No one story explains post Apartheid South Africa, a nation trying to enact political, economic and racial reconciliation, all at the same time. The towns of Riviersonderend, Ceres and Swellendam, located in the Western Cape province’s rural farm belt, each offer radically different profiles of the nation, on this the tenth anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994. “We have got political freedom, but not economic freedom,” declared Alan Thompson the Colored African National Congress deputy Mayor of Swellendam-the third oldest European-founded settlement in the country. Then he grinned stressing ANC success: “Structurally many things have changed, the streets have been tarred, housing has been built, there is electricity [in the townships].”
Nestling under almost Alpine peaks, the historic Dutch-gabled village now boasts dozens of new government homes, known as “Smarties” (named for their bright paintwork, which resemble “Smarties” an English M&M-like candy). The ANC has built over 1.5 million homes nationwide for its citizens. Despite such achievements, unemployment stands at 35 percent in Swellendam, while land and business ownership remains in white hands.
Still, it is a prosperous, picturesque farming community and a model of cooperation between the ANC, the Afrikaner and the Colored and Black African communities. The town offers a variety of joint programs with a local community Advice Office that range from a food security garden, a new NGO operated primary school, a gardening business run by landless laborers and a soup kitchen founded by an Afrikaans retirement home that distributes food to the unemployed and a local TB clinic-an act of generosity unthinkable under Apartheid.
The village of Riversonderend, a mere hour’s drive away, offers a bleak counterpoint. With a population of about 8,000-similar to Swellendam-the town looks down at heel, depressed and somnolent; not surprising given the 70 percent unemployment rate. The town’s bucolic surroundings of rolling farmlands and craggy Swiss peaks only sharpen it’s destitute appearance.
Isak Palmer, a community activist who founded the local Advice Center in 1984, grimaced when asked what has changed since Apartheid’s demise. “It makes very little difference here. You will still see violations of people’s rights in rural areas. It is still hard to get fair trials,” said Palmer, a slight, Colored, former farm worker. “People don’t feel there is any difference in accessing democracy. There is a lot of anger.” Even so, he said the white farmers who fired vast numbers of farm workers after the 1994 election, saying ‘You voted for Mandela, ask him for a job!’ now come to Palmer’s office to ask for literacy workshops on their farms. They even occasionally use the advice office as a de facto employment site, when not battling Palmer over unfair dismissals and illegal evictions.
The saddest story in Riviersonderend concerns the municipal swimming pool, restricted to whites under Apartheid. The town council sold the pool to a private individual associated with the council to keep it in white hands after the 1994 transition. Over time the pool passed through several hands, each time getting more dilapidated. The pool now stands empty and unused, unavailable to anyone in town, Black, Colored or white.
But to see the legacy of Apartheid, its racism and the deeply inequitable distribution of wealth it left behind, as the only real story in many ways misses the point. Severe inequities remain, but Apartheid is gone, eliminated by a determined population and liberation movement, with white and Afrikaner communities who made the leap to democracy. This cannot be overstated. The mere fact Palmer described his job as one “challenging the government on what they promised to do, and what they actually do” without being put in jail, is an achievement that will not be forgotten.
South Africa is an exceedingly complex nation. It is a nation of surreal contradiction, between urban and rural, wealth and poverty, between the absolute beauty of the countryside and impoverishment of rural laborers. A day in the Western Cape offers cultural whiplash akin to visiting Atherton and Burkina Faso, or New Orleans and Bangkok within the space of a few minutes.
Perhaps the most confounding location is Ceres, an industrial farming town with a population of some 65,000. This is the home of Ceres fruit juice that is exported around the world. Here the Advice Office, the ANC council and the white community are at loggerheads, asserted Danile Samuel, coordinator of the Ceres Advice Office. Distrust is rampant. Allegations abound of corruption, insider real estate deals and alleged manipulation of landless laborers into sham cooperatives.
When Samuel’s office tried to get HIV/AIDS information from the local health department, Naomi Thomas, the office’s HIV/AIDS activator, was rebuffed and told; “Why can’t the Advice Office just stick to their job?”
The Advice Office staff complain of overwork and under appreciation, accompanied by backstabbing local politics with a peculiarly South African twist. The white community’s conservatism is indicated by a speaking invitation from the Chamber of Commerce to Dr. Wouter Basson, better known as “Dr. Death” for allegedly masterminding a chemical and poison warfare campaign against Anti Apartheid Activists.
The farming sector has been hit hard by bankruptcy and layoffs. Unemployment stands at 60 to 70 percent with HIV/AIDS an ever increasing specter. Making matters worse Samuel accuses local farmers of importing cheap labor from Lesotho to avoid paying farm laborers the minimum wage of 800 Rand ($133.33) a month. No wonder the Advice Office is busy.
“The unions are weak…there is no other place for people to go in Ceres,” said Samuel’s resignedly. She did add, while making clear her suspicion of their motives, “Attitudes have changed in big groups like the DuToit farms. In the beginning we fought with them. Now they invite us to their meetings.”
Even in Ceres South Africa’s vitality and hope shines. Naomi Thomas, the young newly hired AIDS worker is full of energy. She sparked interest in AIDS education among Colored High School students, a group long since bored by the subject. Thomas helped start a 40 strong youth leadership group designed to sneak AIDS education in amongst a leadership and empowerment project. “They have their own ideas,” said Thomas, “It is good that they learn to question the government.”
The gangly teens in Thomas’ office may be Ceres best hope for the future. Westly Ceasar, wants to educate young people about AIDS; “I look at my classmates and what if they are pregnant? What if they have AIDS?…I want them to know what their rights are if they have AIDS.” David Ahrendtsen, explained his involvement saying, “We need to learn to be leaders, because many of the generation of current leaders learned when were older and that caused problems…This [project also] gives you a chance to get out of poverty.”
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