"Transformation," Street-Renaming, Black & White, and Red South African Wine

Where would I be without "Cape Talk AM 567" to enliven my morning commute. This morning's issue was the City of Cape Town's decision to shelve the newly approved "street renaming policy." The new policy, which has been long overdue in Cape Town, establishes a formal process that needs to be adhered to as street names are changed from those that honor "the architects of apartheid" and "colonial powers" to those that are more representative of the majority (90% of the population) "black African" population.

(Why did i put "black African" in quotes? Here is a segway to this story. Last night, I was reading the label on the bottle of Merlot that Naomi and I were drinking. It said that the family is 9th generation Western Cape winemakers, having gotten their first harvest in 1715. After almost 300 years, they'd surely consider themselves African!)

This street-renaming is part of the process which everyone here refers to as "Transformation." "Transformation" is also an official policy, with rules to follow and laws that support it. It really means rebuilding the entire society, piece-by-piece, streetname-by-streetname, so that the decades of racist apartheid policies, and centuries of oppressive colonial policies are "transformed" and the society is transformed into a (and this is the word that I've also heard used quite often) "non-racial democracy."

"Transformation" is everywhere. The first piece of news on the radio this morning referred to the need to hire 1,500 more police officers in the Western Cape. In describing the initiative, the police spokesperson said, "We even need more white males and females!" That was a shocking statement, because as part of "Transformation," South Africa has developed very aggressive affirmative action programs. All companies, schools, and public agencies have to submit "Transformation Reports," showing that the demographics of their employees are shifting. There is a mandate to have blacks and coloureds in management and top decision-making roles. As you can imagine, this has been a very controversial policy, especially from the white's perspective, many of whom have left the country, feeling like there will be no opportunity for advancement for them here. I've met a number of white engineers whose companies have been downsized due to the mandate to award contracts to black and coloured engineering companies. They each seemed to be handling their downsizing well, with little anger, or charges of "reverse discrimination." But, that is happening. Which is why the police spokesperson's comment about "we even need whites" must have been somewhat shocking to folks.

But back to the street-naming controversy. Across the country, there has been a push to rename streets, moving away from names that honor the Afrikaner and British colonial powers, to names that honor "black African" history and culture. The Western Cape has lagged behind the rest of the country in this process. Partly because it has not been governed by the ANC post-apartheid; partly because of its political conservatism; and partly because of the fact that there is not a long history of black African settlement here. Most everyone who is here in Cape Town now, came from somewhere else --either Malaysia or India as slaves, Britian or Holland or France as colonialists, or other parts of South Africa as imported slaves/indentured workers or laborers.

The City of Cape Town is governed by a mayor from the Democratic Alliance (the white "not-ANC", not-racist party), with the ANC being a minority party on the City Council. They finally passed a policy on renaming, with active support from the ANC. But, the DA was clearly feeling pressure from their more conservative constituencies, and deciced to shelve the plan, and go back to the drawing board. (You Monterey County residents, does it sound a little bit like our efforts to pass a "General Plan Update"?)

So, the talk show host had an ANC City Council member, Peter Gabriel, address their frustrations City's decision to shelve the policy. Then, the host invited folks to call up and share their opinions. The first caller was a white guy, with a strong "colonial accent" who proceeded to say: "What's all this fuss about naming. A name is a name. I don't care what they call this country, as long as it works! And anyway, let's not forget all that the colonialists did for Africa. Afterall, without the colonialists, Africans would still be spearfishing on the beach!"

Wow!

The next caller, also with a strong white colonial accent, said: "I can't believe you didn't throw up at the racist comment that the last caller made! Aren't we over this? Don't we know that we have to rename this place so that the majority who live here don't have to be constantly reminded of their history of persecution?"

Wow again!

I'll have to mull this over tonight, over another glass of wonderful red African wine, grown by 9th generation winemakers. "Transformation."

Blog ya later.

Seth./.