It is a new South Africa indeed. Here is the short version: Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the former leader of the New National Party (the kinder, gentler version of the national party – yes, THAT National Party) has been accused of racism.

Well what is so noteworthy about that, you ask? The accusations being levied at the man with the nickname of “Kortbroek” (Afrikaans for “short pants,” and no, that is not a compliment) come from white South Africans. Schalkwyk is the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and whites are angry that he has appointed a number of blacks to various senior management positions and other high profile jobs within his department. The Mail and Guardian article can be found here.

It is obvious that what many will call affirmative action will continue to be a divisive issue in South Africa in the years and decades to come. But seriously, it takes an awful lot of audacity for white South Africans to gripe about the racial conditions in their country. The fact that Marthinus van Schalkwyk even has a ministerial post indicates that South Africans have been far more forgiving than whites had any right to expect after the forty (plus) lost years of apartheid. I'm pretty certain that white South Africans are in no position to complain that they are no longer being handed the spoils of patronage from a South African government that has been a lot more charitable than most could ever have imagined.