Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille encouraged Capetonians to engage frankly with city officials on race issues at Saturday’s launch of the city’s race dialogue marking Human Rights Day.
De Lille, during her full council address in January, committed to launching a platform to address difficult issues in Cape Town, and to confront what makes some people feel excluded and other people feel entitled in the city.
“We face many challenges to a culture of rights and as a city government we try and face them head on to say we will not tolerate racists, sexists or homophobes,” said De Lille.
However, she said, the apartheid legacy could not be eradicated in 20 years.
Talking about race in South Africa was difficult, sometimes because people feared being misunderstood or condemned by those who disagreed with them, she said.
“As hard as it is, it is the responsibility of leaders to demonstrate courage and initiate these difficult conversations... That is why I have initiated the race dialogue under the banner of the Inclusive City campaign.
“It must try and initiate a constructive dialogue that encourages a sense of engagement and respect. For us, the most effective use of our efforts is to try to address and prevent incidents of racism where they occur.”
This meant eradicating incidents where people’s skin colour prevented them getting a restaurant booking, or became an issue in a property deal, or caused them to be followed around a shop, or exposed them to abuse on a campus, she said.
These things still occurred, said De Lille, and city officials wanted to lead a campaign with industry bodies to address those within property, hospitality, university, media and retail sectors who could not get past their prejudice.
Accompanying these industry and public engagements would be a sharing of information about individual rights, how to activate those rights for yourself and others, all with the objective of creating respect among all Capetonians.
“We want people to know they cannot be discriminated against, that their dignity must be protected and that they can associate with whomever they want. This will culminate in a panel discussion of the campaign’s key findings,” said De Lille.
Human Rights Day commemorates those who defied the apartheid system by refusing to abide by the pass system in Sharpeville in 1960.
Weekend Argus