FAQs about South Africa

Okay, so these might not be frequently asked, but they are questions I asked my old friend from college days in Germany Hugh von Zahn, who lives in Cape Town. I’ve been planning this trip for two years, and as I have read, I have often asked Hugh via email for explanations or clarifications. I’d like to include some of my questions and his answers in a few posts. Here’s a start:

(February 2006) Is Cape Town as beautiful as the pictures?

Yes, Cape Town is a very beautiful city. It is often referred to as the Mother City, being the oldest city in SA. It is a city of huge contrasts, enormous extremes of poverty and privilege, degradation and conservation. The Table Mountain National Park is a world heritage site, as is Robben Island, with one of the highest concentrations of plant biodiversity in the world. Culturally it is a mix of African, European, and the East, spicy food and high tea, all mixed up together. It is also the least African city in SA, possibly because of the proportion of white and coloured people living here. All worth a visit.

(February 2006) I'm reading a book called Africa and Africans . . . that is actually a pretty decent sociological introduction to the continent, although I suspect it is written for an undergraduate introductory course in African studies. Tell me about kinship among the Xhosa and Zulu. How much has it remained traditional? Is polygyny practiced, and if so, how does that affect laws and court systems there? Also, are there areas with traditional relationships to the land, or did the economics of apartheid change that? It is mind-boggling to me how such varying cultural traditions could work in one state. These are complicated questions, I know, without simple answers, but try to explain if you have the time.

In answer to your question about African traditions in the modern world let me start by saying that we are a developing country so you still have a fair amount of traditional practices among the black population. We have a chamber called the Council of Traditional Leaders who are paid by government to be just that. This includes everyone from royalty like the Zulu king, Goodwill Zweletini, through to tribal chiefs and other notables. Many of these people preside over tribal lands that are held in trust for the respective tribal groupings. As you can imagine, it is a system fraught with difficulties as well as . . . practices such as patronage and nepotism. Also, it is totally out of step with the modern world and is a great contributer to the flood of rural people to the urban areas. Cape Town gets approximately 50,000 rural immigrants into the metropole per annum, most of them indigent. The resultant demand on local infrastructure is
immense.

Tribal kinship is still very prevalent in SA. Polygamy is recognised in Common Law
and every attempt is made to accommodate tribal rites, rituals, and mores. It is an
extremely complex issue that would take a dissertation to unravel fully. Suffice it
to say that the SA constitution recognises and respects that we live in a multi-
cultural society and upholds cultural rights.

(February 2006) What languages do you speak?

I speak Afrikaans and very rusty German, which I am sure will return if I was immersed in the language for a while. No, I do not speak any indigenous African languages. but like most South Africans I have a smattering of words that are used in everyday situations. Up until 1994 it was not common for white children to do a black language at school. However, in the new dispensation it has become compulsory, especially in primary school. My kids are all doing Xhosa and Tristan, the eldest, will be doing it for his school leaving certificate. Afrikaans is treated as an African language as well but is slowly falling from favour amongst English speaking students who feel that a black language might be more useful in later life. However, Afrikaans is still widely spoken especially here in the Western Cape.

(February 2006) What is mealie pap? Is it anything like the US southern dish called "grits?

Afrikaans word meaning maize meal porridge. The word 'pap' means slack or soft hence,
the word for ground up corn, usually white (popular) or yellow (Italians call it
polenta)  cooked with water to make a porridge. The consistency can be either 'slap'
(loose) or 'styf' (firm). In Zulu or Xhosa it is called 'phutu' (pronounced as in
Tutu) and is cooked to a stiff consistency and often even to a crumbly texture
(called krummelpap)which is then eaten with soured milk called 'amazi'. Staple
African diet, eaten all over the continent.

(February 2006) Fundi? Local expert? Teacher? Revered-Omniscient-One?

Fundi, common South African word meaning 'expert'. Corruption of the Xhosa word 'fundisa' to learn. A student is 'umfundi' but don't quote meas I will deny all. My children are the ones learning Xhosa at school, all I do is smile and look intelligent.

(March 2006) Mark and I have been reading about SA wines lately. We just bought two SA wines this weekend at a chain wine store called, Total Wine. There were not too many wines offered, and all were from Stellenbosch/Paarl region. We got a red table wine by Spier, and a pinotage (which sounds interesting, based on our reading) from Graham Beck. I don't know if either of those wine producers is any good, but only a few were available.

SA wines are not always available in the USA. Part of the reason is that every state has its own alcohol laws that prescribe how, what, when, where and why drink can be sold. Importers have to apply individually to every state to bring wines into the US. Tough for a small country such as ours.

The SA wine industry is a very old one, approximately 400 years old. We are currently
the 6th or 7th largest producing country in the world. Having said that, the wines
produced by E & J Gallo amount to our total annual wine production. Graham Beck is
a large wine producer with farms mainly in the Robertson district. They make some
excellent wines there. Spier is more of a tourist attraction with a huge African
restaurant, a cheetah and raptor conservation programme and an amphitheatre that
has shows all summer.

Pinotage is a South African hybrid varietal developed at the University
of Stellenbosch in the 1930's. It is a clone of Pinot Noir (an essential
ingredient of champagne) and the old Hermitage or Cinsault. If handled correctly
it can produce lovely quaffing wines, if handled poorly it tends to be jammy with
a slightly bitter undertow. The Graham Beck Pinotage scores 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
in our latest wine guide and is described thus: ...perfectly ripe red berry fruit
& good appetite appeal - 3 year aging potential. Hope you enjoy it. Best drunk
with some roast meat and potatoes.

Soon you will know more than the average South African about our country.

(March 2006) I've been reading about the local elections in Cape Town and am
thoroughly confused about the results. There are so many political parties with
similar names, and of course, I have no point of reference for each party's platform. Could you interpret the election results?

 The elections were for local government i.e. city and town councils as well as
rural administration. We have 3 tiers of govt. in SA. National, Provincial and Local.
These elections are hard fought affairs and can be quite lively as evidenced this
past week. I realize that reading about these elections can be quite confusing if
you are standing on the outside, so here is a potted pen picture of SA politics.

Political Parties: There are about 10 political parties in Parliament, although
there are quite a few more who contest elections. At Local Govt. level here in Cape
Town there were 17 parties on the ballot.

The major party is the African National Congress (ANC) who have about 67% of the
seats in Parliament. The next biggest is the Democratic Alliance - a liberal mainly
white party - with about 11% and who form the Official Opposition. Then comes a new
party called the Independent Democrats who have about 3% but who did very well in
these elections and have emerged as kingmakers in quite a few councils here in the
Western Cape where there were no absolute majorities. Next is the Inkatha Freedom
Party who are basically a conservative Zulu political grouping.

Other parties include the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), the Freedom
Front (VV)- a conservative white Afrikaner party, the United Democratic Movement
(UDM) - a Xhosa splinter group, the Pan Africanist Party (PAC) - a black nationalist
movement, the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) - once a liberation movement
given to violent rhetoric like 'one settler, one bullet' and violent acts performed
under the banner of the Azanian Liberation Army. Then there are numerous special
interest groupings such as a Muslim Party, Greens etc. All these parties are small
and inconsequential, although they can be quite vocal sometimes.

In these elections the ANC emerged victorious with about 67% of the votes cast
and about 143 councils. The DA only managed about 11 councils and the rest to the
others. What is of interest though is that the DA got about 44% of the vote4 in
the Cape metro as against 37% for the ANC. Cape Town tends to go against the trend
for the rest of the country. So, here in Cape Town the parties have a week to decide
who will rule the city.

City Government: For the last 2 years we have been governed by the ANC who came to
power with he help of a rump group from the now defunct New Nationalist Party -
really a reworking of the old National Party who ruled SA through the Apartheid
years. We have a curious rule, one that I vehemently disagree with, called
'floor crossing' whereby every 2 years there is a 2 week window where members of
Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and Local Councils can switch allegiances
without losing their seats. This leads to a lot of ugly deal-making but our
Constitutional Court ruled that it was in fact constitutional. People who cross
over are known in the vernacular as crosstitutes.

The interesting thing in Cape Town is that the power alignments are all in the
hands of women and, as befits the Rainbow Nation, one black, onewhite and one
coloured/brown.