Rainbow Nation a fading dream



The "rainbow nation" espoused by Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela in 1994 has turned out to be nothing more than a collection of racial groups with little time for each other. This is just one of the startling findings of the new SA Reconciliation Barometer, which found that more than two-thirds of people - 67.3% - generally have "little or no trust" in other racial groups.The report on the survey of more than 2000 adults by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation was released in Cape Town yesterday.It was found that:More than 60% of the respondents believe that, since 1994, the racial situation has either "stayed the same or deteriorated";Two in three had experienced racism, some daily;Interactions between races in intimate settings, such as private homes or social and communal gatherings, remain limited.Mienke Steyler, of the SA Institute of Race Relations, said reasons for the lack of trust between race groups were high unemployment and weak economic growth."People are very frustrated and when they feel unsettled they tend to look for like-minded people and lash out at people who are not like them. This causes racism and xenophobia," she said."Unfortunately, our country is approaching instability. We fear that we are going to see less trust and more racial incidents."Philosopher Jacques Rousseau, chairman of the Free Society Institute, said South Africans bought into a "feel-good factor" in 1994 but now were "faking it"."People are realising that there is no substantive change and this is one reason why young people are voicing their thoughts."They have lost faith in the mythology that their parents bought into," he said.Steyler said the solution lay in policy changes, tackling youth joblessness and empowerment.Part of the solution was for people to listen to each other instead of interacting on the basis of assumptions or stereotypes, Rousseau said.