Ian Fuhr | Founder | Hatch Institute | mail me |
South Africans are nervous about the future of our country, largely because of the multiple crises we face and the uncertainty about the outcomes of the 2024 election. We are looking down the barrel of overwhelming challenges in virtually every aspect of government and society and a sense of negativity and hopelessness is gathering momentum.
I was fortunate enough to be in the audience for the News 24 “On the Record Summit” in Cape Town at the end of May. There were some highly relevant panel discussions about the future of South Africa. These included opposition coalitions, organised crime, climate change and more, all of which I found extremely interesting. I was, however, waiting to hear something about the future of race relations and was surprised by its glaring omission. Remarkably, South Africans seem to have given up any hope of actively solving racial polarisation and have succumbed to the “it is what it is” attitude.
I cannot possibly conceive of any meaningful future solution to South Africa’s current problems, that does not include a large-scale effort in the area of racial healing. Having dedicated a significant part of my lifelong entrepreneurial journey to race relations in the workplace, and now consulting on the subject to several companies, large and small, I have seen first-hand the impact of polarisation. Virtually every problem we face in this country is touched, in one way or another, by our legacy of systemic racism and the psychological damage it has caused the people of all races across the board.
Race relations and social cohesion are undoubtedly our biggest challenges, and yet they stand invisible on the list of priorities for building a future society that is just and equal. According to the preamble of our constitution, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united by our diversity”. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, South Africa belongs to the privileged few, and we are horribly disunited in our diversity! It says nothing in our constitution that we should strive to be one of the most unequal societies in the world, and yet that is one of our inglorious achievements.
What is racial healing?
Racial healing is a process that, restores people and communities to wholeness, repairs the damage caused by systemic racism, acknowledges the truth about past wrongs, facilitates trust-building, and fosters…
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Read the full article by Ian Fuhr, Founder, Hatch Institute, as well as a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the August/September 2023 edition of BusinessBrief.
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