Today’s post has a very personal, and special significance to me.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’d have noticed that I make mention of the fact that I am of Chinese descent. The recent High court ruling stating that South African Chinese qualify for Previously Disadvantaged Individual (PDI) status comes as a very significant event for myself, and for others of my ethnicity.

Yes, this has certain economic implications for South African Chinese as a whole.
However, more importantly, I see this is a restitution of a portion of our dignity as a fully contributing segment of South African society.

You see, its not about wanting to be a part of the “BEE Bandwagon”.

Its not about wanting a share of fat government contracts.

Its about wanting the acknowledgment that our basic human rights were infringed upon. Its about getting more South Africans to understand that we too were treated as second class

During the height of Apartheid, we were denied the right to use certain facilities based on our race.

We could not own property.

We were even denied the vote, but were expected to pay taxes.

This ruling will go a long way to dispelling the speculation of the uninformed surrounding our identities as fully fledged South African citizens. It goes without saying that this ruling will provide a standard of fairness based on legal precedent with which HR managers and similar recruitment and personnel specialists can make regarding employment contracts.

Here at Peacemakers, we pride ourselves on our approach to Conflict Management which involves getting our clients to acknowledge and work towards fulfilling their Basic Human Needs.

Today, I (and many others like me) woke up today with a significant portion of our Basic Human Needs fulfilled.

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