In Cape Town's
largest township the legacy of apartheid prevails
(written for the Peace Boat website on January 14th, 2013 >>)
During the first visit of a Peace Boat tour to Cape Town's largest
township, Manenberg, participants and local children painted a mural
together.
Shiraj Fredericks opens a photo album on a dusty car bonnet. "This is
District Six. I met my wife only one street from here" he says, pointing
on a black-and-white picture. It shows a wooden art-nouveau verandah in
an urban setting, with people leisurely walking down a street. He
frowns. "Well, this was District Six." In 1966, the apartheid government
bulldozed Shiraj Fredericks' home town and forcibly moved its 60,000
black and coloured inhabitants to Manenberg, the biggest of the so
called "townships" around Cape Town. These "group areas" were far away
from the white "suburbs" and often cut in two by a road, river or a
railway, without any bridges to cross to the other side. Two decades
after the official end of apartheid, the separation is legally
abolished, but in practice it continues. Few Black or Coloured South
Africans have made their way out of the overcrowded townships and nearly
no Whites have moved in. When a group of 30 young Peace Boat
participants left the bus in the middle of Manenberg, hundreds of
children came curiously running along. Upon invitation by its partner
organisation, Proudly Manenberg, Peace Boat visited the settlement as
part of an in-port programme for the first time.
Mario Wanza founded the civil society organisation, Proudly Manenberg in
2005 after an innocent student was killed by gang violence
"Our hopes flew high when Nelson Mandela was released from prison"
remembers Mario Wanza, founder of Proudly Manenberg. He was still a
child when he, too, was forced out of District Six. "After apartheid was
abolished in 1994, we expected the system to be reversed. We were sure
that we would finally get our land back and have equal access to social
services." The start was promising. After he had been working in the
underground as an anti-apartheid activist for decades, Mario Wanza could
suddenly make a career at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
,established in 1994. But as the years passed, he realized that his
vision of an integrated and equal society was far from being fulfilled.
"People just went to sleep" he says in a low voice. In 2000, Mario Wanza
quit his job and moved back to Manenberg, hoping to achieve in his old
neighbourhood what he couldn't achieve at the national level. He left
his well-paid regular job as a commissioner in Cape Town for a life in
Manenberg, where only one out of six children were finishing high
school, where the unemployment rate had reached 60 per cent and
rivalling drug gangs were fighting each other.
The organisation aims to turn the township around -leading it from crime and desperation to friendship and dignity.
Believing that education is the key for change, Mario Wanza started
working as a high school teacher, until 2005, when one of his students
got caught in the cross-fire between local gangs and was stabbed with a
knife. "That was the moment when I thought 'enough is enough'."
Together with colleagues and friends he founded the civil society
organisation Proudly Manenberg, which soon grew to have 1000 active
members. They aim at nothing less than turning the township upside down -
from crime and desperation to a "vibrant, proud and dignified
Manenberg". For this goal, the group relied on idealism, private money
and euphoric rhetoric. "Where there is underdevelopment we bring
development" their website reads. "Where there is unemployment we create
jobs, where there is crime, grime and violence, we create an
environment based on caring and sharing and which is clean and green."
The NGO has developed a Social and Economic Development Plan and
implements programs in the sectors of youth and education, business and
environment, health and sports, arts, culture and faith, safety, gender
and housing. Peace Boat participants visited a cultural centre
established by the NGO and bought clothes made by local tailors. But
Mario Wanza and his team are still aiming higher, encouraging drug lords
of rivalling gangs to talk to each other in a so-called Peace Garden
and establishing sports institutions to bring people "from grass roots
to glory".
The South African government built many new stadiums for the World
Soccer Championship of 2010, but local children often don't have any
place to play. That's why Peace Boat decided to build a soccer field in
the Manenberg township.
The first step to glory was made this time, when a team from Manenberg
beat Peace Boat in a friendly football game during the visit. During the
2010 Soccer World Championship in South Africa, the attention focused
on professional players, whereas township inhabitants could neither
afford to watch the games nor play soccer themselves. This led Peace
Boat to the idea of financing and building a mini soccer pitch for the
people of Manenberg. The motto of the World Championship was "Ke Nako",
an expression of the Sotho language meaning "It is time!" Mario Wanza
and his fellow activists feel that this is also true for uplifting the
living conditions of black and coloured South Africans. "Like many other
townships we have a housing crisis" he explains. "Manenberg was built
for 60,000 people, but it serves 150,000. We are living on top of each
other, usually with six family members in one room."
Mario Wanza fights against the invisible barriers between black, white
and coloured that continue to exist, even two decades after the end of
apartheid
Mario Wanza dreams of social "integration" as he calls it. "The rich
people are still living in the legacy of the apartheid" he laments. "We
are treated like slaves in our country. After Egypt, South Africa is the
most unequal country in the world. We also need an upheaval like the
Arab Spring. The time has come for the wealth and the land to be shared
among all. It is unnecessary for a few to be stinking rich while the
rest live in poverty." On the way to a march towards the Rondenbosch
Common, a public area mainly used by the white elite, 41 members of
Proudly Manenberg were arrested in 2011 only to be released soon
afterwards. Mario Wanza, however, was held in custody for four days. He
was accused of organising an "illegal protest", but Proudly Manenberg
described the march as a "summit" on land, jobs, housing and other
issues relevant to Cape Town's poor. The accusation could not be
maintained and the charges were finally dropped. "Instead of supporting
us, the government tries to break us" Mario Wanza explains. According to
him, the government ended its initial partnership with Proudly
Manenberg and founded a similar institution which employs 900 of the
1000 former activists. Their regular attempts to get funding for
programs have all failed.
When the Ocean Dream arrived on the South African coast at night, Cape
Town and its famous landmark Table Mountain were clearly visible, as
city lights illuminated the sky.
Together with Shiraj Fredericks and Mario Wanza a man called Adolphes
Johannos "Dollar" Brand was expelled from District Six and moved to
Manenberg. Some years later he became known as Abdullah Ibrahim, one of
South Africa's most famous jazz pianists. His instrumental song
"Manenberg - Where it's happening" became the anthem of black
consciousness and anti-apartheid struggle. On the margins of Cape Town,
so little has changed since those days that it feels as if he composed
it yesterday.
During the first visit of a Peace Boat tour to Cape Town's largest
township, Manenberg, participants and local children painted a mural
together.
Mario Wanza founded the civil society organisation, Proudly Manenberg in
2005 after an innocent student was killed by gang violence
The organisation aims to turn the township around -leading it from crime and desperation to friendship and dignity.
The South African government built many new stadiums for the World
Soccer Championship of 2010, but local children often don't have any
place to play. That's why Peace Boat decided to build a soccer field in
the Manenberg township.
Mario Wanza fights against the invisible barriers between black, white
and coloured that continue to exist, even two decades after the end of
apartheid
When the Ocean Dream arrived on the South African coast at night, Cape
Town and its famous landmark Table Mountain were clearly visible, as
city lights illuminated the sky.
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