Lukhona Mnguni, Umbilo, Durban: Gwede Mantashe has missed an opportunity. In fact, for him - as the secretary-general of the ANC - to come out and publicly support a racially charged song borders on assisting our country's slip away from reconciliation.

It is good of him to note that the song Dubula Ibhunu (shoot a Boer) is a historic one, and some things are better left not resuscitated from the archives of the tragic South African history.

I can defend the relevance of the song back in the time of apartheid because then the government also had a repressive mentality of Skiet die K****r (shoot a black person).

Hence, there was the PAC's Poqo and ANC's Umkhonto we Sizwe armed wings. The song was meant to charge the cadres in the barracks with determination and venom to take out the Boere government, as it had oppressed black people in their own land.

Songs such as Dubula Ibhunu fomented hatred for white people at the time, which could be justified .

When such an emotive song is sung in today's context, it automatically takes a lot of black people to reminisce about the past.

It brings back memories of suffering and oppression under white rule; it reignites hatred for white people. Today in South Africa, the majority of the land is still in white people's hands, economic activities still favour white people.

White people, especially Afrikaners, are still supreme by having Afrikaans-only schools and Afrikaans-based institutions of higher learning.

The maintenance of these Afrikaner enclaves in public institutions is not going unnoticed (though constitutionally protected) and white people are still seen as more favourable in the job market compared to black people.

When one looks at this realistic analysis, it is easy for a song such as Dubula Ibhunu to instil anger in a black person seeking vengeance.

The ANC should be occupied with reformist policies that are going to dilute this instead of supporting songs that could result in havoc.

Land reform has failed, with only 6% successful transfers from a target of 30% by 2014. It is such policies that must be revisited and white folks need to be brought in to be part of charting a way forward for a more inclusive system and land ownership. For a long time we wondered why Jacob Zuma was obsessed with getting his Umshini Wam, but it could be that it is to be used to Dubula Ibhunu! The ANC must stop this idiocy.

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