Protecting the identity of the Coloured Community in South Africa Dr Ruben Richards | Chairperson of the Ruben Richards Foundation

PROTECTING THE IDENTITY OF THE COLOURED COMMUNITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Condensed Biography: Dr Ruben Richards is the Chairperson of the Ruben Richards Foundation, an NGO with a focus on facilitating healing within the context of trauma. He is the former Executive Secretary of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former Director General of the Scorpions, a notable author, community leader within the Coloured communities in the Western Cape, speaker and company director. He also served in executive and leadership positions in government, higher education institutions, the faith community and the private business sector.

Richards delivered the keynote address during the Cape Town roundtable discussion, during which he stressed the importance of protecting community identity with specific reference to the Coloured community in South Africa. Richards emphasised that the current concerns and anxieties experienced by the Afrikaans-speaking community is not exclusive to them. He stated: “You don’t have a copyright on anxiety.” The anxieties relating to marginalisation, economic exclusion and inability to influence national policy, continues to be experienced by the Coloured community within the new dispensation.

The overarching theme here is inclusivity, which begs the question: who is excluded? What does one have to do to be part of this inclusive society? Additionally, Richards noted that the current education system in South Africa produces people who do not find a way to be included in society. There are more than five million people that form part of the NEET generation: Not in Education, Employment or Training.

Richards highlighted some of the consequences of exclusion from mainstream society as experienced on the

KEY TAKEOUTS

• Protection of community values and history is central to individual identity. • The current concerns of the Afrikaans-speaking community relating to marginalisation and exclusion is not exclusive to this group. • The Coloured community is continuing to experience exclusion and marginalisation in the new dispensation. • The current education system produces the NEET generation: Not in Education, Employment and Training.

Cape Flats, sighting issues of gangs and teenage pregnancies; particularly pregnant teenagers who are carrying the babies of gang leaders, which often results in child abuse within these immature relationships.

He also cautioned against stereotyping: “Stereotypes are very, very strong. And what we physically represent on the outside is often what dominates the initial interactions.”