Apartheid did steal their youth, poverty still stealing their youth

The ANC’s big problem is that it is all about redressing the injustices of the past, and that isn't where we live.

There are also injustices in the present that need dealing with.

Take Minister of Human Settlements and blight on a good name Lindiwe Sisulu.

She recently proclaimed that under 40s didn’t have their youths stolen by Apartheid – so they could make do without a government house.

The thing is, one of the most basic effects of apartheid was limiting who could and couldn’t engage in our larger economy.

Now the thing with economics is that generally there is an advantage to getting into the market early.

If you are born to a rich family you will generally end up with a better standard of education, with better access to connections than if you are born poor, because your family can afford it.

You also start off with greater access to finance – which means more of a chance to start new things.

By keeping the majority of our country poor, Apartheid actually kind of did steal the youths of the next generation – because those youths were raised in poorer circumstances than they would otherwise have to have dealt with.

This is why economic inequality persists along racial lines.

We cannot claim to have addressed the past, if it still echoes through the generations in the form of unemployment, and reduces opportunities to start new businesses.

But there is another issue I have with this.

The UK never went through apartheid, yet it set up a council housing plan to reduce homelessness. Why? Because it addressed past wrongs? No, because it was necessary to create a better future.

The New Deal in the US wasn’t about addressing past imbalances, though turn of the century America had plenty of those, but about preparing the ground for future wealth.

At present we have a massive problem with unemployment and the poverty it generates. Talking about helping the people who were disadvantaged by Apartheid is good – but we have to think further than that.

We have to think further than justice. A just society isn’t a praiseworthy one, because justice is something you’re supposed to do.

We need to consider the praiseworthy future our country does not deserve, but yearns for. A future not simply free of poverty, but filled with wealth.

It should not be about settling scores for what our country was, but building the foundation for what our country could be.

One day Apartheid will probably be a distant memory – but the project of building a better South Africa will carry on.

That many of the poor of today, that many of the unemployed of today are born frees, or very nearly born frees doesn’t change the fact that they are poor and in need of help.

And we have a government that once claimed it was all about providing that help.