18 July 2000
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT
1. The National Conference on Racism will be held at the new Sandton Convention Centre, Gauteng, beginning on Wednesday 30 August and ending on Saturday 2 September 2000. The purpose of this briefing is to update you on the progress so far and to seek your co-operation in publicising some upcoming events as well as to inform the public about how they might participate in the conference.
2. It will be recalled that the slogan for the conference is Combating Racism: A Nation in Dialogue. We have now also finalised the themes and sub-themes. There are two broad themes:
3. We believe that the conference must both inform, educate and inspire not just those participating as delegates or representatives at the conference as well as mobilise South Africa to engage in the struggle to combat racism. We believe that two key elements are essential in the struggle against racism:
By so doing we believe that we shall mobilise the mass of our people to resist racism in all its forms and to develop an anti-racism culture. When such a culture exists, racism ceases to be fashionable or to be tolerated or for us as a community to become indifferent to.
4. South Africans have been talking about racism in recent times. We have been quite exercised about the loss of the bid to Germany. We are perplexed and angry as a nation because we can find no rational reason why FIFA delegates could not find it in themselves to award the bid to a new nation and a continent aspiring to be considered as equal partners in the game of football. Indeed a country and a continent that hold great potential for the future development of football. That is, except greed, naked power and jealousy. Somehow, we have been able to translate those sentiments to mean racism. We have come to know collectively how it feels to be a victim of racism and national bigotry. That has affected all of us whether black or white.
5. I understand that the results of a survey are to be published this week on how South Africans view racism in the media. The results indicate that white South Africans have a gut sense about racism, serious doubts must exist as to whether when we talk about racism, we mean the same thing or not. We are all still trying to exorcise the ghost of apartheid. Somehow we continue to view reality and relations between black and white in particular through the lenses of apartheid. Because apartheid even today conjures up revulsion, no one wants to be associated with it. And yet in broad terms relations between black and white, the social and economic spectrum and hierarchy of power and values as well as the special geography show that apartheid has the nine lives of the legendary cat.
6. The themes and sub-themes, therefore, are designed to be the organising principle around which the conference is organised. They are intended to stimulate debate and discussion, to enable a free interchange of ideas among equals to take place in a risk-free environment. We hope that discussions on radio talk shows and in the neighbourhoods, wherever people gather, they can share their experiences and their aspirations about our country.
7. What has proved to be the greatest challenge for us is exactly in those instances where racism persists in more subtle forms, where prejudice is not simply a state of mind or thoughts and ideas in someone's head but the basis for action towards, the means to exclude and discriminate against another, the principle to justify and propagate ideas that hurt and diminish others. The second thing we hope to achieve, is to give South Africans tools to be more discerning, analytical and critical exactly of those things that surround them which they might otherwise take for granted. The insight to question what others consider obvious is the means to make them accountable. These values which we tend to take for granted without questioning, those practices and belief systems which have shaped the conduct of our society and organise our systems, must now be brought under the microscope. The second outcome we are hoping for, is to promote knowledge and understanding about racism so that South Africans can be more discerning, more challenging and more questioning. Finally, we believe by so doing we shall be promoting better informed dialogue and interaction among all South Africans which is a sure route towards solutions. One can already sense that there is more open discussion of racism in the public domain in our country than might have been the case when so many of us feared upsetting the objective of reconciliation which was, to use an image borrowed from what someone told me the other day, the freedom of a fox in a chicken-run.
8. We can now confirm the list of speakers for the conference. President Thabo Mbeki will officially open the conference on Thursday morning, 31 August 2000. We believe that the opening will be truly a state occasion bringing all South Africans together across all forms of divides and comfort zones. We believe that the President will address the nation on this critical issue through the conference. This is a critical issue for South Africa because the credibility and sustenance of our democratic credentials depend on it. It is also my conviction that we can only be assured of a common future if we truly extend opportunities and life-chances to a growing number of South Africans as equals so that they may as equals contribute to our social and moral well-being, economic prosperity and technological advancement.
9. We are pleased to announce that besides the confirmed keynote speakers, Prof Jakes Gerwel, Mrs Nozipho January-Bardill and myself, we hereby announce that, with the assistance of the Embassy of the USA, we have invited Prof Patricia J Williams of the University of Columbia Law School as the keynote speaker. Prof Williams comes to us with outstanding credentials as one of the proponents of the critical race theory movement among American legal academics. She has taught at several universities in the US, among them the Harvard University Law School. In 1997 she had the signal honour to be invited to give the BBC Reith Lectures in London. Her much acclaimed Reith Lectures have been published as Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race; Noonday Press; 1997. Prof Williams has an impressive list of publication, among them, her book, famous for its critical race theory analysis: The Alchemy of Race and Rights, and The Rooster's Egg, she is also a regular columnist for the New York newspaper, The Nation. Her popular column is The Diary of a Mad Lawyer. We are very honoured to have Prof Patricia J Williams address our conference. We believe that she will be an inspiration to many who are sceptical about the pitfalls of racism in society.
10. We have now completed the list of facilitators for the working groups at the conference. We have invited about 50 persons who we believe are experts in the field related to the sub-themes of the conference. Each group will have a facilitator, a rapporteur and resource person or persons. These will work as a team to facilitate the work of the group, prepare the reports and generally an informed discussion of the issues placed before the group. The facilitators have been carefully chosen on the basis of their expertise, but also to ensure representivity, racial, linguistic and gender balance.
11. This week, we are also issuing invitations to about 850 participants at the conference. These, by and large, will be representatives of government, parliament and local government, traditional leaders, statutory bodies and independent constitutional institutions, and civil society. It's a massive operation. We hope that the invitations will ensure that nominations for the available places at the conference will reach us by no later than 30 July 2000. As is the case with facilitators, we believe that participants will be reflective of the whole spectrum of South African society in terms of political allegiance, linguistic, racial and gender balances. We will rely a great deal on the speedy nomination of delegates and the return of nomination papers.
12. As we have been saying consistently, we believe that the conference should not be viewed simply as an event that will take place at one place during a few days. We intend these to be an experience, hopefully a life-changing experience, an evangelical moment. For that reason the conference is a process that has already begun, finds expression in the series of provincial meetings taking place around the country this week, articulated in the media hype, interviews, advertisements in the papers and radio, talk-shows that we believe we get underway in earnest from now onwards. Some major events are in the offing. We have had meeting already in Cape Town and in Mpumalanga. Northern Cape is engaged this week in a series of intimate gathering or road-shows, North West will gather in Mafikeng on Wednesday, Free State at Bloemfontein on Thursday, Eastern Cape in East London on Thursday and Gauteng in Braamfonten on Friday. These events will be recorded, testimonies and statements will be heard and the observations there from will be transmitted to the National Conference. The National Conference will produce a Statement and Programme of Action which will become a strategic tool for action against racism in our country long after the doors of the convention centre have closed behind the last delegate. During early August, funds permitting, we hope to undertake a nation-wide media and advertising campaign. We hope to have flagpoles bedecked with colour, giant billboards, taxi-net signs and electronic signage. The National Conference should be for all South Africans an exciting 'happening'.
13. An event of this magnitude would not be possible without the partnerships and co-operation from diverse groups and institutions large and small. We wish to acknowledge the contribution of government towards the expenses of the conference. Naturally, we need major funding from donor partners in order to ensure that this project delivers to the scale that the subject requires. We are pleased with the support from the GCIS, and Post Office. Please watch out for the franking design in all letters that go through our postal services that goes out soon. The franking will bear the logo of the National Conference on Racism. The Post Office also assists as a delivery point for all pamphlets on the conference. We have approached various public enterprises for financial support and a number of chieftains of industry to contribute towards the national advertising campaign next month. We believe that this is a project that South African business and industry should be proud to be associated with.
N Barney Pityana
CHAIRPERSON
South African Human Rights Commission
CO-CONVENOR: STEERING COMMITTEE FOR THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Johannesburg, 18 July 2000
Issued by the South African Human Rights Commission, 18 July 2000