BY REGINALD KANYANE
Democratic Alliance(DA)leader,Mmusi Maimane’s “Bantu Education was better”comment is shocking and has exposed the ignorance and lack of appreciation of the extend to which the racially discriminatory curriculum under apartheid had impacted on the lives of the oppressed majority, the South African National Civic Organisation(SANCO) said on Friday.
“Maimane would not have said what he said if he understood that the separate and unequal education was designed to teach African learners to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for a white-run economy and society, regardless of an individual’s abilities and aspirations ,”highlighted SANCO National Spokesperson,Jabu Mahlangu.
Mahlangu asserted that segregated education had disadvantaged all black groups,i.e Africans, Indians and Coloureds,but was particularly devastating for Africans.
“Suggesting that Bantu Education was better undermines the struggle of the youth of 1976,the struggle for liberation in its entirety and the transformation process that was embarked upon since the dawn of freedom and democracy that the DA remains opposed to,”he emphasised.
He said that communities that continue to suffer as a result of the legacy of Bantu Education will remain opposed to the DA and its policies aimed at maintaining the status quo and protecting white privilege.
“Bantu education served the interests of white supremacy.It denied black people access to the same educational opportunities and resources enjoyed by white South Africans.It denigrated black people’s history,culture and identity and promoted myths and racial stereotypes in its curricula and textbooks,” Mahlangu underscored.
He emphasised that the DA’s narrative continues to regard blacks as perpetual children in need of parental supervision by whites.
“Unfortunately this is the position Maimane is comfortable with as the co-opted DA leader but for a very long time it will remain the position that the majority of our people are not willing to accept,”he said.
-TDN
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