Dear Statistics South Africa,
I was reading the University of Johannesburg’s Style Guide this afternoon and I learned that your organization uses the following classification for population groups:
- African
- Coloured
- Indian
- white.
I find these categories to be highly inappropriate because I am a white African. I was born and bred in South Africa, my ancestors have lived here for over a hundred years. This distinction creates an unnecessary tension, if you would like a classification based on racial tendencies perhaps a tribal division would be more appropriate.
I sympathize with the challenges that your organization faces, we are a diverse country which must make putting us into boxes quite difficult. Perhaps, you should rather simply have an option for nationality, with the options:
- South African,
- Other African country,
- Other (please specify).
Yours faithfully,
Patricia Cornelius
South African