With children returning to class, Eusebius McKaiser defends the indefensible, Pricking the protest balloons (January 9).

Noting the Freedom Day balloon protest against affirmative action applying to children schooled after 1994, he argues that affirmative action is wrong to punish white kids but right to reward black kids. But giving to X takes from Y, so if retribution on the one is wrong, so is redistribution to the other.

His weak defence shows affirmative action is not rooted in “social justice”, it is driven by black anger and greed, used for African National Congress (ANC) patronage, and tolerated by white guilt. It is morally wrong and economically destructive. McKaiser knows this, or he would not call on government to eventually end it.

The self-interest that pushes the black elite to use affirmative action for sheltered employment and economic empowerment for unjust enrichment requires dehumanising whites unto the next generations.

Solidarity is right to protest, white children to feel aggrieved, and black children to feel ashamed, when they come of age. Affirmative action is the sign of the ANC recreating the evils of apartheid, losing its moral authority and retreating from democracy.