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Hartbeespoort, North West province, is a tourist hotspot for cool people. Less than an hour from both Johannesburg and Pretoria, it is blessed with great natural beauty, agricultural abundance and a thriving artisanal food scene.
But there is also a darker side to Harties …
On Friday 150 residents marched across the bridge of this tiny town’s famous dam to deliver a memorandum of demands at the local police station. The event, organised by the Hartbeespoort Community Development Initiative, declared that #RacismStopsHere!
The most immediate spur to action was a recent violent and allegedly racially motivated attack on National Arts Council Chairperson and Hartbeespoort resident Hartley Sandy Ngoato at local recreation facility, the Oewer Club.
Of the assault Ngoato says “as a resident of Hartbeespoort I can attest to the fact that our society still harbours those whose mindset is deeply rooted in the apartheid way of thinking, behaving and doing things. What might have been a mere misunderstanding between a white man and myself, a black man, soon turned ugly and I was called all sorts of inhumane names, including the K word, by a mob of white men and women during this altercation.
“They had the guts to tell me that black people were not wanted there. This is South Africa that we live in today – where segments of our communities still believe that they are entitled to more privilege than others.”
Ngoato was at pains to point out that the attack on him was not an isolated incident and that “we need to be deeply concerned about the ordinary members of our community who are subjected to this treatment on a daily basis but are afraid of speaking out or who have no knowledge as to how they can have their voices heard”.
While the court case resulting from this altercation is pending, the march organisers argue that the incident sheds light on Hartbeespoort’s pervasive culture of racial intolerance centred around attempts to retain white privilege.
Tensions were running high in the town prior to the attack on Ngoato as a result of contested rights to use of state land surrounding the dam for recreational purposes. Marcher Martin Morrison said “in many ways Hartbeespoort is a wonderful place to live but we need to recognise and rectify the fact that there is not equal access – especially in taxpayer funded and/or state-owned facilities, land and resources. Our social spaces are not equally welcoming to all. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
Hartbeespoort Community Development Initiative spokesman Russel Baloyi said: “We marched to demonstrate a commitment to eradicating racism. Our aim is to create a movement by town residents, activists, stakeholders and visitors. We marched across the Hartbeespoort Dam bridge as a symbol of a movement from the old to the new … The march sends a clear message that racial intolerance will no longer be tolerated.
“Racism must stop and the town of Hartbeespoort shall be the focal point from which our sleepy approach to social cohesion and tolerance will be reawakened. The march on its own will not resolve the underlying issues but will act as a catalyst for concerted programmes geared towards building a truly unified and all-inclusive country.
