In the Cape Times lead last Wednesday, we read of a tragic reality faced by most black employees in the different work contexts of the Western Cape who, similarly to this brave young woman, Tinyiko Ngwenya, have been made to feel excluded in the work environment by colleagues.
Her plea for people not to be made to feel inferior or “minorities” in their own country has resonance for most of us from disadvantaged communities.
This is despite overcoming the odds and daily struggles we have to contend with by using education to make something of ourselves, while at the same time making a contribution to the general development of our country.
The oddity that is Cape Town as a city, that claims to be a world-class city and premier tourist destination in South Africa and Africa, would not have escaped those of us who have been at the brunt of differential treatment by those deemed to be privileged.
These are mostly our white colleagues. She is not the only person who has been negatively affected by an unfortunate pervasive belief system that continues to curtail any genuine efforts to even the playing fields in various working contexts in Cape Town.
Many have vainly tried to draw attention to this tragic tendency, which has even created some fissures between so-called coloured and black employees.
For instance, there is a disturbing tendency for those of us black people who are in managerial positions to sometimes feel doubted by subordinate staff members and peers/colleagues, who still appeal to the old apartheid thinking that white managers are in a better position to lead and issue directives in the workplace.
This is a sad throwback practice that has been fostered by the previous abhorrent coloured preferential practice and related tendencies, which tragically still prevail in the mindset of other so-called coloured communities.
In some corporate contexts this remains the case where you are made to feel through patronising tendencies that you being carried through for the sake of the laws of this country, which attempt to nurture and encourage corporates to create an enabling and fair working environment for all, irrespective of race, culture and traditional backgrounds.
Yet we suffer silently the indignity of being expected to be “doubly good and exceptional” before we can earn the respect of our peers and colleagues - how
tragic that this is allowed to prevail 24 years after our liberation.
Recently this was the case in the Isiqalo informal settlement dispute and conflict in Mitchells Plain, in which derogatory statements were made about “black people having houses and property in the rural areas” and by implication, not deserving to be prioritised by local public authorities at the expense of coloured communities, who were deemed to have superior rights.
This is a daily occurrence even when, for instance, black people request service in different commercial and social settings.
I was once shouted at by a coloured sales assistant in the Waterfront for no reason other than the usual indignity meted out to black customers when asking for service.
In property circles, if you enquire about rental space from private landlords over the phone, your distinctive African voice suddenly becomes another measurement point to mostly deny your application.
Call me sensitive, but if truth be told, as this brave sister and others have done, Cape Town as a so-called premier city in an African context does remain fundamentally divided.
We need to tell our stories and confront racism through courageous discussions as different communities seeking a common ideal and a just society, if we are to overcome our racial challenges.
Sadly I do not see any tangible concerted efforts in Cape Town which give one the confidence that we are genuinely gravitating towards such an ideal scenario.
Those of us who still have affinity with, or reside in, township areas, given the above odds, have consistently witnessed the daily grind of inequity from a socio-economic perspective, as well as being forced to travel daily to far-flung areas to seek and do work in better locations.
It is with a sense of conviction when I openly pronounce that as a black person, I also still feel the daily difficulties that continue to exclude us as citizens of this country.
How can this be tolerated, while in other parts of this amazing country of ours one witnesses the reality of a truly African city, like in Joburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth?
Why must we be made to be minorities in a country of 58 million with a constitution that guarantees fair and equitable rights for all?
I say the remnants of apartheid have tragically shaped some South Africans’ perspectives on race relations, and until we brutally and honestly deal with this baggage as a city and a country, we still have a long way to go.
Shame on all of those who have failed this brave young soul and others who are currently suffering silently.
I choose not to be silent but to confront the scourge of racism and be not treated consistently as a minority in my country.
To Tinyiko: hold your head high, for you will emerge victorious for standing up to one of the challenges that continue to prevail in this city of two halves.
Your principled stand is not only for you alone, but for many other black colleagues in Cape Town who daily have to be subjected to such a negative tendency.
May you be blessed in your new career endeavors in Joburg, and if you can, please swing your way back to Cape Town, forwe need collective interventions to deal with local gremlins relative to local corporate culture and work environments.
* Mkunqwana is a social housing professional who writes in his personal capacity as a social activist.