Pretoria - Whites complaining about job discrimination and failing to attend national reconciliation celebrations represented an entrenchment of racist attitudes and prejudices, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad said on Thursday.

Examples of such racial attitudes were to be found all around, he told a national racism seminar in Pretoria.

"Some in our country may still be in a state of denial," Pahad said.

"We just need to look around ourselves and listen to the talk radio stations in our country."

He cited as an example whites who claim to be discriminated against in the job market.

In actual fact, Pahad said, the least unemployment was among whites and they still constituted the majority of senior managers in the private sector.

Another case in point was whites who failed to attend celebrations of South African national days.

"We have to address the question as to why significant sections of our population do not find it interesting, convenient or necessary enough to attend these functions... as part of the process of creating a non-racial South Africa."