William Gumede: Racial oppression will live on if there is no debate about the past

The circulation of a video that shows white students at the University of the Free State allegedly forcing black employees to eat food that had been urinated on shows how paper-thin the country's process of racial reconciliation is.

In residential areas, workplaces, clubs and even shopping malls, the degree of racial segregation in South Africa remains startling.

The university video incident is just one of the most visible forms of racism. The other is the continual day-to-day racial slights suffered by blacks – whether it is the superior tone a white manager will adopt with a black worker, or whites being served first in shops even if they were last in the queue.

Astonishing as it may sound, given South Africa's history of racial oppression, the country has yet to have an open and transparent public discussion about race. The country has never had the public conversation needed to find out exactly why apartheid happened, how to deal with its legacy and how to prevent a repeat. Polite blacks and ANC leaders often do not talk publicly about race, not wanting to upset fearful and guilty whites. And whites tend to argue that either they did not benefit from apartheid, did not know, or that it is time to let bygones be bygones. But because there has been no clear acknowledgement of the past, the debate over redress cannot properly take place.

South Africa had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the process was ultimately a limited one. It concentrated on gross human rights abuses over a very limited period. The big problem is that in spite of the economic boom, black South Africans are more likely still to be poor. And while Nelson Mandela initiated a far-reaching policy of reconciliation, this has not been accompanied by economic reparations for those who still suffer most from the apartheid-era legacy of limited education, loss of land and property and family disruption.

Racial reconciliation is unlikely to take place unless it is accompanied by social justice and economic redress. There is sufficient goodwill among most South Africans, black and white, to bridge the racial divide. But time is running out fast.

W M Gumede's book, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, is now out in the UK and the US

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