Nomsa Liv Nteleko 🐘✨👑

Dear Apartheid Nostalgics First of all, I’m sorry you feel persecuted more than other races in the New South Africa in 2025…I am sorry. For real. I know life is hectic! Even for us brown and black people…it’s pretty bad. I am sorry…but a few things need to be said… (I’m gonna use sports analogies here. I hope the Rugby one gets you) Look, everybody agrees with the concept of merit and working hard. Black people. Brown people. White People. Everybody. But everybody should have opportunity to access the game. Affirmative action doesn’t mean there’s no merit. Affirmative action does not mean there’s no working hard. For hundreds of years, people of colour were LEGALLY prevented from playing the game of self determination. Legally oppressed. Legally not allowed access. Apartheid wasn’t like affirmative action - It wasn't like if there’s a qualified white dude & qualified black dude…the qualified white person will get the opportunity. No. The Apartheid & colonial laws meant that - no matter what - you CAN’T get access. It’s illegal. If you’re black - u can’t buy the land. You can’t have the job. You can’t get the education. You can’t move up no matter how hard you work. No matter how smart you are. It’s AGAINST the law. Versions of this happened all over the world. A funny example is the NBA in America. There was a time, unbelievable as it may seem, when the NBA was WHITES ONLY. It’s not that the white people didn’t compete hard against other white people for victory on merit… …but black people weren’t allowed to play… even guys like Lebron James grandfather wasn’t allowed to play. He wasn’t dunking a basketball…making buckets. He was dunking…a mop…into a bucket. Meanwhile he could probably 360 clean the backboard from the free throw line. The idea of affirmative action is just to get people of colour or people who’ve been historically disenfranchised…into the game. Let them play. Once they’re in the game, they still have to compete like everyone else. Like anyone who’s given an opportunity..QUOTA players can only survive if they’re good. They can only survive due to competence. Another way of looking at it… ..black people’s legs have been LEGALLY AMPUTATED for hundreds of years. Real, horrifically messed up laws that amputated their progress. Now Imagine Oscar Pistorius right… When he ran, he ran with his affirmative action prosthetics. It didn’t guarantee that he won, it meant he could run the race. Imagine Oscar had to compete with no prosthetics. Trying to run the race on his stumps. And then Oscar has to run a race with Usain Bolt. And on top of that…Usain Bolt’s ancestors amputated his legs in the first place. Might make you insecure right? May make you wanna shoot someone. With prosthetics he can compete… and to stay in the race, he still needs to be able to run… and if Oscar wins the race…even with prosthetics… …you can’t say he’s not winning on merit. If privileged people still don’t agree with what I’m saying…let me use a language you may understand… Golf. The next time you play golf - don’t play with a golf handicap cos a Golf Handicap could be called Golf Affirmative action. Or 140+ handicap based golf laws. It’s a way to get people into the game. Apartheid laws weren’t white people playing golf and black people getting a golf handicap… Apartheid was… a black person has to be a CADDY. You’re not allowed to ever play golf. You have to be a caddy. Now if you still not with me…this is my final attempt. Rugby. If I can’t get through to you with rugby it’s impossible…you’ll never get what I’m saying. As a nation, if we figure out how to include ALL RACES into the game of SELF DETERMINATION, it’ll be better for everyone. We won the rugby this way. We became world champions this way. Many times. And every single time there was a new black or coloured face introduced to the team, the assumption was that the black or coloured face was not qualified. Quota player. By default - the perception is 'not qualified' until proven otherwise… That assumption, bias and racism still exists. If there were no systems of redress and so called “140+ race laws” or affirmative action - …because of historical disadvantage, guys like Siya, Cheslyn and Mapimpi for example would probably NEVER have played for our country. Because there would have been no 140+ race based opportunities to get them development, coaching and access. I’m not saying an all white team would not win…there’s nothing scarier than a white Afrikaner rugby player with no neck and cauliflower ears… Baksteen Du Toit will bliksem you and be very effective…white people have the expertise no doubt. …but it’s much better that we all won together. Even though white people had all the expertise, it’s much better that effort was put into diversity, inclusion and equity in conjunction with the obvious hard work and merit based systems. Continuing with the status quo…could still have won us the Rugby World Cup with Afrikaner players called Os or Blikkies many times over…but more importantly the consequences of the “140+ race laws” won not only the World cups, but the heart of all South Africans. We all won together. And it’s possible. And it’s inspiring. And it’s nation building. And we can do it in all industries in SA. It’ll just take time. And effort. But the morality and ethics are sustainable and long lasting. What @afriforum is doing is completely the opposite. It’s just selfish…and no matter how they try to disguise it - fundamentally racist to the core. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika