Many white South Africans believe that a large percentage of the black population is too uneducated to fully understand the importance of education ( which, according to them, leads to Blacks placing underqualified blacks employees in charge of large corporations, causing them to become less efficient ,make less profit, pay less tax and employ fewer people). This explanation is, at best, only partly true. A more plausible explanation is that the average black South African has a deep-seated fear of being dominated and abused by the white community and therefore wants to make whites less powerful (to bring them down to his level, thereby helping to alleviate feelings of inferiority and inadequacy etcetera).
Consequently, what this country does not need are leaders who argue that we need to forget about apartheid and dump affirmative action We need leaders who understand that it is far more difficult for the average Black to make it to the top than it is for the average White, and that affirmative action is therefore a necessary evil if we are to lay the prospect of civil war to rest (ideally, leaders who are prepared to concede that there was a concerted effort during apartheid and earlier at ensuring that Blacks remained uneducated and easy to exploit).
Suffice it to say that affirmative action has the potential to do much good, if it is implemented by people who understand that is needs to be handed out in relatively small doses to people who clearly need it. Simply put, affirmative action is not providing the desired result because it currently is giving too much of an advantage to black applicants, particularly at the top level of the market, where failure can least be afforded.
Having a second-rate air-hostess is one thing. Having a second-rate pilot (or a second-rate heart surgeon) is another matter entirely.
Terence Grant
Cape Town
https://www.businessday.co.za/bd/opinion/letters/2024-12-01-letter-affirmative-action-ceo-disaster/
global politics 
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