On the 5^th November 2015 MISTRA, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences will convene a roundtable discussion on whiteness titled Whites, Afrikaans, Afrikaners: Addressing Post-Apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens. 

The roundtable continues MISTRA’s work on nation formation and social cohesion that culminated in a report released in August 2014 titled Nation Formation and Social Cohesion: An Enquiry into the Hopes and Aspirations of South Africans.  The voice of whites was one of the gaps identified in that report, which will be used as a starting point for the roundtable discussion on whiteness.

Issues the roundtable intends to address, include:

·       Interrogating Afrikaans as part of the discourse on whiteness

·       Exploring the different identities associated with Afrikaans

·       Exploring current thinking on the construction of whiteness;

·       Highlighting developments within the Afrikaans speaking community.

 

Former President Kgalema Motlanthe will open the Roundtable.  Panel topics and speakers include:

Panel Topic: Being White Today

·       Chair: Prof Melissa Steyn (Director, Wits Centre for Diversity Studies) 

·       Where are the Suzmans, Slovos, Fishers and Naudes of today? - Deputy Minister Andries Nel (Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs)    

·       The white man’s burden 15 years after the TRC - Mary Burton (Former President of Black Sash)

·       White power today - Prof Christi van der Westhuizen (Professor:  Centre for Sexualities, AIDS & Gender Uni. of Pretoria)

Panel Topic: Whiteness and the South African Economy

·       Chair: Prof Lynette Steenveld (Associate Prof: Media Studies, Rhodes Uni.)

·       What is the colour of capital? - Bobby Godsell (Chairman: Business Leadership South Africa)

·       Representing the white working class - Dr Dirk Hermann (CEO Solidarity)

·       Killing off the hands that feed you - Ernst Roets (Dep. CEO AfriForum)

·       Economic Transformation in SA: Now and the future - Xhanti Payi (Economist & Director: Nascence Advisory and Research)

Panel Topic: The World of Ideas: The Place of Afrikaans

·       Chair: Mathatha Tsedu (Director of South African National Editors' Forum)

·       Afrikaner intellectual traditions Prof Pieter Duvenage  (Editor: Journal for Contemporary History, UFS)

·       The many hues of Afrikaans - Prof Hein Willemse (Prof: Afrikaans literature, Media and Cultural Studies, Uni. Of Pretoria)

·       ‘n Suid Afrikaner university: is that possible? - Prof Nico Koopman (Acting Vice Rector: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, Uni. Of Stellenbosch)

Closing Remarks:

·       Prof Achille Mbembe (Prof: WITS Institute for Social and Economic Research)

·       Dr Mathews Phosa (Chairman: Mathews Phosa and Associates)