South Africa: A beautiful but deeply troubled country
Once a global pariah, promise of ‘Rainbow Nation’ remains elusive
A sentimental journey down memory lane
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: On final approach to Cape Town International Airport, airline pilots have to circle far to the west – out over Table Bay – to line up for the runway into the prevailing headwind.
If you are fortunate enough to be sitting in the right-hand window seat, as I was on Monday morning, one gets a spectacular view of world famous Table Mountain (above).
This is something etched into my ancient memory because I have done this more times than I can even remember.
Just a few hours ago, the same feeling arose as we approached touchdown at the southernmost metropolis in Africa.
It is exactly 11 years since I was last here, in January 2011. The view has not changed, but I certainly have and so has the country.
As beautiful as she is, South Africa remains a deeply troubled society. The promise of the "Rainbow Nation" born almost three decades ago, remains largely unfulfilled.
But I am on a sentimental journey. Arriving here has brought back in stark terms many memories of a childhood and adolescence that I had a long ago banished to the nether reaches of my consciousness.
I spent an almost idyllic youth in the bucolic suburb of Pinelands about 10 miles south-east of downtown Cape Town. For the most part, I was blissfully unaware of the privilege granted to me by the Apartheid society into which I was born.
My political awakening did not fully arrive until 1972, when I was a student at the University of Cape Town and a very active member of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
One of my acquaintances and collaborators was the president of NUSAS, Neville Curtis, who would later become famous after he was "banned" by the National Party government. “Banned” persons (and there were many, mostly black) had all sorts of restrictions imposed on them by administrative decree – including confiscation of their passport.
An abiding memory of this time for me was the 1972 NUSAS protest on the steps of St. George's Cathedral in downtown Cape Town. (It is the same location where the funeral for Desmond Tutu was recently held.)
Perhaps 200 bedraggled students (some in “bell bottoms” and tie-dyed shirts) holding placards denouncing Apartheid on the steps outside the building, were viciously attacked by non-uniformed security police, beaten with batons and chased inside the cathedral, where we all were arrested.
It was after bailing me out that my parents decided there was no viable future for me in South Africa. They ensured that I was thoroughly prepared and able to leave the country at a moment’s notice when the time came three years later.
I graduated from college in 1974 with a BA majoring in sociology and economics. I was thoroughly unequipped for any career path whatsoever and had no idea what I wanted to do.
Fate intervened!
I was hired as a cub reporter at The Cape Times by a “Lou Grant” type city editor who would later become a famous author: Wessel De Kock.
De Kock took me under his wing to the extent that, after deadline, we would both go through the inter-leading second-floor door between the newsroom and an adjacent pub for a beer.
He was an excellent teacher.
My very first front-page bylined story was about a group of environmentalists who were demonstrating to save the last pristine undeveloped beach in the Cape Town metropolitan area – Sandy Bay.
The sparkling white beach was a nudist paradise because it was completely surrounded by hills: The only way to reach it – then and now – is by walking through the brush from a parking lot about a mile away.
Another access method was hiking from a paved road in Hout Bay, 2 miles distant.
The first mile was uphill on a massive, pure white sand dune rising over 100 feet; from the top you could see the beach below.
A developer, Costa Areosa (Ltd.), had recently proposed to the City Council construction of a luxury resort on this otherwise deserted piece of coastline.
A group opposing the development formed: it was named, simply “Save Sandy Bay.” It became a very newsworthy topic.
By prior arrangement, the leader of Save Sandy Bay – then a young man named Peter Ravenscroft who today is CEO of Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd. in Perth, Australia invited me on a guided tour of the beach so I could interview him for a story about their cause and shoot some photographs.
As we arrived, hot and sweaty after our mile long walk, a bulldozer appeared in the distance at the top of the white sand dune. It headed down towards us, scooping up bucket-fulls of sand on the way. It was totally illegal, of course, because the development had not yet been approved.
I got out my camera and started taking photos as quickly as I could.
As he approached, the bulldozer driver abruptly stopped, jumped off his machine and rushed at me in the most menacing way. He lunged forward, trying to get my camera out of my hands.
My companions pried us apart and we rapidly left the scene of the crime. On my way back to the newsroom, I stopped at the local police precinct office and filed an assault charge against "John Doe.”
My story about the entire visit – the tour and the assault on me and the police report filed — appeared on Page 3 the following day.
This story was seen by a sympathetic attorney who contacted Ravenscroft and a resident of Llandudno (a suburb adjacent to Sandy Bay), one Frederick Moltke.
All three of them appeared at an emergency hearing in the Cape Supreme Court that afternoon.
After the case was presented, Judge Diemont obtained a guarantee from the developer that there would be no further bulldozing until the judge could make a decision on a formal restraining order enforcing a halt to all bulldozing. The order was issued a few days later.
My story about the proceedings and a photo was on top of The Cape Times front page with my byline on it the next day. My mom was so proud!
To the present day Sandy Bay remains pristine and undeveloped.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY. Please be patient: the site loads very slowly
(Near the bottom of this story is the following paragraph: “Attached to the affidavit from Mr Moltke were reports from yesterday’s Cape Times headlined “Bulldozer incident at Sandy Bay” and “Bay project: New attack.”)
My career as a reporter got a major boost from my acquaintance with Neville Curtis who secretly (without his passport but with help from a few collaborators) escaped from South Africa by boat in September, 1974. Very few knew his whereabouts, but a nationwide manhunt was launched for him.
He was halfway across the Pacific Ocean to Australia when I reached him by radio telephone for an interview. It was a national scoop!
Not only did The Cape Times banner the story across its front page, but all its partner newspapers in the South African Associated Newspapers group throughout the country (about five) ran the same story on their front pages.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY. Please be patient: the site loads very slowly
(At the bottom of this story, you can find a link to the obituary of Neville Curtis, who died in Tasmania on Feb 15, 2007 of respiratory problems. He was 60.)
I found out only about nine months later that the government was also watching me closely. By then I was a reporter at the now-defunct Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg. In June, 1975, I was drafted – along with at least a dozen other reporters – to appear for compulsory military service on July 1, 1975.
As a conscientious objector and somewhat prominent foe of Apartheid, there was no way I would be complicit by serving in the military.
I left home and my office on June 30 and drove the 800 miles to Cape Town where I said goodbye to the family. On July 10, I flew out of Jan Smuts Airport (now Oliver Tambo Airport) on a round-trip ticket bound for Amsterdam. I was pretending to be a tourist.
I landed in New York – my first stop in the US – on August 8, 1975.
South Africa made global headlines just a month ago with the closing of a significant chapter in the country’s history: Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu died in late December. He was 91.
The epitome of righteousness, Archbishop-emeritus Tutu (known affectionately as “Arch”) was a champion of freedom and democracy for over four decades, and was never afraid to speak truth to power.
His partnership with South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was legendary.
Tutu assumed the most senior position in southern Africa's Anglican hierarchy when he became Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986 – based in the very same St. George's Cathedral where I was beaten up by the security police in 1972.
After Mandela was released from Robben Island prison in 1990, he and Tutu collaborated on negotiations with the Apartheid government to usher in democracy.
When Mandela ascended to the presidency in 1994, he appointed Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – which set an example for the world of how to heal a broken country.
If Desmond Tutu epitomized virtue, the disgraced former South African President Jacob Zuma is the exact opposite.
A one-time anti-apartheid crusader and member of the African National Congress (ANC), Zuma served as deputy president from 1999 to 2005. The following year, he faced his first legal battle when he was charged with corruption and rape.
He was elected president in 2009 and served until 2018.
His tenure was marked by rampant corruption, and his regime invented the term “state capture” – a reference to when private businesses and individuals become so influential with government that they virtually write their own rules.
The national electric power company Eskom was so neglected and plundered that power blackouts became commonplace. Water utilities were so unattended that in 2018 the entire city of Cape Town almost ran dry.
When he was finally forced from office, Zuma left an indelible dark stain on the entire South African government.
He is still making headlines, like this one from Dec. 28, 2021:
From jail to asking for donations: 5 moments from Jacob Zuma’s crazy year
“From playing host to political figures at his Nkandla homestead to being jailed for contempt of court, former president Jacob Zuma had an eventful 2021.
“He made headlines and had the country talking over the past 12 months, with his health and court cases frequent topics of debate.”
Of course, the COVID pandemic has struck South Africa hard. It was just around Thanksgiving that its first-class public health system identified the Omicron variant and alerted the world to it.
“Punishment” for its good deed followed rapidly. Within days, countries around the globe – including the US – prohibited flights to and from South Africa.
Millions of residents depend on tourism for their very livelihoods, and in early December and their incomes suddenly vanished.
Fortunately, the massive surge in cases locally was followed by an equally sudden decline right around Christmas time. I saw it on Dec. 30 on BBC News:
“South Africa has lifted overnight curfew rules, with officials saying the country may have passed the peak of its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections,” the report said.
By early January, the flight bans were mostly rescinded and tourists began to reappear. A follow-up report on Jan. 18 on BBC caught my attention: it showed the crowded waterfront in Cape Town with hundreds of people enjoying midsummer weather – no masks in sight!
The following morning I began my research which concluded on Monday, Jan. 24 before dawn Pacific Time when I made my airline reservations.
The trip from Los Angeles to Cape Town was brutal. It included an 11-hour stop over in Frankfurt, Germany and about 25 hours inside two different aircraft.
When I have recovered from jet lag, I intend to visit some of the most notable sites around town and will report on my findings. Stay tuned!
Wow! You arrived and right into "work"
Another wow, for it is 48 years since this green travelling Kiwi took up residence in Berea, a suburb in Johannesburg with a mixed bag of flatties among them a reporter from the Rand Daily Mail. That was you! Although I knew you were travelling to ZA, I did not really think about it until reading the article.
You have stirred many memories of my year in Southern Africa,
Glad to hear that you arrived safely. It was interesting to compare your writing today with that of your youth. I’d say you’ve come a long way! It was also interesting to learn that you were somewhat of a rebel, and left South Africa under less than normal circumstances. Good for you for standing up for your beliefs. It must have been an exciting time for you. Have a great vacation.