A nation haunted by its past (S.Africa - I)

By K.V. Krishnaswamy

JOHANNESBURG, MAY 8. Two of the tributaries of the mighty Amazon, themselves nearly as gigantic, flow side by side for nearly five kilometers off the exotic coastal town of Manaus in Brazil before joining the main river. One of the two is called the Negro, deriving its name from the colour of its water which turns a deep black and extremely dense because of the decaying foliage upstream. The difference in density results in a curious phenomenon: the waters of the two tributaries never mix and flow alongside each other till they flow into the Amazon.

This bizarre phenomenon kept coming back to mind during a short visit to South Africa, a nation deeply divided by a common destiny, with two streams of people running parallel who never seem destined to arrive at a meeting point. The contrast is not strikingly apparent in cities like Cape Town or Durban but in the countryside - besides in Johannesburg, the primal apartheid centre - it is too obnoxiously pervasive to be missed. The experience left but one impression: the slowness of the post- apartheid democratic process to remove racial inequalities may begin to sow the seeds of instability.

In restaurants and resorts, housing complexes, shopping malls and wherever else visitors have to do business with the local population, one could spot the difference in living styles, much like in key Western European cities that have begun more and more to depend on immigrant labour to oil the machine of opulence. The only difference here, a fundamental difference, of course, is that, unlike the Turks in Germany, the Asians in Britain or the north Africans in France, those on the wrong side of the scale of life in South Africa are the majority population, the natives and not those refugees of poverty crowding Europe.

Seven years after the great revolution that brought down the repressive white minority regime of apartheid, hope appears to remain a deferred dream for the majority population in South Africa. Believe it instantly if someone tells you that South Africa is an uneven mix of the first world and third world, the former peopled predominantly by the whites and the latter exclusively by the natives. Natives constitute nearly three quarters of the approximately 37 million population of South Africa, 15 per cent are whites and the rest are of Indian origin and the coloured.

Clearly, urban centres like Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria can match any European city for their infrastructural and other facilities and their lifestyle. The first world is very much alive in these cities. It is here that you meet the new black middle class that is said to be emerging and on which the hope of a democratic, peaceful evolution of South Africa rests.

It was during the long drives across Western and Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal that one had glimpses of poverty and deprivation. These were certainly not uncharacteristic of a third world nation. But the startling detail was that this cruel poverty seemed to be afflicting only the black population. The squalor of their residential areas, no more called townships because of the racial overtones of the past, and the absence of basic amenities stand out in contrast to the facilities that the whites have built for themselves across the country.

Often, one saw black school children laden with books and bags, tired labourers and the aged and the infirm standing in the road margins under the noon sun, seeking lifts from vehicles speeding by. The lack of confidence and of hope that their thumbs up signs will meet with some positive response was fully reflected in their despondent faces.

In fact, the most striking impression of travel in the country was the absence of public transport. You met even a stray cyclist but hardly any buses for the common man. Everything in free South Africa seemed still focussed on the needs of the rich, the white: the miles and miles of highways, the inns on the wayside and the enchanting resorts by the vast expanses of beaches. The high quality of the facilities available on the tourist trail in even small towns like Knysna and George made one wonder where South Africa's third world was lying hidden.

But that countryside is stirring, though it appears that apartheid's legacy is taking time to wipe out. The longer the delay, the greater the threat to the stability of the country, and consequently, of the continent. The dilemmas facing the country were fully reflected in Johannesburg, which presented a bewildering picture.

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