Swart perspektiewe op affirmative action

Abstract

Affirmative action embodies a model of compensatory justice which aims al counteracting Discrimination on account of race, colour, sex or creed. This article focuses on race because it has had a devastating effect on blacks in South Africa. The author tries to evaluate the moral merits of affirmative action. An analysis of the ideas of black American conservatives and a South African academic of a perhaps more liberal mind, is used as a means of questioning the widely prevalent liberal legacy. By highlighting its pretensions and inconsistencies a picture of the implications of affirmative action for South Africa emerges that is both a threat and a challenge. Equal opportunities d o not necessarily entail equal results. Other factors such as culture, world view and labour ethos should also be taken into account. The "legacy of dignity" (King) is incompatible with the victim-status some blacks exploit. Much was done in South Africa before Julv 1991 that could be labelled affirmative action. The scrapping of the Population Registration A ct as the last pillar of apartheid has tremendous implications for the dignity of blacks. But history promises yet a number of traumatic decades of democratization of the South African community. Positively, affirmative action in South Africa will have tofocus on quality education, bridging courses to enable black students to compete on equal footing for admission, on training employees to qualify for special jobs, community upliftment, housing programmes and the improvement of health services. The most urgent need is the cultivation of a common value system.