Mbeki tells whites to confront racists

White people's fears of losing their privileges and the high expectations of black South Africans are a potent recipe for racial hatred, President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday at a conference in Johannesburg on racism.

White people's fears of losing their privileges and the high expectations of black South Africans are a potent recipe for racial hatred, President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday at a conference in Johannesburg on racism.

Whites, who make up about one in 10 of the country's 42 million people, have a special responsibility to face the "demon of racism" because of the abuses of apartheid, President Mbeki told 1,000 delegates at the start of the four-day meeting. He stressed that "whether white or black we are all South African and African" and condemned, as Nelson Mandela has done before him, those whites who emigrate and "denounce our homeland for its failures and brutalities". He urged whites to take the first step towards creating a united society.

Countering claims that his African National Congress government does not tolerate criticism, Mr Mbeki urged South Africans to "break through the barrier of fear and to speak their minds". The President has recently been engaged in a battle of words with Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, whom he labelled a racist. The DA, which is largely white, claims it has been refused speaking time at themeeting. The conference came under fire from opposition parties before it even began for being a government talk-shop rather than a forum for all.