What this country does not need are leaders who argue that we need to forget about apartheid and dump affirmative action.
We need leaders who understand that it is far more difficult for the average black person to make it to the top than it is for the average white person, and that affirmative action is therefore a necessary evil if we are to lay the prospect of civil war to rest.
Ideally, we need leaders who are prepared to concede that there was a concerted effort, during apartheid and earlier, to ensure blacks people remained uneducated and easy to exploit.
Affirmative action has the potential to do much good if it is implemented by people who understand that it needs to be handed out in relatively small doses to people who clearly need it. Simply put, affirmative action is not providing the desired result because it is giving too much of an advantage to black applicants, particularly at the top level of the market where failure can least be afforded.
Having a second-rate air hostess is one thing. Having a second-rate pilot (or a second-rate heart surgeon) is another matter entirely.
Terence Grant
Cape Town
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