To deny legalised abortion is racism. Here's why...
WE'VE made tremendous progress since April 1994. We've stood together in sport. Black economic power has surpassed the billion rand mark. But years of oppression cannot be washed away overnight, no matter how much goodwill exists among us.
Algerian doctor, psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon wrote these words in The Wretched of the Earth before I was born:
"The native town is a hungry town, starved of bread, of meat, of shoes, of coal, of light. The native town is a crouching village, a town on its knees, a town wallowing in the mire. It is a town of niggers and dirty Arabs.
"The look that the native turns on the settler's town is a look of lust, a look of envy; it expresses his dreams of possession all manners of possession: to sit at the settler's table, to sleep in the settler's bed, with his wife if possible. The colonised man is an envious man.
"And this the settler knows very well; when their glances meet he ascertains bitterly, always on the defensive, 'They want to take our place'. It is true, for there is no native who does not dream at least once a day of setting himself up in the settler's place."
White South Africans today are aware of this. The economic disparities that Fanon wrote about more than 35 years ago still create the ghettos he described then.
And the manifestation of that desire to acquire the settler's possessions is seen in the wave of crime that has swept the country since April 1994.
So white South Africans still have their unwritten rules. The coded language, the unspoken phrase, all serve to emphasise to those of us who are not white: "So far and no more."
For example, I know of one famous liberal editor who has bleated consistently about his role in the fight against apartheid, and who sparkled wittily on the lecture circuit in support of this claim.
Today, he is regularly visited by foreign journalists. The white journalists are invited to his home for dinner. The black journalists are not.
The invisible line. He may be the toast of the boardroom, his academic qualifications may be flawless, but God help us all should your daughter bring him home.
This is why you do not hear the story of Mevrou Witbloed who was raped by a black man and became pregnant, and who selflessly out of religious conviction decided that the child should live and would be raised in her home with her other children.
Nor do you hear about Meneer Witbloed who selflessly accepted his wife's defilation and decided to raise the child as his own in his house because God's will should prevail.
This is why the media have messed up so badly through the past weeks while trying to gauge public sentiment towards abortion.
Instead of asking men: "Do you favour abortion on demand," they should have asked: "If your wife was raped and became pregnant, would you raise the child as your own?"
Different picture, not so? No, it's not an unfair way of putting it, for this is reality. With most families in this situation, the bastard child would be a constant reminder of the crime. In our society where both black and white men regard their wives as possessions, this would be unthinkable.
But Mevrou Witbloed has not had to put up with this. She has always had access to the proper channels. The Abortion and Sterilisation Act of 1975, put in place by the National Party, ensures that she will not have to endure the "indignity" of having little Sambo around the plaas.
She is not the only one.
Take Mejuffrou Witbloed who was raped repeatedly by her father since she was nine years old. She did not have to love and cherish the gift that God gave her through her father. A visit to the family doctor, a quick d-and-c, and the family keep their little secret.
But people like Mama Tshabalala of Weenen have not had access to the network that allows the Witbloeds to obtain the necessary permission to conduct a legal abortion.
Mama Tshabalala is raped. Her husband works on the mines. He comes home once a year. He knows the child is not his. He leaves her.
Another broken family. Another street kid. Another potential criminal. Another potential rapist.
Wise up, South Africa. This is your problem. Our current abortion legislation is racist. It has to go. Life does not begin at conception and end at birth.