Race in South Africa

When dogs don’t bark
Aug 30th 2001 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition

As South Africa plays host to the third UN conference on racism, how much progress has it made itself?

AP

Not equal yet

UNLIKE people, a dog that is a racist cannot hide the fact. Your correspondent’s dog, without any encouragement from past owners, barks ferociously at black people but merely slobbers at whites. Ingozi—the name means “danger” in Zulu—guards a house in a wealthy, mostly white, suburb of Johannesburg. In common with many South African dogs, he has inherited the assumption that any approaching blacks may be robbers.

Ingozi’s instincts are a reminder that old racial animosities still fester in South Africa beneath a brighter surface. In many ways, since the first all-race elections in 1994, the country has made a remarkable transformation from the world’s most openly racist society into a tolerant and democratic one. These days, instead of waving the old (apartheid) South African flag, Afrikaners at rugby matches paint the rainbow flag on their faces. A new black elite mingles with other races in Johannesburg’s malls and restaurants. Television dramas, comedy shows and newspaper cartoons all dare to poke fun at race relations, a sign of a society now a lot more at ease with itself.

South Africa’s political transformation is even more obvious. The once all-white parliament is now multi-hued and dominated by the party of black liberation, the African National Congress (ANC). The 1996 constitution celebrates a country “united in our diversity” and recognises the “injustices of our past”. It goes on to recognise 11 official languages and to affirm equality before the law for all South Africans. It outlaws discrimination on grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, disability and so on. It makes an exception, however, for laws aimed at uplifting “categories of persons” discriminated against in the past. A series of laws has been passed obliging government and business to discriminate in favour of blacks, women and others disadvantaged by apartheid.

All the main political parties support South Africa’s multiracial democracy. But scratch the surface, and racial division reappears. The ANC is largely black and dominated by Xhosas; the Democratic Alliance is backed mainly by whites and coloureds; the Inkatha Freedom Party is Zulu; the Freedom Front is white and Afrikaans-speaking. Parliamentary debates are tainted by racial mud-slinging. The ANC accuses critics of racism; they retort that the ANC too often blames the racist past for its own failures.

At first glance, ordinary folk do not seem to share their obsession. “Fewer than 5% of South Africans spontaneously identify racism as a problem,” says Anthea Jeffery, a consultant at the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). Crime, housing and jobs matter more. But these issues are racial too. Whites who complain about crime are usually referring to black-on-white crime, and sometimes by extension to the new South Africa. Blacks who lament their poverty are keenly aware that their former oppressors are rich.

The government’s efforts to create a black middle class have seen some limited success. After 1994, there was a surge in black-owned companies’ share of the market capitalisation of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, though it slumped recently to only 2% of the total (more if you define black ownership more loosely), according to BusinessMap, a consultancy. With government help, blacks have made their mark in mining, media and telecommunications. Prominent businessmen such as Cyril Ramaphosa, Saki Macozoma and Tokyo Sexwale serve as role models for young blacks. But all three are former ANC heavyweights. Not many well-known black entrepreneurs have succeeded without political clout. Many have done no more than use their connections to persuade banks to lend them money to buy portions of existing white-owned businesses. That is hardly an example that ordinary blacks can copy.

Now that white-owned businesses are no longer forced to exclude blacks, they seem to be putting profits before prejudice. A local newspaper recently sent a black reporter and a white one to see whether restaurants in Johannesburg treated them differently, but found no evidence of discrimination. This does not mean that none of the waiters or managers was racist, merely that businesses, left to their own devices, have a strong incentive not to alienate paying customers.

Habits hard to break

Apartheid is no longer the law, but blacks and whites still live largely separate and unequal lives. Crowds at rugby games are still almost exclusively white, at football matches almostly entirely black. Even in the most youthful, trendy and relaxed parts of town, there are very few mixed-race couples. Economic segregation keeps people apart. Johannesburg, South Africa’s most mixed city, is divided into the expensive (and mainly white) northern suburbs and separate poor districts which are almost entirely black.

Small extremist parties survive, and could cause trouble. The Pan Africanist Congress, for example (whose slogan used to be “one settler, one bullet”), encourages landless supporters to invade private property. The invasions have not so far been widespread or violent, as in Zimbabwe, and the government has evicted many squatters. But white farmers are more likely to be killed than almost any other group in society: 274 are killed for every 100,000 people each year. The Freedom Front, a right-wing party of Afrikaners, claims that some of the murders are political, the long-expected revenge that many whites have feared. “They will never forgive us for what we have done,” confides one white woman.

Some believe that too few South Africans are making personal efforts to take responsibility for the past. Nkosinathi Biko, the son of Steve Biko, a writer and political activist murdered by police in 1977, says that too many people, especially whites, expected the much-vaunted Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to do that job for them. The blacks who suffered, he thinks, have largely forgiven their oppressors, but the whites are still sour.

Opinion polls bear him out. A study in June of nearly 4,000 people by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, based in Cape Town, found that 76% of black respondents believed the TRC had done a good job, but only 37% of whites agreed. Some 72% approved of amnesties for crimes committed under apartheid, while only 39% of whites did. But over half of all blacks thought whites untrustworthy, half found it hard to imagine having a white friend (only a fifth said that they had ever eaten a meal with a white person), and roughly a fifth thought the country would be better off without whites.

Prosperity could perhaps ease South Africa’s racial tensions. But average incomes have barely grown since 1994, and the gap between whites and blacks remains huge. Poor blacks have stayed poor: an estimated 40% are unemployed, compared with 7% for whites. Although black wages have edged closer to white wages since the 1970s, they remain far lower. According to the University of South Africa, the combined income of black South Africans (who make up 78% of the population), will surpass that of whites (10.5%) for the first time only this year.

Against this background, white complaints about positive discrimination can sound ridiculous. But they should not be discounted. The most likely South Africans to emigrate are the young, white and skilled. Their departure applies a brake to economic growth, which makes it more likely that poor blacks will stay that way.

Positive discrimination is also partly to blame for the general rise in unemployment since 1994. Employers above a certain size are obliged to submit annual reports to the government on their progress towards making their workforces three-quarters black at all levels, from the shopfloor to the boardroom. If sued for racial discrimination, the onus is on them to prove their innocence. That a black applicant was unqualified is no defence; employers must demonstrate that he or she could not have acquired the necessary skills in a reasonable time. Faced with such obligations, firms tie themselves in knots to avoid hiring anyone at all.

Racism begins at home

On top of all this, there are signs that a new racism is emerging. Black South Africans are increasingly resentful of Africans from other parts of the continent. Lax immigration policies, and a border of roughly 3,000km (2,000 miles) shared with six other countries, have allowed large numbers of Africans from north of the Limpopo river to move in. Mozambican immigrants are sometimes blamed for bringing AIDS to South Africa, and Nigerians for bringing drugs and crime to its cities. In September 1998, two Mozambicans and a Senegalese were killed on a train outside Pretoria by a mob angry at foreigners “taking jobs away” from South Africans. Television footage of white policemen setting their dogs on terrified illegal immigrants last December provoked outrage, but also drew comments (from the president, Thabo Mbeki, for example) that racism is deeply entrenched in the country.

Yet, for all the pessimism, it is worth taking the long view. As Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign minister, puts it, “Racism can’t deepen here after 300 years. It can’t go worse than before.” In the 1980s, many predicted a race war in South Africa. It never happened, and it is extremely unlikely in the future, not least because most of those who do not like the new South Africa can pack their bags and fly out.

In the end, South Africa will shake off apartheid only if enough individuals do their bit to foster good relations between the races. In rural areas, some have launched “consumer campaigns” to promote shops and other businesses as anti-racist places. Such small-scale activities, along with laws against discrimination and sound macro-economic policies, should push South Africa’s transition further and faster. Johannesburg’s dog-owners could do their bit, too

Today, some of us went shark diving near Hermanus.  I think all of us but 2 or 3 were seasick.  We did manage to see three or four sharks though.  The sea was rough and we were actually in the water, were bouncing around in a steel cage dunking our heads under the water when the dive master instructed us to do so. They threw out a rope with fish meat attached to attract the sharks to an area around the cage to give you and up close and personal encounter with the ‘great white’.

The program officially comes to an end tomorrow, but my time here has definitely left some lasting memories and professional skills related to small business consulting in South Africa.  One of the lasting memories that I have thought of again and again during my time here is how an areas like Stellenbosch, the Cape Flats and Cape Town are so different and allow you a make stark comparisons of some pieces of South Africa that don’t necessarily fit together very nicely.  For instance, our bus driver from Cape Town brought along his dog ‘Lucky’ for our trip to Hermanus today. After ‘Lucky’ snapped at a guy on the road trying to sell cell phone chargers to each passer-by, the driver said to us ‘Lucky’ doesn’t like black people.

Unfortunately, ‘Lucky’ isn’t the only one that suffers from stress caused by the company of ‘others’. There are xenophobic people everywhere in the world but Stellenbosch might take the cake in this shameful contest between the admittedly short list of places I have seen in my life.  Through all of the business analysis, models and maps we have wrestled with in our consulting engagements runs the threads of racism and inequality (not only economic but more importantly, educational) that are impossible to escape in the overall analysis.

But there are plenty of bright spots out there, including the program we have been immersed in and some of the ‘Make a Difference’ clients we have worked with for the past six weeks.  It is not necessarily the end goal but the means or the struggle involved in reaching that goal that will have a lasting impact on disadvantaged communities like the townships we have become familiar with here.  Our MaD client for instance, is really struggling to find a way to have a meaningful impact on the lives of people in Kayamandi.  Many people in Kayamandi see these type of centers like Ikaya as bettering themselves at the expense of the intended beneficiaries.  The challenge for these non-profits in places like Kayamandi is to become effective in delivering a specific service or product to a community and being able to measure the results to attract future funding from outside. The idea to bring in flexible revenue to a center via client fees/sustainable income generation is one to be grappled with when confronting a situation where people are being left out of the loop.  On one end, donor funding will always be the driver of a successful non-profit in Kayamandi. On the other end, implementing programs effectively with substantial community awareness and participation will not only increase the attractiveness of these centers to people in the community, but will provide data, measures and info for donors to feed off of when deciding who to give their charitable gift to.

This is the real struggle. This is the real process that in the end, will reap more rewards than the money, time and frustration that were all put into it. This will be the qualitative outcome in the end but can only occur through refining the machine along the way. This is what our client and so many others are doing right now, even though many may not see it in this light.

There will always be the rich and the poor, the racist bigot and the do-gooder volunteer and whatever other bifuraction, ying vs yang you can throw out there. These are the cards we are dealt and maybe they allow for some deeper meaning or way to make sense and order of things. If these are taken as a given from the start, maybe then good things and people can start pushing forward and accomplishing goals that would no longer be hindered by seeing black and white. Not everyone will achieve this but those people and projects that do survive under these difficult circumstances will from time to time see someone or something extraordinary come along.  This is what will make it all worth the ride and it will provide a comfort and sense of accomplishment that can be experienced by everyone from all backgrounds.

We finished our final report for our client today highlighting our deliverables over the past 6 weeks as well as recommendations to achieve future growth targets and better management practices for the business life span.  Last Thursday, 27 July, we visited three schools in Khayelitsha with our client and two sales were made.  We sensed the excitement from our client as he told us how motivated he has become seeing that he could go out and make two sales in one morning. It may have helped having Rebecca and myself by our client’s side but we tried to interject as little as possible during the discussions we had with the school principals. Now, these are three new contacts for our client that he can keep in touch with for future reference and follow up.

Our recommendations and deliverables were centered around accounting, pricing and marketing of the products and services that Masikhule Steel Works provides.  A more effective sales and marketing strategy was recommended in order to gain a competitive edge in what is a highly saturated market within the townships.  A sample logo stencil will be handed over to the client tomorrow with contact information on who provides these stencils for future use. A flyer has been developed that will be used for promotions and sales being offered during peak periods. We have recommeded dropping one production staff member and hiring a part time sales and marketing representative paid a low base salary but offered a commission of each sale. We have encouraged continued use of a local newspaper for advertising but have recommended the owner ask each customer where she/he found out about Masikhule Steel Works to gauge whether this shotgun advertising approach is paying off marginal returns.

In the end, it is about application and adaptability of the business that determines success.  Applying what we have delivered and recommended will enhance the owner’s business and efficiency. If the business owner can continue to think in terms of where his margins are high/low and how each marketing strategy pays off, than we have accomplished something during our time here. If the owner continues to make rash decisions like buying a computer when he is computer illiterate and adding an expensive printer on top of that, I can’t see where and when the business will see any future growth.  Getting the owner to think about break even points, margins and optimal/targetted marketing (but in a simple language that he understands) is a tough task but one that if practices over and over, will reap substantial benefits for the business.   

We are now wrapping up our engagement with the Trust Center and have learned a lot of lessons from the whole experience.  The homestay tourism project stands to gain from further involvement if upcoming donor funds are used optimally to increase the network of the Center with other NGOs as well as private tourism businesses.  The Indaba Tourism conference/exhibition runs yearly in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal. Attending this exhibition with representatives from the homestays would reap potential relationships with tourism planners, retail and group tourism agents as well as other tourism destinations that focus on township visits elsewhere.

The owners of the homestays are a mix of warm and loving women, many of whom have fought diligently to be in the position they are in today.  We heard one woman talk about her involvement in “the struggle” when she was jailed for six months in the 1960s when blacks were resisting white rule. Another woman told us of her move to Stellenbosch in the 1980s only to be apprehended by the apartheid police and sent back to her area or zone in Eastern Cape.  When she finally made it back to Stellenbosch, she and some other women started building shacks in Kayamandi to escape the male hostels where they were harassed and had little privacy. From the shack life, more than one of the homestay owners made what they could from what little they had until eventually, one day, they had managed to build a proper house on a lot in Kayamandi. Today, these dwellings have been fixed up and have hosted hundreds of international tourists. These women are proud of what they have accomplished and many of them are making big plans for the World Cup Soccer Tournament being hosted by South Africa in 2010. This event is expected to bring in hundreds and thousands of tourists, many of whom will find themselves in the Western Cape and along the wine route that runs past Kayamandi.

The Ikaya Trust Center can be a focal point for many of these links that need to be established before 2010. Name recognition and marketing of Ikaya can be done effectively and efficiently by the NGOs operating in the township and around Stellenbosch.  We are nearly completed with a booklet for the Center that will also be put on the new website and at the Stellenbosch University International Student Office. The booklet will contain photos and a brief description of the homestay experience from one of the most beautiful views in the Greater Stellenbosch area.

I met with six ladies who operate homestays in Kayamandi today.  Mrs. E Swartbooi, Ezme Makhalima, Kholeka Fingo, Valencia Mgijima, Julia Zulu and Patricia Mayakiso

have all been hosting volunteers and other visitors for the past couple of years. The center and municipality would like the women to upgrade their homestays to the level of bed and breakfast and all have received hospitality and tourism training funded by an organization called Boland. THe women do not see themselves becoming bed and breakfast businesses and want to remain the way they are.  Kholeka said a bed and breakfast would not be “a home away from home” and as she sees it, the homestays are there to welcome the visitor into the home, where a family goes about its day as usual while providing for the guests in African fashion.

We are meeting with the women again on Thursday at 1pm at there homes to take photos and learn more about each woman’s homestay experience and what each plans on doing to make their individual experience a memorable one. 

We met with the owner of Masikhule today and he was receptive to the logo we presented him that will be stenciled and painted on his finished products with customer approval.

The owner is meeting with the man who is preparing his business plan for him tomorrow, Tuesday,  and we are meeting with him on Thursday to visit some schools in Mfuleni and Khayelitsha where he feels there are potential jobs. When a customer came today that needed to have his muffler repaired, the owner fixed the muffler for R 25 but did not record anything in the books. We have to still work on getting the idea into the owner’s head that every transaction should be recorded to see what the real earnings of the business are.

One of our partners in the program came up with a cost effective and creative idea for putting a logo on our client’s products. We’ve been thinking of a way to use some of the scrap metal that the client has lying around and using it as a welding piece to place on the door or window frames and bars that he makes. Initially, I had the idea of finding someone to supply outdoor stickers with a graphic design for a backdrop with ‘Masikhule Steelworks’ and the phone number on the label.

The problem with this route is the cost and the reliance on a supplier that we never located in the first place. SO the new idea is this. We still recommend using scrap metal for a diamond, oval or square shaped weld but now, instead of a sticker, we will make a stencil out of some durable plastic and spraypaint onto the welded scrap the business name and number. A silver galvanized security door with a blue welded piece placed directly at eye level for the future customer to become acquainted with ‘Masikhule Steelworks’.

Today, Dustin and I went to pay a visit to the centre and met with the restaurant owner ‘Roots’. Roots is being backed by four business people from the Stellenbosch area in his venture of opening up an African cuisine restaurant in Kayamandi.  We were there to see how he planned on collaborating with the centre and its activities.

Its clear that there may not be much. Besides assisting the crafts people to gain exposure with any influx of visitors that takes place after the opening in September, the owner expressed no willingness to have anyone at the centre controlling any aspect of his operations.

We are putting together a booklet for the homestays that Ikaya assists in terms of booking and advertising. We will shoot some photos of each one of the ten homestay mothers’ houses and write up a short profile for each. We also want to take this opportunity to develop a rating system for each homestay to see which are in need of renovation and maintenance. The centre plans on receiving a large amount of money in the upcoming months, some of which will be used to shape up some of the homestays. We need to assess where the money will be most effectively spent.

I was just sent an email from the manager of the centre requesting a cash flow projection for the upcoming year to assess whether or not there will be enough funds to hire a new kindergarten teacher for R1,000 per month and a principal and manager for the overall education project for R8,000 per month.  I am looking over the some of the old cash flow statements right now to see where the centre stands right now financially. There is definitely a need for increased funding to take on these two positions that would greatly improve the quality of the project.

 Photos of Cape Town’s skyline, Robben Island and Downtown

Today we visited Lolo’s supplier in Mitchell’s Plain. The name of the company is Steel World and Lolo buys most of his materials there including tubing, screws, hinges, primer, paint, cutting blades and welding rods. This is the type of company Lolo would like to see himself in someday. How effectively he would position himself within this industry is questionable given the capacity of his current operations.

Lolo has been very receptive to our pricing recommendations of 15% above total costs. We still have to do a break-even analysis to find out how much Lolo needs to earn in any given month to cover all monthly costs of operation. We have also discussed possible marketing/advertising strategies which we will carry out in our next session, beginning with walking around Mfuleni distributing pamphlets that Lolo has made copies of at the local primary school.

Lolo told us today he has agreed on a purchase of a new shack from which to operate from. The shack is pre-made by a man down the street. The price of the shack will be R1,500.  He plans on using the space for storage and to operate out of instead of outside where they presently cannot work when it is raining.

Some ideas for advertising include the local newspaper that charges R100 per month for 4 newspapers and 2 lines in each, radio advertisement is expensive at R350 per one spot and R4,000 for a one month contract — 3 spots per day, handing out and posting flyers around the townships, using taxis as billboards, collaborating with other businesses and registering with the Office of Public Works where the business name would go into a database where businesses are selected for government contracts.