Lourens Du Plessis

• "Culture", in addition to its ethnic signification, can also express various groups' and communities' political and economic situation in society. As well as signifying the accommodation of ethnic diversity, the integration of dissimilar cultures in South Africa has to do with both the former oppressors and the formerly oppressed coming to terms with the oppression of the past, and with the equitable distribution of material means. Constitutional and other legal means have been designed to facilitate a process of integration dealing with the abovementioned issues. Some of these measures will be looked at. The speaker will argue that the integration of different cultures in South Africa cannot and will not be achieved if the law is invoked, in a strong arm fashion, trying to concoct a melting pot. The law can do no more than aiding the facilitation of a process of consolidation as precondition to nation building. Deep-seated, cultural differences among various sections of the population cannot and should not be denied or simply thought away.