South Africa today - II

Dateline Srinagar (Daily Greater Kashmir, 2 Aug, 2009)

South Africa today - II

Robotics in a place of separateness

Arjimand Hussain Talib

Apartheid in the Afrikaans language means separateness. Racial and cultural separateness of a little different kind is a reality in South Africa even today. Like London or Nairobi, this separateness – or ghettoisation - is strikingly visible among the South Asian community in Johannesburg. Identity, race and crass economic inequality fuel this apartheid.

Johannesburg’s Mayfair neighbourhood is a South Asian settlement. For all practical reasons it is a mini South Asia – Muslims and Hindus live here side by side as a single community. They are mainly Indians and Pakistanis. Their usual political and religious fault lines are hardly visible here.

The Oriental Plaza in the neighbourhood is a grand trade and shopping centre, symbolising the cultural, trade and artistic marvels of the Orient. Here again it is the Orient which is the dominant symbol, not the religious identity.

Amidst the feel of ghettoisation, this place offers a little silver lining: despite having everything Oriental about it, it has some non-Oriental visitors as well.

The question of assimilation and integration haunts South Africa like any other place seeking a globalist cosmopolitan outlook. Its races continue to live in ghettos – of identities and races. This ghettoisation looks painfully stark.

It is not only this separateness which seems to have taken the soul of this nation away. You feel confused with the electronic and physical fortification of houses and office places. Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town are like robotic cities. If one isn’t so technology savvy, it won’t be an easy going. Normally, the entrances of offices, hotels, universities, etc. are controlled by robots, linked to security alarms. So you need a smart card or a security code to get access. Some places have even toilets requiring access by smart cards or security codes!

Doors and windows of hotel rooms are iron-grilled. You carry at least two keys for two locked doors for your hotel or hostel room. Razor wire is commonly used to secure external walls of almost every establishment.

Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town are cities where you would hardly find people walking on the streets. If at all someone walks, it is mostly poor Black residents. I didn’t see a single person from the middle or the upper class walking on the streets of Johannesburg, except for in secluded shopping places. People live by cars!

Public transport, again, is used by extremely poor people. Even the middle class locals seldom risk using public transport. And this is no over statement. As a foreigner, you can hardly afford to take the risk of walking on the roadside; you are programmed with the do’s and don’ts from the very first day you arrive here.

There are those who tell you that this alarmist tendency to look at things is inflated. That might be true. But those in the past who have taken risks, and defied conventional wisdom, have paid a price. So risk aversion has turned into a culture here.

While visiting the local UN office I was surprised to see there were no sign boards displaying the UN logo on the huge building. I was told many such organisations and companies prefer to avoid visibility because of crime-related risks!

There is another side to South Africa. Despite making considerable progress in social and economic development, the country continues to remain one of the most unequal societies among the middle-income countries today. Human security continues to remain perpetually at risk due to a number of social, economic and political factors, which perpetuate socio-economic inequality. Moreover, the day-to-day violence as a result of poverty, organised crime, wage inequities, xenophobia, pulls and pressures of racism is a part of the country’s life.

Droughts and climate change have already begun to manifest in some degree of food insecurity and reduced agricultural production in some areas of South Africa. The scarce water resources are under strain from large commercial farming activities, while small subsistence farmers remain at risk. I learnt that food insecurity; tardy pace of land reforms and lack of access of poor Black people to productive arable land undermine human security in this country.

Violence and crime in South Africa, however, needs to be seen from a humane angle – understanding the drivers like poverty, inequality, lack of access to land and historical injustice. This country is blessed with great mineral resources. It continues to be world’s biggest gold, diamond and platinum exporter. But mostly these resources are controlled by the rich multi national companies or the White people.

Johannesburg is mostly built on a barren landscape, although it has highly advanced infrastructure and good standards of living. While driving past a neighbourhood, I asked a friend, Mthandazo, what was special about Johannesburg to have attracted so many European colonial settlements? He smiled and replied, ‘We are driving over gold and diamond mines.’

Johannesburg in the local language is called Goli, a place with gold. It was way back in 1886 when gold was first discovered at Langlaagte in the city. Till then the town is said to have been much the same as any small prospecting settlement. But as word spread, people flocked to the area from North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. Some Blacks also arrived here from other parts of the country.

We drove past by a small hillock where one could observe some mining activity. I was told that today it is the Chinese who are mining Platinum there. Chinese are today the most favourite lot in Africa for trade and business. They are an investment darling. Governments throughout the continent are finding it politically convenient to enter into joint ventures with Chinese companies. They are emerging as the principal miners here.

See it from whatever angle; South Africa needs a peaceful land reform, which is inclusive and equitable. It needs a land redistribution system that basically addresses the needs of the poorest people. It needs the poorest of its people benefit from the fruits of its mineral wealth. That alone may help in mending fences between the races and the haves and the haves not. And, eventually, contain crime and violence. Everything else will be band aids, which never do the real healing.

Feedback at Arjimand@greaterkashmir.com