DURBAN: South Africa's million-plus people of Indian origin complain that a controversial scheme to uplift people marginalized under apartheid is working against them.
The bone of contention for this relatively small but economically and politically important group is the Black Economic Empowerment programme, which they say is leading to a new form of discrimination, 10 years after the end of apartheid.
Ironically, many whites in post-apartheid South Africa also say the same thing. Fatima Meer, a leading anti-apartheid activist and a close friend of Nelson Mandela, said that "Indians have never been more secure in this country", since the first multi-racial elections in 1994.
However, the BEE "discriminates against non-Africans," she said. "All other things being equal, if there is an Indian candidate and an African candidate for a job or a seat in university, even if the Indian is better qualified, the African candidate is chosen," Meer said.
The vast majority of South African Indians are descendants of indentured labourers brought in to work on sugar farms. Later traders from India came paying their own passage, earning the appellation "passenger Indians."
The Indians have a rich history leading anti-racial movements in South Africa. India's independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, who worked as a lawyer in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, successfully campaigned against racist laws and forged his famous campaign of non-violent resistance here, which he used to end British rule in his homeland in 1947.
The community, which forms about 2.5 per cent of South Africa's population, generally had better education facilities than the blacks, setting up their own schools - which under the new laws are now open to all.
Amichand Rajbansi, 62, the leader of the tiny Minority Front party which has a predominantly Indian following, made BEE one of his party's main issues in the runup to the April 14 elections - the country's third multi-racial ballot.
"Indians were divided during apartheid. But now we are united because of the unfair application of affirmative action and due to issues like crime and safety," he said.
The Minority Front won two seats in the 400-member national parliament in the April 14 elections and bagged 2.61 per cent of the vote in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where about 90 per cent of South African Indians live.
Meer however explained that the BEE was necessary as Africans were more oppressed than Indians under apartheid and were at the lowest rung as far as any facilities were concerned.
The dilemma for Indians, who denounce the scheme, is that nobody has a solution as to how the programme could be revamped to their satisfaction. They rule out quotas for racial groups, saying that was tried during apartheid but was not fair.
There are some other grouses that the community voices. Eshana Harichand, a 25-year-old executive at Chatsworth, a Indian suburb of the eastern port city of Durban, said the state-run broadcaster SABC ignored the needs of the Indian community.
"SABC television has news bulletins in African languages and in Afrikaans. There are also daily programmes. But for us there is only 'Eastern Mosaic'," she said, referring to a one-hour weekly programme in English on Indian films and culture aired on Sundays.
"Our culture is being ignored," Harichand said. State-run radio also has a 24-hour station called Lotus FM which plays Indian songs and carries news and items, also in English, about India and Indians.
Under apartheid, Indians were deported to areas outside the main cities and towns and their businesses often confiscated with little, if any, compensation paid. Although Indians and Africans joined hands in the anti-apartheid struggle, there were bloody race riots in 1949 in Durban. -AFP
