Reconciliation-It is surprising that the white South Africans are the ones who are mostly talking about forgetting the past and moving forward in order to rebuild the country. They  are forgetting that the past is the one that shape the  future, if  one  forget  the past  he is very  unlikely  to  be  successful  in the future because he will repeat  the mistakes of the past. It’s true that no one can change the past even God cannot change the past, but we can learn from the past and go forward and we can also rectify the mistakes of the past in order to be able to move forward. Black people were the victims of the very same past which the white people say it must be forgotten, obviously it’s easy for them to say let’s forget the past because they were the beneficiaries of that past. But it’s not easy for the victims to forget the past especially if that past is still causing pain in their lives. And the white man is still enjoying the fruits of what he did to the victims and he is not even willing to share what he took by force from the victim which is the black men. Apartheid beneficiaries have not even show any serious remorse of what they have done from the past, they only emphasize that we must move forward n forget the past, how can we move on as a nation while black people are still in pain, and it’s easy for the white man to say let’s move on because they are not in pain, but they are still enjoying the fruits of apartheid. I doubt that if it was the white people who were the victims of apartheid having suffered in the very same way black people have suffered and they are still suffering  that they would be talking about forgetting the past.

Black people were the big losers in the era of  apartheid and in fact they lost almost everything like  land,life,language,culture,religion,dignity,wealthy,livestock,seed,homes,values,laws,holidays,ceremonies,calendar,food,medication,education  and marriages in fact everything about a black man was destroyed  by the colonial powers. All this things that were stolen from a black men are still in the hands of the colonial powers the only thing that a black man has been given is a right to vote every five years while remaining poor, landless and homeless. Black men are expected to move forward with their pain and forget all the things that were stolen by the imperialist, while the whites are expected to move forward while enjoying the fruits of what they have done to black people. The imperialist wants to keep on enjoying the things that they stole from black people and that is what the white men called true reconciliation. It can be easy for someone who have killed your parents to say let’s forget the past and look forward to the future, while he himself is still living in the warmth of his parents. Most criminals expect to be easily forgiven without restoring what was stolen from you. If a criminal that has hijacked your car, which you were using to generate income, he come and admit that he hijacked you and then say to you forget the past and he does not give you back your car, will it be easy to forget the past while seeing that criminal enjoying your car and making money out of your car while you are suffering with your children?.Obvious it can be easy for the criminal to say let’s forget the past because the past had benefited him but you were robed you of your car and income.

This is the reason most of the white people are saying let’s  forget  the past  and look forward  to the future because they have benefited greatly from the past and even today they are still enjoying   the fruits of that past, yet  black people are still suffering from what happened in the past. White people  in South  Africa  are owning  almost 80%  of the land  yet they  are the minority, the majority which is black people are landless and homeless  staying in shacks and in places which are not suitable for human occupation. If the white people were the ones who were the victims in their own land like the black people they would be the ones today who are speaking like Malema about taking the land without compensation. After all if someone hijack my car I do not have to compensate that person in order for him to bring back my car otherwise that will be a way of promoting crime, That can lead to criminals hijacking us then come and say we must compensate them in order to get back our cars that will be completely madness even if the hijacker has upgraded your car that does not mean he must be compensated.

This is the same with land even if they have developed that stolen land that does not means they must be compensated. If  the white south African can be  realistic they can admit that in order  for South Africans to have  true reconciliation  they must first restore what they have stolen from  black  people and admit that they were wrong  when they stole  from black people. Compensating people who  have stolen  from others that will be a way of promoting crime, because in the future other people can also invade other countries and steal their land then demand compensation thereafter. Black people are considered as an inferior race even today because they are poor as a result of colonial powers. They are being segregated even today in many ways. It is not true that black people cannot utilize the land, because black people were utilizing the land producing their own food until they land was stolen from them in order to make the farm workers and slaves. When you travels around  Soweto  you will find  black people utilizing any vacant land  to produce food for themselves they even go to school  to ask for a piece of land to plant vegetables and that shows  that they  are hungry to have land of their own. In conclusion we will continue hearing white people talking about forgetting the past and building a rainbow nation without them compensating the damages that they have done in the past because they have benefited a lot with that past, they are where they are because of that past. Even if this generation tries to forget the past but the wounds of the past will continue swelling and paining until they will be a generation that will confront the past in order to rectify the future.