Studentcolumn: White ground
Sander Timmermans is a third year student Cultural and Social Education. During his work placement, he works with young delinquents in a prison in Cape Town (South-Africa). The news reports of this country have been mainly about the World Cup the last months, and the next future months’ reports will be nothing different. The World Cup is held in the months of June and July this year, but that’s not the only thing happening. Until the start of the World Cup, Sander will give his personal view on the biggest sport event in the world, and what the consequences are for the local population and surroundings.
Cape Town Jazz Festival
We are now all familiar with the South-African gap between rich and poor. The cocktail bars and the addicts, the upper class and the townships. And since the newspapers prefer to explain sensation instead of objectivity, one can from inside their new Audi, earned with drug money, quickly read the latest headlines along the road. ‘Blood bath at kitchen’, ‘Zuma’s new wives’, ‘Tikkop child beaten dead’. It took a long time before I realized that you don’t have to be prejudiced all the time. A short impression of the contrasts is for example my visit to the fully booked Cape Town Jazz Festival, which took place during Easter weekend. To say this casually: tickets were hardly affordable.
In the meantime: murder
I celebrated together with another 32.000 people the excellent music play of amongst others George Benson and Toots Tielemans, underneath the décor of African flags, World Cup logos and gigantic soccer decorations. At the same moment, Terre’Blanche was murdered. The fascistic pastor of the extremely right-winged African people was beaten to death after Malema, youth leader of the black political party ANC, showed his passion for a song in which the killing on farmers is supported.
I had been introduced to Terre’Blanche before by documentary producer Louis Theroux and I understand the motive behind the murder. With a bible and a gun in his hand, no man proclaims intellectual insight.
Waiting for revenge
The question is not if, but when an act of revenge will take place. There are movements in this country who search for repayment, preferably by lynching random black people. The ANC will probably take away a great amount of money from fundamental money boxes to spend in on the avoiding of a setback. The headlines and billboards will again yell shocking slogans alongside the Main Road. This is Cape Town. But hey, 67 days to the World Cup! Just as I said, there is no escape from the contrasts.
