Please decide which of the following statements are true as regards South Africa: -

a) human beings are categorized according to ethnicity under AA laws and BEE protocols;
b) with Whites excluded from jobs and contracts as a matter of course;
c) with Blacks included as of right;
d) and with Coloureds/Indians/Chinese to be included only if they first claim and prove that they are Black;
e) the effect of this is that rights and privileges are being accorded on the basis of race, ethnicity and colour;
f) this was the paradigm approach of the apartheid culture and system;
g) this culture is racist;
h) racism is evil;
i) and racism begets more evil.

Never mind which you may want to bake it, all of the above statements are true. We have racism. We have adopted it, believe in it, nurture it, sustain it, and propagate it … despite its evil nature.

I wish I am wrong. I will be greatly relieved if someone can prove me wrong. I don’t think I am. Discussions I have had with very good people, and some brilliant minds, have faltered right here … when the above statements have to be admitted one by one.
The answer often proffered, and it is the only possible answer, is that by some tortuous process of intellectualized alchemy, it is all OK because it is packaged as AA and BEE. When I point out that you can’t play the “Black” card to resolve a complaint about obsession with “Blackness” – silence … and lots of “well you see …” and then lots of gobledigook, spin and emotive ramblings.

I have also heard some pretty important people, including a high profile judge, say it is “justified” in the cause of transformation. This is no different to saying “the end justifies the means”. So should you should pin me to a medal if I expose a plot to bomb Soccer City and kill 80, 000 people … sure.
Do you still award me the medal if I obtained the info by torturing the informants?

The “justification” argument simply doesn’t wash, both philosophically and in jurisprudence. The “means” always needs to be as “inviolate” as the “objective”.

Now if I am right … and pray God I am not, the implications are quite horrendous. These include the fact that the whole nation is “delusional” for imagining that something that is plainly evil is good. It also includes the fact that a whole bunch of important people and institutions, such as the Human Rights Commission, are conniving and colluding at systemic evil.

And just to put the “justification” argument to bed. It is simple enough to devise a criteria under which AA is applied on the basis of subsisting apartheid induced disadvantage. Since Blacks are the majority in this category they would still be the primary beneficiaries. However the model would not be racist.

Now will someone explain, in language that has the simplicity of truth, that what is set out above is false.