Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) researcher Gregory Houston has pointed out that while South Africa’s first democratic election ushered in a period of hope and expectation of a non-racial South Africa, that hope of a non-racial paradise now seems lost.

In commemorating Human Rights Day, which will take place on Monday, the HSRC hosted a one-day dialogue on race and racism in Pretoria.

Houston explained that an increasing number of racist incidents brought to the fore deep-seated feelings of inter-racial dislike and mistrust.

Various sectors of society were still fertile grounds in which racism flourished and race dominated, he said. Among these sectors were public spaces such as universities.

The HSRC said the issue of race and the racism that flowed from it, was a contentious one, and was an unresolved issue in South Africa.

Lawyer and political activist Tembeka Ngcukaitobi noted that South Africa was not dealing with individual isolated acts of racial hatred, but was rather dealing with the structure of society that was constructed by race.

He said one could not speak to race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa without some reflection from the past.

He explained that when apartheid was installed in 1948 DF Malan and his government sought to embed into the political structure of the country a process that began and transformed for over 300 years.

Ngcukaitobi noted that race became a totalising idea, forming part of the sub-structure and superstructure of society and added that this was recognised by the United Nations.

In June 2022, Brill Publishers released Paradise Lost: Race and Racism in Post-apartheid South Africa co-edited by Houston, Yul Derek Davids and former HSRC researcher Modimowabarwa Kanyane.

The volume is about the continuing salience of race and the persistence of racism in post-apartheid South Africa and is premised on the notion that the work of remaking the world in truly non-racial ways may proceed on a better and more informed basis if there is a better understanding of how race and racism work in a country that has recently emerged from a racist past.

The book illustrates the multiple ways in which race and racism are manifested and proposes various strategies to address racial inequality, and to confront racism and the power structure that underpins it.

“It also explores how a renewed commitment to a non-racial society can help to erase apartheid’s racial categories, even as they are being reinforced,” Houston said.

He believes that society should be allowed to speak overtly and frankly when grappling with these matters, as a vital component in the building of a non-racial society.

He concluded that post-apartheid South Africa retained some of the privileges of apartheid for a few, as well as some elements of the non-racial paradise for all.

“It is only by dealing with the former decisively and totally that the latter can be attained, and race and racism ultimately erased,” he said.