https://stockcake.com/i/outdoor-classroom-scene_423260_437400
I shared the following response.
Thanks for the observations that you share, Kuhle.
I grew up in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and now the 20s. I have seen many changes in that time. I have seen love increase. I have seen hate increase. I have seen truth increase. I have seen lies increase. The saddest thing is when people do not check the facts, but just believe or accept people who have hate and lies as their motive. They do not check the facts, because hate and lies spread more easily than love and truth spread. I remember in the late 1970s saying to a friend from Ireland that it must have been difficult growing up in Ireland because of all of the Catholic-Protestant conflicts, the IRA, and all that. His reply was simple. 'Les, I grew up in Dublin and Cork, and I never saw any of it.' My thoughts turned to my own experience at Wits University. I regularly walked through Hillbrow and I never saw any of the crime and violence that the world heard was the norm in South Africa.
The conflict was there in Ireland. The unpleasant things were there in Hillbrow. But that was not 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'.
My brother reminded me that Apartheid was actually a compassionate thing, allowing different people to grow without the competition with other race groups. All race groups in South Africa were being educated with excellent education. My parents paid for the education that my four siblings and I had. My wife and I paid for the education that our five children have. At the same time, we were paying taxes that were funding the education for every citizen that was in a family that could not afford to pay for the education of their children. Yes, I may have been in smaller classes than that child in Limpopo. I may have had better educated teachers than that child in rural Natal. I may have been in a classroom while someone was under the trees in Northern Cape. We all wrote the same exams, those less fortunate students and me. We all had the same opportunities. I then paid for my own university studies while my parents continued to pay taxes that funded the university education for those less fortunate people. I then worked and earned a Masters of Science degree. I worked hard in the public sector. At one stage I was funding my own children's education and I was also paying R450 of every extra R1000 that I earned - yes, I was in the 45% tax bracket - and that 45% went toward funding things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families. I do not regret that. I was earning enough to support my family and to contribute towards the well-being of many others.
What does sadden me is the lies that make people hate me because of the colour of my skin. My first ancestor was born the Cape in 1817 and so I am several generations South African. My sons could not get employment in South Africa because they are white males. They worked hard to get their qualifications. But they were not treated as equal citizens. One works in Cape Town but is employed by a British company. One has been invited to do his PhD in Australia where they want to retain him because my son is a valuable member of their team. He wants to come back to build South Africa, and I look forward to the time that short-sighted laws that have led to the decline of the quality of things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families as well as the families of those who continue to pay the taxes that enabled the ANC to provide so many blessings for less fortunate people who became reliant on the charity of the tax payers but did not work hard to become the tax payers to fund things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families.
This is a lengthy response, but I hope that someone will have their perspective opened to that they will seek to see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I hope that each and every one of us will become producers and not consumers! I look forward to the time that every South African lives up to our constitutional requirement to be equally responsible to provide for the equal rights of every citizen. Our Constitution stresses Equal Responsibility and Equal Rights. I don't think that Equal Responsibility is ever stressed. Is it ever taught in our equal education?
The conflict was there in Ireland. The unpleasant things were there in Hillbrow. But that was not 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'.
My brother reminded me that Apartheid was actually a compassionate thing, allowing different people to grow without the competition with other race groups. All race groups in South Africa were being educated with excellent education. My parents paid for the education that my four siblings and I had. My wife and I paid for the education that our five children have. At the same time, we were paying taxes that were funding the education for every citizen that was in a family that could not afford to pay for the education of their children. Yes, I may have been in smaller classes than that child in Limpopo. I may have had better educated teachers than that child in rural Natal. I may have been in a classroom while someone was under the trees in Northern Cape. We all wrote the same exams, those less fortunate students and me. We all had the same opportunities. I then paid for my own university studies while my parents continued to pay taxes that funded the university education for those less fortunate people. I then worked and earned a Masters of Science degree. I worked hard in the public sector. At one stage I was funding my own children's education and I was also paying R450 of every extra R1000 that I earned - yes, I was in the 45% tax bracket - and that 45% went toward funding things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families. I do not regret that. I was earning enough to support my family and to contribute towards the well-being of many others.
What does sadden me is the lies that make people hate me because of the colour of my skin. My first ancestor was born the Cape in 1817 and so I am several generations South African. My sons could not get employment in South Africa because they are white males. They worked hard to get their qualifications. But they were not treated as equal citizens. One works in Cape Town but is employed by a British company. One has been invited to do his PhD in Australia where they want to retain him because my son is a valuable member of their team. He wants to come back to build South Africa, and I look forward to the time that short-sighted laws that have led to the decline of the quality of things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families as well as the families of those who continue to pay the taxes that enabled the ANC to provide so many blessings for less fortunate people who became reliant on the charity of the tax payers but did not work hard to become the tax payers to fund things like the health care, security, water supply, electricity, and education of those less fortunate families.
This is a lengthy response, but I hope that someone will have their perspective opened to that they will seek to see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I hope that each and every one of us will become producers and not consumers! I look forward to the time that every South African lives up to our constitutional requirement to be equally responsible to provide for the equal rights of every citizen. Our Constitution stresses Equal Responsibility and Equal Rights. I don't think that Equal Responsibility is ever stressed. Is it ever taught in our equal education?
I love South Africa. I hope that South Africa will love me.
