Anti-apartheid activist and president of the Pan-African Psychology Union, Professor Saths Cooper, says the country has not really tried to form social cohesion and lamented that government has not done away apartheid race classification.
In an interview Friday morning, he weighed in on the racial tensions in KwaZulu-Natal. He says there's a failure of leadership to bridge any gaps which may exist.
"Racial geography is with us, and that persists. In times of crisis, people tend to go back to themselves. The types of messages and the things we have heard add to that feeling of uncertainty and chaos.
"Nevertheless, I think there is a failure of leadership to bridge any gaps. We remain with apartheid legislation," said Cooper.
He elaborated that nowhere else in the world are people officially classified as black, coloured, Indian and white by the state. Cooper reiterated that people must be viewed as South African above all else.
"Whatever the cultural issues which may exist, we must look at ourselves as South Africans first. We tend to not generally do that. We have not done anything to transition from the apartheid past," he said.
Cooper said a better sense of togetherness needs to be created in the nation.
"Leadership in communities is sorely lacking. The things I've seen on social media are shocking and irresponsible. It is just knee-jerk, blaming one another for things that they should actually be uniting on because of the failure of government."
He added that people all have the same biology. It is just the melanin in pigmentation that is different.
Political Bureau