By Karen Breytenbach
The Western Cape has among the highest number of reported cases of racism, xenophobia and racial discrimination in the country, according to a spokesperson for the Western Cape branch of the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
The statement comes less than two weeks after Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo slammed the city for "not moving in step with the rest of the country" in terms of racial tolerance.
The HRC Cape Town office is investigating about 140 cases relating to racial intolerance, according to its website.
| 'It is dangerous to say that the Western Cape is worse off than anywhere else' |
If a perpetrator is found to be recalcitrant, the case is referred to the Equality Court by the HRC.
The high prevalence of intolerance is due to the Western Cape's history and embedded social attitudes, according to Western Cape co-ordinator of the HRC, Ashraf Mohamed.
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Mohamed, however, believes that it is hard to quantify discrimination.
According to Mohamed, in terms of real figures of racism, "it is dangerous to say that the Western Cape is worse off than anywhere else".
He urges that racial and cultural discrimination should be a great challenge all over South Africa. "It is unlawful and we cannot tolerate it anywhere, in any way," he said.
| 'The Western Cape is changing' |
"The Western Cape has a unique history that has limited development opportunities for certain groups of people. In our history we have had the coloured labour preference policies and apartheid spatial planning," Mohamed said on Tuesday.
Human Rights Media Centre executive director, Shirley Gunn, on Tuesday said attitudes in the Western Cape were influenced by the fact that the province was ruled by the National Party and Democratic Alliance until April 2004, when the majority voted for the African National Congress.
She added: "It goes deeper. We had all these dormitory suburbs. Urban planning was very stratified and coloured businesses got tax rebates for moving out of the city. The legacies of many such stories have not yet been resolved.
"But we've been seeing a change in demographics, especially with the steady migration of people from the Eastern Cape. The Western Cape is changing."
Gunn could not comment on racism in the Western Cape compared to other provinces, because "reported cases are not a scientific measure" of how endemic it is in society.
"I do think it is good that these kinds of cases are being reported. I applaud people from the Western Cape for reporting such cases," she said.
"It's a fact that we still have a long way to go, especially in terms of labour-related racist abuses. But racism manifests itself in all sorts of ways, and has particular ways of manifesting in the Western Cape," said Gunn.
"We want to encourage people to come forward if they are experiencing discrimination, but we find that people are often very reluctant to do so, especially in the Cape," she said.
Gunn on Tuesday commented that the commission may have greater success if it tried to be "less elitist and more grassroots, like the old Institute of Race Relations in Mowbray".
"We are inundated with calls every day from people who want to report cases - they think we are the commission. People don't know who to turn to," said Gunn.
Since the Equality Court opened its doors in 2003, Capetonians have a greater chance of redressing such problems, said Mohamed. A rise in the reporting of cases may also mean people are starting to come forward, Mohamed admitted.
Racism, he says, does not only spring from economic inequalities, but is an attitudinal and social construct.
"It's a reluctance to embrace a new ethos. Many perpetrators find sophisticated ways to shift the goalposts and avoid blame," he said, adding that the cases seen in the Western Cape, "are only the tip of the iceberg".
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Times on March 16, 2005
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