Racism cannot be tolerated in South Africa and must be fought with vigour every time it raises its ugly head, says Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa.<\/p>\n
Mthethwa was speaking during the launch of Heritage Month, under the theme \u201cCelebrating South Africa\u2019s Living Human Treasures\u201d, at Ditsong Cultural Museum in Pretoria on Monday.<\/p>\n
The department also unveiled three books in honour of Katrina Esau, a linguist from Upington, Northern Cape; Madosini Latonzi, a musician from Cape Town, Western Cape; and Dr Esther Mahlangu, a painter from KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga for putting the country on the map with their artistry.<\/p>\n
Mthethwa said Heritage Day was one of the strategic levers through which to foster social cohesion and nation building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have to challenge the stubborn presence of the divisive past, this week, for instance, there\u2019s a big issue about Clicks and what is happening there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clicks came under the spotlight on Friday after a campaign by TRESemm\u00e9 was posted on their website where an image of African hair was labelled as dry and damaged, while white hair is described as fine and flat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to confront those things and challenge them. It can\u2019t be allowed,\u201d Mthethwa stressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s something that South Africa must be intolerant of, its the intolerances like racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said racism was not just prejudice, but a \u201cvery deep pernicious and toxic ideology\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be uprooted whenever it rears its ugly head. So, our heritage is who we are and our identity,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody decides to challenge you with the shape of your face, nose, the texture of your hair and so on it\u2019s something we need to liberate those who have white superiority that there\u2019s no such place in this country and we must put all the necessary pressure whenever such intolerances manifest themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said colonialism and apartheid created racialised social structures where the heritage and culture of some groups were celebrated, while other group\u2019s existence and their culture was denigrated.<\/p>\n
Mthethwa said there must be a difference between the populists who want to rid of everything white and those who want to build a coherent nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe struggle for freedom in this country was not a struggle against white but white superiority and against the system itself,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Besides, he said, the country was not going to deny its history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this country, there was a [Hendrik] Verwoerd; we must tell the world and ourselves that there was a [John] Vorster, proponents of apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it is, for this reason, there is going to be a theme park where apartheid leaders will be housed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where they\u2019re going to be and anyone who wants to see them must see them openly so, under a very clear adage, lest we forget because we must educate the youth today and posterity about our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister also spoke against xenophobia, sexism and chauvinism.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll intolerances must be fought with similar vigour.\u201d<\/p>\n
“If you\u2019re from Africa, you\u2019ll never be a foreigner in any country in Africa,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
The Minister highlighted gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), describing it as a threat to social stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cGBVF remains a challenge that needs urgent interventions and as part of raising consciousness across society, the department will continue to open platforms wherein dialogues where GBVF can be pursued relentlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mthethwa said South Africa also needs to deal with the stereotypes and socialisation of the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cA boy and a girl child are given different chores. That\u2019s where you start because you\u2019re instilling a particular understanding of these children and that there are not the same.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to deal with this myth that the man is the head of the family and that cannot be changed\u2026 there are myths we must bust to build a non-sexist society and gender-equal society,\u201d he added. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Racism cannot be tolerated in South Africa and must be fought with vigour every time it raises its ugly head, says Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa. Mthethwa was speaking during the launch of Heritage Month, under the theme \u201cCelebrating South Africa\u2019s Living Human Treasures\u201d, at Ditsong Cultural Museum in Pretoria on Monday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-164931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}