edited out because they were deemed “misinformation.” As the gatekeeper of the Biden regime’s narratives, the mainstream media knows that an informed public threatens those in power.

As was standard practice by the KGB, former US Special Forces and US Government contractor Jeffrey McKellop, imprisoned for sedition because he was part of the patriotic crowd present on January 6, 2021, has been moved to a mental hospital by the FBI. His crime is that he identified more than 200 FBI agents dressed up as Trump supporters on January 6 embedded as agitators and communicated that evidence widely (World Net Daily, November 30).

Yet last month Hamas supporters held a strident protest on Federal property at the Capitol. Nobody was arrested. Nobody was indicted. Nobody was imprisoned for trespassing.

Daily the evidence mounts irrefutably of the transformation of the US into a police state.  Warning of such circumstances, President Calvin Coolidge noted that “the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organised and selfish interests.”  To avoid that, Coolidge advised that the people arise through unified action and reinstate their control over the government. That is precisely the purpose of Trump’s MAGA movement.

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Black Management Forum president Sibongile Vilakazi claims that by appointing Quinn, Nedbank has pursued “ineffective succession planning” and that it has “missed an opportunity for victory for the transformation agenda’ (Business Report). As such, she clearly prioritises ideology above objectivity.

Siyabonga Hadebe, a regular Mercury columnist, asserts that Quinn’s appointment “has sparked a heated debate” and that Nedbank has overlooked two highly eligible black candidates, Ciko Thomas and Mfundo Nkuhlu. For Hadebe, the appointment of a white man by the predominantly black Nedbank Board somehow “perpetuates inequality.”

What neither of these transformation proponents takes into account is that the decision to appoint Jason Quinn was a collective one of the Nedbank Board, the majority of whose members are black. According to Nedbank chairman Daniel Mminele, the decision-making process was rigorous and disciplined, guided by well-defined criteria and facilitated by a reputable international research firm (Biznews, November 29).

By refusing to be influenced by the transformation chorus, the Nedbank Board exhibited courage in upholding merit as the only criterion that should determine appointments. Yet columnists like Vilakazi and Hadebe continue to beat the tired drum of demographic inequality. What they fail to recognise is that demographics have no place in the hierarchy of competence.

The irony of the mindsets of the Vilakazis and Hadebes is that they apply the criterion of merit when their lives may be at risk should they have to undergo surgery or embark on air travel.

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Besides the proven failure of the socialist policies the ANC insists on applying, the government is dysfunctional because of its policy of transformation. By retiring institutional memory, and marginalising minorities in favour of cadre deployment and demographic quotas, the transformation has caused the corruption, waste and ineptitude that now passes for governance..

But despite that reality, the transformation proponents hurl abuse at the private sector because the contents of its character have not been transformed to their liking. This is very apparent from regular articles in Business Report – July 31, being the latest.

Journalism that does not recognise that there is no substitute for merit in employment simply becomes ideological propaganda when it harps on about demographic statistics in the private sector that do not match those the transformation commissars prescribe.  Given the impact of transformation on the public sector, it should be obvious that it is a wrecking ball which if fully applied to the private sector will herald the final denouement of this country.

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While Dr Surve is entitled to his opinions on this subject, his thinking does not resonate with that of two prominent black intellectuals – Moeletsi Mbeki and Dr William Gumede of the Wits School of Governance.

Here is what Moeletsi Mbeki has stated about B-BBEE: “It affects the emergence of black entrepreneurship by creating a small class of unproductive beneficiaries of crony capitalism. The most striking difference between the black elite of South Africa and the elites of Asia is the latter’s embrace of entrepreneurship.”

Dr William Gumede has condemned B-BBEE as “one of the most wasteful, costly and ineffective redistribution strategies devised in any post-colonial society.” He notes that since the late 1990s, R1 trillion has been transferred in the form of BEE deals which have benefited just a handful of politically connected black capitalists.

B-BBEE sends the wrong message, says Dr Gumede, of what it takes to become wealthy. It does so because it ignores the discipline, passion, persistence and resilience required to earn financial greatness. As such, it incentivises and rewards mediocrity and profligacy (Daily Friend, October 21, 2021).

The late John Kane-Berman of the Institute of Race Relations noted that BEE deters foreign investment because of its prescriptive, racial beneficiary hand-outs. Its corollary is less economic growth and fewer new jobs.

If BEE, or B-BBEE in its legislatively more prescriptive form, was such a success, unemployment in South Africa would not have grown from 3,4 million in 1994 to  10 million.

In the world of business success, equity is a non-sequitur simply because it has no place in the hierarchy of competence. Banging the drum of equity is really archaic because initiative and enterprise – the gold standards of business success – are stifled when they are shackled to an ideology that prescribes equity as an outcome.

Finally, it is supremely ironic that Sekunjalo’s Dr Surve should adamantly prescribe equity as the answer to “a more equal society” when over 25 years of BEE/B-BBEE has failed to do so. Moreover, equality is a myth. School should have taught him that when he discovered that there were “A” classes based on intellectual capability which differed from the B, C, and D classes. He should also have come to accept that inequality is an inherent factor of life that has nothing to do with race. Some of the best musicians have been black while some of the best entrepreneurs have been and are Asian. Nobody is equally competent at everything.

Only socialists and communists prescribe equality as an ideological objective because it means subversion to the lowest common denominator in a society that is not free.

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In trotting out the myth of monopoly white capitalism, which he blames for the high unemployment rate, Mahlangu seems oblivious of the fact that money knows no colour. Thirty-eight percent of the stocks on the JSE are foreign-owned; 46% are owned by corporates. Only 16% is owned by private individuals.

As with other experts on our sputtering economy and its high unemployment, Mahlangu carefully avoids mentioning the role of stringent job-inhibiting labour laws and BEE prescriptions along with the demands of militant socialist trade unions in hobbling economic growth and employment opportunities.

In appealing for radical transformation, Mahlangu claims it will lead to non-racialism. But as most informed people are aware, transformation is simply a cover term for majoritarianism. The only way non-racialism can be achieved is by the application of the principle of merit which ensures that competence prevails rather than demographic representivity.

Equity has no place in the hierarchy of competence which is crucial in the generation of wealth and its corollary, job creation.

Sent into The Mercury and published, 23 January 2019.

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Although accusations of racism and incompetence levelled at Dr van Jaarsveld have been found to be baseless, a group calling itself the Higher Educations Transformation Network (HETN) has challenged the exoneration of Dr van Jaarsveld by Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.

Astonishingly and ironically the HETN spokesman, Lucky Thekisho, has rejected Advocate Ntsebeza’s findings as “suspicious” and claimed that “it is strange that black leadership victimise black colleagues. We will do whatever it takes to protect members.”

From that, it is clear that “transformation” is nothing but a euphemism for black domination. As such, it is racist in the extreme. Moreover, it means that fairness, freedom and opportunity – the very pillars of academia – do not prevail within such a mindset.

The time is overdue for academics who value merit above demographic representativity to tell the likes of the HETN group to take a hike. Failing that, the further demise of UKZN to junk status is guaranteed.

Published in The Daily News

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“Ever since 1994 South Africa has lived in a sort of dream world in which it was possible to believe six impossible things before breakfast (quoted from Alice in Wonderland). We have seen all considerations of merit and ability disregarded in the cause of affirmative action. The highest good in this new society was ‘transformation’ in which people were pushed to the front of every queue on account of their gender, skin colour or political persuasion. Everything which could be termed ‘anti-transformation’ was racist, sexist or reactionary. Demographic representivity was seen as good in itself. No society in world history has succeeded on this basis.” – pp.240-241.

“Everywhere there is a huge amount of pretending. One has to pretend that people who are hopeless at their jobs are good at them. That South-South trade is a good thing, even though ithas meant the annihilation of the South African footwear and textile markets by the Chinese. That black economic empowerment was not just corrupt crony capitalism. That South Africa’s steady decline on every sort of index was due to ‘apartheid inheritance.’ That corruption under apartheid was just as bad as under the ANC. One had to refrain from pointing out that many cabinet ministers were obvious buffoons or thieves. One has to pretend that the dislocation of the black family is simply due to apartheid even though it has worsened considerably since the end of apartheid. One has to pretend that the state, the economy and the country were not failing.” -p. 241.

 …y patronage, clientelism and concomitant looting and corruption. This has created a political regime which is incapable of managing and developing a modern state.”  – p. 245.

“The South African state is already anaemic and rickety. The average calibre of cabinet ministers is extremely low. Many seem to suffer from acute paranoia; some even believe in witchcraft. There is very little coordination amongst the absurdly high number of ministries and really no strong drive from the centre. As Goolim Ballim, Standard Bank’s chief economist has noted: ‘It’s  like a real life showing of Home Alone – there are no adults in charge.’ “ – p. 234

“Black majority rule in ANC hands has apparently proved correct all the dire predictions made about black government by the old white right.” – p 142.

“From a peak in 1993 labour productivity overall had declined by a stunning 41,2% by 2013.This trend – strongly encouraged by the ANC’s dependence on Cosatu – is simply disastrous. Nissan nervously notesthat despite all the subsidies paid by government, it now costs 20% more to make a car in South Africa than in Thailand.”  – p. 159.

“Sadtu has been primarily responsible for the collapse of educational standards in black schools since 1994 but no president or education minister has been willing to confront the union. Instead the government does whatever Sadtu says and even appoints its leaders to the cabinet.” – p. 177.

“Similarly, the police have almost completely escaped from official control. Torture and maltreatment of prisoners in police custody have sky-rocketed to a level far worse than under apartheid…. all meaningful discipline has broken down.” – p. 177.[NB.  Daily News, 4 March 2013:  More than 4,000 people died in police custody between 2006 and 2011. Yet under apartheid between 1963 and 1985 the number of deaths in police custody was 74].

BEE: “BEE schemes effectively give away 26% of [a company’s] equity, thus diluting the holdings of all other investors….It is hard to imagine the effect of such policy on any rational investor. Similarly Zuma hasannounced that the government would use  regulatory power to create a new class of black industrialists… nowhere in the world have industrialists been created in that way…” – p. 187.

DA: “Under Helen Zille the DA has moved more and more in an ANC direction and shown a heightened  sensitivity to all the ANC’s bugbears. In such a guise the DA would simply lack the guts and nerve [to govern].” – p. 227

DA: “The government not only does not believe in appointment on merit: it actively denounces such practice as ‘racist.’ Worse still, the once-liberal Opposition DA agrees. One simply cannot run a modern market economy on that basis.” – p. 242.

“The tragedy is that under its present leadership the DA has abandoned its decades-long commitment to merit, not race. This betrayal of principle is likely to be harshly treated by future historians.” – p. 243

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