A Rainbow Nation no more?
29. Dec, 2008
11 Comments
Gold Reef City, Jozies – I’m standing in a queue. It’s my son’s 14th birthday and we’ve brought him and two of his mates from school to Jozies’ favourite theme park and one of its biggest tourist attractions. And another six people have just shoved their way past us, joining a growing group further up the line, extending our wait for a few seconds of adrenaline pumping thrill for a few more minutes.
The man next to me is getting angry. So the next group of queue jumpers that barges through is blocked by him, as he asks them, politely, in English, not to push in and requests (again, politely) that they join the end of the queue, far behind us, out of sight around one of many landscaped bends.
“Don’t you tell me what to do, you white pig.” My mouth drops as I look at the dark-skinned young man who has challenged my neighbour’s right to send him to the end of the line. “I am joining my people up there and you can’t stop me.” He and his four friends push past, muttering in their vernacular as they go.
The man next to me is as gobsmacked, and as white as I am. He is from Oxford in the United Kingdom, here in South Africa on holiday with his wife and two teenaged children.
A lady to the man’s left is Xhosa-speaking and tells me sadly that the young men swore at the man as they pushed past him, saying that he is a boer and needs teaching a lesson about who is in charge now. She is disgusted and apologises for the young queue jumpers. She is also Mr “Oxford’s” wife of twenty years.
Another group of three young women pushes past us.
“Don’t make trouble, mum” asks my son, looking perturbed, which he shouldn’t be on his birthday. But I needn’t worry.
The man’s wife challenges them in their own language and a full-blown argument breaks out.
A small group of oriental tourists behind us in the queue looks shocked at the disturbance and one can only assume that the hurried whispers between them are explanations for what they think is happening. They stop talking and look decidedly worried when, from ahead of the queue, a large, black man pushes his way towards us. As he reaches us he asks, in English, what the problem is. Mr “Oxford” explains that the girls, now in a heated Xhosa exchange with his wife, were jumping the queue. The man says “Let them through, we are a group.”
Things are getting tense now, and a white couple to my right start pitching their 10c worth in, causing the oriental group to start jabbering, excitedly this time.
“We are a group too,” says my neighbour with an Afrikaans accent. “But the rest of us are further down the queue. What gives you the right to have your group push in front of us?”
The black man’s repose now crumbles.
“You boertjies must wake up, neh. You can’t call the shots any more. These are my people and they are joining me, and if you have a problem, take it up with Zuma.”
With that, he herds the three girls, still arguing with Mr “Oxford’s” wife, away, pushing past people now looking the other way, unwilling to get involved, to his position far ahead of us.
Mr and Mrs “Oxford’s” children are near to tears, their mom is shaking she’s so angry and Mr “Oxford” apologises to everyone and leaves the queue.
“I’m sorry,” he says to me as he leaves. “This has spoiled our day.”
I am livid. My son and his friend are embarrassed.
We take the ride in silence. The incident leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.
In three subsequent queues similar incidents occur. My husband challenges one group, to be similarly accused of being a racist boer, this time by a strident black woman who doesn’t see anything wrong with allowing eight adults to join her “group” of six by pushing past families waiting patiently for their turn.
We opt to go home, preferring the drive to Pretoria to the tension steadily building with the heat of mid-day.
My heart is sore for Mr “Oxford”, branded a racist by a young man who is more a bigot than the Englishman will ever be.
But more than anything my heart is sore for South Africa.
In a couple of days’ time it will be a whole new year. And another year further away from the day when this country supposedly became a rainbow nation.
Obviously, for some, the rainbow’s significance is lost, hidden by a brand of racism more insidious than anything which prevailed under apartheid and one which threatens to tear this country apart.
You see, I can forgive that black man his enmity. He is old enough to remember the dark days of disenfranchisement and riots. But his kids, and the majority of his “people” who joined him in that queue are not. From the looks of them they were not even born when Mandela walked to freedom and this country supposedly changed for the better.
They have learned their bitterness and hatred for whites from him and others like him. And learned that to get by in life all they have to do is play the race card and watch the wit ous cringe and cower.
They are bullies, pushing their way through life like they do queues, demanding that everything be given to them because they are black.
Watching their behaviour in those queues at Gold Reef City, and watching how so few people, black or white, challenged their rudeness and bad manners, I suddenly realised how people like Robert Mugabe are able to stay in power so long and how our future, and with it that of Africa, is so tenuous unless someone, somewhere has the balls to stand up and call a spade a spade (for want of a better phrase) and tackle the inherent racism that still pervades our society and this new breed of racists who have never known discrimination, and yet persist in perpetuating it.
For those of you who think that those queue jumpers were just being rude, and not racist, I say wake up and let’s call a thing by what it is, and not what it is not.
There’s a bad joke which goes along the lines of “What’s the difference between a tourist and a racist – about 20 minutes.”
I leave the last word to Mr “Oxford”, a tourist in our country, and the husband of one of its proud daughters. I bumped into him as we were leaving, checking out of the Protea Gold Reef City hotel.
“I thought apartheid was dead,” he said, sadly. “I was wrong.”
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
What a disgrace. Where it should have ended was a citizen’s arrest for that chap that said “Don’t you tell me what to do, you white pig.â€
Thanx for the post. Btw next time stand at a distance and film the comments in the que, that would make a much better video and will destroy any reputation mr racist ever had, as it goes viral.
This is indeed a tragic display of our ability to live and let live. Through such conduct we are contributing to a negative image of our beautiful country and its people. This also contributes to road rage and aggressive drving on the road and where some regard the lives of some as more important than others!
Those queue jumpers do not honestly believe they can do what they want just because they are black. They say so because they know they can easily get away with it. Your mistake is believing they actually had some kind of right to push in as opposed to just being bullies.
In fact, you and the other passifist bystanders are partly to blame for the situation as you still went on the ride. Something like this won’t fly in the US, the queue jumpers would be called out and if they do not comply the issue will be taken to management or security.
The proper way to handle a situation like that is by lodging a complaint with management and demanding a refund. Encourage others to also demand a refund and management will do something about the situation. But until you take a stand, you are just as much to blame for the situation. Zuma doesn’t run the rides, the park’s management does.
A similar thing (without the racist undertone) is happening where I live. Large parts of pine forest in a nature reserve are being felled by illegal loggers. There are about 30 houses living right on the edge of the reserve, within 10m of the trees, but none of them are doing anything about the illegal logging. Nobody will even make a phone call to the police when the loggers come. I have no sympathy with these people and it fills me with disgust that they just sit back and let things like this happen in their back yards.
Disgusted!!!!!!!
I don’t know which ANC pundit it was that made the comment “we should steal from the whites as the whites have stolen from us”. It could be Malema, but I seem to recall it was some minor player.
Regardless, that’s the message the black youth of today have been getting. It’s no wonder they’re acting like this – “appalling” is the only word that comes to mind.
I’m growing up post-Apartheid, and from what little I’ve seen, it looks like we’re sliding back into an Apartheid regime. If the youth truly are the future, then I think we’d better wake up and start paying attention, because at this rate, we won’t have one.
What amazes me is that when an artist draws a cartoon reflecting FACTS and the views of THOUSANDS of South Africans (of all races), it is classed as racism and a lawsuit appears (7million).
However when a lunatic claims to KILL for his leader than that is simply been “patriotic” and loyal.
I honeslt believe that in South Africa today, we face the problem of “reverse-racism.” When it SUITS people,then its classed as racism.
“i did not get the job,cos im black”
“my lecturer failed me on my project,cos im black”
When incidents like cutting ques and behaving in an uncouth manner occurs,then its a matter of “this place belongs to us,we can do as we please”
If people continue to have this attitude and vote for leaders with attitude then trust me, this country will be the next Zim,if not worst!
Psi is correct: you should’ve alerted management. Sure, blogging about it and posting it on Muti might help but will the management of Gold Reef City know about this incident?
Our country really is in bad shape when the fish has already started rotting from the head. Sadly I think the government endorses this sort of behaviour to a large degree which makes matters worse.
Taxis and tow truck drivers are next on the hit list of pet hates.
One cannot change the world overnight.
What happened there is indeed disgusting and, as overseas tourists experience at more mass attractions, management of these are not aware of it or neglectant and that is also disgusting. They go for the numbers not for the quality. The (mainstream) attractions with this management attitude (and with attracting certain racist visitors) should be banned by tour operators, etc.