What Colour is the South African Rainbow? the Anc's Racial Transformation (Reflection‪)‬

Over two decades ago, after De Klerk's famous speech of 2 February 1990, announcing the formal end of apartheid, journalists started to speak of the 'South African miracle'--the almost unthinkable possibility of a peaceful transition to a democratic future in a united society. Not every black South African was happy about the fact that, after long and difficult negotiations, the new national anthem featured 'Die Stem' together with 'Nkosi Sikelela Afrika', that several representatives of the National Party became ministers in the government of national unity and that, having become president, Nelson Mandela did not show any willingness to revenge himself upon old enemies. Not every white South African was happy about the new constitutional arrangements in the wake of the negotiated settlement. But the expectations of the black majority were so high, and the feeling of relief among their white compatriots so overwhelming, that petty grudges did not matter. For a few years the country lived in a state of euphoria, and Bishop Desmond Tutu proclaimed that South Africa had already become a 'rainbow nation'. Alas the term did not last: it is only with irony that 'the rainbow nation' is mentioned today. The miracle has not yet happened: a high proportion of both blacks and whites are disillusioned and disappointed. The national reconciliation that seemed almost a reality at the time of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, when former torturers asked their victims for forgiveness and cried together with them in front of the TV cameras, still evades South Africans, and South African society is still divided by law, emotions, economy, ethnicity and policy. So, what has gone wrong? Why is it that the 'rainbow nation' obstinately does not want to form? There are many reasons for this, but one has to begin with the ideology and policy of the ruling party.