Issues of identity, homelands in a post-apartheid South Africa (Published in the local newspaper)
There is enough evidence to prove that indeed it is almost impossible to look at current situation of South Africa without constantly reflecting on the past, particularly the period of apartheid regime and of course colonialism. “Homelands” in the Eastern and Northern Cape and black townships in the better parts of South Africa are just one of the many of architectures of apartheid policies of racial segregation. It is important to emphasize that although apartheid in South Africa was only institutionalized in 1948 under the National Party. However, policies of racial and ethnical segregation and racialised inequalities between blacks and whites were already conspicuous and widespread especially in most of the affluent cities, like Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Fast forward to 1994, the white apartheid regime was dismantled and the ANC came into power with Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of South Africa. It was clear when ANC came into power that one of its priorities was to regress the imbalances created by the apartheid government, especially focusing on black people’s access to job opportunities and land.It is now 2012 the ANC government has been in power for the past 18 years, and has done very little on reducing racialised income inequalities, and land redistribution has been disastrous to say the least. Although 1994 was signified as the end of apartheid regime, however, it is clear to anyone that all the structures of the apartheid are still very visible. Black townships (i.e. Soweto and Khayelitsha) and homelands are still well preserved and inhabited by one of the worst marginalized people of South Africa.
One of the things that we as black radicals perhaps have failed at is to remind people that a township like Soweto or a “homeland” like Eastern Cape is one of the architectures of apartheid. All these were only meant to limit or restrict the movement of black people into the cities. This in essence resulted in a situation where cities were and still viewed as “white spaces” and homelands as “black spaces”. Truth needs to be told most of black people still strongly identify Eastern Cape as their “home”, although this is peculiar in a sense that most of them only spend less than a month in their “homes”. Of course there is nothing particularly wrong with most of black people in cities like Cape Town or Johannesburg still identifying Eastern Cape as their “home”. However, it becomes hypocritical when the very same people become offended when other races are demanding and calling that they should go back to Eastern Cape, as I will assume that anyone should be proud of his “home”.
I strongly believe that this is where Zille capitalized on when earlier this year claimed that children coming from Eastern Cape to Western Cape looking for better quality education should be considered as “refugees”. Although Zille’s statement was construed differently by people, others calling her a racist, whist others found no offense at all on her statement.But the truth of the matter remains that her statement emanated on this notion and discourse of homelands as black spaces and cities as white spaces. And this will certainly continue in the future as long as black people, even those who were born and bred in Western Cape, and those who spend less than a month in Eastern Cape but still strongly identify Eastern Cape or any “homeland” as their authentic“home”. The concept that most of Xhosas around Cape Town use when traveling to Eastern Cape is ukugoduka (implies going home) and this in my opinion reveals and insinuates a deep psychological sense that black people do not belong to the cities or former white spaces. In my opinion, the fact that black people still largely identify homelands as their “home” attenuates and obscures the fact that the same “home” was a result of apartheid policies of forced removal.
