Coloured and Cut Out: South Africa’s Silent Betrayal

Too Black For One, Not Black Enough For The Other

I love South Africa. Deeply! I breathe its air, walk its soil, carry its rhythm in my bones, but loving your country doesn’t mean lying to yourself about it! At some point, the romance must make room for realism. Sadly, right now, we’re way past that point.

You see, I’m Coloured! I find myself in modern-day democratic South Africa—this so-called rainbow nation, this utopia we were sold in 1994. Truth be told, I have never felt more irrelevant. In the workplace, in national policy, in the myth of progress, it is now glaringly clear: we were too black under Apartheid, and now we are not black enough under the new regime.

Race-Based Laws: Legalised Reverse Racism?

Let’s strip away the diplomatic varnish and call it what it is: the new South African government has turned race-based exclusion into official policy. Employment Equity. Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). Affirmative Action. To be honest, these are no longer redemptive tools of justice. Sadly, they’ve become instruments of retribution. Tools of selective visibility. Weapons used to silence and sideline entire population groups.

I’ve applied for jobs where I was told—bluntly and unapologetically—that the role was reserved for "African" candidates only(Am I not African?). Never mind my experience. Never mind my qualifications. Never mind that I’m South African. The implication is simple: you don’t belong here.

Read the fine print of the Employment Equity Act (amended in 2023) and you’ll see exactly how racial preference is legislated, enforced, and applauded.

Section 15(3) specifically empowers employers to implement "measures to ensure the equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups," but in practice, that always defaults to Black African.

Coloured and Indian people are part of these so-called "designated groups" on paper, yet in execution, we’re collateral damage. Caught between apartheid nostalgia and liberation propaganda.

Psychological Limbo: The Cost of Invisibility

There is a deep, gnawing trauma in being permanently in-between. You’re raised to believe that democracy means equal opportunity. That merit matters. That if you work hard, keep your head down, stay out of trouble—you'll make it, but the truth? None of that applies when your skin tone is the wrong shade for the current political narrative.

We are gaslit by our own nation. Told we are free, yet kept in chains of silence and exclusion. We are erased from policy but expected to clap hands during Heritage Day!(Dafuq!) We are left out of transformation but told to celebrate it. That’s not empowerment—that’s psychological warfare.

How do you build a life, a career, a legacy, when your country keeps reminding you that you’re not "disadvantaged enough"?

Economic Consequences: Killing the Middle Class from Within

The economic cost of this silent purge is devastating. Skilled, capable Coloured and Indian professionals are locked out of the formal economy. We are either pushed into underemployment or forced to start informal hustles just to keep the lights on. Many of us leave. Many more give up!

That’s not transformation. That’s decimation.

The irony is thick. The very laws meant to "redress" inequality are now breeding a new kind of inequality—one that isn't just morally bankrupt but economically reckless. A country cannot sustain itself while excluding entire ethnic groups from meaningful participation. Yet here we are.

Look at the data from the Commission for Employment Equity 2024 Report:

• 72.6% of top management positions are still held by white people.

• Black Africans only hold 17.2% of top management roles.

• Coloured people? Just 4.8%. Indian people? 8.4%.

So, who exactly is benefitting from this revolution?

The Bitter Pill of Patriotism

Truth be told, being a Coloured South African today feels like being in an abusive relationship with your own country. You keep showing up, hoping things will change. You stay loyal, even when the beatings come in the form of job rejections, policy exclusion, and cultural invisibility.

We are told to be proud South Africans, but pride cannot feed our families! Pride doesn’t pay rent! Pride doesn’t get our children into decent schools! Patriotism, it turns out, is just another unpaid job we’re expected to do—cheerfully(The Joke's on us!).

The real question is: How much longer will we keep clapping for a system that has already made up its mind about us?

What Comes Next?

If this trajectory continues, the future is bleak. The silent rage bubbling beneath the surface will not stay silent forever. Disillusioned youth will stop trying. The informal economy will balloon, and the country will lose thousands of skilled professionals not because they weren’t good enough—but because they were the wrong colour of brown!

This is not a rainbow nation! This is a rigged game with new dealers!

So no, I’m not going to smile and sing Kumbaya at a braai. I’m going to speak. Loudly. Cynically. Furiously.

The Hard Truth is, until this country starts seeing us, we owe it no loyalty.

We are not black enough to benefit. We are not white enough to matter, and apparently, we never were!