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Minette Smit "We must try and compliment one another" MINETTE IS OF THAT GROUP ofyoung adult Mrikaners who are poised on the brink and are trying to cope with the social and political changes that swirl around them. Young, educated Mrikaner adults tend to be more liberal than the preceding generations. Even those with close ties to the old hard-liners have tended to disassociate themselves from apartheid. For instance, one of Henrik Verwoerd's grandsons and his wife joined the ANC in 1992. That was as much a political turn-around as could be found anywhere-especially since it is Wilhelm Verwoerd's uncle and aunt who are responsible for Orania. Minette, the mother of two, was in her mid-twenties and was completing her graduate work in economics at the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein when she talked about the South Africa in which she grew up, and briefly discussed her vision for the country over the next few years. Smit and her husband were on the faculty, where, among other courses, she taught labor economics . Smit's higher education has all taken place at the University of the Orange Free State, which, in the plumb years of the 1970s expanded rapidly. Buildings sprang up allover the sprawling campus, but the governing bodies placed their emphases on structures and not on research materials. Then came the years ofsanctions and the subsequent recession-the longest and deepest in South Mrica's history . Journal subscriptions were canceled. Books, especially books from overseas, were not affordable. In many respects, the university fell into an intellectual abyss, and this has had adverse effects on Minette's research, and hence on her ability to complete her Ph.D. Minette's experiences have been mostly in the Orange Free State. Her major contact with blacks has been with those who worked for her family. She is parochial in terms ofpersonal contacts with people beyond those she has encountered in her home environment. Yet, she is independent enough of the family ties that bind 47 MINETTE SMIT most Mrikaners to have joined her husband in dropping out of the Dutch Reformed Church in favor of another denomination. She does not belong to the ANC, nor does she regard herself as a political liberal. "I do see a troublesome time for us in the next ten or fifteen years at least. But I think it will be easier for my children because they will grow up in a mixed nonracial society, hopefully. And I hope there will not be apartheid in reverse, which frightens a lot of people. There is fear that people will get positions because they are black or because they are achieving appointments-like becoming professors-because they are black. 1 hope people will be appointed in jobs because of their ability and competence and not because of the color of their skin. "Actually, I read an interesting article about America. Some person there said can't we just give every black person a hundred thousand dollars so we can forget about our guilt. So, even in America, when you see a black professor, you think 'Did he become a professor just because he was black? Was he pushed in there because he was black or was he really competent?' "So if we can just solve our problems and try to get to know one another a little better-because we really don't know one another: black people and whites." Regarding the violence in the country, she looked again to America and wondered whether the old ethnic tensions that plagued college campuses and the cities will carryover to South Africa in the future. "The violence can be attributed to social problems.... It is very difficult .... Whites, and some blacks, say all the violence started the day that Mandela was freed from jail. All the violence and all the trouble started then and, 99 percent of the people just want to get on with their lives-don't want to be intimidated. Blacks are not politically oriented because they haven't had the chance. Some of them believe that a person doesn't believe what they believe, then that person should be killed or you should in a violent manner get that person to say what you want him to say. "Many don't know the first thing about political freedom, because of the restraints have been imposed on them. I think if we can just change that culture -that...

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