Jaskaran Moopanar Rajaruthnum must be a dejected and crestfallen young man. The Westville Boys High prodigy was placed 2nd in the province and 3rd in the country in last year’s matric examinations after scooping a full house of 8 distinctions.
But the avid violinist’s celebrations were marred by false notes at a recent ceremony hosted by the Department of Education.
The MC had announced at the Durban function that the 1st and 2nd-placed candidates would be awarded Sasol bursaries of R10 000 each, but when it came to the execution of the bursary award, it went to the 1st and 3rd placed candidates – possibly one of Ramaphosa’s “Tintswalos”! Where’s the logic here?
This is naked and blatant racial prejudice. It must have left the youngster bare in thought. It’s not that the student is “hard-up” for the cash, for he comes from the Rajaruthnum bloodline, known for over-achievement, excellence and success. But the obvious alleged racial victimisation is devastating. Young minds are impressionable and acts like these easily scar and shame.
What is more worrying is that his choice of career is medicine. Enter one Sunhena Sookdheo, who is a cum laude medical doctor, sitting at home with no job. The young lady achieved a 93% aggregate in her matric exams, notching up 9 distinctions in the process.
She completed her medical degree at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine and decided to specialise in paediatrics. She excelled in that exam also. Indubitably a prodigious savant, she has completed her internship and community service and now sits jobless at home with an apron and a rolling pin.
She has exhausted her search on government job portals. Statistics reveal that there are currently 800 unemployed doctors in South Africa and yet the ANC brings in Cuban doctors ? Will Rajaruthnum face the same dilemma, 6 or 7 years from now? Will the ANC still be in power? We Indians in South Africa are a sui generis class, we like to keep things tight! We place huge emphasis on religion, our children’s education and keeping the family unit intact. For every success story, there are hundreds who have failed and thousands more waiting to compete.
Luck is important but in a world harsh to losers, the winning formula is a mix of much more: the ability to anticipate opportunity, resilience, flexibility of tactic, a canniness to judge human needs and a talent to tailor circumstances for those needs. For over a century and half we have displayed rock-ribbed perseverance, paving the way for our own autarky.
Our teachers and doctors continue to get posted to the “bundus”. Our children don’t get places at schools and universities. And now this? BEE, quota systems and radical economic transformation have robbed us of much that such callousness is condemnable. But still we remain stoic. The obstacles of this country are par for the course.
* Kevin Govender, Umhlatuzana.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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