Be shot down in Jozior sidelined in Cape TownBy Xhanti PayiLife is full of difficult choices, and the older one grows, the tougher it becomes, despite the assumption that you are meant to know better. Recently, I found myself having to make one of these choices.
In a packed bar last weekend, I ran into a familiar face, and my first instinct was to be aggressive. At first I couldn’t place the face, until he explained to me that he was a bouncer at one of Cape Town’s most popular joints. When I realised this, I remembered that it was the same guy who had refused me entry into that very bar months ago. At the time, he had explained to me that it was a private function inside and only people on the guest list could enter. Of course, I knew that this was a lie because my friends had entered the venue minutes before, while I was trying to get parking.
That evening, after he had “bounced” me, I went home very bitter and vowed that I would never go back there. And indeed I haven’t.
So when we crossed paths, and he sought to shake my hand, I walked away. Moments later, I realised I was being unfair, and that I couldn’t treat him like this because, quite frankly, he was doing his job.
As he explained to me, bouncers take orders from management. When you are standing at the door, management can come to you at any time and say, “There are too many black people in the club, make sure no more enter”, or “There are too many males, make sure only females enter”. In Cape Town, it’s usually the former.
One owner of a popular spot put it to me like this, “Once your place gets too black, the whites stop coming. As a business person in Cape Town, this is a situation you can’t afford. Maybe in Joburg you can because blacks bling.”.
Anyhow, this guy proceeded to apologise to me, almost pleading for my understanding. And as I thought about it, I wondered if I could really fault him for doing his job? Is he supposed to take a stand in a battle that has been raging for decades? Is it fair to ask him to disobey his employers or quit his job? My own friends had stayed inside instead of leaving with me in solidarity, rejecting this place for what it was. In the end, I shook his hand, expressed my understanding and walked away.
In Cape Town, in present day South Africa, my black, middle-class friends, routinely change their names and sometimes accents, to secure bookings at restaurants over the telephone. When responding to advertisements about apartments for rent, they send their white friends to go view for them and trick the owner until it is time to sign the lease – at which stage the owner will no longer be able to say the flat is not on the market just because the potential tenant is black.
This is the situation in what is now known as South Africa’s last colony. The year is 2010. It is incredible, but real.
And so, more and more young black people abandon Cape Town for Jozi, where the colour of your skin is irrelevant, as long as your wallet bulges with notes and credit cards.
So all of us, regardless of our skin colour, find ourselves in a rather precarious position – speak out or be silent.
But whose fight is it? Will black young people abandon those places where they are rejected because of the colour of their skin? Will white young people boycott those places which refuse their peers access merely because of the colour of their skin? Will black bouncers refuse to work in such bars or restaurants and thus go without work? Or will all the blacks move to Jozi where they are accepted, and whites continue to pretend that they don’t see colour.
I’m not suggesting that any single person or race is responsible. But clearly there is a problem. The question is; whose problem is it to solve? But as a friend of mine put it to me, “The choice is yours. Move to Jozi and risk a hijacking, or stay in Cape Town and know you are going nowhere”. It’s a tough call.
More by Xhanti Payi____________________________________Ah, Cape Town, you pompous ass. I've similar stories from two of my (black) banker friends.Someone should name and shame, in my view. If us Capetonians knew which places did this, then we'd be able to factor this in when deciding who to grace with our sophisticated presences.Fair point, Jacques. I think that's an excellent idea actually.Time for the Empress to be measured for a new set of clothes.I was about to suggest the exact same. Not all Capetonians are racist, and I'd love to hear you name and shame.And look into getting a new set of mates. I'd be appalled if my friends left me stranded like that.It's such a pity, CT is such a beautiful city. I could recount many similar stories form personal experience (I wont). There are various solutions, I think the following two are at either end of the spectrum:1. Solidarity Boycott: name and shame the places, hoping that Cape Townians will stop patronizing the places.2. Capitalist Nigger Solution: as Chika Onyeani suggest, Black people should stop crying like babies and start their own businesses where they can keep non-Blacks out.1 seems sensible but unlikely; 2 seems petty, but at least it solves the problem. I'm not advocating either, all I know is that trekking to the mine-dump is not the solution.Sigh... and I can't get a job anywhere in South Africa because I'm white. The irony is that when I speak to the HR departments they tell me to my face that I'm the wrong colour. "The year is 2010. It is incredible, but real."Shame, poor you. You can't get into a night club, but your other black friends did, so for them the assumption is that Cape Town is OK and accepts black people. Chip on shoulder me thinks.I haven't lived in Joburg for long but I know Cape Town very well so I can speak about it.The national democratic revolution (NDR) is dependant on motive forces that must be organised and channelled towards a common objective. These are the same forces that got so powerful such that the governemnt of apartheid could not resist and it collapsed. It is the same forces that must be organised such that they maintain balance if this country is to remove all remaining traces of racism and classification of people according to race, skin colour and gender.The DA is the official opposition party. This means nothing less than the fact that it is opposed to the idea of a democratic state that is constructed on the basis of the will of the people. The DA's objective is to continue the white minority rule that we sought to disarm through the revolution. It is indeed one of those forces that have always been opposed to the liberation movement. The fact that the same force has climbed to a power level of leadership in the province means that we obviously must except the continuation of white minority rule in the Western Cape and Cape Town in aprticular.What is happening in Cape Town is evidence that all motive forces that worked against liberation campaign must be rooted out because they don't present any objective opposition even if they are part of government of national unity.Bob Mugabe? Is that you?Sicelo: Cape Town has had the reputation of being racist for a long time before the DA took control of the city or the province. And if your third paragraph is what you think it means to be an official opposition party, then please consider the implications of that argument for the Western Cape, where they are (clearly) not the official opposition. So is the opposition in the Western Cape also "opposed to the idea of a democratic state that is constructed on the basis of the will of the people"?
I've personally been told that flats are no longer available but when i phone back a minute later with a fake accent the flat is magically open again.I'll take a bet and say the friends that abandoned you outside the club were from CT. If not, they have the attitude.