Cape Town

Molo! (isiXhosa for hello-that’s the language for the largest tribe in Eastern Cape province)

Before I say anything else, I have to tell you that Cape Town is the most beautiful city I have ever been to in my entire life! It's not the most beautiful in southern Africa or the southern hemisphere, like you'll often see written throughout South Africa and Australia...it's just the most beautiful overall! I didn't believe what people told me before I got here, but now I understand why they were so jealous of my visit. Come see Cape Town!!

I'll get back to the beauty just now (the South African way of saying soon). There are some not so beautiful headlines these days that force you to look away from the sites. As I wrote about before, there is a significant divide between the blacks and the whites, but the line towards conflict between them just got thinner.


Disclaimer: The following information is a compellation of what I have found out by talking to white, black and coloured (neither white nor black) people. Each one has painted a slightly different picture and even the newspapers tell a slightly different story. I do not know which ones to believe, so I’ll try to be as unbiased as possible as I outline the situation.


A few nights ago, Eugene Terre'Blanche, the leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party (AWB) - a white supremacist group, was murdered. (Did anyone else notice that his name translates to white earth?) The accused are two of his black domestic workers (there are no white domestic workers) ages 15 and 27. There are several issues regarding this murder:


1- Murder: Flat out, it is wrong to kill. What prompted this teenager and young man to kill a man?


2- Racist songs promoted by the Julius Malema, theYouth League Leader of the ANC (the current governing party): Songs that were originally sung for liberation, during Apartheid, have racial slurs towards white people. Malema is saying that these songs are socially acceptable for all to hear in today’s society. Some people are saying that these songs and the issues around them are what instigated the murder. I don’t believe that a song can cause murder, but the Youth League Leader promoting hate songs can be misguide others in general.


3- Treatment of staff: Some people are saying that Terre’Blanche seriously mistreated his staff and therefore it pushed them to kill him. The vast majority of employed South African’s are either domestic workers (or construction workers), these workers need to be protected from abuse in general.


4- Employment of a minor: This murder has brought up the issue of employing underage workers. A recent newspaper article stated that this incident is leading to legislation being put into place about child labour.


**Side note for #3+4- As much as most people like to say that South Africa is a developed country, there is still huge amounts of corruption. You can easily pay off cops when they choose to in force the law. Legislation is great in theory but before it can be in forced, there are many other issues that need to be addressed.


5- Fear of violence: Some of the white people I have spoken to are genuinely worried that South Africa is heading in the direction of Zimbabwe, where the blacks have been very violent towards white people, or a reversal of Apartheid. Some people are scared that this event may trigger a series of violent crimes. Overall, no one is upset because of who got murdered. Most are happy he’s gone, but it’s the chain reaction that might come of it. This is really not what anyone wants right before the World Cup!


From everyone I have spoken to about this issue, economic issues, political issues, employment issues and many other topics there is a general consensus. EDUCATION is needed! This is not a new idea, it just needs to happen. The lack of education in conjunction with two policies, Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) are causing a strain on the economic and political scenes. These two policies were put into place to reduce the economic and power gap between blacks and whites. They basically enable black people to have priority over jobs regardless of qualifications (coloured people are not included in these policies, which is a whole other issue). This means that an unqualified black person can get a job over a qualified white person. At this point, there are black people moving into the middle class bracket. However, they skipped a step in getting there! They don’t have the education to run a successful business or government. They are basically learning on the job. Everyone I have spoken to agrees that the major problem is education! Once people are educated, the risk of violent outbreaks will reduce because people will fight through political venues and not physical strengths.


If you want to read more about South African politics, you can check out news24.com


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Ok, now on to the fun stuff…what have I been doing in Cape Town:


Wine tour: There were only 3 of us on the tour so we got to visit an extra winery.


Hop on/off bus- This bus offered a tour of most of peninsula. It was a great way to learn facts about the city while driving through it (you plug into ear phones that gives you a guided tour in your preferred language, I chose English…in case you were wondering). I got off at…


Hout Bay/Seal Island- There were so many seals!!! WOW ! FYI Seals smell really really really bad! This did not help my sea sickness. Then whales swam by. They are not usually around this time of year, so that lucky sighting distracted me from my nausea for a few minutes.


Penguin viewing (Boulders Beach): Talk about snow birds! Even the penguins moved to a warmer climate, but apparently they even think that it’s getting to cold to hang out on the beach. We walked along the board walk and saw penguins everywhere in their nests and walking around. That same day, I also saw another whale, ostriches (on a farm) and baboons. In fact, if I wasn’t in a car when I saw the baboons, we might have had another Zebra story to report. One baboon came up to the car and rested its hand on the rear view mirror. It was like Park Safari, without the entrance fee!


Township Tour: x2- I went on a mini Township tour with the hop on/off bus and a ½ day tour. It was really interesting to see the difference between the three types of townships: Formal, informal and illegal. I could write another blog just on this if I had the time. In short, I saw how people who cannot afford housing live (in tin shacks) before they receive their house the government promised them versus how they live once they receive their house. We also drove past the “Beverly Hills” of the townships, where the people are lower middle class and can afford to get a mortgage from the bank and buy their own house. We spoke to people who are providing services and initiatives for people in the community both through the church and a private business. I also tried some homebrew. Luckily I only had a sip cause I don’t think I could have drank anymore of that…ick! We then went to the District 6 museum, which looks at a mixed racial community that was torn apart during apartheid and is currently, very slowly, coming back together.


Kirstenbosh Garden-Beautiful gardens and lots to see! Too bad I couldn’t really understand the guide. He spoke very monotone and it was hard to distinguish when he was pointing out a plant or telling us history.


Museums- x5: Jewish Museum, Slave Lodge, District 6 (see above), Castle of Good Hope (which actually has a lot of torture and prison cells), Naval Museum.


Table Mountain- nope- It’s been either too windy, so the cable car isn’t running, or not windy enough to blow away the Tablecloth (the cloud over Table Mountain).


Robben Island- (where Nelson Mandella was imprisoned) hopefully tomorrow- My original tour was cancelled cause the boat broke. You may ask, why I would reschedule with the same company, and that’s a very good question. Answer: they are the official company! Yes, they are a major tourist attraction and yes, the boat is known to break down all the time, and yes, you have to book a week in advance and can’t guarantee you another spot if they cancel your tour (I was very lucky to get the only spot open for Thurs). This may all seem weird for people in North America and Europe, but it won’t shock any Africans.


Catching up with old friends- I’ve been staying with another friend from camp, Steve, and his wife, Josrae. I celebrated Passover with their family. I also saw Desiree (also from camp) and met her husband Hennie and their 7 month old baby Sky (super cute!). Desie and her family took me to Boulders Beach.


Long st- I walked down twice during the day, after all the shops were closed but before the bars/restos were open (and it was Passover for most of the time that I was here). I am hoping to get a chance to try Royal Burger tomorrow night before I leave Cape Town with the safari, and maybe pop into the Waiting Room (the pub upstairs designed as the waiting room for people who can’t get into Royal Burger yet) and randomly introduce myself to Jocelyn’s brother (yes, another camp friend- I may have mentioned her in the Mozam section in the previous blog)


Shark diving- It was incredible!  Just kidding!  (Insert sigh of relief for my parents and my grandmother when they read this to her). It was just too expensive for only spending 15-20 minutes in the water. On the other hand, that might be plenty of time when there are Tiger sharks swimming around me. I’ll never know (until maybe next time- Sorry Mom!).


That sums up my time in Cape Town. Tomorrow evening I meet up with my safari group and begin phase 3, the final phase in Africa, then a week in London and before you know it, I’ll be home! From here on, I’m not sure how often I’ll get to write and I probably won’t have 2 hours to sit and type, so the blogs will not be as extensive as they are now, but I hope you still enjoy them!