Berig in Saturday Argus oor "jammer se"

'I benefited from apartheid'
By Thabiso Thakali

Horrified by the racist video made by four white students at the University of the Free State and then humbled by the Australian government's apology to the Aboriginal people, Karl Gostner, 35, has started an online blog to encourage white South Africans to acknowledge the horrors of the past.The blog, the apartheid apology, seeks to be a public record of a gesture of contrition by thousands of white South Africans willing to "say sorry for apartheid and contribute to the healing of the nation". According to Gostner, a similar site has also been established on social networking blog Facebook."This is something I thought of for a number of years now, but after several racial incidents, including the video made by four white students, I decided this would become a public record of white South Africans acknowledging the horrors of the past and their commitment to the future of the country," explained Gostner, a Cape Town radio manager.

'Leave that to the guilty parties'

He said it had been remarkable for him to realise how many white South Africans squirmed from acknowledging that they benefited from apartheid.Despite taking no part in apartheid atrocities, Gostner has offered his own apology on the blog because he believes he benefited from the system. "There is no doubt that I benefited from apartheid," he said. "I went to a well-funded school. I never had policemen raiding my home, arresting my parents, teargassing my classroom or anything else that constituted the teenage years of many black South Africans who are my peers. The fact that I have a successful life today is because I did not experience the violence of apartheid."In the three weeks since the blog was launched, Gostner has received a mixed bag of messages from individuals and organisations that "feel very strongly about doing something to acknowledge the wrongs of the past" and those who believe the idea is patronising.

'The book needs to be closed now'

"You can only apologise if you are responsible for some action or inaction. In your case the ANC was unbanned and you weren't even of maturity age," wrote an anonymous contributor to the blog."You benefited from apartheid, which is something you should acknowledge, but it is illogical that you apologise for something you had no active part in and were too young to play an active part in opposing. Leave that to the guilty parties.

"The Freedom Front Plus said it believed the exercise of asking people to apologise was unnecessary because it would be impossible to judge who needed to apologise and who did not."Our view is that an apology and forgiveness is a once-off event, that is according to the Christian tradition. South Africa has gone through the very traumatic truth and reconciliation process of the 1990s. Many apologies were made and noted."The book needs to be closed now. We should leave the past behind us and learn from it," said FF+ spokesperson Willie Spies.

Spies questioned how far back apologies would have to go if people were to consider British atrocities against Boer women and children in concentration camps, and the wars fought by King Shaka and King Mzilikazi against the Sotho and Tswana speakers' forefathers."We need to learn to adopt an inclination towards the future. A repeated focus on the past creates a culture of non-accountability - a culture that blames all present failures and neglects on the past and on external factors."This is a self-destructive culture and, as South Africans, we should learn to overcome it," he said.Spies said an incident such as the racist video at UFS took place despite the main Afrikaans- speaking churches and Afrikaner political leaders having apologised for the wrongs of the past. It was not apologies that would change attitudes, but rather a change of heart.

Meanwhile, the UFS management is yet to decide on the future of the Reitz hostel where the video was made. The hostel is expected to be closed after the university council gave a mandate to management to consider its future following the racism furore. University spokesperson Lacea Loader said management was still considering the future of the hostel and an announcement would be made soon.