In a country where access to public resources, higher education and state jobs is determined by apartheid-era race classification these things emphatically do matter.  The author plainly disagrees that Indians enjoyed a privileged position and sneers at Ms. Fakie's "self-flagellation". His references to Ghandi et al is an obvious historical sleight of hand. Ghandi never campaigned on behalf of the black majority. In fact,  his campaigns were narrowly focused on securing exemptions for the Indian population from the depredations being visited on the "natives". It was the very success of these campaigns that put in place the relative Indian privilege for decades to come and that Ms. Fakie refers to.  Have a look here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/03/what-did-mahatma-gandhi-think-of-black-people/?utm_term=.b03037d77dd7

Distasteful as these comparisons are, the historic record can not be airbrushed away to serve some contemporary political agenda.